A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 12, 1996

TERRACE:

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, t988

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C, * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (G04) 638-7283 « FAX: (604) 638-8432
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Stop that bus

BANFF AND JASPER are too crowded and too
expensive. The more people visit an area for its
Scenery and attributes, the less appealing it be-
comes simply because of the sheer number of
visitors.

So it’s no Surprise that tour bus operators have
discovered the northwest. It has everything and
anything tourists want and need. Compared to
other parts of the world, this is a very safe area.
English is the common language. It’s cheap.
There’s a growing native tourism industry that
appeals to visitors.

Statistics gathered by the folks in Prince Rupert
bear this out. In 1994 nearly 500 tour buses
passed through that city. Last year that number
grew by 40. Anyway you cut it, that’s a lot of
American dollars, German deutschmarks, British
pounds, Swiss marks and Japanese yen.

In Terrace nearly 80 tour buses stopped at the
Skeena Mail alone last year. This shows we’ve
made a good start at capturing the tour bus
market but more needs to be done,

How can that happen? More highway projects.
Last year’s redecking of the Dudley bridges
proved that we can slow down those buses pass-
ing through town. And this year the re-paving
project continues that theme.

The best thing is that there is a benefit to every-
body. By putting up with the inconvenience of
summer highways work each year, we are slow-
ing down those tour buses and are getting a first
class road network we can enjoy in the spring,
fall and winter.

A good idea

IF MERGING school districts and coping with
Jess money wéren’t enough, local school offi-
cials have another tricky matter on their hands.

The replacement of the old Skeena Junior
Secondary School offers both an opportunity and
a challenge. Should the new school go up at the
same location as Skeena? Should it go on the
bench in recognition of the growing population
up there? Should it be combined with some sort
of community centre?

Of those three questions, the latter is the most
intriguing. The mandate of doing more with less
is becoming the mantra of the public sector in
the 1990s.

In the private sector the necessity of doing the
most you can in the square footage you have has
long been known. That’s why it hasn’t made
economic sense to have schools empty at nights,
on the weekends and during summer and other
holiday periods.

Given the right circumstances, the right mix of
people involved and the development of com-
mon goals there’s every chance to believe a new
school could be combined with a facility for |
community use.

The good news is that there is time to explore
this issue, But there is going to be growing pres-
sure to come up with a plan soon because money
for school construction is tight and other schools
in other places might be placed higher on the
priority list. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
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MEMBER OF B,C, PRESS COUNCIL .
Serving the Terrace and Themhill area. Publishe¢ on Wednesday of each week dy Caribeo Press (1969)
Lid, al 2210 Clinton Street. Terrace, British Columbla, VG 5R2, me
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Special thanks to alf our contributors and correspondents
"for their time and talents

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Political polls not wanted

YICTORIA — So you liked
some of the proposals Gordon
Wilson advanced during the
election campaign,

While the NDP and the Lib-
erals exchanged insults and
wamed voters that if in power,
the other would be the end of
civilization as we know it,
Wilson came up with some
pretty nifty new ideas,

Take away from Ottawa the
power fo lax, he said. British
Columbia should fight the
Feds tooth and nail for the
authority to collect all income
lax and submit whatever is
determined to be a fair share to
Ottawa.

Replace the morass that is
our tax system today with a
simple, graduated income tax,
Wilson said,

Make mortgage payments
tax-deductible, he said, and ex-
tract the revenue lost to the
treasury from the banks in-
stead.

It was all good stuff, which
didn't get Wilson and his Prog-
ressive Democratic Alliance
(PDA) anywhere, The reason:
polls. No matter how much
voters may have agreed with
Wilson’s idea, they took one
look at the next poll, saw that

[FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

the PDA didn’t have a snow-
bail’s chance in bell to get
elected, held their noses and
vated Liberal or NDP,

On the right of the political
Specium, much the same bap-

pened, Even though former’ -

Socreds were ideologically
much closer to Jack Weisger-
ber’s Reform Party, many of
them voted Liberal because
they were told, in polf after
poll, that Reform wasn’t going
anywhere,

Norman Ruff, ~ political
science professor at the Uni-
versily of Victoria, waxed elo-
quent in defence of polls dur-
ing the campaign.

Polls, he said, give voters the

Opportunity to make an in-
formed choice. It prevents the
wasting of votes on parties that
have no chance to form the
government, he said. The op-
posite is true,

Without the interference
from poils, voters don’t neces-
sarily come to the conclusion
that one parly or the other
doesn’t have enough suppart to
form the government or eat
Icast become the official oppo-
sition.

