' NOW HEAR THIS)
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• While standing in the lineup for a Saturday afternoon matinee at a local theatre a young father was heard to comment: "You know, when I was younger, I went to Walt Disney movies and wished I could go to adult movies.” Looking down at his small daughter he continued: 'i’m still watching Walt Disney movies and wishing I could go to adult movies.”
^ Vanderhoof KCMP report a case of unnecessary police interference that made everyone happy, lt happened when a concerned neighbor saw a man going into a basement through a window. The police reacted promptly and caught the man —in his own house. He had locked himself out, but was happy with everyone’s diligence.
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Got a news tip? Call The Citizen’s 24-hour news Une at 562-2441.
FEATURED INSIDE)
All sorts of sports
The Vancouver
Whitecaps were part of a busy sport holiday weekend here. Pictorial highlights are on page 7.
Index
Bridge................................It)
Business......................14, 15
City, B.C....................2, 3, 25
Classified.....................16-23
Comics.........................36, 37
Crossword........................18
Editorial..............................4
Family.........................30, 31
Horoscopes.......................39
International......................5
Movies...............................37
National..............................6
Sports.............................7-12
Television.........................38
FIRST VOTE TALLIES EXPECTED AT 8:30 P.M.
Two ridings, seven candidates to watch locally
by JOHN ASLING Citizen Staff Reporter
There were no political promises, speeches or polls today as Prince George area residents went to the polls along with the rest of the 14.9 million eligible voters across the country.
Polls opened at 9 a.m. and voting in the Prince George-Bulkley Valley riding was reported heavy, while polling in Prince George-Peace River constituency was reported as moderate.
Seven candidates are vying for two local seaLs in the House of Commons. By the time polls close here at 8 p.m., voters across Canada may be looking towards B.C. to decide who will lead the country for the next four years.
In Prince George-Peace River, incumbent Frank Oberle., a Progressive Conservative, is pitted against Liberal Les Broddy and New Democrat Bob Simpson.
Oberle won in 1974 by 5,000 votes and is expected to win handily again.
In Prince George-Bulkley Valley the race could be more interesting. This is a new riding carved out of Prince George-
ney Street to Fifteenth Avenue, then east along Fifteenth Avenue and Patricia Boulevard to the Old Fraser River Bridge and east along the Fraser River.
Prince George-Peace River electors lie north and west of these boundaries while Prince George-Bulkley Valley electors live east and south of the dividing line.
There are 65 polling stations in Prince George-Peace River. City voters will be casting their ballots at oneof five locations: Glenview Elementary School, Kelly Road Secondary School. Nechako North Secondary School, the Civic Centre and the Simon Fraser Hospital.
In Prince George-Bulkley Valley there are 59 polling stations with 13 locations within the city. They include: D.P. Todd Secondary School. Lakewood Junior Secondary School, Peden Hill Elementary School, South Fort George Elementary School, Prince George Senior Secondary School. College Heights Secondary School. Buckhorn Elementary School. Pineview Elementary School. Blackburn Elementary School Vanway Elementary School. Beaverly Elementary School. R.B. Redekopp residence and the Rainbow Hostel Senior Citizens residence.
FEDERAL ELECTION
It's close battle as nation votes
by Canadian Press More than 10 million citizens. a record number, were expected to vote today to decide the political makeup of the federal government.
The results could mean a renewal of Pierre Trudeau's . Liberal regime, a switch to Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservatives or a stalemate that leaves no clear winner.
After two months of pleading and promising by the politicians, the verdict of the voters depended on the millions of ballots marked privately in more than 68,000 polling stations between9a.m. and 8p.m. local times across the country.
The results of the 282 separate contests for a seat in the House of Commons should be known within hours of the polls closing. If candidates of one party win a majority of 142 seats or more, that party’s leader forms the government.
But advance indications signalled a close race for seats, so the tally could leave government in the hands of a minority dependent on support of another party to survive -perhaps even precipitating another election within months.
Election watcher’s guide, page 13.
While voters cast ballots for candidates in separate ridings, their judgments were expected to be influenced by how they feel about the four party leaders whose reputations and political futures rest on the outcome.
