Aad - The Terrace Standard, Necnastiay, August 30, 1995

TERRACE

SITTER

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27,.1988

ADDRESS; 4547 Lazelle Ave. , Terrace, B.C. *V8G" 188 TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 « FAX: (604) 6 638-8432 |

- MODEM: (604) 638-7247". as,

Alcan’ s stone |

GREEK MYTHOLOGY has a marvellous character called Sisyphus. The -king of Corinth, Sisyphus was condemned to eternity in Hades. It

was no mere condemnation. The king’s task was.

to roll a large stone up a hill in Hades only to have it roll down whereupon he would start again, again and again — forever and forever. -

A modern day equivalent. to Sisyphus is Al- can’s Bill Rich. He’s spent ‘the past 15 years maneuvering the company’s. Kemano Comple- tion Project to the pinnacle of reality. only to have the thing. collapse again and again and again. .

So it’s not surprising that Mr. Rich has left his position as an Alcan vice president for a new one as special advisor with the company. Who can blame Mr. Rich or Alcan for the change.

He faced.several changes of government in Ot

tawa and in Victoria where politicians changed policies like socks. There were innumerable: en- vironmental - groups, natives, commercial fishermen, regional politicians, court challenges and tedious and mind-numbing reviews. There was suspicion, mistrust and abuse. |

In some ways Mr. Rich’s shuffle reflects a

change in the corporate structure of Alcan. With ; the Kemano Completion Project now dead, Al-

can is concentrating on its remaining business ventures,

In other ways it’s a sign that doing business i In B.C. has changed. No longer is the megaproject considered a shining example of progress. Yet just as Sisyphus rolls that stone up that hill in Hades, companies in B.C. face a continuing chal- lenge’in:the midst ofa frustrating climate:

Visitor radio

THE YUKON has a tourist information method that would fit well in northern B.C.

Signs are put up along the tezritory’s highways |

telling travellers to tune to a certain frequency on their FM radios. When they do; they hear pto- gramming on what to. do in the area.

The transmitters are low-powered and have a short range but it’s enough to entice travellers to stop, look around and better yet — spend money.

What better way to tell visitors in the northwest about Ksan in Hazelton, Heritage Park or the North Pacific Cannery outside of Port Edward?

The idea was floated last year by Northern Na- tive Broadcasting, the Terrace-based society which provides programming to a multitude of villages throughout the north. Sadly, the idea was turned down for monetary reasons by the tourism ministry.

The Yukon system is sponsored by the terri- torial government and financed through commer- cials purchased by businesses.

We urge the ministry to reconsider the Northern Native proposal, Specialized radio messages can assist the tourism industry here.

Gawd) PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link = sey Lr ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm . PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf _ OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher, Terry Miller - ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:

Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Tracey Tomas

“verre CrncuLAnCoRN

CONTROLLED.

COMMUNITY SERVICE/TELEMARKETER: Monique Belanger -

ADVERTISING ASSISTANT; Helen Haselmeyer DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur COMPOSITOR: Shannon Cooper

CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunette MEMBER OF B.C, PRESS COUNCIL

Serving the Terrace and Tharnhill area, Published on Wednesday of each week by Carlboo Prass (1989) Ud. al 4647 LazellaAve,, Terrace, British Columbia, Stories, photographs, jlustralions, designa and typestyles in tha Terrace Standard are the property of tha copyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid., lis illustration rapro services and advertising agenciag. Raproducion In whole ot in pat, withoul written permission, Is spactfically protibitad. Authorized as second-class mal pending tha Post Office Department, for payment of postage in cash.

Special {hanks to all our contributors and correspondents . for thelr time a and talents

‘

- Victoria shines insummer _

“yicroria

” British Columbia’s capital city bears a striking = resemblance to

- Waikiki this time of year, and J

mean that in a very positive seuse, Since I like Waikiki a lot : When I first moved to Vic-

toria 26 years ago, cynics ,

referred to it as the ‘‘city of the

newly-wed- and aearly dead,*’ - wasn’t : There |

a - description that enlirely undeserved, were no more than a handful of restaurants in town. A good portion of the population was retired. The sidewalks were rolled up atdusk,

_- The urban flight had taken its

toll. Hardly anyone lived in or near the downtown core. An

. hour after the office buildings

- and. stores: closed, the streets " were virtually empty. And mass tourism had yet to affect the city.

At that time, developers had a firm grip on North America’s

urban scene. Old buildings, . “regardless of their heritage

value, were demolished and re- placed by often sterile new concrete buildings.

Victoria bucked ‘that ‘trend: Thanks to a young and com- bative mayor, Peter Pollen, de- velopers were put on notice that their utopian gifis to

Surprises lurk in the stacks —

“THERE ARE two Kinds of books: those that no one reads and those that no one ought ta read.”? H.L, Mencken,

When you find a fiction book the library has owned for. several years still so new the spine’s stiff and the pages stick together like a visiting team of Olympic athletes, you know which kind of book it is.

The kind of book no one should read is smudged. with More grubby thumbprints than a pay phone and its pages fall open in clumps to racicr bits.

