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A letter was sent to Dalton Bales, the Attorney-General of
Ontario by the Metro Committee of the Communist Party of
Canada, protesting yet another fascist meeting to be held
in Toronto. The letter read, in part, “The enclosed poster is.
currently being pasted up on a wide scale in Toronto. It is
an invitation to a commemorative meeting to the memory of
Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy and chief ally of
Adolf Hitler; the meeting is sponsored by the Western Guard.

“The Metro Committee of the Communist Party of Canada
protests this action most vigorously as yet another menacing
threat to democracy in Canada, a threat to the rights won
by the people of this land over many years of struggle.”

"ERN GUARD PARTY ORGANIZZIA UN RICEVIMENTO IN

+ TUTTI GLI INTERESSATI SONO CORDIALMENTE INVITATI

SARA SERVITO UN STMPRESDO GRATIS. PER INFORMAZIONI
2.00.

Better bus service on
North Shore welcomed

The recent decision by the Pro-
vincial government to improve
existing bus service on the
North Shore, especially in the
eastern part of the District, isa
step in the right direction said
community leader Ernie Crist
this week.

“‘But while the proposed exten-
sion of existing bus service is
worthwhile it isequally impor-
tant to ensure that the public will
use the buses,’’ he said, adding
that improved service initself is
no guarantee that the useof the
automobile can be reduced in

significant numbers unless addi-
tional measures are adopted.

He urges. that . public
transportation be looked onasa
basic service with bus fares
reduced from the present rate
or eliminated altogether. Simul-
taneously with this he urges that
sections of the downtown core
be closed to private auto-
mobiles as an essential step to
solve the worsening traffic prob-
lem in the city core. Crist says
this approach would be fairer
than boosting parking rates
which is now _ being con-
sidered.

‘Sun editor is sun-struck
on ward system’—Rankin

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

I read with some interest a
Vancouver Sun editorial page
which appeared Monday, July
16, 1973, ‘‘Council Factions
Flog a Non-Issue.”’

Editorial writers are some-
what like Brendan Behan’s
description of the eunuch in the
harem when he said ‘They
observe the act, they know how
it’s done, but they cannot dupli-
cate it.’’ The question of the
restructure of City Council is
the single most important issue
facing Council in the last ten
years, editorial writers to the
contrary who say it is a non-
issue.

The reporters covered this
particular material well and if
the editorial writers had been
doing something besides play-
ing tiddley winks, they would
have understood that COPE pro-
duced a comprehensive plan for
the City of Vancouver, which
was published in the Sun on
April 6, 1973 and which set out 21
wards, one Alderman to each
ward.

COPE appeared either through
itself or its members at every
one of the hearings, both onthe
school board, parks board and
Council and presented a de-
tailed position. Thisisnoteven
mentioned in the editorial
writer’s report.

Like a lot of opinions in the edi-
torials, they say that the voter
will not turn out in any great
numbers to vote on this parti-
cular issue in October. The fact
remains that the TEAM Council
before it was elected had a posi-
tion onthe ward system. Every

party was elected having a fixed
and firm position on that sys-
tem and it is correct that in
order for the TEAM Council to
vindicate its position, it must
play down the hearings.

They were sét down at the
most inopportune time, given
the least possible coverage,
hoping that the electorate will
do exactly as the Sun editorial
says it will do— namely turn
their back on the whole thing.
The TEAM organization boasted
before it was elected to Council
that it hada policy and that its
policy would be set by the
membership in convention or at
membership meetings..

NIGEL MORGAN, B.C. Comunist
Party leader, isin Cubaasamem-
ber of a delegation from the
party’s Central Committee, to
take part in the July 26 National
Day celebrations and to parti-
cipate in discussions with Cuban
Communists.

t. James and Bay Streets in Montrealand Toronto, the

massive financial lair of the most powerful
monopoly plunderbund that has rooked the country for well
onto two centuries or more, kept a wary eye on last week’s
Western Liberal conference in Vancouver. :

This ‘‘Woo the West’’ Liberal confab made little or no
headway inits ‘‘wooing’’ but did manage toeffectarather
decisive split (58-46) on the modus operandi of transporting
Alaskan gas andoil tothe oil barons ofthe U.S.A.,asplitnot
likely to be healed come the National Liberal convention in
September.

However, in keeping with the general desires of both
“‘Eastern’’ and ‘‘Western’’ Liberals, a condition of ‘‘mutual :
understanding”’ was reported to have been achieved, whatever
that means? Perhaps something along the same lines as the
late Mike Pearson wrote to the late L.B. Johnson: vis, that he

“understood LBJ’s desire to bomb North Vietnam’’ even while .

allegedly ‘‘disapproving’’ of that crime. A good sample of
Liberal doubletalk ‘‘diplomacy”’ from one of its great Masters.
Among the 200 or more Liberal big and small wigs
assembled to ‘‘woo the West,’ it was almost prophetic that
Justice Minister Otto Lang should accidently stumble upona
“keynote” topic when he cracked, “‘the problems of Vancouver
are not the problems of Carrot River.’’ He could just as well
have said that the problems of Victoria are not the problems of |
Okotoks, Alberta or B.C.’s Crows Nest Pass, except inone
respect; that for well over a century Ottawa, whether Liberal
or Tory, hasmade gestures for the solution of all their prob-
lems with an abundant supply of carrots-on-a-stick gestures.
The Big Boys of James and Bay Streets, the CPR, mining
and lumber magnates, oil, gas, machinery and sundry others of
the monopoly plunderbund have been strong advocates of the
carrot-on-a-stick formula, primarily to keep the profit boodle
rolling Eastwards and the political panaceas rolling
Westwards; and with the aid of the humble carrot, if not
actually happy, at least relatively quiescent and contented.

