4 he. we __ Castlegar News — Morsns. 18s

BUSINESS

RICHMOND (CP) — orchid growing.

The creamy wax-like blooms with their delicate ruffles and exotically spotted throats are just a product for Le Nobel these days.

“I get so critical,” the 74-year-old said as he twisted off a bloom on a stroll through one of his sweet-scented greenhouses. “I'm always looking for perfection.”

Le Nobel has been growing orehids for 45 years. He bought his first 10 plants in 1939 after he saw orchids growing in a California conservatory.

Today, Le Nobel Orehids sells more orchids than any other producer in Canada although it faces still competition from huge greenhouses in Europe.

Chances are good that the next orchid you see will have opened its petals in the row of Le Nobel green houses that sit beside the Fraser River in a rundown industrial section of this Vancouver suburb.

The business expanded over the last 45 years from 10 plants to 10 greenhouses.

“It just grew on us,” said Le Nobel. “We'd get orders for more flowers so we'd add a few plants and then we'd need more bench space so we'd add a greenhouse; then we'd have more space and we'd add some more plants.”

Today he estimates it would cost at least $1 million to replace the greenhouses and the tens of thousands of orchid plants inside.

Valentine's Day is a busy time for Le Nobel and his eight employees.

“Orchids really are a special occasion flower so we start picking up in February for Valentine's Day. We're busy all through the summer for graduations and weddings and then it picks up again in December for Christmas.”

This week, he'll ship two to three times more flowers than he usually ships to about 30 wholesalers across Canada.

The flowers Le Nobel is selling today are very different than the first ones. Fashions, even in flowers it seems, change.

Jim Le Nobel isn't lyrical about

Orchid business blooming

The great ruffled lavender and white cattleya orchids that once rested on the bosom of every chiffon-draped mother-of-the-bride are losing ground to the smaller, pastel-colored cymbidiums.

“This is one of our greatest problems right now,” he said. “The pastel colors are in great demand almost to the exclusion of the purple, green, red and yellow cymbidiums.”

COLORS CHANGE

“We are constantly changing the color balance to favor whites and pastels.”

Although Le Nbel sells far fewer cattleyas than cymbidiums these days, the cattleyas are important to the business because they are considerably more expensive.

It takes three to six years to grow an orchid plant to a commercially producing level, he said, and it will continue in its prime until it is 10 to 15 years old if carefully handled.

“The general public likes a change. They can't say they want a certain orchid until they see it. But then they drive us crazy. Right now wholesalers tell us they could sell twice as many whites if we had them.”

The market has also grown to include orchids sold on a branch as a cut flower and some varieties that make good house plants.

Le Nobel estimates he ships 225,000 flowers a year and since orchids generally bloom only once a year it requires a huge supply of plants to meet the demand. He guesses he has something in the neighborhood of 50,000 plants.

Growers are always looking for new strains to add to their stock, he said.

“You want plants that will produce more flowers per square foot of bench space.”

Le Nobel says he's heard “interesting” rumors about a new variety that will be unveiled at the biennial orchid show in London later this year.

It sounds like Le Nobel might be looking for a little mare bench space — maybe even another greenhouse.

CANADIAN INVENTOR HAS A HIT

New jogging shoe easy on body

MUNICH, WEST GERMANY (CP) — A high-stepping Canadian inventor literally stopped the show in this Bavarian capital.

Gregory Lekh ted his latest invention, a new type of jogging shoe called Exerlopers, at ISPO, a four-day event billed as the world’s largest sporting goods fair.

And Lekhtman, 38, is convinced his exercise shoes will have replaced running shoes within 10 years. Judging from the reaction at the fair, he may right.

The shoes are designed for joggers to limit the bone-jarring stress of running on pavement. He claims that running one kilometre in Exerlopers is equivalent to running about four in conventional running shoes.

All you have to do to enjoy their benefit is to strap on the rather awkward looking “lopers.” They look like skates with curved springs instead of blades on the bottom of the boot.

You don't pound the pavement, you bounce, or lope. The springs absorb the kinetic energy of your body and then gently reapply that force to your muscles so you work harder in less time.

Lekhtman quickly had a crowd around him as he hoped

TO STANDARD AERO LTD.

through one of the 25 huge exhibition halls that make up the fair.

