SMASH THE NPA MACHINE! ELECTION NEWS Council refuses BCE plebiscite | to city voters Ruddell asks equality of assessments “If I am elected to city council on December 13, I intend to tackle at once the need to reform the assess-_ ment roll and establish equality of assessments.” This was the pledge made this week by aldermanic can. didate Elgin Ruddell. “It is generally conceded that present assessments are about 50 percent of market value,” continyed the Civic Reform spokesman. “But some are 60 percent and some are 40 percent, and some are even less than 40 percent. That’s why big downtown property owners don’t want any limelight on, or disturb- ance of, the present assessment. It would expose their favored treat- ment. “The present business tax also violates the cardinal tax principle of equal treatment. I propose to work for a just and fair tax sys- tem based on different rates for certain classifications of business and graduated rates within these classifications. “Property taxes will also have to be revised. The present exemp- tion from taxation of one-half of improvements is alleged by the Non-Partisans to be fair to all tax. payers because every tax-payer gets the same percentage exempt. “This is double-talk. The tax is levied on assessment, not on per- centage. The present percentage exemption means a few hundred or a few thousand dollars of assess- ment exempt for home-owners and other small owners, but it. means hundreds of thousands of dollars of assessment exemption for the big property owners. I am advocating abolition of the percentage exemp- tion and its replacement by a grad. uated exemption to benefit the small owners.” Ruddell hit out at the present high mill rate, and said: “The mill rate has risen drastically during the one-party rule of the NPA. This can be changed. By carry- ing through reform of the assess- ment roll and correcting the un- equal tax exemptions it will be possible to sharply reduce the mill rate.” Elgin Ruddell, Civil Reform aldermanic candidate, led a delegation to city Hall this week to request a plebiscite on public ownership of BCElectric transit system — but the Non- Partisan finance committee turned thumbs down on the pro- posal, thus displaying for the umpteenth time its complete subservience to the transit monopoly. ‘ “A sample survey of public opinion, taken by CRA canvass- ers in polls 11 and 29, resulted in 722 signatures out of a total of 1,008 voters interviewed, on a petition calling for a_ plebiscite on the public ownership of the transit system,” said Ruddell. — But the NPA aldermen weren’t in the mood to listen to reason. The fact that 71.6 percent of the citizens in two representative polls thought a plebiscite should be held was brushed aside by pompous Ald. Birt Showler as “election propaganda.’ “On election day, December 13, Vancouver citizens should remem- ber how these NPA aldermen be- tray the trust that has been placed in them,” said Ruddell after the interview had ended. “They were elected to act as: public servants but day in and day out they act as servants of the BCElectric. “Every voter who genuinely de- sires progressive administration at city hall is duty bound to mark his ballot for Civic Reform or in- 5-cent milk in schools aim of CRA candidate ISOBEL MURPHY VOTE "YES' ON WIDER FRANCHISE Pi et te Soaking school children six cents for a glass of milk is an action which brands Vancouver school board members as contenders for a “city’s meanest citizen” title, in the opinion of Mrs, Isobel Murphy, Civic Reform candidate for school board. “Tm campaigning for five-cent milk,” said Mrs. Murphy this week. Herself the mother of two school age children, she knows how the extra penny a glass hits every home budget. “At six cents a glass, the children are paying 24 cents a quart.” “Why exploit the youngsters?” she asked. “Surely they need milk more than adults. Actually, schools should supply pupils with a free glass of milk every day, the cost to be paid for by the school board. “Even at five cents a glass, the children are paying 20 cents a quart, more than the regular price of milk delivered to your door. “T reject the supine policy of the Non-Partisans in meekly accepting each new increase in the price of milk. Representation should be made to the provincial Milk Board against the present excessive price spread guaranteed to the distribu- tors.” ELGIN RUDDELL dependent candidates who are pledged to smash the NPA machine and free our city from the domin- ation of the, BCElectric.” © On the question of public owner- | ship of utilities, Ruddell said the| position of the CRA was clear. quite “We stand for city participation in plans for public ownership of the BCBlectric hydro, gas and transit utilities and the BCTele- phone