PAGE il santas Our WIEWS. Missed with both barrels Simon Birch EDITOR I don't often get sufficiently agitated to respond to lettérs from our readers. I believe a newspaper should have a policy, as The News does, prohibiting the paper from always having the last word. After all, our readers are entitled to their opinions too. The occasional exception I make is when I believe a reader is blatantly wrong in his or her criticism of something we've done or if the criticism exceeds the bounds of fairness. In the case of Terry Dalton’s letter on the opposite page, he’s off the mark badly with both barrels. First things first. The News is NOT “advancing Chris (D’Arcy) as its candidate in the next provincial election.” In fact, I have not even broached jer subject with publisher Dave McCullough of whether or not we will in fact endorse a candidate in the election. The only discussions we’ve had at The News about Mr. D’Arcy is a smattering of speculation whether he'll run or not. But the fact is, until voters say otherwise, Mr. D’ "Arcy is still the duly d MLA for Rossland-Trail, not Mr. Conroy and not Mr. Siemens, and as suth his on of public interest such as the proposed Castlegar-Robson ran abort) SV * ' D’Arcy keeps "em guessing @ Harcourt-bashing creates doubt MLA will go quietly without fight Pinch me, I must be Did Rossland-Trail MLA Chris D’Arcy really call NDP leader Mike Harcourt ” for his stand Comments bridge, have a place in this Mr. D’Arcy doesn’t even write a regular column as many MLAs do; I could probably count the number of opinion pieces he’s written for The News over the last couple of years on one hand, not nearly enough ink to, ahem, float a ferry. Secondly, we polled 127 y people at random from the on Cominco’s taxes and then imply that the former mayor of Vancouver is closed-minded about from the Crossroads was just that: talk. Even when D'Arcy told a recent Shaw” Cable program that “every day's a new day,” I assumed he was being a politician and taking care not to close any doors for himself. But after his Harcourt-bashing, I’m not so sure. D’Arcy has never been one of those who’s said: “My party, right or wrong.” And over the years that has been one of the sore whether “Trail lived or died?” (see Viewpoint, page A4, Sept. 4) points with local and provincial NDPers alike (and may ex 14, 1901 oe D’Arcy is making a run at my job I ist or it’s the first salvo in his phone Trail, Rossland, Warfield, Salmo a Ymir. We did not know them and as their responses to the last question showed, they bid for re-election — this time as an independent. Talk about D’Arcy running as an d F) were almost equally spilt b New *Democrat and Socred supporters in the last election. Thirdly, I can’t comprehend how an bya i paper to please see BIRCH page A7 tt has been going on all summer. (I’ve had several people — mostly those why, even though he’s the longest continually serving MLA in the B.C. Legislature, he is not one of the party heavyweights). D’Arcy is a middle-of-the- road New Democrat and a fiscal conservative who would fit snugly into the folds of the Liberal Party. I've wondered if who like D’Arcy but particularly enamored with the NDP — suggest he should try to retain the seat he’s held for 19 years.) I've always maintained it @ For the first time Bill Vander Zalm looked like a beaten man; denies he ever breached the public trust VICTORIA — Shortly after At- torney Lenere! Russ ‘Fraser rss apress Bill venker Zalm had been page wee eee ee from the Hubert BEYER What's even sadder is that Van- der Zalm has no idea, not even inter soperat rm hin due as an elected official. One of my readers, who calls oc- to take issue with what No, sir, lam not. I had no desire to see Vander Zalm dragged into former premier Serial Cait sucsine sonny = the Parliament court. [have never spoken ill of the man, In fact, I liked him very haven't been the Liberals had been a viable party in B.C. (translation: electable) would D'Arcy have jumped ship years ago? please see NORMAN page A7 Sad day when former premier faces charges system and from his point of view, I suppose, those doubts are quite well founded. First, consider that he doesn't understand to this day what was wrong with accepting $20,000 from Tan Yu. The way he sees it, he was selling “the family home business.” Sos pareve ben suteftine 2 please see BEYER page A7 Letters to THE EDITOR Poll a ‘blunder’ eens Soe smeaions of comments regarding the poll involving Chris D’Arcy and Ed Conroy. rc a epee important to recognize that Chris and Ed have already been ved in an el It was for the nomination for the right to lead the Ri candidate in the next provincial general election. The results of the poll lead me to think that the people polled likely included only the staff of the Castlegar News, and perhaps members of Chris’ immediate family. It is clear that this polling idea was a historic blunder on the part of the Castlegar News. It is, of course, unprecedented Trail New Democrats into the next provincial general election. Chris had exactly the same opportunities as Ed did to win the NDP nomination. It could be argued that Chris in fact had greater opportunities to win than Ed did. Chiis had been our MLA for 18 years. Nevertheless, Ed defeated Chris for the nomination by a margin of two to one. Had Ed lost, it was his stated intention to support Chris and work as hard as he possibly could for Chris's re-election. It seems a shame that Chris is not prepared to do the same forEd. _ Ed's overwhelming support in the NDP ‘nomination makes it seem difficult, if not impossible, to accept the findings, of the Castlegar News poll. In discussing the polls with Ed’s supporters, their families and friends, I did not find one who had been contacted by the pollsters. As has been extremely obvious to all its readers for several weeks, the Castlegar News is advancing Chris as its in the "s 44-year history. This being the case, it is obvious that the blunder arose as a result of certain misconceptions held by the new management. B everyone is entitled to at least one mistake, I am issuing a personal plea to all of the fealars. of the Castlegar