A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 28, 1995

TERRACE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 188
TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432
MODEM: (604) 638-7247

Bad laws

LET’S SUPPOSE YOU oppose abortions. And
let’s say you made up a sign stating your opposi-
tion. And let’s say you wanted to display that
sign in the form of an information picket line.
And let’s say you wanted to walk such a picket
line up and down the the sidewalk that runs
alongside Mills Memoria] Hospital on_ its
Tetrault Ave. side.

Well you might not be able to — at least not if
a piece of provincial government legislation in-
troduced last week ends up as law.

That’s because the proposed legislation would
make it illegal to protest abortion services or
otherwise interfere with those services up to 50
metres from clinics or hospitals providing abor-
tions. It would likewise be illegal to do the same

up to 10 metres from the offices of doctors
providing abortions and up to 160 metres from
the homes of doctors who provide abortions or
those of their employees.

The NDP government says such legislation is
necessary because of the protests, pickets and
general interference in front of places at which
abortions take place. The government’s position
is that abortion is a health service and that people
have the right to full and free access to health
services.

Now combine this with another piece of pro-
posed legislation. This would limit to $2,000 the
amount of advertising lobby groups could pur-
chase during a provincial election. The govern-
ment’s stated objective is to prevent the
manipulation of voters by specific groups.

In both cases the NDP is nibbling away at free-
dom of expression. That’s a disturbing trend be-
cause governments don’t often stop when they

begin involving themselves in any one particular
area. It’s like biting: into a chocolate bar — that.
first taste leads to the desire for more.

_ This is not to suggest that there is more evil in-
volved here than just plain old bad expressions
of a particular government philosophy. But the
awesome power of a state to intrude into basic
democratic rights is something that should only

be used in the most serious of situations. The
abortion “‘bubble zone’’ and the advertising
limitation don’t qualify.

There are probably going to be court challenges
to these legislative plans. Both could very well
be ruled unconstitutional (that’s what. happened
with a federal law on third party advertising).
And that’s the way it should be.

-Sheepish
IF CITY council wants anuther way to cut costs
it should consider sheep. That’s right — sheep.
The woolen creatures could easily replace those
noisy lawnmowers now used on city property.
That’s the way it’s done in Wales where the
wooly white creatures occupy virtually every
square inch of green space. Even better is the
knowledge that sheep come with a built in fertil-
izer system.
And the wool? Easy. Sell it to raise money to
help pave the roads.

a ee

Gone: PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
i) ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur
NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter
COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf
OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher, Terry Miller
ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:

Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Tracey Tomas
COMMUNITY SERVICE/TELEMARKETER: Monique Belanger
ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Helen Haselmeyer
DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur COMPOSITOR: Shannon Cooper

CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunette
MEMBER OF 8.¢, PRESS COUNCIL .

Serving the Terrace and Thomhil! area, Published on Wadnesday of each week by Cariboo Press (1989)
Lid, at 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, British Columbia. _
Slorias, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in {ha Terraca Standard are the property of the
copyright holders, including Cariboo Prass (1969) Lid., its illustration repro services and advertising
agencies, ; . a
Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is speciiically prohibited. — ;
Authorlzad a9 second-class mall pending ha Post Office Depariment, for payment of postage in cash,

Special thanks to ail our contributors and correspondents —
oe for thelr time and talents

CONTROLLED

_ Doesn't pa

VICTORIA — Listen up,
Elizabeth, your friends at the
Fraser Institute have a plan wo
self-respecting finance minis-
ter should scoff at,

I don’t know what got into
these guys, but they came up
with a scheme that just might
get you re-elected, should you
choose to implement il

In a nutshell, the Fraser du-
stitute boys have pigiied @ pru-
dent fiscal course for British
Columbia that wril supposediy
meet the goveriaicn’s debt
lanagement objectives. Lt

- seems they don’t like the one

you and Mike came up wilh.
Surprised, hey?

Here’s what you have to du,
according to the = ultra-
conservalive wizards at the in-

Plan:

Freeze all grants for a period
of three years; freeze spending
On nou-wage ilems and thus
not account for inflation; and
reduce the direct aud indiieci
public sector wage bill by iour
per cent in 1996-97, three pei
coat in 1997-98, three per cent
in 1998-99, and hold it con-
Stant in 1999-2000,

Now, thal would take care of
the Debt Management Plan, To
balance what the Fraser In-
stitute calls the
“comprehensive budget,”

that’s the one which includes
all borrowing for schools, hos-
pitals, roads and other infra-
structure projects, you have to

- change strategies a bit.
_ oy Stitt, fo, meet, your. govern...
. ment’s Debt’ Management

in-that case -you'd. have. to.
slash the public. sector wage’
bill by 10 per cent in 1996-97,
and by one per cent in 1997-
98. You could hold the beast
constant in 1999-99 and, get
this, cxpaud the wage bill by
two per cent in 1999-2000.
“Deeper cuts made earlier
teduce the expenditure base
and thus create better results
sooner. There is less long-term
pain by taking the hard medi-
cine all at unce and early,”
says Owen Lippert, project co-

ordinator for this fiscal
blueprint.
And that oakes eminent .