Normand Lefebvre, president of Orbit Skates of Canada, who is also displaying his products at ISPO, couldn't believe his eyes as Lekhtman bounced past. “I've never seen anything like it — that’s fantastic,” he said as he joined the crowd of curious onlookers.

Lekhtman immigrated to Canada from the Soviet Union in 1974 where he had received an engineering degree in electronics and did doctoral studies in physiology. He had been in Canada only one year when he opened Biosig Instruments Inc. in Montreal to sell his inventions.

Lekhtman has marketed 17 different products from bio-feedback machines that you can strap on your head in the privacy of your livingroom, to hand-held pulse metres for use during exercise.

Nine years after first dreaming of manufacturing the Exerlopere, Lekhtman finally got the chance to put it on the market last month.

"ve had a tremendous reaction,” he said with a heavy Russian accent and a broad smile. “You have a real sensation of flying when you wear these things — it’s a lot of fun.”

$21 million defence contract

WINNIPEG (CP) — Stan. dard Aero Ltd. of Winnipeg has been awarded contracts worth about $21 million to overhaul and maintain air. craft for the Department of National Defence.

John Allingham, a com pany spokesman, said Mon day the contracts represent the same amount of work the firm has done for the Can adian military over the last two years.

Allingham said military contracts provide almost 50 per cent of the work that is scheduled to be done this year at the plant, where 525 people are employed. He added that no significant in. crease in employment levels is expected.

AIR SERVICE

PRINCE ALBERT, SASK. (CP) — It will be the middle of April before Prince Albert has direct air service to Cal gary to replace the service which ended Sunday.

Southern Frontier Airlines received approval from the Canadian Transport Commis. sion on Monday to add Prince Albert to its routes in Sas katchewan and Alberta

But Keith Jones, assistant general manager of the Cal gary-based airline, said it will be mid-April before the com. pany can take over passenger air service formerly provided by Soundair of Toronto.

Soundair ceased passenger operations Sunday, after be ing ordered by the transport commission in January to continue operations for 60

PARIS (AP) — for energy rose 4.3 per cent last year in the non-Com munist industrialized world, trailing a 4.9 per cent econ

omic expansion, the Interna tional Energy Agency re ported Tuesday

The agency said prelimin ary forecasts point to les: than three per cent growth in energy use in 1985.

In previous economic re coveries, the growth in ener. gy use tended to surpass economic activity, said J. Wallace Hopkins, the deputy executive director of the ag- ency

But he said the current

lagging energy demand re. sults from investments by industries to make plants more energy efficient follow ing the sharp run-up in oil prices in the 1970s. BANK PROFITS

MONTREAL (CP) — The Royal Bank of Canada re. ported Tuesday first quarter profits of $126 million — down $3 million from $129 million in the same period last year, but still an im. provement from the $106

million it made in the final three months of its fiscal 1984.

Earnings a share were $1.13 compared with $1.30 a share a year ago, the Royal Bank said in a statement. Average number of shares rose in the past year to 95 million from 89 million in the first quarter of 1984.

Return on assets, the key indicator in banking, was 0.56 per cent, down from 0.61 per cent in the first quarter.

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Inside the Tory

‘inner

By TIM NAUMETZ

OTTAWA (CP) — Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's cabinet, slightly bent and bruised with one minister down already, has been hurt by internal struggles, mistakes and indecision in the first six months of Tory power, say Liberal and New Democrat critics.

When Mulroney formed his government last September, observers noted the cabinet’s record 40 members and reported the claim that for the first time in a long while all regions would have a legitimate voice in the inner circle.

Now, with the total down to 39 following the dramatic resignation of former defence minister Robert

circle’

Finance Minister Michael Wilson, holding what has traditionally been the most powerful of cabinet jobs second to the prime minister, has seen his influence slip to a point that one critic says suggests he has been undermined by Mulroney.

External Affairs Minister Joe Clark — whose internal party on nuclear disarmament was smothered by Mulroney during the election campaign and has not seen the light of day since — has been struggling against hawkish elements in the cabinet, apparently with little success.

* “SEEKING DAMAGES And most recently, Environment Minister Suzanne

Coates almost three weeks ago, it appears in pec

‘There's no doubt they are wounded ... the cracks are beginning to show’

that Mulroney simply may have given the opposition a bigger target to hit.

Mild compared with some of the scandals that rocked previous Liberal governments, the Coates affair and other events have nonetheless thrown a few unwanted surprises in Mulroney's path.

