A4 - The Terrace Standard. Wednesdav. December 14, 1994 TERRACE STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 158 TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 + FAM: (604) 638-8432 MODEN: 638-7247 Outdated LET’S SEE now. Girls should be nurses and teachers and boys should be engineers and for- esters. That’s the way it used to be in past decadés and that was wrong. The school system has done much to end that stereotypical slotting of young people contemplating various careers, Yet the message doesn’t seem to have reached the newly re-elected chairman of School District 88 judging from what John Pousette said at a school board meeting last week. His comments came after a presentation of two students. These students, they happen to be girls, won a national award for a video on the forestry industry. This is no small feat given the com- plexity and emotions surrounding logging. Mr. Pousette naturally congratulated the two students, as any school district official would and should do. But then he weighed in with a state- ment that topics dealing with sciences and math are difficult territory for girls to handle, making them even more deserving of the award. To be charitable to Mr. Pousette, perhaps his comments were not what he intended. But at face value, Mr. Pousette has displayed a regrettable kind of thinking best relegated to some dark, distant past. The ability of a person isn’t dependent upon gender. It’s regulated by whatever is inside a person and how that inner stuff is used and developed. For Mr. Pousette to perpetuate the theory that girls are sweetness and light and that boys are rough and tumble is just plain wrong. Mr. Pousette was returned to his post as chairman by acclamation. He says this may be his last year and that it could be time for some- body else to step forward. Step may be the wrong word. It should be stampede. / Ooops FORGET TAXES, budgets, bingo scandals, tree huggers and land claims. Should the NDP government be defeated in the next provincial election, you can trace it back to what happened last week in Victoria. The first week of December is the traditional time for the lighting of a huge Christmas tree on the provincial legislature’s front lawn. Along with that comes the singing of Christmas carols by a Victoria area choir. Except that this year, as the story goes, some high level provincial official called the choir and suggested they not sing Christmas songs of a re- ligious nature. Forget Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful or Hark the Herald Angels Sing. The faithful weren’t silent and they did sing — in protest of taking the Christ out of Christmas. Apparently, as the story continues, somebody in the provincial government didn’t want music tied to a particular religious persuasion, no matter that the vast majority of Canadians have their cultural, social and historical roots grounded firmly in Christianity. And that caused a public relations disaster. It’s an easy formula — NDP equals socialism which equals God-less communism. Now factor in that inbred suspicion of other cultures and religions displayed by any majority population. It’s all over for the provincial government. SNA Ts) PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS COMMUNITY: Jeff Nagel « NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher, Terry Miller DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Tracey Tomas CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunette Serving the Terrace and Thortitl area, Published on Wednesday of each wack by Cariboo Press (1959) Ltd, at 4647 Lazelle Ava., Terrace, British Columbia. Storias, photographs, ilustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard ara the property of ihe copyright heiders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid, its ilfustration repro services and advertising agencies, Reproduction in whole er in part, without written permissicn, is specifically prohibited. Authorizad as second-class mail panding tho Post Office Department, for payment of pastage incash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents ’_for their time and talents COM Aas RN Women are * catching u up VICTORIA — Women are fast catching up to their male counterparts in nearly all seg- ments of society. More women than ever be- fore are running for public of- fice, Not too many years ago, women in parliament were a rarity. Today, 22 per cent of British Columbia’s MLAs are womell, W.A.C. Bennett appointed three token women as minis- ters without portfolio to his cabinet, to them as his “kitchen cabinet,’ a remark that could cost him an election these days. Today, six women serve in Mike Harcourt’s cabinet, some in high-profile portfolios such as finance and social services. Tn the public service, women are now occupying senior posi- tions, including those of deputy and associate deputy minister. The picture is even more en- couraging in the private sector, According to a major study by the Canadian Federation of In- dependent Business, released last week, nearly four in 10 small businesses in Canada — 39 per cent — are now owned and operated by women. And the trend is growing as FROM THE CAPITAL | HUBERT BEYER more young women enter the world of entrepreneurship. In fact, in the 25 to 34 age group, female-owned busincsses ac- count for 44 per cent of the to- tal number of small firms. The study could find no evi- dence, however, for the widely-held opinion that women business owners have a higher success rate than their male counterparts. What