"*

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Now that September is upon
us, the civic election campaign
will soon be getting into full sw-
ing. There will be three main
groups contesting this election
— the NPA, COPE and
TEAM. There probably will be
other groups and independents
entering the election race, but
they will not likely be serious
contenders.

The main contenders will be
the NPA and COPE. TEAM is
still a force to be reckoned with
but its future is behind it. It was
formed in 1968 to prevent a shift
of voters to the left, towards the
reform forces. The NPA by
then had become badly discred-
ited. By 1972 TEAM succeeded
in electing a majority to council
but it quickly became apparent
that while TEAM talked re-
form, it was nothing more than
a young swinger edition of the
NPA. It has steadily lost ground
since then and is now in disarray
with only one member on coun-
cil

COPE, on the other hand,
has been coming up steadily
since it was formed in 1968, in-
creasing its vote in every elec-
tion. Two years ago it not only
re-elected Harry Rankin, its
candidate Bruce Eriksen was
runner-up for council and its
candidates for the parks board
and school board just missed
out by a few votes.

The main election battle,
therefore, will be between the
NPA and COPE.

The NPA represents big busi-
ness interests in the city. It’s the
party of the developers.

COPE, on the other hand
‘represents the ordinary citizen
who wants reform at city hall. It

COPE vs NPA
main bout in
election battle

is backed by labor, and the mid-
dle class.

What will the main issues be
in this election?

It’s already clear that the
NPA, which is dominated by
the Social Credit and Conserva-
tive parties, will portray itself as
the party of free enterprise, of
growth and progress, while de-
scribing its opponents as social-
ists, pinkos and what not.

The real issue, however, will

be services to developers or ser--

vices to people.

NPA policy is to increase
taxes on homes and working
people and to spend city funds
in subsidies, concessions and
services to big corporations, es-
pecially to developers. It is act-
ively pushing projects such as
the convention centre and B.C.
Place (all designed to help the
developers) but doing nothing
about increasing the supply of
affordable housing or improv-
ing bus service or building rapid
transit. —~

COPE policy, on the other
hand, is to lower taxes on homes
while seeing to it that big cor-

porations pay their fair share. —

COPE is dedicated to building
low rental housing that people
can afford and to improving our
transit system. Its main concern
is to make life better for the or-
dinary citizen, by providing
them with the services the city
can supply. |

There’s no doubt in my mind
that COPE will come out of this
election campaign with gains
and that the NPA will come out
with losses.

How big the gains for the re-
form forces will be, depends on
the unity and enthusiasm they
are able to generate in the weeks
ahead.

PEOPLE’S REPS EXCLUDED =

Beer parlor leadership sinks
level of constitutional talks

By FRED WILSON

In response to complaints that
the constitutional talks between
prime minister Trudeau and the 10
premiers are essentially elitist and
beyond the level of the ordinary
Canadian, one cynical columnist
quipped that the 11 would-be
fathers of a new confederation are
very ordinary people. In fact the
aggregate level of statesmanship
represented could easily be achiev-
ed by taking 11 men from any beer
parlor in the country, she said.

As Trudeau and the premiers en-
ter another session to draft a new
constitution this Monday in Ot-
tawa, the smallness of these polli-
ticians, jealously grabbing at juris-
dictions without any concept of so-
cial progress for either of Canada’s
nations, is becoming apparent to
many.

But what is most disconcerting —

isn’t the dismal quality of those in-
volved in drafting a new basis law
for Canada — it is the total exclu-
sion of all people’s representatives
whose most vital interests are being

determined by political deals and.

compromises between the first
The absence of any representa-
tive of Canada’s native peoples, or
of representatives of municipal
governments — both of: which
have repeatedly demanded a seat at
the talks — or the absence of any
representative from the labor
movement, means simply that
none of the concerns of these
groups will be reflected in the de-
bate over a new constitution. —
The rights of Native Peoples and
their demand for self government,
the future of municipal govern-
ment and its demand for a whole
new arrangement and revenue
sharing with the senior govern-
ments, the rights of workers and of
trade unions, or even the issue
which is at the root of the demand
for a new constitution — the na-

f press baron Ken Thomson had little regard for
history when he took the 122-year-old Victoria
Colonist and merged it with the Times, at least the
Colonist workers did. On the night that the two pa-
pers officially merged, they went down to the
cemetery to pay homage to the man who had founded
the paper in 1858, the pioneer democrat Amor De
Cosmos. -

There is a certain irony in that history.

