REFORM PARTY leader Preston Manning takes
questions from reporters after speaking to a rally here

TERRACE STANDARD

~ ELECTION

May 7. His evening rally here was preceded by twa
campaign stops in Saskatchewan.

Manning says natives leaning
toward voting Reform this time

PRESTON MANNING says his party is getting support
from what might be considered an unlikely area for

Reform — natives.

Speaking after a rally here May 7, Manning said Reform
is attracting what he called ‘‘small ‘R’ Reformers’’ among

native voters.

‘These are people who are looking for more democratic
accountability on the part of their own chiefs and coun-

cils,’’ Manning said.

He said stories about corruption and misuse of public
monies by native governments are causing natives to ques-

tion what's going on.

“If you go out and ask what aboriginal people think,
you'll find they'll talk about elitist governments not prop-
‘erly responding and these sorts of things,’’ said Manning.

Manning didn’t provide specifics of the kind of corrup-
tion he talked about, But he did say individual natives are

and tax-supparted native enterprises.
One of the northwest’s most prolific native critics of

aboriginal governments, Mary Dalen of Cedarvale, was

one of those who signed Scott’s nomination papers.
“These are usually not people in official positions, these

are grassroots aboriginal people,’? Manning added. ‘‘That

is a group that we really want to encourage. We don't
think they have a voice and Mike has been one of the few

MPs who's taken the time and the energy to work with

those types of pcopie not just in this riding but in other
parts of the country.’’

Scott favours settling land claims by making cash pay-

governments.

as worried about government spending and activity as are

~ othet Canadians about all other levels of government.
Manning's tatements mirror those over the years of in-_
cumbent Skeena ‘Reform MP Mike Scott. He’s said
numerous times that he gets a constant stream of phone
calls and letters from natives questioning spending ac-
. tivities‘ among the growing number of native governments

polls.

ments and resource allocations ta individuals. That’s much
different from modem treaty negotiations which involve
the federal and provincial governments arranging for
blanket cash payments and resource allocations to native

kakik

This isn’t the first time in Skeena a right-wing leaning
party has said it is attracting native support.

Progressive Conservative candidate Ray Halvorson, run- '
ning in 1988, said prior to polling day he was lining up na-
tive voters. But that support never did materialize at the

Candidates trade shots
at federal election forum

Challengers tag Reform MP Mike Scott as the invisible man

MIKE: SCOTT was painted as public
enemy number by his challengers at
Monday night's all candidates forum,

Both NDP candidate Isaac Sobol and

‘Liberal Rhoda Witherly took direct aim

at Scott several times, criticizing him for

:. poor representation of the riding.

Sobol said it’s time to “get rid of an
MP whose extremist views are turning
neighbours into enemies.”

“People have. said to me they haven’ t
seen their MP for three and a half years,”

“| won't be- another invisible MP. I

won't be like the silent six Liberals,” he -

said, calling on residents to “vote for
hope and not fear.”

Sobol! said Preston Manning had the
right ides in switching Scott to the east
coast fisteries portfolio --as far from
Skeena 3 possible.

“It’s stl not far enough away. We need
him away from Ottawa — period,’ ”

Witheily also took aim at Scott.

“He is unknown outside the riding and

"he has really been invisible within the

riding.” she said.
“You have to ask what your MP has
done for you over the last three and a

— half years.”

More than 200 people attended the for-
um at the R.E.M. Lee Theatre and many
more viewers tuned into watch the live
broadcast on cable television. :

Sobol did not escape criticism, hawev-
er, and found himself explaining his
defence of the. provincial NDP on some
issues,

He contended that he’s running for fed-
eral office, not a provincial seat:

“] have io recognize that a lot of people
feel upset” with’ this. government,” he

said.
Sobol said people expect. the NDP to

’ be responsive tc everyone and they get
_ upset when that proves impossible,

He-was also on the hot -seat when

-Gitksan Mary Dahlen accused him: of

being in conflict- of-interest because he’s
been adopted by.the Nisga’a.

Dahlen said she’s an example: of:

natives Scott says aren’t well represent-

: ed by tribal groups who have tured to

him for support. a
‘ “"Werre heard now by Mike: Scott, said
Dahlen, who. signed Scott’ 8 ‘nomination

“papers. ”

We're left out of the aystem.* she:
said, “With land claim settlements we at |

be refugees in our own country.”

She demanded to knaw how Sobol will
be able to campaign among the Gitksan
and Gitanyow after being adopted by the
Nisga’a.

“It sounds like you'll be the MP for the
Nisga’a,” she said.

Sobol said he'd act for everyone in the
region,

“I'm nol going to represent just the
Nisga’a.” Sobol said. “Whether I agree
with you or disagree with you, 11] sit
down, talk and listen to your concems.'

Witherly was pressed to explain what
advantage the six ridings in B.C. that
have Liberal MPs have seen, |

She said those MPs have been able to
secure extras for their riding, pointing to
the Triumf particle accelerator in
Vancouver thal got more money.

