As the school season begins, we must remember that children’s safety is everybody’s business. Youngsters may not watch out for traffic, so make it your responsibility to drive extra carefully, especially near schools and playgrounds. Alert driving habits insure a safer and happier community. FAMILIAR SIGNS Take on new emphasis as school again gets underway in district classrooms. The signs to POLICY AND ORGANIZATION Editor It's 9 a.m. Saturday morning, with little more than a week left before election day. ‘Progressive Conservative candidate Bob Brisco has taken an hour of out a hectic schedule for an interview—an hour he'll almost surely have to make up at the end of the day. Bat that doesn't seem to bother him as he strides in, a light bounce to his step. Brisco, 55, is holding up well under the strain of eight weeks of hustling votes. It's shaping up to be a tight race again in Kootenay West and no one knows what that means more than Brisco. A veteran campaigner, Brisco first ran for the Con servatives in 1972. He ran again in 1974 and won. He was re-elected in 1979 when he beat NDP’s Lyle Kristiansen in the first meeting between the two old foes. It was the same election which sent a minority Joe Clark Tory government to Ottawa. But that government fell nine short months later—and with it Brisco. He was beaten by Kristiansen. The margin of defeat was less than 900 votes. Now Brisco is hack again for his fifth campaign in 12 years. He notes that the Tory strength.in Kootenay West this time around is its organization an@ its well-laid out policies. He says with obvious pride that the Conservatives haa tl offices open and running immediately after the election writ was dropped. In fact, the Tories opened their Casth Daily & Paid Monthly — jing Convenience - “ «hen Credit Union $$ Mash oka Chamervative policy bandbgel tedeoae tee what Brisco calls the number No. 1 election ‘isquer unemployment, whether it's in forestry, mining or, the servieé sector; whether it affects studetits, youth, women oF, men laid off after several years in the work force. FORESTRY Brisco says the Tories havea five-year “rescue plan” for the forestry industry, which included - consolidating ait” federal forestry-related programs under one The new Ministry of Forests “isn't going to cost us penny”, says Brisco because it will eliminate waste duplication. ; As well, the Tories plan to remove the nine per ¢ federal exeise tax on gasoline and. diesel fuels. Brisco that-will save the owner of g logging truck the equivalent 0 $860 a month. & The excise tax will aloo help small mill, be sald. The. saving on fuel for forklifts and loaders and other equipment in tough times will “translate into . . :“swhether that mill stays open or riot. “In better markets conditions, it will determine whether the mili can hire two or three more. employees he says: . + 4, . Brisco notes the effect on one small mill and one truck driver may not be overwhelmifig, but spread scross the whole industry “it's a fair number” of jobs. Brisco said the removal of the nine per cent excise tax on gasoline and diesel fuel will aleo help the mining industry. As well, the Conservatives plan to i tax incentives for junior mining firms, which Brisco says are the major discoverers of ore, deposits. He said the Tories will put in place a program to assist smaller mining companies to develop and market their finds, providing for more employment. He said the whole mining industry is “impaired” in its planning by unstable tax regulations. “They must have security for long-term planning,” Brisco said and pledged that a Tory government will headquarters in December, months before the election was called, Offices followed in Trail, Nelson and Fritvale, with ‘Tory organizations in Edgewood, Burton, Nakusp, Salmo and Rossland. Pressed for an idea of Tory fortunes locally, Brisco will only say there is still “an element of undecided” among the electorate, though the number of undecided voters has fallen off since the start of the campaign. “We've noticed a drop,” he says, a drop partly due to the Tory surge in opinion polls. But he also credits the party's campaign structure. “People are aware we're an organized team and that we're getting out policy,” he says. Brisco is proud of the Tory’s effort put into forming the policy statements and bridles at the suggestion that the party may have a hidden agenda which it will introduce once it grabs hold of the reins of power. Asked how he can assure Kootenay West voters that the Tories won't say one thing before the election and do another after Sept. 4, Brisco answers: “I can prove it.” * He produces a thick Conservative campaign handbook for candidates in which are laid out all the Tory policies “from abortion through youth unemployment.” Brisco says the handbook was 14 months in the making and all segments of society were consulted The other parties don't have a policy statement anywhere near approaching the Tory handbook, Brisco says. stabilize tax reg ~ WOMEN'S ISSUES Briseo pledges a federal-provincial task force on day care centres that will ask, “Where the problem is and how do