The Province from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 4

A4 THE PROVINCE, Tuesday. November 4, 1980 British Columbia Allen Garr Victim planned to return to Hawaii i i--w- jf You have to wonder what's going on with a Vancouver election less than two weeks away. On Monday morning Mayor Jack Volrich drifted in 20 minutes late for his regular press conference, stumbled through a couple of exchanges with reporters over a subject he raised the impact of the federal budget on municipal revenue "I'm really not sure," and a subject they raised gun control "I'd rather not say," then he left. Last Friday, during pretty much the same display of lethargy by His Worship, Volrich turned up to punch the clock 15 minutes late, and allowed as how there will probably be a tax increase next year but I can't say for sure how much." This is hardly the campaigning Jack Volrich of two years ago, running against May Brown for the mayor's chair and bleeding from every part at the beating Brown was dealing out. And no one is more frustrated by Vol-rich's style in this year's race than Mike Harcourt, the only serious challenger who would be mayor.

Harcourt wants a fight. More. He needs a fight if he expects to win. But he is left frustrated, pulling out what few hairs remain in his balding pate screaming into a void as his opponent barely recognizes his existence. It is, in fact, a clever strategy that Volrich and his Non-Partisan Association (NPA) buddies have worked out.

Most of the normal three or four-week civic campaign time up to Nov. 15 is being eaten up by other events the U.S. election, the federal budget, the Socred convention. And for what little time there is left, Volrich can just slide slowly to victory. Why run when you can walk? Why run when you might trip? That is not to say Volrich and the NPA aren't worried about Harcourt.

But they are less concerned now than they were a few weeks ago when it looked like Harcourt was going to have the NDP machine to turn out the vote. Now even NDPers are willing to admit the campaign is a bit of a sleeper and it's not one that's attracting the number of workers they get out for a provincial contest. struggling with the burglar in the condominium kitchen, and only 12 hours before he was due to return and resume his driving job with Eaton's. "He had just completed 25 years service and had been given a dinner and a commemorative plaque," Mrs. Young said.

"He also had just been assigned to the Calgary and Edmonton run he'd been waiting for." She and two brothers Jerry, 22, and Ken, 20, had accompanied their mother, father, and grandmother on the vacation but had returned at various times. Young had returned on Friday. On Monday she described the bloody nightmare that started at 4 a.m. Sunday. "My mom and dad were asleep, my grandmother was sleeping in the next room.

My mom felt hair brushing across her arm. At first she thought it was dad, moving, but then she saw a man, leaning down by the bed. "Then dad got up and saw the guy searching. He grabbed at him and the guy stabbed him in the jugular vein. He kept stabbing him with my mother trying to stop him and got him in the chest and then in the back, where he cut a major artery near the heart." That back wound was later missed by doctors and, Young said, contributed largely to Milne's death.

He died two hours after the struggle. "The guy had jammed the door open with an old cutting board, and he took off. My mother ran down the hall. She was panicking and said she didn't know for a while if she was in a bad dream. "She tried to use the elevator but it wouldn't work.

She ran downstairs, out the doors into the parkade area and the doors shut behind her and locked her out. "She was screaming, covered in blood, and had to run all the way round the build- By DON HUNTER Just hours before he died of an attacker's knife wounds in a Honolulu hospital, Burna-by truck driver Dave Milne told his wife to start saving for their next trip to Waikiki. "They were his last words after we walked home on Saturday night," said Gwen Milne in a telephone interview from Honolulu on Monday night. "He said, 'Get saving because we're coming back next year, and we're bringing friends. This place is just too Mrs.

Milne was preparing to accompany Honolulu police on a tour of stores, in which she hoped to pick out a particular style and color shirt worn by the man who repeatedly and fatally stabbed her 51-year-old husband during a burglary attempt at their rented condominium early Sunday morning. "I'll never forget the colors and the pattern," she said. Mrs. Milne said she considered the fatal encounter to have been one of "sheer chance." She also said that, despite her own experience and the recent spate of stories involving attacks on tourists in Hawaii, she "definitely will come back to Hawaii." "We know everyone here is not like the person who did this," she said. "I still can't believe it happened, but I pity him, in a way." Meanwhile, in Burnaby the Milnes' daughter, Dale Young, said her father had thought about the publicity concerning violent attacks on tourists before he left for his Honolulu vacation five weeks ago.