Scott rebutied. however, saying the

Liberals have gagged backbenchers who -

were critical of policies like the GST and
gun control.

“There's absolutely no way you can
convince anyone that having. a Liberal
backbencher can be-an advantage,” he
said.

Witherly maintained residents will get
better representation inside government
than outside of it,

“They're are a lot of people up here
whose. parties are running lo be second.”
she said.

Scott also defended his absence from
the Nisga’a agreement in principle sign-
ing a year ago in Aiyansh. ,

‘He-said he did not receive an official
invitation and felt it would not be appro-
printe to attend,

A questioner said he was invited, but
Scott denied it.

“That is a lie. sir” he said, “I felt the
lack of an invitation was an indication
my presence was really not wanted.”

Christian Heritage Party candidate Rod
Freeman defended comments he made at
Friday's forum in Prince Rupert. where
he referred to homosexuality as the “cul.
ture of death. a

"He said he’s not. opposed to homosex-

vals as individuals, But Freeman said the -

homosexual lifestyle: is “unhealthy,
‘innatural and immoral” and linked it to
the spread of AIDS. ‘‘Are we going to
tell them the truth or let themdie?”
Sobol rebutted, denouncing Freeman's

"Statement that most new HIV infections

are among homosexual young men.

Sobol. a medical doctor, said the prea-
test inerease in B.C. is in intravenous
drug users, adding that in Canada there
is no increase in HIV infection among
the gay community.

Freeman also argued for a tax credit to
encourage stay-at-home parents to be
with their children instead of working.

He estimates. one-to two million par-
ents would choose to stay home under
that option, freeing up: jobs for other

unemployed workers.

“Tt yaally'overal] will not be an expen-
sive measure,” he said, adding the
Christian Heritage: Party favours that

_Option over slate-subsidized daycare,

He-also said the party would mave to
legislate abortion; enshrine the rights of
the: fetus,” and bring in capital
punishment.

Progressive Conservative candidate
Kent Glowinski, who at-age 18 is the
youngest Tory candidate in the country,

_ surprised thé crowd with a debating style ”

as strong as anyone else on stage.

He spoke out eloquéntly on issues of
native land clainis,. gun control and
health care, where he took Liberals to
tusk for health cure downloading.
“*They've told: people who need sur-
gery wait until the next federal election
and then we'll give you your surgery —

‘and that is cynical.”

On native issues and the Reform asser-
tion: that everyone should be equal.
Glowinski argued natives have started
out unequal. ;

“Yes, we should have equality of
opportunity, but what about equality of
situdtion? If we just: zo along with the
stalus qua like the Reform Party wants,
we're going backwards in lime.”

He said Reform’s view of the i issue is
overly simplistic.

“Tr ignores: past injustices on ‘these
issues. There are cycles of abuse and
cycles of dependency on the government
thal have to be broken.” |

- Questioned: about cuts to the CBC,
Liberal: candidate ‘Witherly said she
strongly. supports the national ‘broad-
caster, but would-not say that she would
vote against a Liberal budget that impos-
es further cuts to the Crown corporation.

The ‘forum: was” sponsored: by. the |

Terrace Standard.:Terrace Toastmasters,
and the Chamber of Commerce.

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 14, 1997 - A5

‘97

-ANDIDATE PROFILES _

Mike Scott says he’s
a voice and a target

FOUR YEARS of being portrayed as a
country bumpkin, an enemy of native
people, and a poor representative of the
Tiding hasn’t been casy on Skeena’s
Reform MP.

Why would he want to do it again?

Mike Scott pauses a long time before
answering. ‘‘That’s a very good ques-
tion,’” he says,

The incumbent MP admits he’s been
troubled by the name calling of his op-
ponents and the national media’s depic-
tion of Reform.

“They view me as a fellow from Fen-
cepost B.C., or Fishdock B.C., who really
is not wise to the ways of the world, who
is not an intellectual sort of person
capable of articulating positions or being
able to represent constituents,’’ he said,
“That reverberated through ¢vcry ques-
tion they asked me.”

Scott says the attacks against him — in
particular on the issue of native land
claims — are aimed at muzziing people
like him.

And he says that’s his main reason for
running again — to represent the many
people in the riding who he says are
afraid to speak out.

‘They feel their families might suffer,
their businesses might suffer, and they
don’t want to put themselves in the line of
fire.”’

In many ways, Scott says he feels he is
both a designated voice and a designated
larget

Scott says he doesn’t find that role en-
joyable or rewarding, but he says some-
one has to do it.

It wasn’t always this way for the 43-
year-old MP.

He was unknown and unpolitical, run-
ning a family construction business back
in the days when good jobs were plenti-
ful,

That prosperity crumbled, along with |
the Scott family business, in the recession |

of the early 1980s and Scott began think-
ing about polities.

Scott ran twice unsuccessfully for
Kilimat council before becoming in-
volved in the Chamber of Commerce,

It was there as the chamber president
that he got his taste of the limelight when
work on Alcan’s Kemano Completion
Project was halted.

