The first officialactof thenew

chairman of the Liberal govern‘!

Ment’s Food Prices Review eard was to declare this week “lat price increases willnot stop Just because the board exists.

oo! Plumptre, appointed h ~time head of the new board, He ane notice onconsumers tia € board will follow a ‘‘do-

Ing’ policy on prices unless

pushed by an aroused public.

She told the press im- mediately after her appoint- ment Monday, that the board will prepare regular quarterly reviews of food price trends as well as special enquiries into particular products.

Mrs. Plumptre made it clear that while the board can study prices and suggest solutions, it has no power toforcechainstore

AW HIGH FOOD FNC) "t sets up

retailers and processors to hold the line on rising food costs.

She said she evisaged the board’s jobas oneof analysing in depth the reasons for rising food costs.

Other members of the board announced by Consumers Affairs Minister Herb Gray are Dr. Gordon L. Burton of Alberta, Evelyn Root (Sun columnist Penny Wise), and Louise H.

Lorrain of Quebec.

After laboring mightily, the Federal government has producedamouse. After months of deliberations by the special Commons committee on prices, followed by recommendations to the government, what the public has now is board which will tell them that prices are high and why.

While that in itself is a

do-nothing board

concession to public demand, it falls far short of what the public wants and needs: thatis a board with power to curb price increases, andorder rollbacks where justified. This was the demand raised at a public rally in Vancouver last Sunday— and still remains the main demand for consumers.

See report of the rally below.

Right opens drive 3 against NDP gov't

~ MIAJORITY MOVEMENT

FOR FREEDOM AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

© Tribune

a 15°

FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1973

British Columbians

The M,

in freed,

British Cooney. Movement was not planned — it simply grew, all across

a lumbia, as local groups came together to express their concern

a mon Tecognition that public policy is now being directed by a Y roup dedicated to the philosophy of state control.

mino,

enerty Movement exists to provide a’common meeting ground for belice aving different political allegiances, but who share a common iom.

Jarl A.B. Whist — Kamloops, 8.C. Arnold F.C. Hean — Burnaby B.C. (

can participate.

(Provincial Spok

We invite participation by all concerned citizens, to join and support The Majority Movement, the main objectives of which are: : 1. To provide a forum in which supporters of all free enterprise parties

Provincial Spokes man)

2. To inform all British Columbians of the fundamental differences bet- ween socialism and free enterprise. ae ; 3.To restore free enterprise government to British Columbia.

pwitsned by THE MAJORITY MOVEMENT

Vancouver Branch: Ste. 304 - 1847 W. Broadway, Vancouver,

Provincial Headquarters: 248 2nd Ave., Kamloops

, B.C, Telephone 736-8077

Ase an Ve is the front page of a four-page flyer being

nouncement by the newly-formed right wing “Majority Movem aman

an "ight

Officer. "9 political forces to defeat the government's progr ac of the group are Jarl A.B. Whist of Kamloops, former ¢ archand, and Burnaby lawyer Arnold F.C. Hean. Hean ment's policies and calling for an alliance of

Qvern

e : '9 business press.

delivered toeveryhomeinB.C., according to ent.” It calls for unity of all d to turn B.C. to the right. ampaign manager for Liberal MP ‘s recent speeches attacking the theright have been given wide publicity by

Vol. 34, No. 22

Reduce prices, demands rally

Labor, farmer and consumer spokesmen joined forces

last Sunday at a rally at Vancouver’s City Hall Square '

to condemn rising prices, demand a curb-on profiteer- ing, and to urge the setting up of a Prices Review Board with power to bring prices down.

Sponsored by the Co-ordin- ating Committee of Concerned Organizations, the open-air rally heard Roy Atkinson, president of the Farmers Union of Canada, Elaine Podovinnikoff of the CCCO, Paddy Neale, NDP-

MP and Maurice Anderson of the.

United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union.

Pointing out that ‘‘all is not well back onthe farm’’, Atkin- son told the rally that farmers are caught in a cost-price squeeze and that the income of Canadian farmers has actually dropped. He charged that corporations are making huge profits and are using high prices to ensure themselves of continued rising profits.

Atkinson pointed to recent rises in feed costs to farmers and gave as an example soya bean meal which had increased 300 per cent per ton, and said food prices are a manifestation of increased costs, but the bulk of the higher costs is going tomani- pulators and speculators.

He gave the following exam-

ples of profiteering which are hitting farmers and consumers hard: Last year Massey-Fergus- son, a major supplier of farm equipment, showed a 326 per cent rise in profits; Swiss- Canada, 29.4 per cent; Inter- national Harvester, 51.9 per cent and John Deere, 46.3 per cent in 1971-72.

Atkinson charged that inter- national corporations are making decisions beyond the power of any elected govern- ment and that they are making excessive profits which goes into higher food prices.

He said that farmers and work- ing people in the cities have much in common, and one of these problems is the high cost of food.

NDP-MP Paddy Neale said that workers and farmers are not responsible for inflationary trends in Canada which are hitting hard at consumers in every. area — housing, food, clothes, interest rates, etc.

See CONSUMERS, pg. 12

NATURAL GAS CHEAP—

EXCEPT FOR

B.C. USERS

— See story page 3

Nici ia tliat