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-tHere'id 1943.

Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October.9, 1951 — Page AS

val ELECTI

COOL SHADE TREE provided a bit of relief for Dave Parker during a

visit to Hazelton in 1988. He was greeted by people protesting the
closure of a local mill. Parker was also criticized ‘for awarding

timber rights north of Hazelton to a consortium of Prince George

companies,

~ Helmut Giesbrecht

Being ac

- Helmut. Giesbrecht admits he
gets “‘riled up” over instances
of unfair treatment or oppres-
sion. ;

And the NDP candidate
knows something about the lat-
ter from his family’s days inthe
Ukraine — Giesbrecht was horn
“Although too’? young ‘to
remember, his parents told him
much about the oppression they
saw before emigrating to
Canada in 1948,

Those stories have been sup-
plemented by reading about
similar events elsewhere, why
they took place and political
movements in general.

‘I’ve never been. one. to ac-
cept the notion that things are
as they are because they just
are. There’s a reason and we
have to get.to (he reasons,’’ he
says.

Giesbrecht believes everyone
should try to change things for
the better rather than just ac-
cepting them,

It’s that kind of thinking that
persuaded him to run for the
provincial legislature.

“It’s a case of if you’ve gat
enough passion, if you've got
enough desire to change things
and you happen to believe in

ci

your capabilities,”

The encouragement of others
and a personal commitment to
the concepts of “equality and
fair play’’ also played their part
in his decision, Giesbrecht adds,

Although this is first time as a

“provincial: -"* ‘candidate,
“Giesbrecht istic’ strangér ‘to

Politics. © 2 a

In January 1976 he succeeded
in securing @ seat on council on
the secondtry. |. |

Dave Parker

Depends on faith,

Dave Parker credits his
political . survival as Skeena
MLA and a cabinet minister to
the strength of his family and
his faith in God.

The Social Credit candidate
says, only half-jokingly, that his
greatest accomplishment of the
last five years has been '‘main-
taining my sanity.!~

“When the going gets rough,
you talk to the big guy,’ he
says. ‘You have your downers.
But you can’t let it get to you.
There’s good. days and there's
bad days.”

Parker has been riding a
political rollercoaster since he
was elected in 1986 — the high
point of his career as MLA. He
says the low point came this spr-
ing when Bill Vander Zalm was
forced to step down as premier.

“That was a real blow to
me,’ he said. ‘‘He's a dynamic
person, He is a free enterpriser,
He has a strong Christian ethic
and a strong work ethic. This
province performed well
economically under him. I’m
sorry that his personal life caus-
ed him to resign.’’

Like the former premier,
Parker had a reputation for
speaking his mind, sometimes
taking stands that proved un-
popular. ;

He was characterized as

Lop taen ag
Re

ounsellor

Reminded that his term as
mayor included the antics of
what became known among
other B.C,, municipalities as
“the crazy council’’, he con-
cedes one of the four years
“was a bit rough’!.
“Giesbrecht’s' -NDP ‘leanings
did't” ‘sit -Weti” “with. ‘some
aldermen ‘who had other
political beliefs. That lead to an
opposition block on council
dubbed ‘‘the gang of four.”

“I've never been one te accept the notion that
things are as they are because they just are. There's
a reason and we have to get to the reasons,” he.

something about it?'’

says.
After five years as an alder-
man, Giesbrecht won the

mayor's chair where he spent
two terms before ‘'I was
retired’’ by voters in 1985,

Giesbrecht suggest most peo-
ple run for elected office
because a specific issue ‘‘lights a
fire in their belly.’

In his case, it was plans for a
row-housing development near
his Davis Ave. home.

That episode, which included
appearances before council, left
him facing the question, ‘‘do
you sit back and complain or do
you get involved and do

4

hy NBER? L party worker in Terrace since 1960, Juanita Hatto

ran an employment agency. She has since tumed her efforts

toward collecting money each Christmas to assemble

for needy peopie.

nalso.

ry

Boody bags

Among the more well-known
instances was one alderman
throwing water at another.