But he concluded "it's like any other city." "He said you just take care, and you'll be okay." Milne had not counted on his seventh-floor rented condominium being the first one in the path of a knife-carrying burglar. He died after being knifed repeatedly while Buses-only lane speeds the Southbound Hwyj Northbound Hwy. 99 BV SUZANNE FOURNIER The new southbound buses-only lane on Highway 99 was used for the first time Friday evening and highways minstry officials said Monday it saved bus commuters about 10 minutes. But, they added, effectiveness of the lane-expansion project on both sides of the tunnel won't be known until paving is completed. The four-kilometre buses-only lane stretches from Westminster Highway to Steveston Highway, at which point buses rejoin automobile traffic before entering the tunnel.

Paving is expected to be completed in about two weeks' time, officials say. "We think when everything is flowing smoothly we could save bus commuters at least 12 minutes from their ride home every night," said Bob White, highways ministry project engineer. White, who supervised the lane-opening from noon to 5 p.m. on Friday, said motorists stayed out of the bus lane and bus traffic was much smoother, despite the additional back-up caused by paving crews. The lane is part of an attempt by the provincial ministry of highways and transportation to improve traffic flows along the bottleneck at the tunnel.

Extensive residential development in Delta, Surrey, Ladner and White Rock during the past 20 years has increased the number of commuters and slowed traffic to a crawl on both sides of the Massey Tunnel morning and evening. Northbound buses usually experience delays of seven to 10 minutes and in the southbound evening rush hour buses are delayed as long as 45. minutes in the bumper-to-bumper traffic, The delays cost an estimated $130,000 to $145,000 per year in the breakdown of schedules and timed transfers, as well as costing the bus sytem ridership. Traffic usually begins backing up from Blundell Road, three km from the tunnel, but because of -paving crews, traffic is backed up four km away, to the start of the bus lane at Westminster Highway. Metropolitan Transit Operating Company (MTOC) spokesman Lloyd Bates said the lane will be used by about 30 city buses, in- C5 ai Murder victim David ing to the front door.

And she was such a mess that the guy at the desk wouldn't open the door to let her in. It was about 15 minutes before she got back up to the apartment. By that time the cops were there, and ride south AIRPORT Massey Tunnel i No. 5 Rd. Interchange BUS LANE FRASER RICHMOND RIVER Westminster Hwy.

Overpass) The third lane begins at the tunnel and continues north as far as the Westminster Highway exit where the freeway will revert to two lanes to the Oak St. Bridge. The ministry of highways is paying full cost of the buses-only lane. In April, 1980, operation of the B.C. Hydro bus system was turned over to the Urban Transit Authority, the Metropolitan Operating Co.

and the Greater Vancouver Regional District. The GVRD board has agreed to a series of improvements to the bus system, including the purchase of 250 new buses and trolleys, the extension of a number of existing trolley routes, and provision of a number of park-and-ride stations in suburban areas. Delta, Surrey, Coquitlam and North Vancouver will get new park-and-ride stations and the existing park-and-ride lot at Sex-smith loop in Richmond will be expanded by 750 parking spaces. That extended Collier's income through April, 1979, when he routinely applied for early retirement effective June, 1979. But Phillips said the plan didn't give him that right, that early retirement is the company's prerogative, not the employee's.

That's the most hotly disputed fact in the fight. Collier argues that during the wrongful dismissal suit, Wardley testified the company would grant him his early pension once the severance pay expired. And Collier's lawyer, Larry Candido, says his client's fight for early retirement benefits will be based also on the pension plan provisions that came into effect a month before he was fired, provisions Candido says do give Collier the right to elect early retirement when fired. Collier would receive full pension benefits of about $9,000 a year, not a reduced amount, because of his age and length of service. The company contends also that because Collier had said while still employed that he didn't want to retire early he shouldn't make that claim after being fired.

