LS LN Rat

4

_ By MAURICE RUSH
“ast week’s civic elections in
;ocouver, Burnaby and North
“couver District registered
Bnificant gains for progres-
Voters.

a Vancouver, the Non-Par-
ens succeeded in holding
Civic positions only after
§ Stiffest opposition in many
years,
ing to

sion.
on defeat of

sored bylaws
and the big
sopposition
: vote polled by
‘ Ndent candidates the
“ouver Sun was compelled
“Oncede that “size of the
Est vote piled up by rate-
BS should be enough to
~ © Serious concern among

“& growing anti-NPA feel-
found its positive expres-
“In support for indepen-
Candidates, but it also
a strong negative ex-
On in the mass refusal
Ople to vote. Most people
Bt feel there was any
ace tO defeat the powerful
»., Machine and therefore
ait bother to vote. The re-
, vas a 25.5 percent vote,
‘“st in peacetime history for
couver,

. breakdown of this figure
S some interesting facts.
© vote was overwhelming-
‘Property owners’ vote —
‘Percent of city property

Mbers of the city council.” '

WHAT VOTE SHOWED
NPA popular
base shrinks.

owners voted as against only
17.6 percent of non-property
owners (tenants).

Since there are 117,500
property owners and 110,200
non-property owners on the
voters’ list, one can easily
draw the conclusion that had
there been a bigger vote of
non-property owners, coupled
with the -large anti-NPA sen-
timent among owners, the
NPA could have been swept
out of office. The life of the
NPA is prolonged for another
year not because of its popu-
larity but because of apathy
among the voters, who failing
to see an organized opposition
in which they could have con-
fidence, stayed away from the
polls on election day.

The NPA emerged from this
election with shrunken popu-
lar support. The existence of
the NPA itself has becom:
major issue in Vancouver civic
politics. Conditions in Van-
couver are ripe for a genuine
popular alternative to arise to
challenge NPA domination.

And the key to involving the
people more actively in civic
politics is the organized trade
union movement, which can
become the decisive force and,
together with other progressive
civic groups, end the 20-year
rule of the NPA.

Organized labor cannot be
content to sit on the sidelines
again in 1957 while civic gov-
ernment is left in the hands of
a reactionary anti-labor ma-
chine.

If the unions fail to give a
lead to widespread anti-NPA

LOGGERS BALL

WEDNESDAY
DECEMBER 28 — 9 P.M.

HASTINGS AUDITORIUM

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PPer ~ 6:30 p.m.

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EW YEAR
Supper and Dance;

AUUC HALL - 805 E. PENDER
MONDAY, DECEMBER 31ST

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—%%
N ADMISSION $2.50 EACH
~Ponsored by Ass’n of United Ukrainian Canadians
and W.B.A.

RES A a a Be I a MS PI PR PS PSR BK YA PISS LIS

Dancing - 9 to ????

»

ARSE RSENS SASSER GSES SISSIES

¥

To judge by the cheers of these British soldiers as they board a troopship at Suez for Cyp-

rus, the British invasion of Egypt was no more populir with them than it was with a
large section of the British people themselves.

sentiments there is a danger
that big business circles may
themselves create an alterna-
tive to direct this sentiment
into “safe” channels for their
own anti-labor purposes.

Despite an eight percent drop
in the popular vote, Effie
Jones, who led the main op-
position to NPA policies dur-
ing the year, increased her
vote by eight percent — from
16,739 to 17,295, receiving 30.3
percent of the popular vote as
compared to 22 percent last
year.

Also
votes of

significant were the
independent school
board candidates. Harry Ran-
kin, prominent lawyer and
community leader, rolled up
45.9 percent of the vote, an
increase of 15 percent over last
year, receiving 26,675 votes

x xt nm

In Burnaby, the most seri-
ous opposition to NPA dom
ation came from the Burnaby
Citizens Association.

Included on the BCA slate
were prominent CCFers, Lib-

erals and -some progressive
ratepayers. The BCA won
wide support among labor,

ratepayer and small business
people and was undoubtedly
looked upon by most ‘voters
as the alternative to the NPA.

The BCA elected one mem-
ber for council, two for school
board and two for parks board.

-Among those elected was
parks board candidate Mrs.
Camille Mather, who was wide-
ly supported by labor and pro-
gressive voters. She received
the highest vote of any can-

didate for office.

Running a close race for
council were BCA candidates
Robert McCarthy and James
Gordon who were also sup-

ported by labor and progres:
sive voters. They fell short
from election by two to three
hundred votes.

William Turner whose cam-
paign projected the main is-
sues of the Burnaby election
po:led 1029 votes or nearly 18
percent of the popular vote.
This was a drop from 1871
votes (or 26 percent) in 1955,
largely due to the fact that
most progressive voters saw a
serious challenge to the NPA
in the BCA slate and voted for
it rather than for independents.

Significantly all the indepen-
dents suffered a sharp drop.
Doug Drummond, former CCF
councillor re-elected as an in-
dependent in 1954, was defeat-
ed when his vote dropped from
3444 to 1606. Another indepen-
dent, James Massey, saw his
vote cut from 1120 to 600.

x a t

Appointment of a municipal
manager became the central is-

sue in the North Vancouver
District election.
Prior to the elections the

municipal council, under the
prodding of Councillor Dor-
win Baird who resigned his
post to run for reeve, adopted

City policewomen
fo get equa! pay

Equal pay for equal work
became a reality for Vancou-
ver policewomen last week.
Effective next January Ilst.,
the 10 policewomen will re-
ceive -wage increases ranging
from $52 to $61 a month.

Commenting on the decision
Chief Constable Archer said:

“They are doing work which
the men couldn’t do, and, in
my opinion, that evens things
up. It is my intention to in-
crease their duties.”

the manager plan without a
bylaw permitting it. The pro-
tests that followed from -rate-
payers forced the council to
withdraw its decision and post-
pone action until after the
election.

It looked for a while as if
Dorwin Baird would be elect-
ed reeve by: acclamation but
at the last minute he was on-
posed by Sam McRae who took
a strong stand against the man-
ager plan. McRae defeated
Baird by a vote of 1651 to 1588.

Ivan Birchard, progressive
council candidate, took the lead
in opposing the municipal
manager plan when, in a wide-
ly circulated letter, he con-
demned the plan as undemo-
cratic and called for amalgam-
ation with North Vancouver
city on the basis of elected
district representatives and a
Board of Control.

A well known community
worker, Birchard polled 735
votes or 22.6 percent of the

total vote.

Defeat of Baird and the large
vote for Birchard represents a
serious setback for reactionary
groups that were pushing the
manager plan. There is now
a possibility of defeating this
undemocratic scheme and win-
ning progressive changes in
North Shore civic government.

* The elections in Greater
Vancouver municipalities show
that labor and _ progressive
forces are playing an increas-
ingly important role in shap-
ing civic affairs. Progressive
candidate won strong public
support in their fight for popu-
lar policies and, given labor
and progressive unity, they can
look for the opportunity to
implement them in civie of-
fices after the 1957 election.

DECEMBER 21, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGL