- A4-The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 14, 2001 “TERRACE |

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

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Bear facts

ONE OF the pleasures of living in the north is that we’re far removed from the sometimes mass hysteria of events down south. We have the lux- ury of viewing them on our television, wondering just what the heck is going on with those people down there.

It’s a comforting feeling until something hap- pens which affects us and it’s only then do we realize that we’ve been caught napping.

A case in point is the ruckus over shooting grizzly bears. From seemingly out of nowhere’ this issue has grown as big as the campaign against logging in this province.

Few of us, even though we live up here, have actually seen a grizzly and far, far fewer will want to go out and shoot one of these magnificent crea- tures. But there’s that feeling once again that people and organizations based elsewhere want once again to intrude on lifestyles in the north, to

, Impose their attitudes and perceptions on us. To be sure, this grizzly thing is very much part _ of the manoeuvring leading up to the calling of a ' provincial election, Many and varied interest . groups out there are demanding politicians take » action on any number of fronts in order to curry ., favour among the voters. There are, for instance, : billboards in Vancouver demanding an end to the " grizzly bear hunt. Because we’re few in number in the north and because our system of government relies on the tule of the majority, there is often nothing we can do to prevent the south from having an undue in- , fluence up north. The overriding impression is that last week’s

. Moratorium, ostensibly. to-allow-a pure; scientific _ examination of the subject, has more to'de with "politics and emotion than with science and logic, _ For many people up here, there is indeed an en-

dangered grizzly in this province — the basketball _ playing variety in Vancouver, If anybody or any- .thing should ‘be subject to a moratorium, it’s , those guys. . OS OS

IT’S. BEEN far too long since there’s been any “type of report into the goings‘on at Skeena Cellu-

lose, the mainstay of the northwest economy. __

_ Although the company is owned by the tax-

: payer, it’s kept its books closed by hiding behind ‘the dubious cloak of corporate confidentiality.

. And that’s balderdash. If Skeena Cellulose was a -‘ publicly traded company, we’d learn far more. _ Determining the exact health of Skeena Cellu- lose is a necessity if we are to make an educated choice between the NDP and the Liberals in the - ‘upcoming election when it comes to economic

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es in the Torrace Standard ara the property of tho :

‘MIN THIS To WIN. THE NUMBERS ARE MOVING tN THe RIGHT » Sy. DIRECTION

On your

VICTORIA —- The next B.C. general -election won’t be called for another two or three months, but the campaien is already in full swing.

Along with the daily deluge of pizza joint, grocery and de- partment store flyers, the post- man or, in deference to the politically correct, the letter carrier, delivered two house- hold mailers from my friendly provincial government.

The first extalled the vir- tues of the NDP government's health care initiatives, the

- other informed me that British

Columbia has “reached a milestone of global signif- icance” by having doubled the Province’s parks and protected areas in the past nine years.

Those would be the years -

that the New Democrats have governed British Columbia.

~ But it is the overall record of | : _ those years ‘the NDP-will have ‘ta defend when it faces the

electorate,

And just what is that re- cord? Well, it’s a spotty one. A lot has been written about the fudged budget and fast ferry issues, including by me, that they are the top two

‘things ‘that bother British Co- ‘lumbians about the NDP,’ -

To be sure, they are worth

FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER

remembering. Nobody likes being lied to by a premier, And nobody likes a failed pro- ject that is costing the tax- payers dearly. But if you ex- clude these two, the NDP hasn't really done all that badly.

'¥és, they browght*in’ seven’

DNIKWLS NO

DNINNVTd MOA BaV NOT MOH }

Porations are turning in hefty profits. The Insurance Corpora- tion of British Columbia has done so well that it is giving a $100 refund to every driver with a good record,

B.C. Hydro has managed to give British Columbians elec- tricity rates that are among the lowest on the continent, while cashing in on the energy crunch in California to the tune of more than $1 billion,

And then, of course, there is the above-mentioned mile- stone of “global significance,” which is a remarkable feat any government could and would be proud of.

So why does everybody seem to hate the NDP to the point that senior advisers fear the possibility of a shutout in the next election, with the Liberals winning every seat? ‘In’a@ nlitshell! fudged budget

jdeficit budgets, some of whith!" ‘aid fdst Terres.

