Saturday, March 14, 1992 @ q 5 PAGE InNvon = OurViEWS Adrian RAESIDE Postal purgatory anada Post is pulling no punches by pulling up stakes in its mad-dash towards profitability. The Crown corporation which relied so heavily on our tax dollars when times were tough is slapping us in the face. “During the 1980s, Canada Post couldn’t afford a stamp, let alone the tongue to lick it with. The corporation asked and received mountains of money as it floated safely through that recessionary decade. Now, healthy and vibrant in the 1990s, this money-grubbing monopoly has kissed off personalized service for the almighty buck. Privatization — that mean-nothing catch-phrase left over from the ‘Me’ generation — has Canada Post wrongly thinking that it can do more with less. News that Canada Post may be exiling us to postal purgatory by closing sorting operations in the Kootenays shouldn’t come as a surprise. One needs only to look at the government that is handing Canada Post its marching orders. This is the same government that arbitrarily introduced the not-so-Free Trade Accord and the ever-popular GST. There is a strange kind of irony at work in Canada. Our federal government is hell-bent on uniting this nation with a constitution, yet it is willing to break us apart by boarding up the very things that represent Canada. ese TeRaBiNeT aives iTseF 2 Pa ROIS. aa \Y AWN y \ It was a backyard soccer CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS 1ES8.GENEROS IY? becoming more aware of game like any other in Castlegar involving eight- year-olds: chaotic. There were two teams. In this case the boys were on one side and the girls on the other. The boys kept repeating, “Boys are better than girls. Way better.” And they’d take a ferocious kick at the ball. It was an odd feeling to see boys of that age so confident in the fact they were superior to girls. They Ron NORMAN Comments from the Crossroads the challenges they face in the world just because they are female. And let me tell you, its enlightening. One of the biggest challenges is the way women are portrayed — on television, in advertisements,.in school textbooks. You name it. It carries over into _| everyday life. For instance, there is the way didn’t just say it; they KNEW it in their every fibre. I wonder if I was like that at their age. Probably. It was odder still because last Sunday was International Women’s Day. Its not the kind of day we give even a passing nod to around our house, despite the fact the females outnumber the males three to one. It comes and goes like all those other “days” for special interest groups. But as my two daughters grow older I am we praise girls for the way they look. Do we ever comment on _ boys’ appearance? Not very often. More likely we praise boys for their accomplishments, not their hairstyle. A classic example of how we value the way girls look is the beauty pageant. I spotted a small news item a few weeks back that said there is more interest than ever in the Miss Castlegar pageant. . Please see NORMAN page 6 Strecf TALK Karrie Parent™ Nelson “No, I don’t think so.” — Question: Is the provincial government paying enough attention to education? Andrea Nethercote Castlegar “No, the facilities we have are not adequate to learn in.” Greg Roberts Castlegar Preston Zeeben Nelson Donna Freeman Castlegar “No, I think they’re “No, they should put neglecting it a bit.” more emphasis on leisure.” “Education is the future, they should pay more attention to it.” saa o or age an Ul ee ee A ag re EE @ Saturday, March 14, 1992 " she News OtherVIEW Please address all letters to: Letters to the Castlegar, B.C. V1N 3H4 or deliver them to 197 Columbia Ave. Letters. should be typewritten, double-spaced and not longer than 300 words. Letters MUST be signed and include the writer's first and last names, address anda telephone number at which the writer can be reached between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The writer's name and city or town of residence only will be published. Only in exceptional cases will letters be published anonymously. Even in those cases, the name, address and phone number of the writer MUST be disclosed to the editor. The News reserves the right to edit letters for ~ brevity, clarity, legality, grammar and taste. Letters toWHE EDITOR. KPLUS concerned with TFL An Open Letter to Mr. Paul Ramsey. Re: proposed transfer of a portion of Tree Farm Licence No. 23, from Westar Timber to Pope and Talbot Ltd. The Kootenay Planned Land Use Society is an organization of citizens whose objective is to provide meaningful public input on resource use decisions in the Southeastern part of British Columbia. KPlus is concerned about the proposed transfer of TFL No. 23 with the purchase of the Westar mill in Castlegar. It is not the purpose of this letter to discuss the many problems associated with forest tenures being held in the form of Tree Farm Licences. We are confident the government will review the Tree Farm License tenure system and perhaps in the future, alleviate the concerns that have been expressed with respect to them. Our specific concerns with the transfer of TFL No. 23 are: e As in all cases of tree farm licence transfers, the government will have the opportunity to decrease the annual allowable cut by five per cent free of cost to taxpayers. In view of the large cost to taxpayers for the return of their lands (such as the South Morsby, Doman Industries deal) any opportunity to return control of the land to the taxpayers should be taken advantage of. KPlus strongly advocates the return of this five per cent to the public for whatever present or future uses they seem fit, be it wilderness, recreation or for timber sales to provide employment to local logging contractors. Any decisions made with respect to the use of this five per cent should be fully open to public input and review. ¢ The citizens of Castlegar, Nakusp and other areas adjacent to and in