Dead Letter Office. . . Problems & questions, etc. Page 3.

Natienal News. . . The changing scope of divorce in Canada / The

world’s population hits six billion. Page ).

Campus News... Qur news editor investigates UPEI’s new masters of science programs. Page 6.

The Cinephile. . . Reviews of The Thomas Crown Affair, and Random Hearts. Page 7.

Arts Prefile.. .Ryan0’ Connor interviews John Allan Cameran. |

Page 8-9.

Reviews... John Allan uh. Pavement, etc cae ‘

Page 9.

Fila. ‘ + Hitchcock's s “Vertigo.” ‘ . Page 10. : as es

ML Chice Latine.. ‘ icy Martin, and his i ia Ke

aS

Spertes + «the UPEI hockey team begins another season | Wayne ‘Gretzky. Page 12-15. .

The Vaults... Tales Fort Gaia’ Past. Page 18-19.

Best ef the 1990's... by Stephan Macleod. Tage 20

Pelitics. . . by Jim Beaur- -Lieyeah. Page 21 289%

Fact & Opinien... The crocodile,etc. Page 2h.

Editorial 05: The People’s Republic of British Columbia

Matthew Good and | are on the phone. We are talking about him sponsoring the youth soccer in Coquitlam, a suburb of Vancouver where both he and | grew up. He is in Sault St. Marie with phones ringing all around him, | am here in the Cadre offices in silence. The idea of unity of a unified country existing through the scope of this vast land is now the topic of conservation. Two boys from Vancouver, one in Ontario and one in PEI and we both agree on one thing; we are both British Columbians first; even more so, we are Coquitlamites. We, and indeed, much of our generation, at least on the west coast are regional patriots, unwilling, or uninterested in developing more than a passing interest in our national struggle for identity.

The Maritimes needs a unified country more so than any other region. And so, when | talk to people here about Canada they speak of a rustic, almost pastoral belief in the unchanging idea of unity, of confedera- tion. Perhaps no where as much as in Charlottetown, where this country was born.

Matthew Good has seen this country from coast to coast, and so have |. He has arrived with entourages and technicians and a trumpet played by the media; | have been to these same places absent of any plan or companion. Our very different journeys aside, and keeping our common

: aa frame of reference in mind, we have both arrived at the same conclusion.

That the country of Canada is less a home than a neighbour. As Good said, “...there is the ocean, the mountains and that’s it.”

B.C. does not live on the same transfer payment stipend that the Maritimes does. Instead B.C. has a western, but no less “Canadian” view on the unity debate. Where the Maritimes argues out of necessity (and out of ano doubt genuine desire for unity) for togetherness, B.C. argues for nothing, except a continuation of the Robson St. prosperity that has been visited upon the province since the World's Exposition of 1986. But things are certainly not all rosy on the west coast.

A political sham/embarrassment is becoming the norm; whereby each premier is tossed out. It has, sadly, become the provincial standard. The increased power of labour unions has continued to force businesses to split for greener pastures, like Alberta. (It is a sad statement when Alberta is a greener pasture.) But in all the climate, and the conditions, make B.C. the most logical province to separate.Not that | am suggesting it should. | am merely stating that in a country this wide, and this diverse, “unity” is either a practical impossibility, or at least, a marriage of convenience.

Sometimes all you can do in this dark life is cringe. UUs