“There's no doubt they were wounded,” said New Democrat Svend Robinson, his party's justice and solicitor general critic.

“The cracks are beginning to show.”

As Coates went down amid reports he visited a shady West German nightclub last fall, Solicitor General Elmer Mackay was under unusually heavy fire for his treatment of an RCMP investigation prompted by the discovery of marijuana in New Brunswick Premier nae Hatfield's suitcase.

justice Minister John Crosbie, obviously unhappy with in is cabot job from the beginning. was also hurt by the Hatfield affair.

ERIK NIELSEN - . conservative thinker

Blais-G: d and accused of mismanaging her department, was embarrassed still more by a report that she was fired from her last job and is taking her former employer to court seeking $160,000 in damages and back wages. Many cabinet ministers have low profiles, working in on comparatively minor affairs that seldom attract heat in the daily Commons question period.

Others — the heavyweights who have been part of the Tory picture for years — have shared the front lines for the last six months:

Wilson — A respected stock broker, Wilson got his finanee job by quickly throwing his support behind Mulroney at the 1983 Tory leadership convention. He came into the portfolio riding high on Tory campaign promises to cut government waste and begin chipping away at the $35-billion deficit.

But following Wilson's announcement of $4.2 billion im cuts, revenue increases and savings last November, there have been signals the government does not want to bite the bullet on many other spending areas and Wilson is said to be losing in the deficit fight against other cabinet ministers, including, Mulroney, who are more sensitive to political pone.

The stimated its 1985-86 dit aysed GAS Uillaes eomgttng eppuamien artes

FLORA MatDONALD . respected for work

JOE CLARK . ‘dovish instincts’

that rather than massive government cuts, tax increases are in store for the spring budget.

Don Johnston the Liberal finance critic who ran against John Turner for the party's ‘ip last year

MICHAEL WILSON . losing deficit fight “He seems bored to tears,” the New Democrat critic

on a platform of tax and spending reform, says ys Mulroney has thwarted Wilson.

“Mulroney has not given him the mandate for the overall economic policy of government,” Johnston said. BATTLE BITTER

Clark — Defeated by Mulroney in the bitter 1983 leadership battle, Clark had the stature as a former prime minister and enough remaining support in the party to get the major portfolio external affairs. But Mulroney countered Clark's dovish i by a

Tate bigias Oneeis Cate toee Gat ae oan equality rights.

— After giving up his safe Nova Scotia seat the last Parliament to allow Mulroney easy access into the Commons, MacKay was given the sensitive solicitor general portfolio. He is the boss of the RCMP and also is responsible for the country’s security service.

When. Hatfield was under investigation for drug possession, MacKay met him secretly in an Ottawa hotel. RCMP C Roger Si ds and MacKay both

hardline hawk as defence minister — Coates.

Derek Blackburn, New Democrat defence critic who is also filling in for an ill Pauline Jewett, the party's external affairs critic, said the i

flatly denied that the meeting affected the investigation, but Robinson and Liberal critic John Nunziata denounced the rendezvous and angrily called for MacKay'’s

clash.

“My first reaction was ‘how cruel can Mulroney be?”

said Blackburn. At one point, as the government was being questioned in the Commons on whether U.S. nuclear weapons would ever be deployed in Canada, it became clear that Clark and Coates were in opposite camps. Coates, whose brief career in defence was disastrous, would not reject categorically the suggestion that nuclear weapons might someday be deployed in the country.

Clark did, although he later retreated slightly by qualifying his rejection to mean peacetime only.

After the departure of Coates, Mulroney appointed another conservative thinker — Deputy Prime Minister Erik Nielsen — to defence.

The appointment likely means more trouble for Clark, said Blackburn and Liberal defence critic Len Hopkins.

Cresbie — Author of the unpopular budget that brought down Clark's 1979 government, Crosbie has been painfully unhappy in his justice job from the start, say opposition critics.

He soon ran into trouble, admitting at one point that he had not read a Justice Department factum presented in a key court case over language rights in Montreal. Later, Crosbie appeared — in a case involving the government's levision satellite distributors of U.S. a and entertainment services.

Bob Kaplan, Crosbie's Liberal critic, predicts the caustic Newfoundlander will be gone from the justice job after the first major cabinet shuffle.