Pierre Trudeau, 59, seeking his fourth term as prime minister. has tried to dissuade the fickle electorate that gave his Liberals a majority in 1974 from switching allegiance to
his untried and inexperienced opponents at a time when he says the unity of the country is in jeopardy.
Joe Clark. 39. the tenacious Albertan who burst from the party’s back benches to take over the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives just three years ago. has concentrated his fire on the country's economic problems and strewn the campaign trail with costly promises.
He has stressed what he says is his ability to end federal--provincial friction of recent years. If there is no clear winner, attention will shift to Ed Broadbent, 43, leader of the New Democratic Party, which held 17 seats at dissolution, and Fabien Roy, 51, leading the Social Credit assault on the Liberals’ Quebec bastion.
Their support would decide which party moves onto the government benches.
FACTS AND FIGURES
Here's the breakdown:
OTTAWA (CP) - Here are facts and figures about today’s 31st federal general election.
The polling: Voting takes place between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. local times at almost 68,500 polling stations in the country’s seven time zones.
The voters: A total 14,860,362 are eligible to vote - citizens 18 or older — compared to 13,620,353 at the last election in 1974. If the turnout matches the 71-per-cent rate in 1974, about 10,500,000 people will cast ballots this time.
The candidates: There are 1,424 candidates competing for the 282 seats in the House of Commons, an average five candidates in each constituency, at least three in each and as many as 10 each in some Montreal ridings and in Toronto-Rosedale.
The parties: Nine political parties are competing officially, with only four given a chance of seating candidates. The Liberals, Progressive Conservatives and New Democratic Party each is contesting all 282 seats and Social Credit 103 seats, 74 of them in Quebec.
The Marxist-Leninist Party (144 candidates), the Communist Party of Canada (71), the Union Populaire (69 in Quebec), the Parti Rhinoceros (63) and Libertarian Party (59) are also on the ballots. So are 49 independents and 20 with no designation.
The record: Before this election. Liberals had won 18, Conservatives 12. Liberals led the government for 66 years, Conservatives for 46. Eight of the 30 general elections before today produced minority governments and only three of the last eight elections produced a majority — for the Conservatives in 1958 and for the Liberals in 1968 and 1974.
$32 MILLION
The standings: Commons seats by party in the smaller, 264-seat House in the 1974 election and at dissolution of that Parliament last March 26:
1974 Dissolution
Lib 141 133
P.C. 95 98
NDP 16 17
Social Credit 11 9
Ind. 1 5
Vacant 0 2
20 tons of 'pot' seized on Island
VICTORIA (CP) - Anarmy of RCMP and Canadian Forces personnel arrested at least 17 persons and seized about 20 tons of Colombian marijuana in a raid at dawn today in a remote section of northwestern Vancouver Island.
Superintendent T. M. Gardiner of the RCMP said the marijuana had a potential street value of $32 million.
No charges have been laid.
The raid occurred at about 6:30 a.m. PDTat Sidney Inlet, about 250 kilometres northwest of here, and about 50 kilometres north of a similar drug seizure last summer.
In last summer’s bust, police arrested 15 persons and seized 13 1-2 tons of marijuana worth $20 million.
Gardiner said 50 RCMP members and about 300 Cana-
dian Forces personnel were used. They received support from an Argus tracker aircraft from CFB Comox, and a destroyer-eseort HMCS Qu' Appelle.
He said that police were using dogs to track several persons who fled into the dense bush around the inlet when the raid began.
Police have seized the Samarkanda, a 50-metre freighter, and a 16.5-metre pleasure craft, Whitecap. Gardiner said registry of the freighter is unknown, but he believes the Whitecap is registered in the United States.
Gardiner said the raid culminated several months of detailed investigation which involved the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
There were no further details.
( THE WEATHER )
Peace River, Skeena and Kamloops-Cariboo in redistribution.
Here Tory Lome McCuish battles Liberal Spike Enemark, NDP candidate Archie Patrick and independent William Kordyban. said to be the spoiler in the race.
Results should start pouring in around 8:30 p.m. but if it’s close, final local results may not be known until much later. More than 85,000 area residents are eligible to vote in the
two Prince George ridings. In Prince George-Peace River 38,768 residents are on the voters’ list, while another 46,694 locals can vote in the new Prince George-Bulkley Valley riding.