.at least were not of their own making, what with the Asian meli-down. And they partially made up for it with the two latest balanced budgets, Students at the province's institutes of higher learning have benefited from a freeze of tuition fees that has been in

_ effect for several years,

Some of the Crown cor-

These two issues are so deeply ingrained on the voters, minds, they’ve been rehashed ad infinitum for years now, in- cluding by me, that they have

‘become the justification for

the NDP’s death sentence. A word about the possible

_ annihilation of the NDP. A few

months ago, I thought it pos- sible, too, but not any more,

é

marks, getset....go

I agree with Gordon -Camp- bell, the Liberal’ opposition leader and premier-in-waiting apparent, who points out, and wisely so, that the NDP has al- ways had a core support of 30 per cent plus. I say wisely, be- cause assumption of easy vic- tory can be dangerous...

The NDP may be stuck at the 20-per-cent support levet now, but those numbers will move up during the months leading up to the election.

1 still consider another vic- tory by the NDP impossible, but [ no longer anticipate a slaughter. ,

A friend of mine in Prince George has: egged me on for some ‘time to put some: num- bers to the outcome. So, here goes: Campbell says with only its core support, the NDP could expect to get up to 24 :seats.

“For reasons mentioned..abpve,

stand right now, I’ll go. with 15

O yes, one more thing: please don’t ask me how often my predictions have turned out to be correct. i ‘Beyer can be reached at:

E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com; Tel (250) 381-6900; Web http://www. hubertbeyer.com:

Stay home. It’s much

1 AM often asked why I never travel, not even during winter while work is slow and south-

‘em climes offer sunshine. - Well, travel is risky. A winter

tan isn’t to die for,

My sister and her husband, retired farmers, just returned from two weeks in Yucatan.

“They drove. to Edmonton and ~ flew from there for one week

of beaches and another week Sightseeing agriculture/archeology. I wor- ried the whole time.

I need no help finding rea- sons to worry. Every time | turn on the TV news or open a newspaper my worst fears are exceeded, often by one-of-a- kind occurrences.

Many risks result from poor judgment. As ctose as Hazel- ton, a lowbed truck driver at- tempted to haul a tall machine through a low bridge. Result: a

vital community bridge closed -

A COOUPIE

THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

to ali but single lane light ve- hicle traffic for perhaps six weeks or more while a repla- cement piece of steel bridge is fabricated,

Last fall, near Revelstoke, a tour bus smashed head on'‘into a truck in a tunnel, killing several people and closing the

RAVENS Live. |] KWo How MANY. HL roreveal aap TIMES {VE HEARD > GROUSE onty GET | THAT FROM GROUSE..

OF YEARS! . |

No FAIR! you [OH LORD! Do You

Trans Canada for hours.

Only last weekend a large rock from a passing dump truck punched through a wind- shield of a car, fatally smash- ing into the driver’s head. How do you protect yourself against that?

Even airlines aren’t immune to stupidity, In Prince George a Passenger boarded with a bot- tle of drain cleaner trucked among the undies in her carry- on suitcase. During the flight to Vancouver liquid leaked from the bottle and the suit-

case, a liquid 8§ per cent sul-

phuric acid. It burned two pas- sengers, and a hole through seat upholstery and carpet. Pending disasters abound. In Quebec, a boulder the size of an SUV hung suspended in a wire mesh sling over the side

of a blocked off highway as. workers scrambled to safely

‘remove it: ° :

)

Mme step off with confidence,

T[overtue usr SO YEARS 7!) ‘ |

safer

Unpredictable weather ‘adds to. my worries, In Newfound-. land, so much snow has fallen they have no place to stash ‘it. For weeks sidewalks have been buried. In Cape Breton, an arena roof collapsed during a Saturday hockey game. |

Risk lurks everywhere. Eng- land is flooded. Russia has rarely been so cold, Western India is digging out from.a 7.8° Carthquake that flattened whole neighbourhoods in seconds.

Still, I shoutd tempt. both road rage and air-rage to geta sunbun? .

No way. Especially “since my brother mentioned the white sands stink like a back alley. Lazy visitors use it as-a litter box. coe

If I had the $5000 for two weeks round trip by air to Yu- catan, I'd be short the cdst:-of sufficient ‘life insurance to’ let