Just as many involved with the Colonist are now
bemoaning the loss of freedom of the press, De
Cosmos, too, was voicing an opinion on the subject
more than a century ago. —

Only four months after the Colonist was founded,
the governor of Vancouver Island, James Douglas,
sought to suppress it. Utilizing an obscure British stat-
ute, he demanded that De Cosmos put up a bond of
800 pounds sterling or cease publication. Although

the paper missed one issue, it was back on the street a.

week later after a public meeting had subscribed the
m to put up the bond.

‘When the issue came out De Cosmos declared that
the people resolved ‘‘to maintain inviolate that palla-
dium of liberty, a free press.”

Later he would condemn Douglas, who was also
the factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company in Victoria,

for “trying to serve two masters’”” — his country... -

and at the same time preserve the grasping interests of
the Hudson’s Bay Company.” : eons
Now, more than a century later, the irony is a little
bitter: the same company, Thomson, owns both the
Colonist — and the Hudson’s Bay. And the old Col
onist has been closed.

Reese « $45 iat jini ps 24")4

public housing, reminded Mrs. Pauline Bartko, an
east end Vancouver pensioner facing a 22 percent rent
increase, of a letter on the matter she received from
Socred human resources minister Grace McCarthy.
-The letter was sent in August to every pensioner
receiving a provincial GAIN supplement. It noted the
$35 federal increase in pensions as of July and said:
“Our government of B.C., as always, was pleased to
pass along this increase to seniors in B.C. . . . [hope
this financial help will increase your enjoyment of life
in our great province and I wish you many happy
years.”
If McCarthy was concerned about “‘the enjoyment
of life’’ for pensioners living in public housing, thatis,
pensioners with low incomes, she would have taken
steps to ensure that provincial bureaucrats would not
grab more than half the increase in a “‘rent adjust-
ment.”

Our story last week contained a few errors. For the
record, laundry costs at Grandview Towers have in-
creased by 15 cents per wash’and by 25 cents per dryer.
Mrs. Bartko, who should pay no more than 25 per-
cent of income for rent, is now paying 27.4 percent, or
$9 per month too much. And we strongly suspect that
there are thousands more also paying too much.

ne of the more worthy causes for our Lower
J Mainland readers to support in the coming week is
a special rally and dance to raise funds for the Nicar-
agua literacy campaign.

The rally in Vancouver to raise runds to support the
campaign is set for Sept. 13 at 8:00 p.m. at the Con-
Lab Hall, 8 Ave. and Ontario. Among the speakers
are Pastor Valle-Garay, Nicaragua’s representative in
Canada, NDP MP Pauline Jewett, and teacher’s
federation president Al Blakey.

tional*rights of French Canada,
just are not on Trudeau’s agenda.

Instead the first ministers will be
talking about an entirely different
set of questions which turn out to
be relatively minor changes to the
present British North America Act.

Trudeau and the premiers will
haggle over questions ranging from
which level of government will
have control over cable television
stations to whether the federal gov-
ernment will have the right to reg-
ulate what it terms ‘‘the free move-
ment of goods and people”’ across
provincial boundaries. Hardly stir-
ring social issues which will inspire
public interest.

INEWS ANALYSIS|

That is not to say that the com-
promises reached next week or in
the coming months won’t be im-
portant to Canadians. It’s just that
the politicians have made it as dif-
ficult as possible for the public to
discern the real significance of what
is happening. :

The fundamental matter at stake
in the debate is the demand by the
western provinces for a decentrali-
zation of certain jurisdictions and
powers from the federal govern-
ment to themselves.