If a council is “‘bound and
determined you're not going to
do anything, it’s quite
difficult,’’ says Giesbrecht,

His term as mayor was made
no easier with the city being hit
hard by the recession of the ear-
ly 1980s and 20 per cent
unemployment.

The result was a lot of
pressure to cut taxes while ade-
quately maintaining roads, ser-
vices and city-owned buildings
and a constant battle in juggling
those priorities.

Juanita Hatton

- AIDS ‘as

homophobic after describing
“a self-inflicted
disease’ and suggesting the
NDP theme. song should be
“Sodomy Forever,’’

“I have learned to curb my
tongue a little bit,’ Parker now
admits.

‘ “The five years have been
difficult for my family," he
says. ‘My wife and children
have taken abuse for the posi-
tion I'm in. You need a strong

several different companies
across the province.

‘Il always enjoyed the out-
doors, and forestry really in-
terested me,’’ he says.

He didn’t join Social Credit
until he became angry in the
early 19703 with the NDP
government’s management of
the economy.

‘So I quit complainjng- and
decided to do something about
it,” he says. “1 bought a

“ believe very much in the freedom of the in-
dividual. Free enterprise, initiative. / believe in striv-
ing for excellence. Competition. ”

family in order to succeed. And
fortunately, I have one.’
Being in government has been
a learning experience for him.
“There’s no books on how to
do the job," Parker adds,
‘*There’s no job description, So
you just have to do the best you
ean. And I’ve tried to do that,”
Parker, 51, lives in Terrace
with his wife Dawne and two
children, Jennifer and Mike,
Born in Halifax, he came to
B.C. in 1959 to attend Royal
Roads Military College in Vic-
toria. From there he went to the
University of B.C., where he
received his degree in forestry.
He went on to become a pro-
fessional forester, working for

helps

The experience taught
Giesbrecht much about political
problem solving and lobbying.

Raised in the central Fraser
Valley, Giesbrecht graduated
from Abbotsford Senior Secon-
dary school and obtain an

_: Sducation degres.at, the. Univers:
yore. a h re
“_ He paid his way through the °

five years of study by working
in sawmills, construction and
the retail trade.

Armed with his degree,
Giesbrecht began his teaching
career in 1967:in Terrace. The
location was by choice, “‘I pick-
ed the north because [ wanted to
get out of Vancouver.”

ft also fit in with his
preference for outdoor pursuits
such as fly fishing, hiking and
canoeing,

“Some of (my teachers) left a
lasting impression on me. I
thought that might be the kind
of work 1 could do,’’ explains
Giesbrecht of his career,

Still teaching 24 years later,
he says it was the right choice.

Intially a math teacher, he
eventually moved on to his cur-
rent position as a counsellor at
Skeena Junior Secondary

School. cont'd AG

She lives by

Juanita Hatton lives by the
Golden Rule — Do unto others
as you would have them do unto
you,

The philosophy is so much a
part of the Liberal candidate
that she used the term in an
employment agency she once
ran here.

But she extends the Golden
Rule to say that people must
also show initiative and be
responsible for their own ac-
tions,

“Do governments give people
a fair break? Not if they go with
the flow. Whatever it is, a per-
son must put a little effort in it.
I used to tell people, when I had
my agency, that they should tell
the employer to let them work
for a day and then judge if
they're suitable,"’ says Hatton.

Hatton officially retired from
the employment agency
business in 1983 after 13 years,
yet keeps the Golden Rule name
active by organizing what she
calls goody bags for needy peo-

’ ple at Christmas,
It makes her a common fix: .

ture in the Skeena Mall each
November and December.

“I get items donated from
businesses and raffle them off.
‘Byerycent goes toward needy
people,” she says.

“People may ask me what
I’m doing ~ there are poor peo-
ple here, people who don’t have
a proper place to live," Hatton
adds.

Hatton, who celebrated her
77th birthday Sept. 22, traces
the beginning of her political
philosophy back to the Depres-
sion of the 1930s when she was
growing-up in Ontario.

“The government in Ontario
was Conservative — had been

membership and got started.”
He says he never intended to
run for public office,
But frustration with the
school system in Galden, where
his family lived at the time, .

