WHO SAYS GRACE IS LONG IN THE TOOTH?
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VICTORIA -- You take your chances when you call Grace McCarthy an old war horse who's a bit long in the tooth, as I recently did. Seems the old war horse has got a few battles left in her yet, at least in the eyes of the beholders, in this case 500 British Columbians picked at random for a recent telephone survey.
Before I go into the details of the poll, let me point out that nobody has, so far, claimed responsibility for it. Jim Bennett, McCarthy's executive assistant, won't say who conducted the survey although he's delighted by the results.
In some ways, an unattributed survey is like an unsigned letter, best ignored. On the other hand, Bennett assured me of its authenticity, and since whatever Bennett says and does can be regarded said and done with McCarthy's explicit approval, I believe that the poll is genuine, even though we don't know who did it. McCarthy wouldn't invent polls.
Among the questions the pollsters asked was for which party they would vote if a provincial election were held the next day. The answer was 15 per cent Social Credit, 31 per cent NDP, five per cent Liberal and three per cent Progressive Conservative. The rest fell into the categories of don't-know and others.
Respondents were then asked whom they considered best suited to lead the Social Credit Party if the post became vacant, meaning if Premier Vander Zalm were ousted or stepped down of his own accord.
The answers placed McCarthy on top with 35 per cent, followed by Brian Smith with 20 per cent. Attorney General Bud Smith came in with 11 per cent, and Finance Minister Mel Couvelier polled a poor three per cent.
A third question yielded interesting results. When asked how they would vote if the Socreds were led by the leader of their choice, 30 per cent said they would vote for the Socreds.
If the poll is to be believed, it would not only indicate that Grace McCarthy's political future could flower again, but also that the Social Credit Party is still a viable political vehicle. Of course, it's one thing to conduct a poll and draw certain conclusions from it. It's quite another to set in motion a chain of events that will bring about the results the poll indicated as mere possibilities.
First off, there is no vacancy, at least not yet. There are only two ways to create a Socred leadership vacancy. The premier either resigns or is removed from office. Of the two, the former is the only possible and practical solution.
There was a window of opportunity to organize a palace revolt when Brian Smith and McCarthy resigned. That window is now closed. The confusion and dissatisfaction within Socred ranks, which triggered the resignations, has somewhat dissipated. Half- hearted attempts to force a leadership review at the upcoming Socred convention were successfully neutralized by the premier and his supporters on the provincial executive.
That leaves a voluntary resignation, still a possibility, even though the premier has openly rejected it, saying winners don't quit.
For the moment, the premier appears determined to hang on. He has been fairly good at keeping his lip buttoned although, God knows, it must be hard on him. He also got rid of David Poole, the architect of many of his misfortunes. Still, given a chance to bow out gracefully, the premier would be very tempted to call it quits.
The trick is to create the conditions that will make him give in to the temptation. Keeping a tight muzzle on him is one way to speed up the process of Vander Zalm's disaffection with the job. Asking him not to inject his personal opinion and beliefs into every issue is like ordering David Suzuki not to get involved in environmental issues.
Bad gate receipts at Fantasy Gardens are also an incentive for Vander Zalm to quit politics and get back into business. And continued bad poll results might convince him that the party would really be better off without him. Only if that happens does the poll, giving Grace McCarthy the edge in a leadership contest, mean anything.
Right now, all the poll means is that McCarthy is still very popular. So is David Foster, but he's unlikely to become premier of British Columbia.
It's obvious that I and a lot of others under©estimated McCarthy's continued popularity. But then, she always was popular with a lot of people.
If anyone had conducted a poll before the last Socred leadership race and released the results, I'm sure McCarthy would have come out on top. Yet, the delegates chose Vander Zalm. For the moment, all I will do is take back the old war horse moniker and the long-in-the-tooth bit.
COURTING AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER
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VICTORIA -- The B.C. Wildlife Federation is usually not known for its militancy, but right now the organization is preparing for an all©out war with the provincial government.
What has the federation up in arms is a proposal by private interests to establish an elk game farm on Vancouver Island and indications that the government may approve the request. The federation fears that farming elk will at best diminish the intrinsic value of one of B.C.'s most magnificent wildlife species, but at worst could wipe out the province's entire stock of wild elk.
So far, the government is playing down the issue. Agriculture Minister John Savage told me he had "talked to some people about it," but had not yet seen any definite plans. He would not say who made the application to harvest elk on a commercial basis.
"You need a plan. Until I see the actual documents of a plan, I won't do anything," Savage said.
But Charlie Cornfield, executive director of the B.C. Wildlife Federation, says a detailed proposal to establish an elk game farm on Vancouver Island has already been submitted to Savage's ministry.
