Merger of Alliance, Tories’ welcomed by Skeena MP . SKEENA CANADIAN AlI- liance MP Andy Burton says he’s looking forward to anew name and a new ‘partnership with the feder- ‘-al- Progressive Conserva- tive party. “..° The new party, to be ‘called the Conservative Party of Canada, if the Merger is approved by Al- _liance and Progressive ‘Conservative party mem- bers, will make for a stronger body to eventually takeover the federal gov- ernment, he said. :. “We need to go in unit- ed and not divided,” said Burton last week. He anticipates the Al- liance and Progressive Conservatives party mem- bers will decide by early December ‘if the merger and new name will be ap- proved, . Burton met with his constituency executive two weekends ago. It gave its blessing to the union, albeit with a few reserva- tions. — * "YTt's important that we maintain the principles and policies Reform, and now the Alliance, were _ built on,” Burton added. When it comes to votes in Skeena, a combined right-of-centre party won't make that much difference come election time. Burton handily took Skeena in the 2000 federal election. with 12,704 votes compared to 8,656 for the Liberals and 6,227 for the NDP, The Progressive Conservative candidate collected just 957 votes. The MP did note that not all Skeena Progressive Conservatives are in fa- vour of the merger. Ken Richardson, the president of the federal Progressive Conservative party who lives in Bella Bella isn’t that keen on the idea, said Burton. “But that’s his opinion,” said Burton. “The time is right to do the right-thing, This is the ways tag ety than’ Skeena and B.C. It’s about Canada.” “Philosophically a lot of us‘are right of centre. I'd say we [the Alliance and federal. Tories] agree on about 80 per cent of the policies,” he said. Burton has been con- Hi-tech learning offered STUDENTS in Kitkatla or New Aiyansh may soon be able to attend class along with students in Prince Rupert or Terrace — using - the latest technology. “The Coast. Mountains School District is one of | ~ three to launch pilot elec- tronic learning programs giving students in very ‘small communities a wide . tange of courses. ‘Electronic learning makes use of real-time in- feractive video over the Internet, email, and other digital technology. - “With a shrinking - school. population, it's go- ing:to be more challenging to offer that array of cours- “es children are going to want,” education minister ~ Christy Clark said. The Coast Mountains district will work with the “Nisga’a and Prince Rupert -. school districts as part of the $225,000 project. Port Albernia and Prince George are also taking part. » “We had a ton of pro- posals come in from across ‘the province,” Clark said. “Your district just put in 4 _ tremendous proposal, They are really hungry to get at this.” - _ “We're. not alone in dealing with this kind of change,” Clark said. “Enrolments are dropping all..over the Western world... -. > Clark: said the ministry s nts: to use clectron- ‘ic learhitig ‘to improve ac- cess for teachers wanting to take’ more training. his: is more: nected with the federal Tories before, being a sup- porter of the federal Pro- gressive Conservative par- ty for several decades. But he joined the Re- form party, the predecessor to the Canadian Alliance, when it was put together . by Preston Manning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, “Reform was needed then to shock the Tories. They were ignoring the West and they were head- ed in the wrong direction,” Burton said. “We needed then, as we do now, to toss those federal Liberals out,” he continued. Burton was also loosely associated with a group of Canadian Alliance MPs who left the Alliance party’ after becoming disen- chanted with leader Stock- well Day after the 2000 federal election. Some of those MPs did hook: up with the federal Torizs in an informal al- liance but Burton did not BO quite as far. “|My position was that we needed a leadership re- view and I was suspended from) my caucus because of that. I returned when the review was ordered, [ real- ly riever left the party,” he said, 4530 Lakelse Avenue « 635-7995 formation Display Table Skeena Mall Saturday, November 1 © 1 p.m.-4p.m. P ” Workshop atinter€ Thursday, November 6 © 1 p.m.-4 p.m. Friday, November 7 ¢ 9 a.m. ~noan rt ange Progr t nitie Andy Burton for less... 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