we dddress it?” He said the Tories plan a national registry to enforce maintenatice orders and a uniform system of applying maintenance orders. Brisco says currently the orders vary from province to province. He also says the Tories plan to double rep ion by CANVASSING . . . Brisco and wife Sheila (second from right) discuss election issues with Castlegar family during busy day of door-to-door canvassing the government would save $7.5 billion — not to mention the it would reeeive in income tax from working residents. However, he cautions the change won't take place “overnight.” INTEREST RAT! Brisco says interest rates are one of the main elements of economic recovery, and not just a reflection of the U.S. » “bu i ” women on federal boards and commissions and move into major retraining programs-for instance, office skills where technology “strikes fear in the heart of some.” DEFICIT Brisco says a federal government will not cut social programs to reduce the deficit. “We have to . . . provide the same or improved standards of social assistance, medical care and hospital care,” he says. “The social net is a sacred trust.” Instead, a Tory government will handle the defict by better management of federal ministries and Crown corporations, and by “getting the economy cranked up... by turning on the economic engine.” Every one per cent decrease in unemployment will save the government $1 billion, Brisco says. If the current 11.5 per cent unemployment rate was reduced to four per cent, ta of our own “We won't see a reduction in interest rates until the spending habits and management habits in government are altered,” he says. To achieve that, a Conservative government will make all Crown corporations and ministries operate “in a manner acceptable in any private business.” SOCIAL PROGRAMS Brisco denies the Tories under Mulroney have shifted to the left with their pledge to retain sotial programs. He said the Conservative party has always supported gécial programs and the perception that the party has not supported the programs is a “myth.” “That has been a myth that has been created by the NDP,” he said. 5 “They find that that’s an effective attack on the Conservatives.” Brisco said he served on the parliamentary standing committee on Health Welfare and Social Affairs along with longtime NDP MP Stanley Knowles and fought side-by-side with Knowles for better social programs, including changes to spouse's allowance. Brisco added the NDP has “no corner on social concern. . . That holier than thou attitude is one I find hard to understand.” CRUISE MISSILE Brisco does not support testing the cruise missile in Canada, though the Tory party does. However, he denies it is a break with Tory policy. Instead, he suggest the party is made up of a number of strong indiyidualists who support cruise missile testing. He adds that he, along with others like environment critic John Fraser and Bill Clarke, do not support cruise tests and predicted that the issue will be debated early in the House of Commons and in the Tory caucus after Sept. 4. , Brisco fs also in favor of a mutually verifiable nuclear DIFFERENCES Asked to spell out the difference between himself, NDP didate Lyle Ki and Liberal idate Jean Turnbull, Brisco said I replied: “I will be able to go into the offices of a cabinet minister on matters directly relating to matters of the constituency.” the left mean that vehicular speed must be reduced in school zones while motorists must stop to allow students to use school crosswalks. For their part, parents should insist their children use designated pedestrianand school crosswalks. If a school bus is stopped on the highway with red lights flashing ALL MOTORISTS from EITHER DIRECTION MUST STOP and must not proceed until the red lights stop flashing. 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LYLE KRISTIANSEN By ADRIAN CHAMBERLAIN Staff Writer candidate running for re-election as MP for Kootenay West, sits on a lawn chair beside a swimming pool, at a friend's private home in Castlegar. Telephone in hand, he's putting his leisure hours to work by getting in a few calls to voters previously listed as “undecided” by NDP canvassers. Kristiansen jokes that if the swimming pool weren't covered with a plastic top, he'd pose for a picture in the a But then he changes his mind. “Too decadent,” he says. Interviewed less than two weeks before Sept. 4, Kristiansen appeared relaxed and jocular. And perhaps with good reason. Kristiansen said results from NDP and ing indicate that the NDP have support in the riding “approaching” 50 per cent. “There's still a significant number of people we've been unable to find at home,” he added. Kristiansen is also pleased with the rise of the federal NDP in national polls — most of which place the party at about 18 per cent He attributes the rise — according to a Southam poll conducted in mid-July, the New Democrats had the support of 9.5 per cent of decided supporters — to the end of “national media hype that surrounded the Conserva tive leadership conflict and convention, and the Liberal leadership convention.” Kristiansen likes to