service,’ he said. “We are of the opinion that these utilities, vital to our community life, should be beyond the reach of private manipulation. “We believe that in the case of the BCE public interest would be best served by taking over the en- tire system as a unit. However, we take the view that the present op- portunity to take .over the transit portion of the BCE should be acted upon as the first step to taking over the whole system. “Under the terms of the 20-year franchise granted the BCE the city may take over the transit system at the end of the fifth, tenth, fifteenth and twentieth year, provided that one year’s notice is given. “Notice must be given before December 30 this year, or. wait another five years. The Non-Par- tisan city council, without consult- ing the voters, decided against giving notice. : “Civié Reform Association stands for a plebiscite on this question so that electors can de- cide what the city policy should be. The NPA council members are afraid to submit their BCE policies to the people.” Phoney Sunday “The Non-Partisan pulled some queer capers tried anything quite so raw as cite on Sunday sports,” “It is widely. recognized that a majority of voters in Vancouver favor some relaxation of the pres_ ent Sunday laws, in order to allow limited sports activities and more. recreational and cultural activities to be held on the Sabbath,” con- tinued Mrs. Jgnes. “No less than nine organiza- tions made _ representations to council on the issue, and it was obvious that not a single group advocated a ‘wide-open’ Sunday any more than they supported, the present antiquated laws. : “The council members were on the spot, so they got together in the Mahogany Room—leaving, Ald. Proctor, who wanted the laws to be broadened, out in the cold — and cooked up a phoney plebiscite which Alderman Halford Wilson introduced with a ues and a flourish. “Purpose of this trick plebis_ ‘cite, of course, is to force the great mass of the voters to re- ject it, thus accomplishing what the NPA desires, that is, con- tinuation of the present restric. tions. “There is certainly one thing every voter can do, which will be the perfect answer to give the NPA gang, and that is to turn out to the polls December 13 and vote every Non-Partisan candidate out of office. A clean-up at city hall is long overdue, and this is the year the NPA machine can. be smashed. “In itself, the Sunday ..sports issue is far from the most import. ant issue in the coming elections. It. was raised as a | Mahogany ‘Room in city council, but they’ve never eit smokescreen | trick plebiscite, to hide from the public the years; ly demonstrate their of mismanagement at city hall by) the NPA, which is so corrupt that’ vote on sports Ires taxpayers strategists have their latest, the phoney plebis- declares Effie Jones, honorary presi- dent of Civic Reform Association and aldermanic candidate in the coming civic elections, December 13, EFFIE JONES is beginning to split apart at the seams, as the Tories and Lib- erals who combined to create it now attempt eto shoulder each other aside in order to get both feet in the trough. “The question of public owner- ship of the BiCElectric, the need for equalization of assessments, wider franchise and many other vital subjects are much more im. portant to citizens than Sunday sports. But the NPA _ devised. this scheme to catch the eye of the public. It did, but not in the way the schemers planned, Voters are boiling mad at the NPA over the and can effective- disgust by relegating the NPA gang ‘to the civic ashcan on election day.” City needs MAURICE RUSH eae / TU SS GET OUT THE VOTE ON DECEMBER 13 Pap tt eT PACIFIC FRIBUNE — DECEMBER 1, 1950 — PAGE 6 parks, not bomb shelters-Rush Charge that Vancouver’s park policy discriminates against the working class areas was made last Monday night by Maurice Rush, Civic Reform candidate for parks board, while speaking to a meeting of Fur and Leather Workers Union. Rush pointed to Powell Strett Grounds and McLean Park as “two examples of the kind of parks Van-_ couver should not have.”* He term-_ ed them “a disgrace to a modern Cityet Rush suggested that some of the money being used fer military pur- poses could very well. be spent for more and better equipped parks. This, he said, would help combat the alarming growth of juvenile crime. “Our city needs more parks and recreation centers, not atom mom shelters,” he concluded. Rush’s bid for a parks board seat is his first entry into municipal poli- tics, but’ he has twice contested Vancouver Center in provincial and federal elections. An active youth > leader for many years, Rush served three years in the Canadian Army in the Second World War and was a prisoner-of-war in Germany for some months. ;