Lawyer Brian McKinlay, acting for Phillips, says the company "got the idea he (Collier) was a difficult employee" because he rejected its first offer of early retirement at age 59 and coupled it with a firm letter from Candido, about his intentions to keep working. TVA I BUSES ONLY a Milne and wife Gwen. my dad was really bad. "They got him out and to the hospital and started operating. But there was so much blood they didn't see the wound in the back." Kempf waits for reaction from caucus ByDAMIAN INWOOD Province Victoria Bureau VICTORIA -T- While maverick Omineca Socred Jack Kempf swears he has the full backing of his constituency executive, those "supporters" were refusing to verify his claims Monday.

And Kempf agrees he may be in for a rough ride from some party members at the Socred convention which starts in Vancouver on Thursday. Kempf caused his riding association some headaches several weeks ago when he told Premier Bill Bennett to "pull up his socks" and accused his cabinet of passing "socialist" legislation. The riding executive met Sunday to discuss the Kempf question but Jackie Fox, constituency president, refused to comment Monday. She said she would talk to reporters at the convention. Several weeks ago, Fox told The Province she was concerned that the MLA might have gone too far in his comments.

Kempf said he hasn't received any feedback from his colleagues because none of them has spoken to him since his outburst. "I don't know if I am being ostracized I guess I'll find out at Wednesday's caucus meeting," he said. Kempf said his riding association gave him "their whole-hearted support a full vote of confidence" and added that while in Omineca last week he received positive comments from his constituents. He said it's merely speculation that he'll challenge Bennett's leadership. "I'm trying to invoke change, not trying to bring down any person or government," he said.

Kempf said he feels his statements will enhance his political career because "it's not caucus but my electors" who voted for him. calamity' WILFRED COLLIER hit 1 I 'There's only one way Harcourt can beat Volrich by getting the vote out Volrich still plans on gunning for Har-court's strong suit, the East Side vote. Over 60 per cent of one leaflet drop will go to houses east of Cambie. And he'll be match-ing the Harcourt campaign when both camps ignore the ritzy south-west corner of the city Volrich because it's in the bag, Harcourt because they wouldn't vote for him on a bet. On his own, Volrich is putting up less money than Harcourt to hang onto his chain of office.

The mayor and his friendly bagman, Saul Cohen, are working on a budget just shy of $38,000, while Harcourt is looking at closer to $50,000. But what you have to add to the, Volrich bankroll is a good chunk of the $60,000 the NPA is shelling out. Volrich and the NPA snlit the $15,000 bill on their "Vancouver Report" flyer delivered to every household In the city last month and they split the bill for TV ads that started running this week. Volrich will get a free ride out of the $20,000 worth of advertising slated for Vancouver's two major dailies and the $25,000 for another city-wide flyer the NPA is sending out just before the election. That leaves Volrich with enough money over to make a bid for the ethnic vote.

Within the next two weeks, Volrich ads will be on the front pages of 12 of the 14 or so different ethnic papers in the city. The cost? Peanuts really, less than $4,000. But it was a coup by Cohen who says, "these people are my friends" and that includes the Chinese Voice that's carrying its first front page ad in 28 years. Harcourt Is betting heavily on TV to carry his message. At least half of his budget $25,000 will be eaten up by three 30-second spots that will fill 50 minutes on BCTV and CKVU.

His campaign committee decided months ago that he'd get the most bang for his buck oh the tube. He can hit the issues Transpo, transit and the ward system and also display himself as anything but the radical some people may have thought he was a decade ago. Harcourt has also spent the best part of a year carefully knitting together a coalition of centre and left-of-centre groups ranging from the NDP through to the Committee of Progressive Electors (COPE). And while he may not have the fulj enthusiasm of the NDP machine, NDP organizers form the backbone of his campaign. Gerry Scott, the man who runs the campaign on a daily basis, was recruited from Ottawa where he was working for B.C.