characterize himself as the candidate who represents the “blue collar industria] labor force.” He worked as a police court clerk in Vancouver between 1960 and 1963. In 1963, Kristiansen was appointed national secretary of NDP Youth, and moved with his wife, Vera, to Ottawa for two years. They returned to B.C. in 1965, and in 1967, moved to Nelson. There Kristiansen worked at a sawmill as 2 fork-lift operator, lumber grader, planer loader and other jobs. He became director of the B.C. Human Rights Council, director of the Kootenay Pollution Control Association, president of the Nelson, Trail and District Labor Council, and financial secretary of the International Woodwork. ers’, Local 1-406 for East and West Kootenay. In 1979 Kristiansen ran against Tory candidate Bob Brisco and lost, but was elected in 1980. The following are his stands on some of the cam paign’s main issues: EMPLOYMENT Kr said he a or * for federal and provincial funding made by Comineo Ltd. of Lyle Kristiansen, 45, New Democratic Party Blue collar candate Trail for a $140-million project to modernize their lead smelter “It should Jead to around 300 construction jobs involved in that project, “he said. But he added that, as a result of the modernization, “in the long term, there will be less production workers.” Kristiansen said Cominco. will fall behind other companies if they don’t move ahead with the moderni zation program. “And it'll take a long time, if that should happen, to put humpty-dumpty together again,” he added. Kri also wants g 3 to be diately installed at the Hugh Keenleyside Dam, west of Castlegar, saying it should have been done decades ago. “It’s one of those things that’s been on the drawing boards for years; we know it could go ahead soon. It's just the will to do it.” He said it would be cheaper to do it now than later, and it would provide several hundred jobs “spread over quite a period.” “There's no dislocation, no environmental damage — it has all the pluses and none of the minuses. And God knows, we need the work,” said Kristiansen. NUCLEAR WEAPONS Kristiansen follows federal NDP policy by support ing immediate cancellation of Canada’s cruise missile test agreement with the U.S. “There is absolutely no reason, other than a few profits and very few jobs at Lytton Industries in Toronto. why we should be testing the cruise missile system in this country,” he said Kristiansen supports the establishment of 4 Canadian Peace Research Centre at the recently closed David Thompson University Centre campus. He said the City of Nelson and the Regional District of Central Koot enay also want a peace centre at DTUC “We not only have the facility in an excellent setting we also have a community that is Very supportive of the type of research, and the types of purposes the thing would serve.” He said that one possibility is to have a peace centre at DTUC serving as a Western branch of a larger national organization. Kristiansen added that today’s sophisticated com munications technology makes having a peace centre in Nelson feasible, as opposed to having it in a larger city DEFICIT “We think the important ieeue is to try to get Canadians back to work,” said Kristiansen. “We believe that full — which may be anywhere from t®> per to four per cent — is our main target. The deficit is hag STRATEGY SESSION . . . Kristiansen and Colleen King, Nelson campaign office monoger, review INFLATION According to Kristiansen, inflation “isn't a major problem” in Canada. “We think one of the major things we can do in that regard is peg Canada’s interest rate, and couple that with a tax om speculative capital leaving the country to find higher interest rate returns elsewhere,” he said That. will keep inflation down, and put people back to work.” . FORESTRY Kristiansen says he gives the federal government credit for offering B.C. $55 million for forestry in the provines would thatch the amount — an offer which B.C. turned déwh, But he adds that “reforestation and forestry ty general is primarily * provincial ree “ that the federal government offer B.C $1 for every $2 the province spends on forestry ABORTION Krigitinses supports the party stance on abortion convass results on Campaign Countdown ‘84, a pre- plotted NDP election calendar used in all offices which says it shouldn't be an offence under the criminal code. He said while working in Vancouver as a police clerk on the night desk he saw “too many examples over the years of young women who have been foreed or pushed to back-alley abortion parlors and been injured in the process.” HEALTH CARE Kristiansen points to the NDP record of bringing in the first insurance plan in Canada to Saskat chewan in 1947. He added that the NDP wants medical and health services expanded so that “people other than doctors” can perform some of the lesser tasks, which he says would expand services, and make them less expensive The NDP favors programs giving women equality in workplace, and in “all walks of life,” said Kristiansen “Proportionstely, we have « higher percentage of (women in) our caucus in Ottawa and in the legislature . . . than other parties,” he said.