the study did find, though, was that women have tendency to take a more cautious approach when deciding to go into busi- ness on their own. But even though these women operate their own businesses, they run into in- equality problems. With 39 per cent of all small businesses owned by women, for instance, one would expect these firms to be earning 39 per cent of the total. small business income. Not so. Overall, they account for just 28 per cent of the total income, while in the 25-34 age group, they eam 29.9 per cent. The study lists a number of possible explanations for this discrepancy, including most fernale entrepreneurs’ tendency to concentrate in the traditionally lower return ser- vice sector, their family responsibililics, and the fact that, far the most - part, businesses owned by women are newer and. younger and, thergfoxe, generate. less, income, | than niore established firms. Women entrepreneurs face the same major problem their male counterparts do, but to an even greater degree — access to financing, In a separate sur- vey, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business found that 36.6 per cent of all male respondents pointed to the lack of access to financing as their Mumber one problem, com- pared with 41.9 per cent of wonen, The responsibility for al- leviating that problem must rest with financial institutions and government. The former Must change its lending policies, while the fatter must pressure or even force them to do so. It'is an undisputed fact that close to 90 per cent of all new jobs are created by the small business sector. And yet, the lending policies of nearly all financial institutions are favor- ing big business. True, investing in the small business sector is often riskier than servicing the blue-chip big boys. On the other hand, small business, virtually un- lapped as an income gencratar for financial institutions, could make those bank profits soar ~~ even higher. And in closing, allow me to say. with no small amount of pride, that my daughter is right in there with the best of the women entrepreneurs. Patricia opened a cxilular telephone store nearly five years ago. It was tough sicd- ding at first, but she per- severed, and a year ago, she opened a second store. She even employs her father in his spare time, which is quite a new experience for him. Cutting poplar not popular LAST WEEK a tree-lrimming crew contracted by B.C, Hydro roamed our neighbourhood in their orange cherry picker with the built-in garbureter, lopping limbs, denuding ditches, and hacking habitat with the zeal of Jack Munros bent on climinat- ing spotted owls. Until the chainsaw gang prowled our street, we - and a covey of wild birds in search of food and shelter - enjoyed the presence of a twelve-ycar- old poplar which grew inches in front of our fence. Then the cherrypicker halted before our place and uniformed gnomes shielded by riot helmets swarmed the tree. Minutes later all that remained of the tee was a four-inch stump and three limbed lengths of trunk log. Sure, the tree grew outside our property line, 29 inches beyond our line, but that tree was as miuch a part of our lot’s horticulture as the lilacs in the corner or the weeping willows in the back, OKAY FRITZ WE GOT BEAR BeEUS! THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI The tree obstructed no driver's view, shielded no muggers except Duke, the tom- cat, and posed no threat to Hydro’s line. Even if it had, the tree could have been shortened to half and still left us and the birds enough tree to serve our needs. But thanks to a contracted neatnik with an overactive Husquvarna, we have an un- obstructed view of our cedar fence and the trailer across the YAITINKLE UNT SAFETY “Weer! WHISTLE | street. The birds are Jeft with a plastic way anchored to the top fence board, A diner with open air ambience. Before the fanatical tree- trimming, like any good diner, the. feeder drew 4 steady clientele of seven bluejays, 37 Oregon juncos, eleven spar- rows and a drop-in crow or two. but no spolled owls. Since, the only bird ta ap- proach. the naked feeder has been a lost, lime green, long lailed parrot, Where are our birds cating, especially during the recent days of zero temperatures and heavy snow? And what about next spring? Hummingbirds will hover. above the stump like an agitated family survey- ing the ashes of their home. We'll miss that poplar, too, even more come spring. It’s green soothed the cye and lent a Iecling of cool comfort when sun blazed down on shimmer- ing pavement Having grown. utcrowded and unshaded, the poplar was 94-47 as superbly balanced as any Van Dusen shrub. Its trunk sprouted branches like a Christmas tree that’s been drilled, providing dense shelter for nests and birds playing hide and seck. Many a summer evening dur- ing the three years we've owned the let I stood near the tree holding a granddaughter in my anns, intently watching hummingbirds zoom in for a turn at the fccder, fanning their tails in battle rituals, or flitting through the clothesline like Abbotsford stunt fliers, the only sounds the droning of the bird’s wings and my grand- daughier’s breathing, Every gardener longs for a cherrypicker to prune out-of- . Teach branches. But never let loose a cherrypicker manned by closct clear-cut loggers un- less your favourite trees have brass plaques screwed to their trunks...and you're sure the © limb-loppers take time to read. ARE WE READY 10 GO TO THE OUTHOUSE ? CAMPGROUND | 7 SiGN 1) . a q Wey ‘ WwW tow VA Van. rete OD. RQUN ART Vo