Then Preston Manning came to a town
hall meeting in Kitimat, and Scott — who

previously
had voted
both Liberal
and Conser-
vative _
found his
political
home.

Concern
about the
country’s eco-
nomic health
and key is-
sues of the
riding
prompted him
to mn for
Reform in
1993, By the
end of the
campaign he
was elected
with a 4,500-
vote margin Mike Scott
over Liberal Rhoda Witherly.

When Scott headed to Ottawa late in
1993, it was with a vow to lead a monk-
like existance out of the gravy train of Ot-
tawa politics and in line wilh Reform’s
austere platform.

Scott avoided the ‘‘Ottawa disease”’.
He never bought a house there, instead
sharing an apartment with two othcr MPs.
Now he’s back living at the Travelodge
hotel, where he started life in Ottawa.

Along with most other Reform MPs,
Scott opted out of the MPs’ pension plan.
He’ll never draw a federally subsidized
pension.

He doesn’t fly business class, he’s never
used the House of Commons barber shop,
liquor store, gymnasium or laundry. And
he says the only times he’s gone to the
Parliamentary restaurant bave been at the
request of constituents who were Visiting
Ottawa, ;

Living in the farthest comer of the
country, in one of its largest ridings is
also a challenge, he says.

It means longer plane flights, more time
to cover the riding, and less free time.

“It’s not a particularly healthy life-
style,’” he says.

In Scott's time off, he sings, plays gui-
tar and hunts and fishes. Scott counts
among his heroes Thomas Jefferson and
Tom Paine. Among contemporaries, he
greatly admires Margaret Thatcher.

Isaac Sobol has toned
things down this time

LAST ELECTION he got attention with
rap songs and Kim Campbell-like bare
shoulder poses, This time NDP candidate
Isaac Sobol, 52, has toned-down.

Sobol ran for the now-defunct National
Party in 1993, finishing fourth behind the
NDP, but ahead of the Conservatives.

It was the first time he’d ever run for
federal office, and the first time Sobol
had ever voted in a federal election. He
arrived in New Aiyansh to work as a doc-
tor at the health centre there in 1989.

“Last time I was coming out of
nowhere,’’ said Sobol, ‘‘All the ads,
things in the paper, were generated by
me. I used to work in advertising and I
figured if I was totally unknown, I'd bet-
ter take some risks,”’

Sobol is playing it fairly straight so far,
although he’s saying he won’t be a
“canned candidate.’

He converted to Buddhism in 1973 and,
if elected, will probably be the first
Buddhist MP. But he says religion
shouldn’t be an issue for voters. ‘If you
look ‘at what other religions are really
trying to say, they’re just expressions of
compassion and loving Kindness."”

Sobol grew up in New Jersey, and grad-
uated with a biology degree in 1966, He’s
worked writing advertising copy, was a
rock and roll band manager, a recording
studio office manager, wild animal
caretaker and parks ranger.

His jobs took him all over North Amcr-
ica and Europe, and he frequently lived
below the poverty line, He was doing sea-
sonal work in a national park near Lake
Superior when a friend suggested he enter
medical school.

Sobol’s goal was to ‘work in an ethical
job in a rural area,'’ and medicine fit. His
father and his brother are both doctors as
weil. So in 1981, at the age of 37, he en-
tered Queen’s University medical school
in Ontario,

“It was pretty scary going back to
school at that age,’? he admits. He fin-
ished specialty training in family medi-
cine in 1988 and moved to New Aiyansh

the next year.
Sobol took a
leave fom
the medical
centre last
year and left
for UBC to do
a masters in
community
medicine.
He’s almost
finished.
Soboal
doesn’t own a
home, living
with his wife,
Yeshe, in a
house = sup-
plied by the
health centre
in New Aiyansh.

Isaac Sobol
Once a Nisga’a treaty is finalized, Sobol
hopes to build a home in the Nass. In 1994
he was adopted into the Nisga’a wolf clan
by Jacob Nyce. Nyce is head of the wolf
tribe in Gitwinksilkw. Sobol’s Nisga'a

name is Liit'kw, which means
light.”’

Sobol’s particularly interested in develap-
ment projects in Nepal and Tibet. When
asked who his heroes arc, Sobol first names
his meditation teacher, Dr. Akong Tulku
Rinposhe, who he met in 1971. “‘He lives
his live totally in service to other people. A
living example of compassion in action,’’

In trying to follow that example Sobol
donates 30 per cent of his after-tax income
to charity. ‘What's the purpose of life? If
you've gat a roof, food and clothing, what
more do you want,’’ he asks.

“People iend to look at transient
pleasures or interests. I want to live a life
that has meaning or purpose.’’

That translates to his political goals which
he says are not mainstream political dogma.

“I think an MP has to represent every
part of the constituency, including plants
and creatures,’’ says Sobol. “If you just
limit your concem to people that’s a small-
er pleture of what Skeens really is.’

‘ray of