NOT ENTHUSIASTIC

“It's obvious that he’s not particularly enthusiastic about that portfolio,” said Kaplan, who hounded Crosbie in the Commons for his comments about Hatfield.

“I think he likes to be the bride at every wedding,” Kaplan said, adding that Crosbie would probably enjoy a senior economic portfolio more than his current job

Robinson was equally critical.

“I'm sorry, but I've got nothing good to say about MacKay,” was Nunziata’s response when asked for his view of the solicitor general's performance in the first six months of power.

“If he was an honorable man he would resign.”

‘Crosbie has b infully unhappy in his justice peri from the start’

Despite Mulroney's problems with some of his cabinet ministers, however, the opposition spokesman pointed to others who have performed well so far. And Mulroney has a stock of 171 other MPs, not counting Coates, from which to choose any replacements needed during the remaining four years of his government.

Robinson noted that Government House Leader Ray Hnatyshyn, also appointed Privy Council president last week when Nielsen became defence minister, has worked well with his i ts and k is generally moving smoothly through the Commons network.

David Crombie, another former leadership contend- er is doing a competent job as Indian affairs minister, says Jim Manly, his critic in the NDP.

“I think he’s working hard,” Manly said, cautioning, however, that Crombie has some tough negotiating in store over native land claims, Indian self-government and recognition of native rights in the Constitution.

Flora MacDonald, a loyal Clark supporter in the leadership fight, is also respected for her work as employment minister.

Responsible for the government's job-creation programs, she has been rock solid in the Commons question period.

Nonetheless, her critics say the conservative elements of cabinet and caucus are giving her a tough fight when it comes to spending money for direct job creation.

BRIAN MULRONEY auspicious beginning?

Mulroney kept some

OTTAWA (CP) — If only the Conservatives could wrench power away from those rascally Liberals, Brian Mulroney assured voters May 7, 1984, “metric will be optional” — a term the dictionary defines as “not

But, although the Conservatives squashed the Liberals into near oblivion four months later, Consumer Affairs Minister Michel Cote announced Jan. 30 that while imperial measurement may be used for fuels, home furnishings and retail food, metric will remain compulsory with only a very few exceptions.

The six months since that Sept. 4 victory have seen a number of other conversions as well.

On Aug. 28 Mulroney promised the Conservatives would add $190 million to the increase the Liberals planned for defence in 1985-86. But on Noy. 18 Finance Minister Michael Wilson not only scrapped that increase, but cut the

advertising over to an agency headed by its former campaign chairman.

Meanwhile, the job of placing government advertising of all sorts went to a new company formed by two Conservative strategists.

‘The Conservatives have also postponed by five years

plans to move foreign aid up to 0.7 per cent of the Gross National Product.

The jury is still out on other promises. For instance, Mulroney promised a new government would attract foreign investment in record numbers, thereby strengthening the dollar and allowing a drop in interest rates.

In recent weeks a surging American dollar has pushed the Canadian and other currencies to record lows and interest rates remain high.

STARTS WELL

promises

e An agreement with Newfoundland on offshore resources.

© Legislation to substantially reduce restrictions on foreign investment and replace the Foreign Investment Review Agency with Investment Canada.

@ Serapped Canagrex, the Crown corporation created by the Liberals to sell agricultural products abroad.

e Creation of a ministry of state for forestry. @ Separate uniforms for the three branches of the armed

However, the Conservatives have made beginnings in some other areas.

A first mini § on the y last month in Regina was termed a raging success by all participants Even though there was no agreement to do anything specific, the ly praised y's friendly, goatiomaaly style and said it augurs well for the future.

Mulroney also came through on a promise to hold at least one such per year —

Trudeau would never do. The next one is this fall.

As well, rs. Prime runpens Erik Nielsen and a team of ive review of government progress and spending and the first major results are expected in the spring budget.

Other promises kept include:

d plans for sttroteees in spring budget.

tax on rich to be

for spouses’ allowances to include ne widows and widowers in need aged 60 to 65.

e Restoration of six Via Rail routes scrapped by the Liberals.

© Lowered the price of farm fuels 20 cents a gallon by removing the nine per cent federal sales tax and by not collecting the excise tax.

Launched plans for an economic summit of business, labor, government, consumers and other groups, to be held here ere Lent

which i the require saat her tenpapere %6 pp any taxes that are in dispute before they have had a fair hearing.