A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 24, 1997 . STANDARD 4647 Lazella Ave., Tertaca, @.C, VaG 1S8 (604) 638-7283 Fax (604) 636-8492 ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 A Division of Carlboo Press (1969) Ltd. ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G SR2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net Opportunism IS THE EFFORT about to be expended in an at- tempt to recal] Helmut Giesbrecht the right thing to do? Regardless of how you view the performance of Skeena’s MLA, one thing is certain: he’s the same Helmut Giesbrecht now as he was in his first term, prior to the 1996 election. Voters re-elected Giesbrecht that year, albeit with barely 40 per cent of the votes cast, but they did re-elect him. Detractors say he is invisible on the most criti- cal issues facing the constituency, and an apologist for government rather than a fighter for the northwest. While he has come up decidedly short on some issues, a certain degree of his perceived shortcomings may be a question of style. Gies- brecht is not a show-boater. But his less visible approach gives opponents more ammunition to fire against him. It must be noted that Giesbrecht is not grossly negligent in the sense the recall legislation was intended. He hasn’t taken bribes, used his position for personal gain or run off to the Cayman Islands while continuing to draw a government pay che- que. Those are the sort of situations recall was designed for — not for ousting those guilty of merely lacklustre performance. Opposition parties have their eyes firmly fixed on the narrow margin of seats in the legislature that keeps the NDP in power. The best test of the validity of the campaign to unseat Giesbrecht is to ask those involved in it locally if they would be putting in the effort needed if the NDP held a 20 or 25 seat majority. ~ If the answer is no,. then this is more a case of locals getting swept up in‘a spirit of political op- portunism than seeking to improve local repre- sentation. sheep | PUBLIC OPINION polls may be the best way to figure out how to handle the troublesome nation- al unity question, Premier Glen Clark suggested last week. This is just the latest example of our politicians’ excessive penchant for using opinion polls and surveys of all sorts, rather than actually showing leadership. The Reform Party has been foremost among the offenders, embracing all manner of these techni- ques and encouraging the use of referenda as a tool. We don’t elect these people to govern by poll, parroting back to-us our own misunderstandings and prejudices. We elect men and women of integrity to spend the time we don’t have to figure out what’s right, and then fight for it. What this country needs are leaders — not more followers. PUBLISHER/ EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Sam Collier PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Dave Taylor COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf STUDENT REPORTER: Salwa Farah OFFICE MANAGER: Kathleen Quigley ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Janet Viveiros, Brian Lindenbach TELEMARKETER: Traccy Tomas ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Kelly Jean —- , TYPESETTING: Sylyana Broman DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Brunette ‘SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: - $53.50 per year; Seniors $48.15; Out of Province $60.99 Outside of Canada (6 months) $149.80 {ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION B.C, PRESS COUNCIL BOYCHA seer ob tinie comtnert rere acer Sees Serving the Terrace and Thomhill araa. Publishad on Wednesday of each woek by Cariboo Pross (1969) Ltd. at 3210 Clinton Streat, Terrace, British Columbla, VeG 52. Stories, photographs, illusirations, designs and typestyles In the Terrace Standard are the property of tha - copyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., Its Ilustration repro services and advariising agencies. Pages , ot Reproduclion in whole of in pai, withaut written permission, is specifically prohibited, _ Authorized a second-clasa mail pending the Post Oifice Departmant, for payment of postage In cash. rs Special thanks to all our contributors and corraspondents “ : for their time and talents aAreeeririon Utah Crluetio dnd Redan ae H eZ % NANT Shay = at 4 = =~ dnd. we must it wont be ona " whether to take the hetero or homo route, . Anymore VICTORIA — Maybe Liberal leader Gordon Campbell won’t have to go looking for a new job yet. The Liberal victory in Mon- day’s Surrey-White Rock byelection wasn’t nearly as stunning as in the last general election, but Gordon Hogg’s shawing was very respectable and may silence the critics of Campbell’s leadership for the time being. The information J am basing this piece was the count at about 10 p.m. At that time, Hogg was leading his Reform Party opponent, David Secord, by a comfortable two-to-one margin. The general consensus of political junkies and scientists was that this byelection would make or break Campbell. As University of Victoria political scientist Norman Ruff put it, if the Liberals just squeak in, “the lights will dim for Camp- bell.’’ If the Liberals lose, ‘‘his lights go out.’” Well, the lights may flicker a little, but with a bit of political acumen, which Campbell has unfortunately been in short supply of, he should be able to cement his position as leader of the Liberal Party. LAST WEEKEND nine premiers embarked on our third try to find a word to satisfy La Belle Provence without deviating the sep- tums of their own citizens. In doing so, the premiers ignore a naturally occurring phenomenon thal could maintain Quebec as a land of ice and No. Almost daily, our news tells of another community “coming together’? to mourn the loss of lives by a crazed killer, or to battle the aftermath of a disaster —- Edmonton’s tornado, Manitoba’s flood, Skeena’s mill closures. Since sharing anguish draws an urban/rural com- munity together tighter than a bachelor’s mended Sock, all we need to keep Quebec in the confederation is good grief. Like mounds of dumpling batter dropped on to a simmering stew, dots of crime could eventually bind our map under a sea to sea blanket of misery. It would be different if we Liberals scor FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER Not knowing the final count at the time of writing, I can’t make an exact comparison of the results to those of the 1996 general election, except to say that Wilf Hurd beat his NDP opponent by a massive 10,000- vote margin and the third-place Reformer by 15,000 votes. And while Monday’s results are nowhere near as im- pressive, they probably will enable Campbell to nip any challenge to his leadership in the bud. Criticism of Campbell’s leadership was becoming very vociferous, afler the Liberals turned in a pitiful performance in the last legislative session. I THROUGH BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI had to deliberately create crime. We don’t. It exists. We need only organize it. British Columbia is well on its way to unifying the country, Abbotsford drew together in the wake of nine family members gunned down by an ex-husband. In Chilliwack, an ex- husband on parole did his bit for unity by shooting a 27 year old and her mother. In Surrey, a teenager driv- ek. a f! (MARTEN!! | Instead of dominating the agenda and going after a stum- bling government, the Liberals emerged from the session as the clear losers. Campbell rejected the idea that the byelection would be a test of his leadership abilities, but his own candidate knew better, admitting that voters had repeatedly raised the ques- tion of Campbell’s inability to mount a strong opposition to the NDP. In part, the Liberal victory was due to its near-perfect can- didate. Hogg is the son of a pioneer White Rock family, He Was mayor for years and is well known and liked in the community, The only thing that might have hurt him was the fact that he was the top corrections offi- cial when Danny Perrault walked away from a minimum security prison in 1993 and, while on the loose, savagely beat and raped a Surrey woman, For the Reform Party of B.C., the outcome was dis- appointing. Its fortunes also were tied very closely to this byelection. The Reformers just elected a new leader, and a victory in ing drunk behind the wheel of a Cadillac killed one teenager and injured 14 others. Instant disasters like those accomplish in seconds what endless hours of talk behind closed doors faii to achieve. And such disasters are hard to stop, unlike the Meech Lake Accord which was instantly stalled by a single eagle feather momentarily raised by Elija Harper in the Manitoba legislature. Not even Counterattack, MADD, increased fines and longer jail terms have deterred those who devastate whole cities with their senseless lawbreaking behind a gun or a car. Why, even Steve Fonyo has been convicted five times of driv- ing while impaired. Which proves you don’t need com- monsense to run. At least we would be turn- ing a negative into a posi- tive if we took advantage of the unifying opportunities afforded us by our sick BuT HE LIKES... e decisive win this byelection would have put the party on the political map. The support was there. In several polls, the then leader- less Reform Party, with has only two seats in the legisla- ture, had outscored the Liber- als, A victory would have sent a message ta voters that Reform is a Viable right-wing alterna- tive to the NDP. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Wilf Hanni, the new leader, - Should perhaps now take one of those famous walks in the woods and contemplatc his and his party’s future. He hasn’t got-a seat in the legislature and most likely won't have chance to get one before the next general elec- tion. Byelections don’t happen | that often, And if he leads Reform into the next fray, the best he can” accomplish is to split the right- wing vote once again. My advice to Hanni is ask Premier Clark if he should throw ‘his lot in with the Liber- als. If Clark says no, do it. Reyer can be reached at Tel: {250) 920-9300; Fax: (250) 385-6783, E-Mail address: hubert@coolcom.com Let’s get our wailing intune — society. And it would save some geographical area from being forever con- nected to failure. Think of Meech Lake. Once a summer haven rimmed by sun-dappled bir- ches, it’s best known for Brian Mulroney’s disaster. Does any town care to volunteer for such ig-. nominy? At least when a folk fest puts a town on the map its name gives off vibes of joy, fellowship, and memorable music. Our trend to violent crime gives teenagers a new profession to think about if they aim for full time employment. Grief counselor. Though a new profession, its graduates are n constant demand by schools, police departments, and transportation agencies. And unless we can drop our crime rate, there’s no reason to think they'll ever be out- moded, So let’s. squeeze all the good we can out of our. grief. GUMMY BEARS!