OPINION SN PAGE A4, SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1991 MEMBER OF THE 6.C. PRESS COUNCIL ESTABLISHED AUGUST 7, 1947 TWICE WEEKLY MAY 4, 1980 ’ INCORPORATING THE MID-WEEK MIRROR PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 12, 1978-AUGUST 27, 1980 Ri, AUGUST 7, 1947-FEBRUARY 15, 1979 LV. CAMPBELL ~ PUBLISHE 5, FEBRUARY 16, 1973MAY 1, 1901 BURT CAMPBELL, PUBLISHER EMERITUS ~ PUBLISHER, PLANT FOREMAN - Peter Harvey Warren Chemott WEY OFFICE MANAGER CIRCULATION MANAGER - Heather Hadley SENIOR SALES REPRESENTATIVE — Gary Floming Cantoge, EDITORIAL Statistics surprising « Yeah, OK. We took the bait. We jumped on the media bandwagon — actually it’s more like a steamroller — which is all stoked up over cross-border shopping. When we asked Statistics Canada for the figures on cross- border travel at several local border crossings, we did so more out of curiosity than in the expectation that the numbers would reveal anything significant. But what the numbers show is a rather remarkable increase in the ber of West K y id: hoppi the 49th parallel to spend their multi-colored money in the land of the greenbacks. Same day travel — that is, one-day shopping sprees — showed the most significant increases, 75 per cent in January, an incredible 127 per cent in February (just about the time the effects of the goods and services tax started to sink in), 49 per cent in March, for an overall first-quarter increase of 76 per cent. Those numbers have got to be a concern to businesses here in Castlegar and elsewhere in the West Kootenay where retailers face the problem of geography in addition to onerous taxes like the GST which only exacerbate the leakage of mon- ey across the border from this area. Quite simply, Spokane, not Vancouver or Calgary, is the natural choice for a couple of nights out in the big city for peo- ple in this area. That’s a fact of life that’s never going to go away. There's also the fact that bargains can indeed be found on the other side of the border — always have. and always will. Lower production costs, lower wages paid to workers, huge chains capable of buying in bulk — the reasons are many — all contribute to lower prices in the States, notwithstanding duty and provincial and federal sales taxes. Nevertheless, the current cross-border shopping frenzy does have a lemming-like quality to it and we wonder how many people in those thousands of automobiles coming back through the Paterson border crossing actually got deals as good as they think they did when all the hidden costs are added up. But those are just the dollars-and-cents issues. There’s also the ethical consideration that in a small city like Castlegar the business person you’re not supporting by shopping across the border is quite often your next door neighbor or the guy you have a beer with at the local pub on a Friday night. It’s something to think about next time you go bargain hunting across the line. we NOW | WILL HAVE TINE TO TALK IN GARAGES AND ERIC STs” ~BiLLVONDER Z9UM. T DID WE DO WIP... Caltlegar Newt ¢ CLD) Pacific party in limbo Fledgling group's survival depends on Socred disintegration By STEVE MERTL The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — The blunt fact is this: For the B.C. Pacific Party to avoid becoming just an answer in some future political trivia game, the Social Credit party has to be wiped out in the next provincial election. Jim McLean knows that and so does Donna Telep — the two helped form the Pacific party last March — but even she’ s not sure that will be enough. Right now the party is a polit- ical movement in waiting, says McLean. 4 If he’s right about Social Credit, it won’ t have to wait long. “We don’ t expect the Socreds to win or even come close in the next election,” says McLean, president of the Pacific party. “If they do, then we were wrong and that’s that. “If we’ re right and they get basically pulverized, there’s going to be a new liti We Johnston could call any day. But thisis British Columbia, where the polarized political ‘cli- mate means that a five or six per cent swing in the popular vote can be the difference between victory and oblivion. Polls suggest the Socreds are trailing the Opposition New Democrats by about seven per cent. The B.C. Pacific Party was formed by dissident Socreds, such as former riding president Telep, who wanted a free-enter- prise alternative to a party led by then-premier Bill Vander Zalm. When Vander Zalm resigned over conflict of interest in April, pundits expected the Pacific par- ty to leave