y

to be wimpy

sense, I mean if you hack a
guy’s leg off, you don’t do it
slowly over a period of days or
weeks. You da it quickly,
without hesitation, whack, and
the guy will thank you for it.
Now, before you rush into
the next cabinet mecting and
tell Mike et al about this great
plan, Elizabeth, I should cau-
tion you. The afore-mentioned
“medicine”? is based on the
relative economic health of our

‘FROM THE CAPITAL
__HUBFRT BEYER

province. But fear not, even if
there’s an economic slow-
down in the next two years, the
Fraser Institute has a con-
tingency plan, and here it is:

No real economic prowth for
two years — cut the wage bill
by 10 per cent next year and
another six per cent the year
after, Lf it gets slower than that,
well, the medicine gets cven
worse: Cut the public sector
wage bill by 15 per cent next
year, and one per cent the year
after,

My suggestion, Elizabeth, is
run with it. The NDP has been
fighting people like the ones at
the Fraser Institute for as long
as I can remember, And where
has it gotien them? To 23 per
cent in the polls, that’s where.

What can you use, except
the next election, prospects for
which don't look tao rosy right
now anyway. The way I sce it,
neither. the public service nor

the bard-hat crowd have sup-
ported you when it counted, or
we would have had an NDP
government in British Colum-
bia for the last four decades.

Here’s your chance to get
even, Never mind the piddly
10 or 15 per cent public sector
wage bill cut suggested by the
Fraser Institute. Wade in with
both fect and slash that baby
by 20 per cent. Make Ralph
Klein look like a
philanthropist, Show the Fraser
Institute what you’re made of.

And while you're at it, stick —
it.to the public at large. Raise
taxes, hike aulo insurance
rates. Let them self their cars.
Two hundred bucks for a mar-
riage licence, a hundred for a
dog licence or get rid the
pooch, After ali, according to
the polls, the public isn’t very
nice to your government either,

So, between the Fraser In-
Stitute and my own sugges-
tions, you could beat Ralphy.as
the country’s biggest miser,
make cver- lasting friends at
the Fraser Institute, and get a
Hide revenge for the indignity
of your low standing in the
polls.

It may nol get you re-clected,
but it sure would provide fod-
der for a few columns, and
that’s, of course, my primary
interest.

Belts just can’t compete

LONG BEFORE ihc inust
country has absorbea ineit ex-
travagant costs G7 conferences
tade from memory. . - ex: cpl
for one chance remark which
lives lo connote the eveat,

Like a iamily code word thal
revives everyone's recollection
of au experience and sels olf a
group gigyle, mere mention of
the remark evokes a week af
pomp without circumstance.

In the case of Halilax’s G7,
that remark is Prime Minisler
Chretien’s ivterence lo slock-
brokers wearing ied
suspenders.

Suspenders -- culled braces
by the British — were invented
about 1524. Wearing them was
a 1940s way of lift. Mon wore
braces on thet Wouses. Girls
wore braces on thei skirts and
snow pats.

My dad made it through life
with a single, blue sui But be
had a tine suspeade: wardrobe,
Each pair of trousers had its
own suspenders, They hung on
a peg of dic dresser mirtor
when the trousers were being

THROUGH BIFOCALS

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

profile while lowering (heir so-
cial status, They have long
been the apparel of trick
Skaters and comic props for
circus clawns. They give the
wearer a place to hook his
thumbs and keep his shirt tail
tidily tucked in.

They aré particularly com-
forlable for meu going to pot
Instead of a paunch overhang-
ing a sagging belt, suspenders

cleaned. For everyday, he
favoured a faded grey pair with
a fine yellow stripe down each
side.

For Dad and other men in the
40s and 50s, suspenders were
utilitarian. Tuday’s magazines:
such as Esquire and Cos-
mopolitan feature suspenders
as a fashion accessory flaunted
by glowering, reck-jawed
young men slouching about in
$200 cashmere sweaters and
$40 shirts.

Lil Abner raised suspenders’

drape trousers to discretely
camouflage the expanding
midrifl. 1 recommend them,

Old style suspenders such as
Dad’s, roughly X-shaped, but-
tonholed over six buttons sewn
several inches apart on the in-
ner trouser waistband, Clip-on
suspenders worn by nanny
stuckbrokers seen stabbing the
air on nightly news grab only a
small bite of fabric. This al-
lows trousers to sag between
the four clips.

Garment sales zoom if the
right celebrity dresses in a par-
ticular fashion. Princess Diana
buusicd the British millinery
trade as women rushed to emu-

Jate her hat collection. In B.C.
Lillian Vander Zalm stimu-
lated the sale of headbands.
And suspender-wearing Clint
Eastwood in The Bridges of
Madison County could re-
kindle male interest invoking
the Greal Gatsby look.

But somehow 1 duubt Jean
Chretien’s G7? remark about
stock brokers in red suspenders
will cause suspender sales to
bounce back. Stockbrokers
have an image problem among
average joes like me. We think
of — stockbrokers as
driven workuholics incapable
of anything more manly than
punching a cell phone, yet
being paid exorbitantly for
gestures that would eam a
toddler a castile mouthwash
and an emergetcy consultation

with a behavioural
psychologist. ,
Chretlen’s = remark — will ©

tunind me of the Chevrolet
summit held in office building
beside a sewage oulfall. It’s
enough to recommend leather
bells.

dollar ~