NDP MP Jim Fulton. And as far as he's concerned, once you get past the TV ads, and the flyers, there's only one way his man can beat Jack Volrich. They have to get the vote out. What he's counting on is most of the votes that have been added to the voters list this year along with a bigger turnout from the eastside. What will get them out, he claims, is anger over how Volrich handled the majority vote for a ward system in the 1978 plebiscite.

That's why Harcourt is pushing it so hard. Scott is making up for a lack of cash by using phones and strategic leaflet drops. He knows he won't have the foot-soldiers of a provincial race but is confident that what he calls his "E-Day" team of over 200 people set up to pull the vote on Nov. 15 will out-deliver anything Volrich will have at work. But he also knows that at the moment the Volrich strategy is killing Harcourt by inches: "It's an uphill fight.

Volrich just won't put out a clear image for us to shoot at. He's all over the map." And it's no consolaton to Mike Harcourt that Jack Volrich knows it. George ROUTE Hwy. 99 BUS LANE ENDS Southbound I Westbound Hwy. 99 I Steveston Hwy On-Ramp I Off-Ramp Steveston Hwy.

Overpass eluding routes to Tssawassen, Ladner and Boundary Bay, Sunbury, North and South Delta and White Rock. Pacific Stage Lanes buses travelling to the B.C. Ferries or the United States and charter bus companies also will be permitted to use the lane. "Removing those vehicles from regular traffic is bound to speed up traffic and attract people to buses," said Bates, MTOC's transit services assistant. During the evening rush hour, one bus every three minutes will use the lane.

Highways ministry spokesman Surinder Sahota said the bus lane is clearly marked with overhead signs and "buses only" painted on the pavement. Motorists using the lane face prosecution. A major part of the overall improvement project involves changing the morning rush-hour traffic flow through the tunnel to three lanes northbound by using one of the present southbound lanes. pay off back debts." And if he loses the fight, he will have been 3V4 years without any income by the time his pension starts at age 65. Collier went to work for Phillips in 1937 in its Brockville, plant and rose to become shipping department foreman, a nonunion job, in its Vancouver plant.

He was head of plant safety when the company first asked him to take early retirement in 1976. He was then 59. He said no, and had his lawyer advise the company he had no plans to retire "at this time." A year later, in November, 1977, Phillips gave him the ultimatum within 10 days agree to take early retirement and eight months' severance pay, or be fired and get only two months' salary and no early retirement. Collier dug in his heels, he says, because after 40 years he thought the severance offer was low. He still had a sizeable mortgage on his home and if he worked another five years his pension would be appreciably greater since the formula is based on the employee's highest earnings.

Collier says plant manager Brian Ward-ley handed him the ultimatum and, when he rejected it, gave him 10 minutes to clean out his desk. Collier took Phillips to court and Justice E. Davie Fulton agreed that given Collier's age and work history, the severance pay should be 18 months, not two months. yJ I tl Four-year-long retirement fight 'quite By PETER WALLS On Nov. 25, 1977, Wilfred Collier sat in his boss's office in Vancouver and stared in disbelief at the letter he'd just been given.

At age 60, after a working life spent at Phillips Cables an electrical wire manufacturing company, he was being given a polite ultimatum take early retirement or be canned. "I just sat there astounded," he recalls. "I remember thinking, 'This can't be happening to me. I've been here 40 years and I'm the most loyal man they've But a year earlier Collier had had a run-in with management over early retirement (which he didn't want), and the corporate decision to retire him or fire him kicked off one legal battle over severance pay (which he won) and likely will lead to another important courtroom fight early next year over his right to early pension (which the company has refused to grant him). A Supreme Court of B.C.

hearing date has been scheduled for Feburary. Now 63, Collier concludes that the dispute with his former employer "really has been quite a calamity." But he isn't about to quit the fight, now four years old. He has run up $8,000 in legal fees, and had to sell his Vancouver home last year despite the $30,000 severance pay settlement he gained in October, 1978, after he charged wrongful dismissal. "We didn't really get that money," he says, "because it went to i BEST COP AVAILABLE.