the political stage with him. But the party still maintains its Granville Street suite of offices and McLean says it has funds to operate for at least a year. It even attracted new after Ji a long- don’ t see Social Credit as being repairable.” Brave talk from a party with no leader, only about 2,000 paid- up members and three declared candidates for.a provincial elec- tion that Socred Premier Rita time Vander Zalm loyalist, beat Socred matriarch Grace McCarthy for the Socred leader- ship in July. But the Pacific party won’t be a factor in the coming election. It currently has only three Van- couver-area candidates — a for- mer Socred riding president, a former alderman and a seniors activist. At a recent meeting the party executive rejected applica- tions by 42 people to run under the Pacific banner, “They don’t really have the community profiles in their areas,” says McLean. He adds that unless the party gets more than six candidates who fit its criteria, it will ask the existing three to withdraw. “It leaves us building for the long term. The election remains a Socred fight to lose or win. We're just really bystanders.” Being bystanders, even inter- ested bystanders, may not be the right strategy, says David Mitchell, a Vancouver-based author who has written two books on the history of the Socred party. If the Socreds lose, Mitchell predicts they will unravel as a party. Would-be successors to its free-enterprise base will need all the visibility they can muster. The Pacific party should be working harder, “putting all its efforts into electing one or two members,” says Mitchell. After an NDP victory, the free-enterprise voice will be ini- tially fragmented, he says. The Liberals, shut out of the B.C. legislature since the late ’70s, and perhaps a provincial Reform movement, will vie to replace the Socreds as the main opposi- tion to the NDP. The Pacific party’s strategy, however, may. be a pragmatic response to its lack of momen- tum since Vander Zalm quit, Mitchell notes. “No one’ s even willing to give them tacit support.” Telep quit as vice-president and director of the party three months after helping to found it, She was a visible McCarthy sup- porter at the Socred convention Telep is holding on to her Pacifie party membership but keeping her options open for now. With Vander Zalm gone, potential Pacific supporters. wonder if there’s room for anoth- er free-enterprise party besides the Socreds, says Telep. "The feeling I have is there’s a fear of splitting the vote.” She has advised people to work for the best free-enterprise candidate in their riding, regardless of party. She thinks most will support Social Credit. Development displaces serenity on island Comox Valley labelled ‘Land of Opportunity’ blues. I couldn’t live in the valley, and now that I’ve left, I can’t live without it. Has a person left a place if it’s always on the mind? In the end, it wasn’t the mountains that prompted our departure, although they were a convenient scapegoat. As Lorna Lynch, editor of the Kootenay Review, once advised me, the mountains aren’t going to shove over. If I couldn't settle my differences with the big rocks, Lorna encouraged me to see it as a preference rather than as a failure. In the early days of [: got a bad case of the Slocan Valley more distant and therefore less daunting, and the ocean, blessed with curious seals and sen- tinel eagles; are only a few kilometres away. An attractive area, our Slocan Valley friends and neighbors agreed, except that it is succumb- ing to development. The price of “progress” is that more people are living, working and playing on a piece of land that can’t expand. If it’s opportunity we are seeking, we have apparently come to the right place. “Comox Val- Tey — Land of Opportunity” is the logo used by the Comox Valley Eco- our long frozen winter which began in Pass- more, Nelson therapist Dr. David Hersh sug- gested visiting flatter While the quality of life on Vancouver Island and in the Comox Valley is a quantum leap from Toronto, the nomic Development office. Our prospective new homeland on the largest island on the west coast of North places. str “If you feel hemmed in,” he counselled, “you might consider not living here.” At the time, such a suggestion seemed outrageous. It was people seek to pe are being re-created: crowding, traffic, pollution, urban sprawi. The rat race is exchanged for a lemming-like rush to the sea. America is the fastest growing area in B.C. outside of the Lower Mainland. . Statistics on popu- lation and building