The dividing line for the two ridings is the Nechako River from the west to the Bypass, south on the Bypass to Fifth Avenue, east on Fifth Avenue to Carney Street, south on Car-
TODAY
Holiday a killer on B.C. highways
The forecast for tonight and Wednesday calls for cloudy skies, with a few showers and the chance of isolated thundershowers.
The expected high today was 22, the low tonight 6. Wednesday's forecast high is 16. Monday’s high was 17, the low 2, with 13.5 hours of sunshine. On this date last year the high was 9, the low 4.
Detuils page 2
Five young Burns Lake residents were among 19 persons killed in traffic accidents during the long Victoria Day weekend in B.C.
Two persons also died near Prince George.
Counting seven drownings and three fire deaths, the weekend cost 29 British Columbians their lives.
The five were killed about one mile east of Burns Lake, when their car failed to negotiate a corner and slammed into an embankment on Highway 16.
Dead are Melvin Roy Ingar, 19, Ronald Gordon Borstel, 18, Timothy Luke Unruh, 19, Keith Russell Shields, 20 and Paul Anthony Clark, 18.
A police spokesman said the early indications are that the youths had attended a party before the fatal accident.
This is the second major traffic accident involving multiple fatalities of young people in this area during the past 10 days.
On May 12, nine persons including five teen-agers, were killed in a head-on collision near Quesnel.
In Prince George, the death of two persons in a head-on collision Saturday marred an otherwise normal weekend as far as city area traffic was concerned.
Frank Edward Allen Phillips 33 and William Nels Larson, 44, both of Prince George, died when their pickup collided with a semi-trailer truck on Highway 97, about 64 km north of the city.
The accident took place about 4:10 a.m. The driver of the semi-trailer was not injured. Investigation into the cause of the accident is continuing.
Police investigated 23 traffic accidents, including the fatal one, during the Victoria Day long weekend.
In six of these several persons received minor injuries, police said.
“It was a normal number of accide&i for a long weekend, aside from the two fatalities,” a police spokesman said.
Phillips and Larson were the seventh and eighth traffic victims in this area for 1979.
An RCMP diving team from Prince George is continuing a search today for three men who are bleieved to have drowned in Tezzeron Lake, located about 40 km north of Fort St. James.
The men were fishing Sunday night and their 12-foot aluminum boat was found capsized at 6 a.m. Monday.
A police spokesman said the names are not known at this time.
Another multiple death accident took place near Kimberley, where four persons were killed in a head-on collision between two cars.
Across Canada 61 persons died in traffic accidents.
Ckiaen photo by Dave MUn,
BCR yard engines sustained heavy damage in Sunday head-on collision near new Fraser Bridge.
CREWS JUMP CLEAR
Trains collide head-on
Two B.C. Railway engine crews jumped clear before their engines met head-on on the main line near the new Fraser River bridge on Sunday.
None of the crewmen were injured, but the locomotives were heavily damaged, and one came close to rumbling down the bank Into the river.
Hugh Armstrong, a BCR spokesman in Vancouver, said it is hoped investigation will solve the puzzle of why two
trains were on the same track going in opposite directions.
One of the engines jumped the track in the direction of the river below, but was prevented from falling into the swift-running current by being coupled to the freight cars behind it.
The second engine was thrown in the other direction. Its front end was demolished. The third engine was pushed into the one in front of it, and then left the track.
Twisted metal, broken glass and a churned up track were part of the wreckage.
One of the freights consisted of 17 cars, the other of 50, each pulled by two yard engines at “moderate speed”, said a Prince George spokesman for the railway.
Armstrong, said no dollar value on the accident has been established.
The tracks were cleared Monday afternoon and traffic resumed at 3 p.m.
Gas-guzzling U.S. blasted
PARIS (AP) - European energy ministers accused the United States on Monday of guzzling the world's oil resources and warned of serious economic consequences if oil shortages persist.
U.S. Energy Secretary James Schlesinger told accusers at a meeting of ministers from 20 industrial countries that they will have to be patient until his country resolves the debate as to ‘‘whether there is a real problem with regard to oil.”
The
20r Copy
Citizen
Tuesday, May 22, 1979 Vol. 23; No. 99 Prince George. British Columbia