Tree Farm Licence No. 23 are faced with the possibility of having the forests they work in controlled by a distant sawmill. The citizens of these areas deserve the benefit of employment from these forests. KPlus believes the purchaser should retain and enhance employment opportunities for local residents for both the short and the long term. Employment retention should be clearly spelled out in the TFL contract with the purchaser. Pope and Talbot operates sawmills in Midway and Grand Forks and there is concern that logs from the TFL may end up being processed in those mills. In the view of. KPlus it would not be appropriate for the mill in Castlegar to be closed and the trees of TFL No. 23 to be taken to mills elsewhere. e KPlus hopes that the government will require that annual harvesting plans in TFLs be submitted not only to the Ministry of Forests, but also to full public review with meaningful legislated public input. Unfortunately notice of the hearings did not reach KPlus in time to provide an oral submission but we hope that you will feel free to contact us for further clarification of our position. R.L. Hutton, BSc., PhD., MD. President Kootenay Planned Land Use Society Nelson Bill boggles the mind An open letter to Premier Mike Harcourt: I have just paid my monthly electricity bill from West Kootenay Power. By being on their budget payment plan I was thoroughly astonished, that in this day and age of cutbacks and very limited wage ence my bill increased from $50 to 60. This sir, translates into a 20 per cent increase that I have to pay. Equally astonishing is the fact that this monopoly can charge whatever they please, before it is approved by the B.C. Utilities Commission. ; If all of us could do this, how long would anything last? This is done by a company that enjoys a substantial profit every year. This letter, Premier Harcourt, is a direct challenge to you. Your party has always professed to stand for the ordinary working people. Therefore, on this issue you should not sit on the fence but you should intervene in the B.C. Utilities Commission hearings directly, and bring this foreign-owned monopoly to economic reality. It is time to prove to the people of this province that the NDP government that we elected is not just another puppet regime of foreign owned corporations. Before making your final decision on this challenge Premier Harcourt, please take notice that voters memories are constantly . getting longer and better. Bill Strilaeff Castlegar Calling Beta Sigma Phi We are trying to contact former Trail Beta Sigma Phi members to attent our 50th Anniversary Reunion Tea to be held in Trail on April 11. Any assistance you can give us would be appreciated. For more information, please contact: eLorraine Webber 364-1347 Bea Young 368-6813. Bea Young Beta Sigma Phi 50th Anniversary Committee Trail Michaelangelo strikes News I suspect the Michaelangelo virus must have sneaked into your computer last Friday. My letter to the editor as it was printed in the March 7th publication contained a small error. The cheque which I sent the new Democrats was for $1,000, not $10,000! Still, considering all the letters I’ve submitted, The News is doing a great job. Keep up the coverage of local issues — we’ll make our elected governments accountable yet! George Stein Robson Normam continued from page 7 A total of 33 “hopefuls” showed Invariably wouldn't miss the contest and that they said they public. But wait. Does that mean with- Canada contest or the Miss Interi- or pageant. For one thing, our up for a meeting, expressing inter- est in running for Miss Castlegar. That number was pared to 19, but since there are only spots for 10 contestants, there was to be a mi- ni-pageant to determine the final lucky few. It’s interesting that the Miss Castlegar contest was swamped with young girls wanting to be our local “queen” only a few months after the Miss Canada pageant was cancelled and other beauty pageants announced plans to take a long, hard look at how they op- erate. In the days that followed the cancellation of the Miss Canada Pageant, I asked various people their opinion on the pageant’s demise. it was not appropriate for women today. In the days following the Miss Canada announcement. we were treated to interviews with past Miss Canadas who said they would miss the pageant. We were also shown ‘the current Miss Canada — a young women from Summerland. She lamented the loss of the pageant and defended it against it critics, saying it was much more than a beauty contest; it provided her with poise, confidence and a chance to be a better public speak- er. Ah, I thought. Those are all qualities we would like our chil- dren to have: poise, confidence and an ability to speak well in out beauty pageants, my two daughters might not have a chance to gain those qualities? Not really. 3 They could get the same quali- ties by taking part in a debating team or a public speaking contest. In fact, it’s my opinion that your women like Miss Summer- land have enough poise, confi- dence and public speaking ability for 10. Far from teaching confidence and poise, pageants like Miss In- terior and Miss Canada are sim- ply showcases for those who al- ready have those qualities — along with bright smiles, shapely busts and pretty faces. Certainly the Miss Castlegar pageant isn’t the:same as Miss young women don’t have to strut around in swimsuits. That’s not the only difference. We are told that the women who win the local pageant are primar- ily ambassadors for the city, spreading goodwill wherever they go. All I can say to that is it’s a darned funny way to choose an ambassador. And it is more than passing strange that while we ask young women to be our ambas- sadors, we don’t ask young men. I wonder if we were to set up a system to choose a young man to be a goodwill ambassador for the city if that system would be a male beauty pageant? Somehow I doubt it. And that says a lot.