Cornfield also says that Terry Huberts, the socalled minister of state for Vancouver Island and the North Coast, has given the plan his blessing. Unfortunately, Huberts has been avoiding the media like the plague lately and couldn't be reached for comment. Now, if you're familiar with your game farming legislation, you may say that elk farming is against the law in this province. So it is. According to existing legislation, no indigenous species must be commercially harvested. Only three types of animals can be found on game farms -- bison, fallow deer and reindeer. None of these are indigenous to British Columbia.
To get around this obstacle, the applicants propose to import elk breeding stock from Oregon. After all, if they're from Oregon, they're not indigenous. But even that would not be allowed under current legislation. It would require approval by cabinet. And so far, according to Savage, cabinet has not yet been asked to give its approval.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation says it has no intentions of waiting quietly for cabinet to deal with the matter. It is gearing up to raise hell now.
"We've been sitting on the government's game farming advisory committee. We've been very rational and co-operative, but this plan scares the hell out of us," says Cornfield. And well it should, considering the environmental disaster the government would court by allowing the harvesting of elk on a commercial basis, even elk from Oregon.
The danger is that commercially-bred animals are far more susceptible to disease than their wild cousins. If any diseased animal finds its way out of the game farm compound and breeds with a wild animal, there's a potential for complete destruction of the wild stock.
Perhaps Huberts, a veterinarian by profession, could counter that argument, but like I said, he doesn't talk to the media these days.
Proponents of game farming say that the animals are securely corralled and will not break out to breed with their wild cousins, but Cornfield shoots down that argument.
"We have had reports of salmon from Atlantic fish farms showing up here at the west coast. The game farm bison in the north are running around loose, grazing on Crown land. So much for containment," he says.
The government has never left any doubt where it stands on the overall question of game farming. Don Rugg, director of the agriculture ministry's marketing branch, says "from an agricultural standpoint, the minister has always said he would like to see game farming as extensive as possible."
The latest shuffle in cabinet responsibilities reinforces Savage's dedication to the commercial exploitation of wildlife. The responsibility for licensing game farms was recently transferred from the environment ministry to the agriculture ministry. The legislation is soon to follow.
Cornfield says the stakes are high in this issue. The commercial value of one elk, he says, is anywhere from $4,000 to $12,000. Most of the value, he adds, is in the antlers.
"And even if there were no danger of disease, once there's a commercial value of that magnitude, we won't be able to keep poachers out of our wild stock."
It seems we are blessed with an administration that knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing.
CHALK UP ONE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
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VICTORIA -- The government's decision to declare Strathcona Park off limits to future logging and mineral exploration was about as good a piece of news as any rookie parks minister could possibly hope to announce.
Small wonder Terry Huberts looked confident, striding into the press theatre, a room in the basement of the Parliament Buildings, used by cabinet ministers and opposition critics for major announcements to the media.
He wasn't even rattled when I reminded him that it was in this room that Bob Skelly botched his election chances by choking on his words and saying, "can we start again?"
But then, anyone can afford to be confident when they're about to tell British Columbians that the government has listened to the people and has listened well.
Strathcona Park with all its beautiful 2.5 million hectares, west of Courtenay on Vancouver Island, will at long last be a real, honest©to©goodness Class A park.
Until now, the term park has been a bit misleading. All sorts of people have been cutting down trees in the socalled park or have been digging around in its soil in search for valuable minerals. The poor thing never knew whether it was a park, a logging camp or a mine pit. Successive provincial governments did nothing to relieve it of its schizophrenia.
Strathcona Park was first marked on provincial maps in 1911. Seventy©seven years later, the Strathcona Park Advisory Committee had this to say in its report to the government:
"The park now embraces a reservoir that once was a lake, logged-over forest land that has not been replanted, a number of mineral claims and an operating mine, a power line right-of-way, and a boundary that defies park principles.
"The parks agency pays the park scant attention. The park is not used for recreation as it might be. There is little effort to attract visitors to the park. Far from realizing the vision of its founders, the park, in a word, is a mess." And here is what the committee said about the government's contribution to this 77-year-old mess: "To put its mildly, the parks agency in particular and the government in general have long since lost credibility in their dealings with the public on the issues of Strathcona Park."
That's about the strongest language used by any committee advising any government I've ever come across. These advisors obviously decided that the time for diplomacy had passed. The four members of the advisory committee were chairman Peter Larkin, vice president, research at the University of B.C.; Jim Rutter, executive director of the Federation of Mountain Clubs of B.C.; Frances Jones of Qualicum and Roderick Naknakim, a lawyer and member of the Cape Mudge Band. To them must go most of the credit if, just for once, big business didn't get its way.
