3
3

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Socreds’
‘counties’
threaten
autonomy

Vancouver voters naturally have a
variety of viewpoints on the many
issues facing our city, but on one issue
Iam sure most of us agree. That is the
issue of municipal autonomy — the |
right of the city of run its own affairs
without interference from Victoria.
The provincial government has res-
tricted us far too much.

We don’t have the right to amend
our own charter. The provincial
government reserves this right for
itself.

When the majority of Vancouver
citizens voted in favor of a ward sys-
tem, the provincial government refused
to amend our charter to permit us to
decide our own system of electing
members to city council.

The provincial government arbi-
trarily fired our whole school board
and replaced it with a stooge of its
own choosing. That was an unforgiv-
able abrogation of our municipal
autonomy.

I mentioned these restrictions on
our local autonomy because Premier-
elect Bill Vander Zalm repeatedly
declared during the election campaign
that he would etablish a county sys-
tem in the province in place of our
present municipal system. This was
done in the name of decentralizing
government, but actually it would
centralize it still more.

Under a county system Vancouver
city council, the school board and the
park board could be abolished. So
could the library board and the hospi-
tal board, and so could the Greater

Rankin

Vancouver Regional District and its
water board. Vancouver city council
could lose the right to zone and rezone
property.

All of our democratically-elected
local institutions could be replaced by
a huge metropolitan board subser-
vient to Victoria. That is the county
system in a nutshell.

How the north shore of False
Creek would be developed would be
decided by a board far removed from
the citizens of Vancouver and not
accountable to us. It would also
decide whether or not to build an ele-
vated rapid transit system over the
Arbutus corridor without consulting
or considering the views of the ctiti-
zens in this area.

These are all good reasons why the
citizens of Vancouver should elect a
mayor and council that are not sub-
servient to Victoria. When Vancouver
city council protested the firing of the
Vancouver school board by the Ben-
nett government and called for a new
school board election, Ald. Gordon
Campbell voted against the motion.

I want to say without any equivoca-
tion that if I am elected mayor I will
stand up and fight for the retention of
local autonomy. Not only that, I want
to see Vancouver gain the right to
amend its own charter so that we
don’t have to go begging hat in hand
to Victoria for the changes our citi-
zens want.

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 29, 1986

Kamloops’ alliance tops list
of progressives In Civic race

Voters in Kamloops will have a choice of
electing several progressive candidates,
backed by a recently formed civic alliance,
for council school board during municipal
elections Nov. 15.

The fielding of candidates calling for tax
reform, fair wages and an end to labor-
bashing, and no more cutbacks to educa-
tion under the banner of the Municipal
Electors for Responsible Action (MERA)
consistutes one of the brightest spots on the
civic electoral map outside the Lower Main-
land.

Elsewhere, several municipalities will see
candidates for council and school trustees
either supported by the local labor council
or representing a progressive direction for
the municipal political scene. But in many
areas, sources report that the recently con-
cluded provincial election has taxed the
resources of local labor and reform forces,
meaning fewer candidates for the civic race.

Ironically, the municipal council proved
one of the greatest strengths for the Socreds
in the Oct. 22 provincial election, with sev-
eral mayors and aldermen scoring electoral
successes under the Social Credit banner.

The Kamloops and District Labor
Council is supporting MERA, whose can-
didates for council and school board are
running on a solid platform of civic and
education reform.

Labor Council president and local Car-
penters Union leader John Harper is run-
ning for mayor, along with Ald. Ray
McInnes in his re-election bid and Canadian
Union of Public Employees, Local 900
member Lance Brooks.

MERA’s council program also includes
maintaining civic jobs and services —
including opposition to contracting out
existing city jobs — fair. wages for all

Public backs COPE policies: poll |

A survey of public opinion has found
most Vancouver residents support the poli-
cies of the Committee of Progressive Elec-
tors: maintaining municipal. jobs and
services, having the city play a key role in
economic development, opposing contract-
ing-out of city services, and housing for the
Expo 86 site.

The results of the survey, carried out by
Campbell Farrell and Associates last June,
show that COPE policy is clearly in line
with public opinion, candidates for city
council stated Monday.

The survey, announced by COPE candi-
dates Jean Swanson, Carole Walker, Pau-
line Weinstein and Frank Kennedy, also
found Vancouverites think a city mayor
should have not “connections” with
developers — a clear reference to former
Marathon Realty employee and right-wing
mayoralty candidate, Gordon Campbell.

During a press conference the candi-
dates, in promoting COPE’s initiatives on
housing, job-creation and job-retaining, hit
Campbell’s voting record on some of the
issues raised in the poll.

Recently COPE mayoralty candidate,
Ald. Harry Rankin, also hit the voting
record of Campbell, who is running for the
big-business supported Civic Non-Partisan
Association.