Without having their noses
rubbed in the alleged futility of
voting for a party other than
the two major ones, every time
a pol] comes out, voters might
very well decide lo cast their
ballots for the party whose
ideas appeal most to them,

As it is, polls become self

fulfilling. prophecies. Nobody:

wants to waste their vote, and
the polls kept them that’s ex-
actly what would happen if
they voted for the PDA or the
Reform Party, so a lot of them
didn’t.

As long as the publication of
opinion polls during election
campaigns is permitted, small-
er parties will never have a
chance lo grow, no matter how
good their platforms. The only

exception occurs when one of
the two major parties self-
destructs, as the Social Credit
Party did prior to the 1991
election.

The implosion of. Social
Credit, coupled with the reluc-
tance of many voters to switch
to ihe NDP, gave Gordon Wil-
son the opportunity to revive
the Liberal Party in British
Columbia and get 17 members
elected. That political trick
won't be repeated for some
time.

Tony Benn, a well-known
British Labour _ politician,
didn’t like polls much either,
“I did not enter the Labour
Parly forty-seven years ago to
have our manifesto written by
Dr. Mori, Dr. Gallop and Mr,
Harris,’’ Benn said,

My sentiments exactly. Un-
fortunately, legislation banning
public opinion polls during an
election campaign in British
Columbia was repealed itt
1982, Parliamentary demo-
cracy, I believe, would be
served well if we brought back
the ban on polling during elec-
tion campaigns.

Beyer can be reached at Tet:
920-9300; Fax: 485-6783; E-
mail: kubert@coolcom.com

Picket duty needn’t be dull

“AS A PICKETER she felt
like a dancer in an empty
theaire, ruaning through a
demanding routine of
pirouettes and jetes, and all she
was getting for it was the
janitor wringing out his mop in
a bucket.”’ From Don Dick-
inson’s ‘The Crew’,

With 60 per cent of B.C.’s
grocery supply locked - out,
consumers are in for at least
another week of inching
checkout lineups, Lego park-
ing, and the spectacle of
15,000 employees in zombie
procession like a funeral with
no cemetery.

Each day of picketing wastes
120,000 or more hours abrad-
ing shoe soles, resenting man-

agemenl, and shortchanging ©

government of the taxes

needed to lower the debt, Dur-
ing the recent election, every-
one professed to be concerned
about paying down the debt;
this lockout won't help that
out.

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

If management cared about
its employees and customers as
much as it does about its share-
holders - $65 million profit last
year isn’t enough - it woulda’t
ask employees to take a
rollback or give concessions.
Donating out-dated bread to
food banks will be more
needed than ever if the super-

markets’ own minimum wage.

workers have ta boost their
nutition at food banks.

MARTEN! THANK TITHE FREEZERS PAKEDIT WE NEED Your
GOD you'RE BACK
FROM THE BUSHI!

THE WHOLE “TOWN
COUNCIL RESIGNED!

IV AT THE RINK!

THEY APPROVED
THE NEW Roap!?

WHERE'S THE KEY
To THE REC CENTRE 2

But since we are stuck with a
lockout, picketers could make
better use of their time,

Picketing is tedious; soup
kitchen lineups move faster
and end rewards are more as-
sured. Let picketers aim for fit-
ness: set up a maralhon compe-
tition among the 130 stores,
race against a stop watch.

Record both individual and
Store times. Award the winning
employee and store each a
prize.

Picketers could also dribble
basketballs, nudge soccer balls,
or backey sack.

Introduce volunteerism to the
lines. Have picketers push
babies in strollers while
parcnis shop in alternative
Stores, Keeping youngsters
amused in checkout lincups is
a chore. Or bus Terraceview
shut-ins to the picket site
where picketers could. push
them back and forth in wheel-
chairs for a change of scene,
conversation, and a bracing

COMMENTS oN)
THE TovRISM
PROPOSAL !!

whiff of auto exhaust.

Since strike pay falls far
short of living expenses, pick-
elers could pick up extra
change busking. Assemble a
musical troupe and distract dis-
placed consumers with lively
jigs and reels. They could also
do a scuff test for a shoe
manufacturer, or contract to
model a clothing line fora
mall merchant,

Aad just because wearing a
picket sign bib is de rigeur
doesn’t mean picketers can’t

team it with a sandwich board:

advertising a neighborhood
restaurant, RV outlet, or Ioan
office.

Strike organizers could ‘chalk
make believe streets and inler-
sections on ithe - pavement
where picketers stroll, then ar-
range bicycle salety classes,
Let preschoolers practice traf-
fic safety pedaling. a route
criss-crossed by UFCW mem-
bers.

Beats dancing for the janitor. . |

STOP GAZING OUT THE
WINDOW AT THE BUSH ;
AND HEAVING BIG SIGHS”!

at

sia cial