Big business was, of course, not amused. Tom Waterland, president of the Mining Association of B.C. and former member of the Bill Bennett cabinet, was shocked and outraged. No government, he said, had the right to alienate that much land from its potential as a provider of natural resources.
Energy Minister Jack Davis tried to soothe the industry's hurt feelings by saying that he remained firmly committed to "multiple use in recreation areas" elsewhere in the province. "With proper planning and reclamation there's no reason why mining and forestry and other resource uses cannot coexist with recreational interests," Davis said.
Seventy©seven years after Strathcona Park first appeared on maps of British Columbia, it will become what it always should have been ©© a special piece of paradise, protected from the insatiable appetite of the mining and logging industries. Accordingly, the final boundaries of the park will be set by legislation. Strathcona will be declared a Class A park. The park will no longer contain any socalled recreation areas, land that may also be used for commercial purposes.
As a fitting tribute to the members of the Strathcona Park Advisory Committee, who told the government not what it wanted to hear, but what the public thought it should hear, there should be a plaque somewhere in the park with four names engraved on it. Larkin, Rutter, Jones and Naknakim may not be the fathers of Strathcona Park, but they sure did a hell of a job as midwives at its rebirth.
And if there's still room on the plaque, I'm sure the Friends of Strathcona would be more than happy to provide a few names. They braved ridicule, harassment, arrest and conviction to draw attention to the plight of Strathcona Park. Best of all, they won.
BUSINESS SUPPORT YOURS FOR THE ASKING
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VICTORIA -- There was a time when a good product invariably found its market without the benefit of heavy promotion and extensive market analyses. Those days are gone.
To make it in today's competitive markets, producers must have immediate access to information, particularly information about potential markets for their products. The B.C. Enterprise Centre, operated by the ministry of economic development, provides that vital link between B.C. businesses and the outside world.
The Enterprise Centre is located in the former Discovery Pavilion on the old Expo site in Vancouver. Staffed by 20 people, the centre provides information on any aspect of business. How to start a business; how to operate it; how to avoid pitfalls. The emphasis is on small business, the backbone of the economy. If giving over-the-counter information and advice were the only function of the Enterprise Centre, it would be rather limited in scope. After all, the vast majority of B.C.'s businesses are not located in the Greater Vancouver area. The best information given by the most knowledgeable person is no good to the businessman in Smithers or Fort Nelson or Fernie, if he has to travel to Vancouver to get it.
One way the ministry tries to get information to businesses throughout British Columbia, is by way of brochures, pamphlets and other printed material, distributed by local chambers of commerce. At present about 85 chambers get paid 5,000 each a year to provide this service on behalf of the ministry. Needless to say that in the age of instant communications, this method is rather antiquated and probably the least effectual.
Enter the B.C. Business Network, a marvel of modern technology, offering businesses in even the remotest corners of the province instant access to information that could mean the difference between profits and losses. The service is available to anyone with a computer, a modem and a telephone line.
The B.C. Business Network was designed by the ministry, using the services of Telecom Canada and B.C. Tel. Any registered user can log on and, within seconds, have access to information that would fill bookshelves. Once logged on, the user is directed towards his or her particular field of inquiry by easy-to-follow instructions. The network contains a number of distinct data bases and is constantly being expanded.
The International Business Opportunities Network (IBONET) provides up-to-date information about trade, consulting and major project opportunities. It gives detailed information about international projects in progress, the names of important international and domestic contacts, and lists export and import opportunities.
SupplyNet lists detailed information on 40,000 B.C. suppliers and the goods or services they can provide. The Calendar of Events provides information concerning seminars, incoming trade missions, trade fairs, and other events of interest to the B.C. business community. Anyone planning to start a business can get useful tips by going to the Small Business Information section, containing a collection of practical answers to business questions, an index to a growing library of resource material, and a list of useful contacts.
Equally useful to businesses assessing potential markets is the information on up-to-date population, business, financial and economic statistics available under the heading of B.C. Stats. There is one more category on the system's main menu, the value of which may be left to the individual user's assessment. It's identified as MSG, which stands for message from the minister. The system also includes international trade statistics and several directories, listing B.C. manufacturers, importers, manufacturers' agents and companies engaged in off-shore exploration and sub-sea equipment.
To be able to tap the information banks in the B.C. Business Network, users must have a computer, equipped with a modem, a device that enables them to log on to the system and retrieve information over the telephone line. Once retrieved, the information retrieved can be saved in the computer, and later printed out.
The cost of signing up is relatively low, consisting of a monthly user fee of $3, plus access charges. Access time, the time spent logged on to the network, costs $10 an hour during prime time (6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday) and $7.50 an hour at any other time. That's considerably less than the cost of long-distance telephone calls. Access to the network is obtained by dialing a toll-free number.
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