Swanson said the survey showed Camp-
bell “‘is not in step with community opin-
ion” on the question of whether to
contract-out or continue municipal garbage
collection. The survey question, which
touched on an issue raised in several com-
munities, including Vancouver, found 64.9
per cent of 506 respondents favored a city-
run sanitation service. Only 16.6 per cent
supported contracting-out the service, an
option which Campbell had attempted to
introduce through a motion in city council
last year.

workers on contracted jobs, taxing indus-
trial and commercial properties according
to their real market value, equal pay for
work of equal value, “meeting the needs of
people, not profits for developers” and
pressing the B.C. government to make the
province nuclear-weapons free.

MERA school board candidates Donna
Biro and Laszlo Soltesz pledge to fight “the
erosion of the education system” through
government cutbacks and call for adequate
funding to reverse the trend of increased
class sizes, school closures, and staff and
equipment cutbacks.

In Castlegar, there’s a full slate of labor-
supported candidates with veteran alder-
man Len Embree seeking a sixth term on
city council.

Embree, an unpaid business agent for the
Carpenters Union local, is joined by Joe
Irving, a CUPE member and co-ordinator
of the Castelgar Unemployed Action Cen-
tre, and sawmill worker, International
Woodworkers member and current alder-
man Robert Pakula in the race for three
council seats.

They’re complemented by two labor-
backed school board candidates: incum-
bent rural trustee Rick Pongracz, a member
of the Plumbers Union, Local 170, who is
seeking a second term, a newcomer Bill
Hadikin, a CUPE member taking a run at
the city seat open this election.

Up in Prince George, the labor council is
backing Ald_John Backhouse, a six-year
veteran of council with labor’s support, for
a run at the mayor’s chair. Backhouse
topped the polls in the 1984 election.

Over in Prince Rupert, B.C. Government
Employees Union member Larry McKay is
running for the second time for school
board, with the labor council’s backing.

The survey, weighted by neighborhood,
found residents in the east side of the city
supported city-run garbage collection the
strongest — 88.8 per cent — but also
found significant support in the wealthier
areas, with residents of Kerrisdale, Dunbar
and Shaughnessy supporting it by 71.7 per
cent.

Vancouver residents supported the city
playing ‘ta major role in economic devel-
opment and job creation”’ by 69.6 per cent,
which COPE candidates said shows sup-
port for the labor-backed civic group’s
proposals for road linking projects and
housing. Rankin has stated that the pro-
jects, involving the Cassiar connector on the
Trans-Canada highway, a thoroughfare
called the Malkin Bypass, and a port con-
nector roadway, and the housing proposals
for B.C. Place would put almost all of the
unemployed construction workers in the
Lower Mainland back to work for a year.

Labor-supported trustee Fred Beil W®
expected to seek re-election.

On Vancouver Island, neither of the tu
tees who fought hard against school cue
backs on the Courtenay-Comox school
board — Wayne Bradley and Clayt0?
Bagwell — are seeking re-election. But the
outgoing trustees support Comox Valley
Parents Association members Wayne
and Elizabeth Shannon in their campal

for trustees seats.

In Nanaimo, a peace activist is seeking?
seat on the local school board: Ellen W
of the Gabriola Island Peace Associatiom

In Port Alberni, three labor-supp?
candidates are aiming at city council sp®
They include labor council president Heil)
Nedergard, Canadian Paperworkers Uniot
member Jack Mitchell and Art Brigg
former Parksville alderman. Seeking ™
election to his rural seat on the Alber
school board, on which he is chair, is cP
member Bob Hoadley. ni

Peace is a key issue on the Suns ie
Coast, with a referendum to declare a
sons a nuclear-weapons free zone 09 ©
ballot. The Sunshine Coast Peace cont
yndl

a

weapons free. ae
Ken Collins, -a_ local locksmith, we

expected to seek the local labor COUR = 4.

endorsement for Gibsons municipal co dis
cil. Incumbent Sunshine coast regio”
trict director Brett McGillivray, 2 5

{1008 Jip,
H

peace supporter and promoter of the! ais NY

une”

Solidarity Coalition’s and labor ©?
strategy for job creation and econ
renewal, is seeking re-election.

1

Sixty-eight per cent of the respond
supported “maintaining levels of mun ft
services, with tax increases in line WIK"- tei
tion,” according to the survey. Weil®
the popular chair of the nine-mem 0
COPE Vancouver school board W" ai
seeking an aldermanic seat this tef™ is
the results show public support for i dee
yearly practice of balancing the
without cutting jobs and services. ctivist

Walker, the west end community F eat
running for the first time on the coP. vgn 08
said the 61.2-per cent support ae, cet”
social housing, parks and commur” Ope’
tres” on the B.C. Place site shows :
rolicy reflects majority opinion. uve!

Two weeks a COPE and Vane’ of
Centre MLA-tlect and outgoins © fora
Mike Harcourt, stated their supe funds
labor initiative to use union pensi@ 2 Bo
to build mixed-market housing 0? sf False
Place grounds on the north sho

Creek. =

RE-ELECT
SUE HARRIS
to Vancouver Parks Board

— for an accessible and affordable
recreation system for everyone

ON NOVEMBER 15g
VOTE THE COPE/UNITY SLA?

d

Rankin for Mayor . Council . School & Park Boy