News not to cancel their Castlegar News subscriptions. Mind you, if all the readers were to write the paper, and advise it, that in order to make amends, the Sv imact News should offer Ed free advertising for the whole of the next provincial general election campaign, I do not think such requests would be out of order. I wish to close, if I may, with a brief comment about the Social Credit poll referred to in the same issue of the paper. It is a matter of historic record that the Social Credit polls showed its Social Credit candidates i in all of the a t provincial byel: Social Credit candidate in the Social Credit poll set out in the issue of the paper referred to throughout it this letter. It is also a matter of historic “ record that the Social Credit party was defeated by Ed’s party in all eight of those by- elections. I feel that the Social Credit party will not do at all well in the 1991 p from page A6 What D’Arcy said, then, about Harcourt and his fellow New Democrats isn’t exactly new, nor comes as a surprise (though perhaps it has never been quite this harsh). What makes it different this time is the timing: it comes on the eve of an election call and amid speculation about D’Arcy’s own lans. election. I am encouraging my Social Credit friends to retain all the Social Credit memorabilia from the 1991 campaign in the event that the Social Credit party is unable to field any candidates in the following British Columbia general election. Terry Dalton Castlegar Not the same paper Regarding your heading on the bottom of the front page of the Sept. 7 issue of The News. I think it’s a little misleading as this is not the paper I’ve come home to for 44 years. When I first saw the paper from 10 feet away I wondered what it was. Why fold a tab in half laterally? T’m sure you have a good reason but I think it detracts a lot from the general image of the paper. The City of Castlegar is growing while the good old have a much greater level ae support than that given the News is RP. : Sweeney plans. “Socreds and New Democrats alike need to wake up and smell the coffee,” D'Arcy wrote. Sounds like someone who is trying to stake out the middle ground, doesn’t it? Let’s assume for now that Dd is thinking of rw Does oe stand any chance of Now I like Chris D’Arcy. I consider him a friend. He’s a nige guy with a quick smile. But I think we'll see the Vancouver Canucks win the Stanley Cup before we see him win as an independent. For one thing, winning ithout the fi tae ie of an established party is tough these days. D’: to have been fundraising for some time in order to try to compete with the other two established candidates. Secondly, winning without the support of party workers is next to impossible. Ask Audrey Moore. She was arguably she Beyer continued from page Files hota eo wha? about the of conviction. Compared All in all, it’s a very sad end to what was otherwise likelihood with other Criminal Code ch the precedents aren't that bounti- ful. So, what’s wrong with going ahead anyway, and if the charges don’t stick, why then the man’s name is Is it really? The public doesn't care much for the finer points of the law and, in keeping with the old saying, where there's smoke, there's fire, charged, but that doesn’t mean I have to like the fact that he was charged. On the contrary, I don’t like it one bit. Fraser told reporters that he won't intervene in this case, a right he has under the Crown Counsel Act, which states that the attorney general can intervene that, of course, he had the nig as premier to impose his moral stan- dards on the public. If not, the of- fice might as well go to the Mafia. That statement said it all. He never understood that the premier could not rule by decree, that he must scrupulously follow the stan- dards laid down by our system of parliamentary democracy. And no amount of caplaining on could con- vince him otherwise. He just didn’t know any better. But if it be true that ignorance is no excuse before the law, then at least let it be a mitigating circum- stance, Surely a man who finds himself in trouble because he had no idea what he was doing was wrong can- not be judged as severely as some- one who deliberately runs afoul of the law. One of my colleagues suggest- ed jokingly that I might make a good character witness for Vander Zalm, and perhaps, that’s not as funny as it sounds. If I can help him, I'm available. “ continued from page A6 take the pulse of its provincial riding in light of the much- talked about situation surrounding Mr. D’Arcy could be considered an “historic blunder.” It certainly didn’t arise as a result of misconceptions by the new management of The News. In fact, it was my idea. (And by the way, former Publisher Burt Cc bell. di while we were conducting x poll and thought it was a great idea.) Lastly, we made it clear, I thought, that our poll should not be considered scientifically accurate, and we also included results from a Social Credit- commissioned poll taken in years what she took on D'Arcy in 1986. But her campaign got off to a sluggish start and was hindered all the way along by party bickering. She was capable, but she didn’t have the party workers to support her. The NDP has always had strong support from party workers during elections: those essential people who staff telephones, pound the pavement and ring doorbells. When Ed Conroy snatched the NDP candidacy from D’Arcy last year, he did it by signing up hundreds of new members. Presumably, many of those people will be out on the streets working for him in an election, along with former D'Arcy supporters who have no intention of switching allegiances. : The logistics of mounting an are staggering; trying to mount a successful campaign at the last’ minute is next to impossible. Will D’Arcy run as an independent? jope not. While he should feel honored to be considered as a possible candidate, he should also ber that he’s served August. Had the NDP and to share the data with our readers, we'd have gladly those results as well. for nearly two decades. Like an aging professional sports player I hope he has the good sense to know when it’s time to get out.