’ spurred him to run as a trustee,

When he came to Terrace in
1983, he was Westar’s woods
manager and he again was
elected to the school board.

“I came up here and I
couldn’t believe the confronta-
tion and militancy and the ag-
eressiveness of the teachers’
negotiating team,” he said. “It
was amazing."

“They have a different way
of trying to negotiate — they
change their demands just

43,

family

about every time you go to the...

table. At least that’s what ]
found. It was an exerciée in
frustration.” . _

He ran as the Social Credit

’ candidate in Skeena in the 1986

provincial election because peo-
ple here ‘‘were tired of being
represented by a socialist.”

“I Have very strong distaste
for socialism. L.don’t believe in
the communis! approach to life
and now ‘it turns out most na-
tions of the world agree with
that,’’ he says.

“Il believe very much in the
freedom of the individual. Free
enterprise, initiative. I believe in
striving for excellence. Com-
petition, That's what’s built the
western nations, That's why the
eastern nations are turning to
the western nations for help,”

Environmentalists have dogg-
ed Parker for the last five years,
particularly the three he spent as
foresis minister.

Asa professional forester and
a free enterpriser, he has always
viewed, and continues to view,
radical environmentalists as a
serious threat to the province.

“There are a number of local
preservationist groups — and
they go by all kinds of names.
Friends of one valley or
another. Friends of one moun-

cont'd A6

be dar qaduuil |
abe . ny

we

poor = anes
BUNDLED UP against the cold,

Helmut

Giesbrecht addresses a

teachers union rally in January 1991. As president of the teachers
union, Giesbrecht lead its members out on a 19-day strike that

month.

don't they ask me why, They
think they have the world by the
tail with a downhill pull. I've
lived in a bigger city than Van-
couver,”’ she says.

While in Toronto, Hatton
worked in a large drycleaning
plant. She was also a munitions
factory worker in Scarborough
during the Second World War
for $25 a week and then became
a government inspector in the
same plant.

“Do governments give people a fair break? Not if
they go with the flow. Whatever it is, @ person must

put a little effort in it.”

for many years. Their
philosophy certainly didn’t help
things along and Social Credit is
another branch of the Conser-
vatives, It's up with the rich,”
she says. ;

From her hometown of
Niagra Falls, Hatton moved to
Toronto. ‘It's an experience she
easily translates when compar-
ing life in northern B.C. to life
in Vancouver...

“I love this country. It's ihe
best, the healthiest country you
ean Wish for, You don’t even
think of Ontario, And when
people in ‘Vancouver say they
jove Vancouver and | say 1

“I imagine my fingerprints
are still on file in Ottawa. If you
were an inspector they took
your fingerprints. and your
number was on everything you
did. That way they could trace
back,” Hatton recalls.

Hatton moved to B.C. after
matrying James who was from
Alberta. ‘‘We met at a square
dance in Toronto.”’ .

’ Before settling in Terrace in
the winter of 1960-61, they lived
horth of Fort St. John on the
Alaska: Highway, in Quesnel
and in Bella Coola. All told,
that makes for 40 years in B,C,

and enough for Hatton to say .

Golden Rule

she is now a westerner.

Although Hatton says she has
always been a Liberal, active in-
volvement in the party didn’t
start until she moved to Ter-
Tace.

“Pye worked on every cam-
paign. I’ve done the typing, the
office work. [ worked for lona
Campagnolo when she was the
Liberal MP here,’’ Hatton
relates.

She admits she didn’t
volunteer to become the Liberal
party candidate in this election.
Instead, she was told,

“4 first became the president
of the Liberal constituency
association. And then they
phoned and said 1 was the can-
didate.’”

“ST told them I was too old
and they said no you're not,”"
says Hatton.

Her Liberal experience expos-
ed her to a lot of people, in-
cluding ¢x-Premier Bill Vander
Zalm before he left the Liberals
to join Social Credit. .

“He had the bit between his
teeth and thought he could do
anything he pleased; but -he
didn’t realize people: were tak-
ing him for a ride,"’ says Hat-
ton a my

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