* M6 Terrace Review — Wediiésday, January 9, 1991

_ED

ITORIAL

| Caveat emptor

1 f the beginning of 1991 is any indication, the next

decade is going to usher in a new era of depredation

on unwary consumers.

The shakedown at the nation’s cash registers is only
beginning at the conclusion of the first week of the GST.
Although most businesses are making a legitimate if
frustrated effort to apply the new tax correctly, the fact
that the federal government failed to issue guidelines on
whether the GST is built into the price of goods or
charged at the point of sale has left consumers vulnerable
to gouging. The feds also expressed confidence that the
business community will not take advantage of confusion
in the wake of tax replacements — removal of the manu-
facturers’ tax and the federal sales tax — to reap wind-
falls, claimirig that competition will take care of that.
Sure. .

Running parallel to the tax confusion is the race for the
green market. Some strict regulation is going to be
required in labelling or consumers will soon be unable to
tell their environment from their elbows. Placing a green
sticker on a plastic bag of caustic cleaning chemicals
because it enables the buyer to reuse a rigid plastic con-
tainer is a ludicrous travesty of environmental con-
sciousness.

A number of advertising flyers distributed in this area
display the now-obligatory recycling symbol, but in Ter-
race there is no depot for paper recycling and several of
the flyers in question are printed on clay-coated paper
which is not recyclable anywhere.

In the absence of effective consumer advocacy Irom
governments, the market, which historically has shown
very little in the way of conscience or wisdom, will be in
control unless consumers take the trouble to educate —
themselves. To paraphrase Ayn Rand, every dollar spent
is a vote of confidence in the product it purchases.

As we launch this new decade it appears that consumer
education may be the only thing that will assure respon-
sible behaviour of a tax-hungry government and control
of industries and businesses that wish to hitch a free ride
to success on the environmental bandwagon. If the cash
register can be compared to a ballot box, let’s hope con-
sumers take the trouble to vote for something more effec-
tive than we currently have in government.

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k

VICTORIA — I was going
to start the New Year with a
witty (hopefully) column about
the best and worst of provincial
politics in 1990.

Things such as tongue-in-
cheek awards for the best per-
formance by a Casanova-style
attorney-general, or for the
worst portrayal of an Emperor
(Premier) without clothes,

would have set the tone.

But a much more serious na-
tional matter craves attention
than the antics of small-pot-
atoes politicians such as Bud
Smith or a Bill Vander Zalm.

It would appear that a ma-
jority of Canadians expect our
country to fall apart — and
worse yet, the majority seems
resigned to let it happen.

A year-end poll conducted by
Angus Reid/Southam News
contains some chilling statistics
— chilling, that is, to-anyone
who believes that Canada must
remain as a strong, vital, single
entity, rather than to become a
group of regional enclaves ripe
for plucking by the Excited —
States of Amurrca.

We have gone far enough
along the path of presidential-
style republican politics at the
national and provincial levels.
It is time to reclaim, to re-
define, a national purpose, a
national identity and a national
heart.

The pessimistic poll has gar-
nered little publicity; but it and
its implications deserve our un-
divided attention.

It shows that 58 percent fear
that Canadian unity is on the
brink of collapse—that’s. al-
most 6 Canadians out of every

10!
Such a statistic should scare

NICE LITTLE PLAC
UNTIL TRE cn
TENANTS MOVED IN
SIXYEARD AGO...

The view from
Victoria —

— by John Piter

the hell out of us, period. —

For the lack of a belief
among Canadians in the future
of our nation has worsened
steadily since the July farce of |
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
and his Meech Lake ‘‘pressure
cooker” which exploded in his
face.

Back then, only 3 Canadians
in 10 held little hope for the
nation’s future. Now, barely
half a year later, it is twice
that.

If you are not alarmed at
such a steady acceleration of
the loss of hope for a united
Canada, perhaps you should
be.

And politicians at all levels.
of government — from munici-
pal to provincial to federal —
must give voice to such alarm,
and fight to save Canada.

Instead of the narrow-mind-
ed, blinkered attitude of party
policies, instead of the belief
that the financial bottom line is
the only thing that matters, we
need some leaders to step for-
ward to save this unique and
wonderful country from self-
destruction.

To those who say Quebec-
kers have already decided to
go, and that their minds cannot
be changed, I say ‘‘Bull’’.

It is true that many of the
people in that province are say-
ing that Quebec may as well
separate, given its reception by
the rest of the country.

But must we give in so easi-
ly? Must we just accept Que-
bec’s departure, or should we
man the ramparts to show the
reasonable people in that pro- .
vince (and yes, there are many)
that their best future lies within
our nation, not outside it?

And why has there been no
hue and cry over the call for an
Atlantic alliance of provinces,
or a western provinces coali-
tion?

1 for one do not want B.C.
and Alberta et al to be ‘“‘new’’
provinces declare an indepen-
dence from the rest of Canada,

Surely it is time to stand up
and speak for our sovereign na-
tion, and to override the petty
parochialism and selfishness all
too evident in different regions
of this once-great land.

Canada is worth saving. And
it is high time we all addressed
ourselves to that goal, rather
than any narrow, opportunis-
tic, short-term ones.

It is not too late; but it soon.
will be.

As far as the Perils of Paul-
ine farce known as the Vander
Zalm leadership conflict saga is
concerned, there is little to add
to the astounding spectacle you
have watched unfold for the
past few weeks.

The leader of the dying So-
clal Credit Party has made it
clear, and publicly so, that he
believes:

* That he, Bill Vander Zalm, is
being persecuted by the media,
which is being directed by the
NDP

*That he has no time for gov-
ernment or Cabinet procedures,
preferring to go by his “’in-
stincts” rather than to consult
with his colleagues

*That the dissidents in the par-
ty calling for his resignation are
not truly the ‘grassroots’
which elected him in the first
place, and that they have not

— Continued on page A7

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