Tn Terrace — “where you can n get your lights

punched out for much less — an emergency meeting —
of the city: council was convened and Tanner was

_ branded persona. non grata.
to, — Brian Kieran,.
The Province, April 7, 1992

Wa, gee, Brian, you don’t have toe come this far

afield from your Victoria bunker-to be on the receiv- »

_ing-end of. a little interpersonal violence. Your
familiarity with Terrace seers to rival that of Clive
Tanner himself.

In dropping that bit of hyperbole, something
that’s an obligatory part of the. big city journalists’
- mythology concerning places more than 40 kilometres
-north of the border, Kieran was in the process of
branding Tanner, the man who deprived his fellow
-. legislators of the privilege of meeting Miss ‘Terrace
. Shelley O’Brien, as a peddler of soft pornography and
the literature of violence. Kieran, in the manic and

_rabid style favoured by the Province, called Tanner's:

preoccupation with decorum into question by advis-
ing readers that a bookshop owned. by Tanner sells

~ gcrofulous periodicals like Playboy, Hustler, Playgirl —

and publications that cater to homosexuals and gun-
and-knife fanciers, in short a selection of magazines
_ that could probably be found on the shelves of nearly
any convenience store in North America.

Poor Tanner is not having a good week, Prior to
getting Kieran’s attention he was headline fodder for
_ most of the major media outlets in B.C., he got taken
_. to the woodshed by his caucus leader and then was
censured by Terrace city council, all for refusing to
- let Shelley be formally introduced to the Legislature

as a matter of personal principle involving his. idea |

of what is and is not proper in a house of assembly.
Terrace city council was certainly a pillar of

16 Terrace Review — April 10, 1992

= ‘strength for our embaseador, lambasting Tanner i in
‘a good-natured council-like manner, but some of their
‘suggestions show lack of forethought and perhaps

don’t go far enough. For example, forcing Tanner to

do three hours of hospitality work here, considering
the man’s temperament, could inflict more damage
on the local tourist trade than a dozen NDP‘budgets.

Declaring Tanner to be persona non grata only on

April Fool’s Day, a day on which local people with far

greater qualifications could be commemorated, seems —

‘a token measure. Rather, why not declare Tanner the
- city’s official scapegoat for every day of thé: ‘year? It

is one of Terrace’s shortcomings that so many things

_ go wrong for which no one can clearly and‘obviously

be blamed. Since Tanner by his own admission is a
miserable individual. by inclination and ‘nature, it
would hardly make a great deal of difference‘in his
life to be regularly excoriated by a large group of

_ people whom he will probably never meet: and never
want to meet.

It could be a great comfort to many of us if we
could lay the blame for seasonal flooding and water

- shortages, lost opportunities, the forestry fall-down

effect, disrespectful children, stupid adults, fog at the

‘airport and frost-heaves in the pavement ona single

communal object of abomination.
- We. understand, however, that Tanner has

| moderated his ways somewhat, having allowed the

introduction of a guest to the legislature earlier this
week. Perhaps if he could be trained to say "yes"
with same fervour he has to date reserved for "nay",
Tanner might qualify for a senate appointment,
relieving both himself and the general public of the

‘burden of having to deal with one another. And

perhaps as an additional public service Kieran could
be permanently assigned to cover him.
It would almost make one believe the senate has

a. | PUTpOse.