Now the Liberals are caught on the ‘‘horns of adilemma”’
of their own making, a dilemma resulting from a too long
sustained diet of carrots, which the West would seem to be no
of a mind to stomach. A _ steadily dwindling
vote, plus the burgeoning emergence of the NDP ina number
of Western provinces, plus the loud cackle of promissory-laden
Tories, has sparked the Liberals intoanew round of ardent
‘“‘wooing,”’ ready and willing for ‘‘nuptual relations’’ . .
West will only accept a continued bouquet of Liberal carrots. It
was indeed prophetic that Minister Lang should have carrots
on his mind at such a momentous hour.

Ministerial suggestions on what might soften-up the
‘“‘wooing’’ of the West there were aplenty; new federal-
provincial financial deals where John Q. Public would know
precisely what a share of the federal tax-dollar the provinces
were actually receiving; new railways, highways, ports,
industries, etc. and etc. were to be built; new trade relations
with the U.S. that would be ‘‘to the mutual benefit’’ of both
countries. Ministerial wooer Basford wanted to see the West
develop by ‘‘solutions’’ found exclusively inCanada. That had
some effect on the Western bride-to-be, but not decisive.

More autonomy for the West alsohad its momentary fling,
but it was clear that the ‘‘umph’’ of the fathers who allegedly
fathered Confederation was absent. A too long diet of carrots
. and vision. Now the September
National Convention will have to take over the ‘‘wooing’’ anew.

Thus the split was inevitable, unavoidable. The U.S.
transportation of oil and gas from Alaska to continental USA,
by the tanker route down the B.C. coast inland waters to
Washington, with all of its sure certainty of fouling up and
polluting the environment for man, fish, fowl, indeed all life.
Billions of dollars involved, to build tankers, refineries,
distribution apparatus, political party fortunes, mountains of
profits, and to hell with the ordinary Joe of Homo Sapiens. The
stakes were too vast for the monopoly-dominated Liberals to
contend with, and the ‘“‘solidarity’’ was shattered.

(It is of course a fair conjecture that “‘your friendly
undertaker ‘‘Stanfield and his Tories, or NDP ‘‘Statesman’’
Lewis and his right-wing NDP followers, wouldn’t have done
anything different) which, inter alia as the lawyers say,
indicates the crisis Canadian politics is in at this precise point

longer

had sapped Liberal vigor. .

in time.

The ‘‘Mountainlabored’’ but itdidn’tevenbringforththe
proverbial ‘‘mouse.”’ Its carrot-laden wooing has been too long
sustained to change overnight. Obviously the West can no
longer be seduced withacarrot, atleast with the same success

as hither to!

. if the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 27, 1973—PAGE 2

When the membership voted 07
have a ward system as put fol
ward by COPE, Aldermal
Volrich, the Chairman of the |
committee, takes the position |
that he is now in agreement i
with a two-tiered system.
tired old saw that even the NP.
Council could have gone alon
with!

There is no question thal
TEAM supports a two-tiered SY>
tem because ineffect it willl?
a major change for them tohavé
to field candidates on the Bas
side of the City. Logically they

would like a one-tiered system 3

elected at large because tha! |
way they could keep their C08)
little grouping in City Hall from
about the same area from whl@’ |
the NPA were elected, excep :
you now have the Universi! |
mafia instead of the busines>
mafia of the NPA. 4

The editorial apparentl! |
quotes with some approval tha
Mayor Art Phillips has kept ae
self ‘‘fairly aloof from
debate such as it is.”’ 1 hall
always understood politics !
mean that you don’t keep alae
from the major issues of th
time, but rather you wade ina”
fight for your position.

If the Sun editorial write!”
would do their duty to the publ
instead of to the special inte
est groups that they have alway’
catered to— namely big bu
ness and the establishment
they would have pointed out?
importance of good civic gover id
ment and good representa si
in the community, and by leader
ship in that area invite
voters to come out and P
cipate in the formula for 4
ter civic government.

arti:
pel

In writing this kind of e2
torial they have pointed out0
again that editorial writers ey
lost their credibility — if te
ever had any! They are not! #
taken seriously by seri
minded people but rather t ep
are to be looked at with the d@
est of distrust.

Why is it that Vancouvely ’
435,000 people, is the only na
city in Canada that elect of
large? Is it correct, and 4 1°
the others incorrect? Is even
body out of step but our John”

I would ask the electors tot
their backs on the kind 9 and
torial mouthings of the Sun 19 ;
to turn out in large numbé fot
make sure they produc€ tic
themselves a hs
government in this City ie tis
first time in many yeals- © al
the best answer to ed} ’

writers. —
Announceme™ |

tio"
Because of the VaC4 ne
Tri 0

closing of the Canadian ©"
printshop in Toronto o of the
weeks, the national pages iis
Tribune do not appeat ! will
week’s issue of the PT, | j
they appearnextweeK-1 405 |
place we reprint featurel’ "10 +
from the U.S. Daily Wo out
whom we hereby expres
thanks and appreciation.

us’
With the PT issue dated the
ust 10 we will return be: the
regular national pages
Canadian Tribune. ~

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