permits confirm the obvious: A tsunami unthinkable to hit the wave of well-heeled road just because ob: ranges of were hogging all the space. We left because we felt hemmed in not only by mountains, but our range of opportunities: for my partner to obtain paid employment in human services; for both of us to facilitate workshops in ; to explore stewardship in a land trust; to be closer to larger centres (yet not return to their fold); to feel less isolated; and as important as any other factor, to be by the sea. Tronically, we are checking out our options in another mountain valley — the Comox Valley, near Courtenay, approximately halfway up the east coast of Island. The i from cities such as Toronto are seeking a “simpler” life on Vancouver Island, and espe- cially in the Comox Valley. Planners hope a $1.1 billion inland highway will be completed by 1996 to handle the hordes and ensure the valley attracts.even more people and economic develop- ment. While the quality of life on Vancouver Island and in the Comox Valley is a quantum leap from Toronto, the stresses people seek to escape are being re-created: crowding, traffic, pollution, urban sprawl. h. d for a | ing-like Catherine Shapcott Unlike other arrivals who cashed in expensive homes, the hippie house we sold in the Slocan Valley is not a ticket to a primo piece of Comox Valley real estate. Almost everything under our $70,000 limit is a mobile home. The valley community which charms me most is Cumberland, a former mining town which the locals love to bash. Its reputation for unsavory social problems have given it the nickname “Scumberland,” but that hasn’t created any bar- gains in housing. With high demand and scarcity dictating prices, the rent on a small, two-window bachelor apartment — nearly $400 — is consid- ered cheap. To save money, we used our skills at painting and wallpaper stripping in exchange for shelter in Courtenay. In the Comox Valley, which has an alternative economy using Green Dollars, the most attractive economic opportunity is the pos- sibility of bartering goods and services. In this and other ways, I am often reminded of the Slocan Valley, but competition over the highly praised outdoor recreation ends the rever- le. More than one million people visited or passed th: the Valley in 1990. From Victoria to Campbell River, the east cogst is a mv a developed I and The rat race is rush to the sea. ip. The north end of the island has been so devas- tated by cl , one must settle for the “illu- sion of wilderness” or head for the real thing at Cape Scott Provincial Park on the remote north- ern tip. Summer ferry lineups can be six hours and longer, requiring patience and a flexible sched- ule. Residents of Gulf Islands such as Hornby complain about “invasions” of tourists (even though they contribute to the local economy) and are relieved to reelaim their turf after Labor Day. Cc Pe ds are full, beaches are busy, and people hiking in the most accessible part of Strathcona Park at Paradise Meadows are being educated to walk more gently on the land. At the Travel InfoCentre in Campbell River, hikers are advised of vehicle break-ins at a number of trail- heads. Meanwhile, fishermen lured by Campbell / River’s reputation as the “Salmon Capital of the World” are wondering where the coho went. The message I’m receiving is that while the Comox Valley may be a land of opportunity on an island that is too popular for its own good, the serenity and radiant beauty of Slocan Lake, the Slocan River, and the Valhallas are rare and precious. The majesty at everyone's doorstep in the Slocan Valley has, for mé, become a quest in its Comox counterpart. I might find it here if I hiked the few ini of back try wilderness, or could explore remote inlets and islands by boat. I miss the Slocan landscape, and the people I met who were part of it. With any move, exchanging what is familiar for what is new, one expects to grieve — although I had no regrets about leaving Toronto, the city where I was born and spent almost 10 years of my life. The Slocan Valley is a place that challenges, inspires, and perhaps, when destiny alters course, one back. The subjects and adventures of this column will shift away from the valley, but through this forum I hope to stay in touch with the special world of the Kootenays. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day... ... and we want our columns to last as long. Coming September 7 . . dramatically different, infinitely improved . . . CASTLEGAR 2 The newspaper you've come home to since 1947.