B.C.’s. Socred government: is
among the most strident in its de-
mands. What. does it want? It
wants full control over all resources
and resource development, includ-
ing the sale of resources to whom-
ever it pleases and at whatever price
it pleases. The only exception
would be in matters of interna-
tional trade, that is two-way busi-
ness between Canada and other
countries. The sale of hydro power
to the U.S., for example, would
presumably be B.C.’s own
business. =

The Socreds also want a new
senate, appointed by the provinces,
with veto powers over the federal
government on any issue which
would affect B.C. Similarly, it
wants a new Supreme Court ap-
pointed by the provinces which
would likely rule in favor of the
provinces on any constitutional
matter.

Now, consider if B.C. actually
had these powers. There would
have been no recourse to the fed-
eral government, for example, in
the recent Alcan dispute over pro-
tection of the salmon fishery. But
then, the Socreds also want juris-
diction over fisheries. _

Another obvious result would be
the emasculation of the National
Energy Board and any central con-
trol over energy development. B.C.
Hydro’s $16 billion hydro develop-
ment plan to link B.C.-into a conti-
nentalist energy agreement with the
U.S. would go ahead unimpeded.

Clearly, with the decentraliza-
tion of power would go a further

decentralization of revenues. The —

federal government, which is the
main supporter of social services in
Canada, would have relatively
smaller revenues to support them.
This is already happening to some
extent with huge heritage funds in
Alberta and Saskatchewan, and
huge deficits in-Ottawa.

In short, the Socred constitu-
tional package, very similar to the
Alberta and Manitoba proposals
and generally supported by the
NDP in Saskatchewan, would
emasculate Canada and leaveit asa
series of almost autonomous prov-

* tives at the constitutional table.

investigation people have worked
_in the past. They raid offices, seizé

- joined by other members of The

the Toronto and Edmonton Sun.

inces. Social security and any red
national economic development!
would be undermined, while U.S:
multinational: resource corpo!
tions would find hitherto unknow?
generosity from the provincial go”
ernments. .

The irony of the situation is tha!
the provincial demands to ;
Canada are supported by the Parl
Quebecois government in Queb&
while the legitimate rights of Quel’
in Canada will not be addressed:
Quebec, in fact, has already agreéd
to a preamble to the constitutiol
which denies the existence of 4
French Canadian nation.

The hypocrisy of the Quebé
stand brings to minda statement bY
Jacques Parizeau, PQ finance mil
ister, during the Quebec referei
dum campaign. A CBC commen
tator asked Parizeau what advicé
he had for English Canada aft
Quebec separated. Parizeau replied
that it wasn’t his business, but 10
country could last without a strong
central government.

Our beer parlors very likelj
could provide better leadershi?
than the 11 brokers are likely
give this week in Ottawa.

All the more reason for a I
sounding demand to open up tht
talks and seat people’s represent@

Vigil mourns
loss of jobs

Continued from page 1

In this province, B.C. Federa
tion of Labor secretary treasure!
Dave McIntyre questioned thé
value of a Combines investigation
nad joined he demand for a full
public inquiry.

“*We’ve seen how the Combines

reporters decuments, tapes
films — this time they have made4
quiet announcement that they in
tend to look into the matter. Maybé
they are only thorough and ag
gressive when they are investigating
unions,’’ said MacIntyre.

Because of the massive changes
in the structure of the industry
caused by the corporaté
manoeuvers, only a Parliamentary
inquiry is adequate, he said.

In Vancouver Tuesday, joul-
nalists, pressmen and othef
employees of Pacific Press were

Newspaper Guild from the Lower
Mainland in a noon hour vigil at
the Pacific Press building.

Brian Hill, president of The
Vancouver - New Westminster
Newspaper Guild, organizers of
the demonstration, said the vigil
was to mourn the loss of three
Canadian newspapers.

“Uncertainty hangs over all of
us,’’ Hill said, noting that the Sou-
tham takeover of the Vancouver
Sun, had given the chain control
over both of the city’s daily papers.
“‘They say we have nothing to fear, .
but the events of the past year make
us all very fearful.’

Other speakers at the vigil in-
cluded Tom Fawkes of the B.C.
Federation of. Labor and Jack
Webster. Webster predicted that
the Sun and Province will be merg-
ed into one all day newspaper and
that Southam would then begin
publishing a midnight tabloid to
thwart possible competition from