A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 5, 1996 "TERRACE STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C, « V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 ¢ FAX! (604) 638-8432 E-MAIL: terrace. standard@sasquat.com MODEM: (604) 638-7247 Dance class THERE’S AN old expression politicians use: ‘You dance with the one that brought you.’’ That about sums up the positions British Columbians find themselves in following the May 28 provincial election. Enough people voted for the New Democratic Party in the right number of places for it to elect enough Members of the Legislative Assembly to achieve, albeit by the slimmest of margins, a ma- jority government. To be sure, more people voted across the pro- vince for the provincial Liberal party. But our governing system doesn’t work by the mass pop- ular vote. It gives victories on the most votes gathered riding by riding. It’s a system that’s worked well up until now and will continue to do so, A jook at the results in Skeena indicates that Helmut Giesbrecht’s re-election was very much a triumph of organization as it was a validation of the NDP platform. Mr. Giesbrecht’s people simply outworked their opponents. That’s no more evident than in the native villages where Giesbrecht received overwhelming support. Those votes provided the edge he needed over his closest contender, Liberal Rick Wozney, to give him the victory. The good news for the north in this election is that Premier Glen Clark knows he needed every one of the northern seats for his re-election. Northern NDP Members of the Legislative As- sembly will now have more clout than ever be- fore in Mr. Clark’s new government. And this should translate into more recognition coming to the north for the role it plays in provincial matters. Mr. Clark doesn’t have a comfortable cushion of representation in the lower mainland to place the north on the back- burner. This brings us to land claims, an issue that bare- ly registered a blip on the province-wide election Richter scale. The provincial Liberal party was content to park the question of land claims in amongst its overall strategy of putting forth policies and questioning what the NDP has done. Had the Liberal party stressed the issue more strongly in the north, last week’s results may have been much different. The Reform party, on the other hand, chose to make land claims a central part of its message. Northerners responded by giving the Reform party its highest voter percentage in the province. It’s something that can’t be ignored by Mr. Clark. So the combination of northern members of the NDP caucus playing a key role in the new government and that Reform party vote should work well for us. More than ever, the north will have a say in how land claims — the massive re-engineering of the province’s economic and social structure — play out in the next four years of this new NDP government. Yet this depends upon northerners pressing their questions about land claims with the north- ern MLAs. Our message to Mr. Clark should be simple and direct — dance classes start immedi- ately. | a ae PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link . ADVERTISING MANAGER: Rick Passmore PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Dave Taylor COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf OFFICE MANAGER: Laurie Ritter ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janet Viveitos ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Emma Law, Kelly Jean TYPESETTING: Sylvana Broman DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunette MEMBER OF B.C. PRESS COUNCIL Serving the Tenaca and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Press (1969) Lid. at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G SR2. : Storles; phatagraphs, titustrations, dasigns and typestyles in the Terrace Slandard ava the property of the owen holdars, including Cariboo Press {1869} Lid., Its illustration rapra services and advertising Reproduction inwhole orin part, wilhaut writtan permission, |s specifically prohibited, Authorized a8 second-class mal pending the Post Office Cepartment, for payment of postage in cash, Special thanks to all our contributers and correspondents for their time and talents V HELP ME DOC. IKEEP HAVING THESE EMBARRASSING LAUGHING SPELLS... |SUGGEST, A 50 MILLION BUCKS. CONSULTATION FEE WOULD PUT A STOP 10 THAT: . .. o Premier readies for a scrap VICTORIA — Premier Glen Clark a consensus builder? Not on your life. The guy loves political trench warfare. Con- sensus is for sissies. That’s why I don’t take seriously Clark’s attempts to present himself to British Columbians as a mild- mannered politician, ready to bring his conciliatory wisdom to the national stage. And I take even less serious- ly his friendly remarks about two of his fellow premiers, Al- berta’s Ralph Klein and Ontario’s Mike Harris, whom he will face ata first ministers’ conference in June, “The public wants change. I represent change. And thal’s why we won. So there are is- sues that Ralph Klein pursues, populist issues of change which [ am very comfortable with, and which I am very pleased to work with them on if it helps the country,’ the premier said the day afler the NDP won a second mandate at the polls, Is this the same premier who equaled Klein and Harris with everything dark and desiruc- live in this country during the election campaign? Is this the same man who referred to Klein’s and Harris’ policies as slash-and-burn tactics? FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER Even allowing for campaign rhetoric, it is safe to say that Clark despises everything Klein and Harris stand for. So, even if he plans to tread softly as he