Last week I found several unread volumes of fiction on the list of titles I wanted to borrow. :

Books make my list for one of several reasons. If I hear the author give an interesting in- terview on CBC Radio’s “Morningside’’, I wonder if her writing might be fascinat- ing, too. Sometimes it is; sometimes it isn’t.

That’s how I found Ann

FROM: THE,GAPITAL HUBERT BEYER

mankind weren’t welcame.

City council placed a limit of ten stories on the height of new buildiags, Any developer who wanted to exceed that limit had to. give something in return, usually in terms of landscaping or small urban mini-parks.

Victoria’s Old Town, dating back to the mid and late 19th century, was refurbished rather than demolished, Old and worn facades suddenly looked old and beautiful.

And then began the retum of people to the city. Condo buildings sprang up around the core Which, coupled with in- creased tourism, created, once

_ again, a demand -for services,

And whereas there had been only a few restaurants, there

‘THROUGH BIFOCALS., CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

Copeland’s collection of short stories published in 1979. An ex-min, Copeland related several lively anecdotes about convent life to Peter Gzowski. Yet her book, “The Back Room,”’ has a card pocket glued to its Inside cover, The card in-the pocket is blank; no one borrowed the book pur- chased by the library in 1981. The second unread book |

NEVER MIND! MY DAD SAYS T HAVE A 6TH SENSE IN THE

are now dozens and dozens. Today, Victoria is like no other city. Its buildings, new and old; make for a unique blend on a human scale. And if you go down to the Inner Har- bor on these warm summer evenings, you’ll-see thousands of people milling about, not

| just tourists but locals as well,

Street musicians, ranging from lone guitar players tc a Peruvian band that has become

4 very popular, entertain passers-

by. Vendors offer anything from hoi dogs to cappuccino to fresh joghourt. The city is pul- sating with life.

Most downtown . restaurants have tables and chairs on the sidewalk. Pubs have wonderful

Title gardens’ with’ élaborate ‘landscaping “attached 10° them — that ‘make European beer gar-'~

dens look pale by comparison.

Last Sunday, the Victoria Symphony performed its an- nual outdoor cvent, the Symphony Splash, which drew some 30,000 people to the In- ner Harbor,

I had t work in the press ” gallery for a few hours, and- when I left the Parliament Buildings in the afternoon, people were already gathering on the lawn in front of the buildings, around the Empress

found ‘‘The - Stalker,’” also - ; came from a CBC interview. Author Kenneth J. Harvey is a thirty-two-year old Newfound- lander with a brisk readable style but’ a bent toward gruesome — topics: Murder. Rape. Torture, Extortion. Sometimes an author escapes my attention until his death, when those eulogizing him dis- cuss his literary legacy. Other times an author I've known about but whose work I never cared for wins a major award.

The fact others laud ber work. °

makes me take a second look al her books, Carol Shields: winning the Pulitzer Prize for

“The Stone Diaries’’ is one .

such author. ‘‘Swann,’’ her earlier mystery novel, is about to become a movie. Occasionally I . meander along library stacks watching for intriguing titles, hoping. to meet writers or subjects new to me, Generally, though, 1 tackle

And having made my home. _in ‘Victoria. for the past 26.,

Whether they’re in to be bor-°.

"punch the blue key. -

THEN WE'RE DOOMED You DUMMY(THAT WAS LAST SUMMER.

Hotel and at the causeway. Technicians were testing the sound system for. that evening, . .

playing a recording of Mozart's Eine Kleine . Nachtmusik. Young mothers of all races were sitting on the , lawns, their children playing together, oblivious of racial or. ethnic differences. . Tt suddenly occurred to me. ~ x how fortunate we are. Here ' was all this beauty and display

of harmony, toddlers playing wilh gay abandon, people smil-. . . ing and feeling good, while. on

the other side of the world, ; some nine hours’ flight away, Serbs and Croats, Moslems | aud Christians are soaking the | killing fields with blood,

Having lived int ‘Canada for, . 38 years now, I know there's’ “- no'' country like it. “Having just returned from a trip through the Okanagan’ and -the Kootenays, T-know there’s no* province: like British Colum: ’ bia.

years, well,’ ct me just say - without ribbing it in, that this’ - is one beautiful city to live in. . a

" Here’s to Canada, to Beauti- ful British Columbia, and to%. Victoria, 1 keep counting my blessings.

the Library with the same sense . of mission as a weekly shopper armed with flyers, coupons,’ and a solar powered calculator; | -

My list accumulated through- — out the week as I highlight «. tides in the New Books at the Library printout, book club. - pamphlels, . book, revicws, » Magazine articles, and B.C, Bookwoild, the quarterly bul- letin available free at the li- brary.

First stop is the computer to’ check whether books on my list are available here apd”

towed, Since a seven-year-old , showed me computer essen- : tials, I’ve gotten no sass from: the keyboard. Why, I’ve even - shown my new found wisdom to someone else, and it works for her, too! . The secret? If the left lower. : comer of. the screen flashes,

Without a computer, Mencken concluded correctly.

Now YoU RE 7 SEVEN! :

WRG N