enters the national scene, fortified by his first own mandate, he will have great difficulty working with these two premiers. Unlike his predecessor, Mike Harcourt, who considered con- sensus an essential ingredient of governing, Clark loves con- frontation. And that’s what he will bring to inter-provincial relations, as well as British Columbia’s dealings with Ot- tawa, Clark will take a page out of W.A.C. Bennett’s book and bash Ottawa with a ferocity we haven't seen since the Old Man staked election after elec- tion on it And anyone who thinks Clark will play diplomat and consensus seeker in the face of continued federal cutbacks to the tune of billions of dollars Should think again. And that includes Clark. Back here at home, Clark will probably not be quite as confrontalional. Slim victories necessitate a certain amount a humility, and I’m inclined to take a little more seriously his offer to be less partisan and work with the opposition. The question is: will the op- position work with him? I think not. The Liberals smart too much from having been defeated, even though they got more votes. : Already this anomaly, which is possible wader our system because of how the votes are distributed, has been labelled a *‘moral victory’’ for Campbell. And Liberal Gary Farrell- Collins, every bit as confronta- tional as the premier, is predicting that this government won’ tlast four years. We may, therefore, well sce a somewhat humbled NDP, trying to forge betier relations with the opposition, only to be rebuffed. In the premier’s immediate future — and ours — is the budget. Introduced the day Clark called the election, the budget still needs approval by the legislature, That approval won'l be given without a big fight from the opposilion. And although even the stim- mest of majorities in the legis- lature guarantees that — the govemment will eventually push anything through, avastly Strengthened official opposi- tion will be in a much better position to hold the govern- ment to account Speaking of the budget, I notice that the premier wants some ‘‘wriggling room”? in the budget. What be means is that the budget he will bring back won'l be quite the same as the one his defeated finance minis- ter, Elizabeth “Cull, “brouighit down as an election campaign opencr. , That’s exactly what I warned of at the time: a budget isn’t a budget until it’s approved. Un- til the legislature has debated and approved every single item, a budget is littl more than a promissory note, I’m just dying to find out just how much wriggling room the premier will claim. Beyer can be reached at Tel: 920-9300; Fax; 485-6783; E- mail: hubert@coolcom.com These IF FAMILY traits often skip a generation, our family is proof, My mother had a green thumb, more accurately a green index finger. She could poke a hole in dirt, tamp in a shoot, and soon a robust stem would sprout leaves. As a farmer after her father dicd, Mom fought drought, frost and prairie fires, weeds, fungi and grasshoppers. She never gave up trying to grow a crop, gar- den, and hedges. 1 know my limitations. Though I pay attention to watering and light instructions, potted plants family give me soon curl, droop, and wither. Outdoors I enjoy mowing parallel rows, no doubt a throwback to my teen summers driving a tractor to rake mowed brome or riding the binder sheaves, My daughter shares Mom’s knack and determination. In her mind’s eye she sees her garden while it bundled. resembling Jennie FIND THE TRAIL UNDER FRESH SNOW ??! SKoOK! You CAN" genes are very green THROUGH BiFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI Butchart’s. And despite relent- less, formidable opposition, she’s sticking to her dream, - Daily she batiles to outwit two dogs who massage their gums munching on six dollar peony roots, yank up sprice trees and drag them backwards across the yard, and tunnel un- der rose bushes in pursuit of phantom rabbits. For a change of pace, they plod on the plastic covering the cold frame. The cat exercises by leaping Karen Kain style through the zinnias, digs among the daf- fodils tesling soil percolation, or paces Wilh a frown pucker- ing her forehead until my daughter declares the pea patch cultivated and stows the hoe, Pets aren’t the only threats to her fantasy garden. Internal rot Jed to leveling of four gigantic weeping willows, and this spring frost has been a constant tisk. Last fall, in a fit of boulevard beautification, the hydro-high alder outside the front fence was chipped into mulch. Bluejays and juncoes lost their fence feeder pit stop. Hum- mingbirds no longer have a branch to perch on nor a limb to hang a feeder from. While the loss of trees lets in more sunlight, bird activity is reduced, and anyone who en- joys birds knows how much colour they bring to the garden scene. When flower beds were GOT To FEEL IT, WITH YouR FEET. WATCH A REAL EXPERTS! T CONGRATULATIONS! You MADE IT TWO STEPS J. showiest last summer, the entire lawn had to be torn up to install a new septic ficld. Afterward there were rocks to haul away, topsoil to level, and grass seed to cast. Gradually green is spreading over the reddish-tan slope. A season of blooms was lost and the border fences encir- cling the flower beds failed ta buoy the back hoc. She has since built higher, stronger, more perfect fences to protect the struggling greenery from Marauders animal and mechan- ical. Did she swear? Did she cry? © Did she throw up her hands in despair? Not this homesteader's granddaughter. She backed her car up to the nearest nursery, loaded the trunk with sce- dlings, and set to work trowel in band to replant. If determination is enough to make a dream come true, in ten years she'll have her Kew Gar- dens.