I
Page 6-Tuesday, May 22, 1979-The Michigan Daily
Canada's
TORONTO (AP)-As Canada's
election campaign drew to a quiet close
yesterday, Prime Minister Elliott
Trudeau's Liberals anxiously awaited
the outcome of today's balloting. The
polls said the race was too close to call,
but Joe Clark was predicting victory for
his Progressive Conservatives.
The 39-year-old Clark made his final
appearance of the two-month campaign
in Alberta, his home province in
Canada's West. Trudeau, prime
minister for the past 11 years, spent his
day in Ottawa.
As many as 75 per cent of the coun-
try's 14.5 million eligible voters are ex-
pected to cast ballots for represen-
tatives in the House of Commons, which
has been expanded to 282 members.
The party winning the most seats
generally forms the new governmet,
and its leader becomes prime minister.
THE OPINION polls, which show
each major party favored by an even
37.5 per cent of the voters, indicated a
positive turn for the Conservatives
because Trudeau's party has fallen
from a 43 per cent favorable ranking
since early April.
The Liberal stranglehold on Quebec
distorts the even-slit picture painted by
the polls. The Liberals may expand
close to half their popular vote easily
winning their 60 or so seats in Quebec,
while the Conservative vote is spread
more evenly across some 200 other
races nationwide, giving the Conser-
vatives a better shot at overall victory.
But many Canadian analysts, min-
dful that the tough, resourceful
Trudeau has been counted out before,
see a chance for the Liberals.
NEITHER PARTY is likely to win a
majority, and a Liberal minority could
cling to power with backing of 43-year-
old Ed Broadbent's New Democrats,
the third-strongest group.
Trudeau has said that if the Conser-
vatives win just a few seats more than
his Liberals, he may try to hold on to
power with the backing of the New
Democrats, expected to win 20 or so
seats.
A Conservative victory would make it
only the second time in 44 years that
they have taken power from the
Liberals, and their leader would be the
youngest prime minister in Canadian
history.
MANY CANADIANS, however, have
election campaign draws to close
been noticeably dismayed by the of his final jibes, the 59-year-old, acid- bureaucracy.
prospect of Clark, the untested tongued Trudeau said Clark "doesn't Clark promised business incentiv
politician from High River, Alberta, know his razzmatazz from a hole in the and hefty tax breaks, including U.
leading their country. The Liberals ground." style deductions for home-mortage
hope many-including the 10 per cent to BUT THE Conservative theme-"It's terest payments.
20 per cent still undecided-will find in time for a change"-may have struck Trudeau sought to make nation
the polling booth that they cannot vote an even more responsive chord. unity, meaning French-speakir
for a Conservative Party led by Clark. The opposition attack was basically Quebec province's threatens
The Liberals have zeroed in on that a decade of Trudeau's strong "one- .secession, the central issue. He conte
Clark's vagueness, vacillation and ap- man rule" has worn down the Canadian ded that only he, as a French-Canadi
parent lack of preparation on some economy-inflation stands at 10 per and' champion of a powerful centr
issues. cent annually based on March figures government, could keep Quebec in ti
"This is no time on the job training," and unemployment is at 8 per fold. But the complicated question d
their campaign ads trumpeted. In one cent-through big spending and bloated not stir the voters.
es
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id
Elton John
LENINGRAD, U.S.S.R. (AP) -
Flamboyant British rock star Elton
John drove his Russian audience to a
frenzy of dancing, screaming and
handclapping yesterday,
reminiscent of the wave of Beatle
mania that swept Western capitals
in the early 1960s.
At the first strains of the old
Beatle hit, "Back in the U.S.S.R."
teen-agers in the audience pushed
past ushers - a rare show of defian-
ce - and headed for the stage in the
Oktyabrsky Hall. They stood before
the stage dancing and clapping their
hands in the air. A crowd estimated
at 4,000 jammed the 3,500-seat
auditorium.
After the show, John sat sweating
in his dressing room and assessed
the performance as his "biggest
achievement." He said the audien-
ce, which responded slowly at first,
came alive when two young girls ran
to the stage and gave him white car-
nations.
"THE FLOWERS were the tur-
ning point," he told reporters. "I
think I began to win them over."
After the concert, more than 1,000
young Russians at first refused to
leave the auditorium and then
clustered outside shouting "El-ton,
El-ton."
One hundred security police were
unable to keep the crowd back as it
mobbed the singer's departing
limousine.
BEFORE THE concert yesterday,
Russian teen-agers, some apparen-
tly willing to pay $150 on the black
market to hear the performance,
thrills crowd
stood outside the hall and pleaded
for tickets.
The 32-year-old singer arrived
from Moscow Monday morning and
holed up inadeluxe hotel most of the
day resting before the show.
He is the best-known Western rock
singer ever allowed to tour the
Soviet Union.
"ONE OF THE reasons I wanted
to come here is because I didn't
know what to expect," he said. "So
that makes you play harder."
Before John's train left Moscow
Sunday night, two middle-aged
Russians daringly pushed past
railroad security guards to get his
autograph. One of the Russians gave
him a present - a small, hard-to-
find guidebook to Leningrad's Her-
mitage Museum. ,
HOurs before John was scheduled
to perform inside the 3,500-
canacity hall here. voung neonle
in U.S.S.R.
outside the auditorium pleaded with
foreigners and passersby to sell
them a ticket.
THOUGH THE dates of four John
concerts were announced on
Leningrad Radio only two weeks
ago, young Russians complained
that the concert hall was "sold out"
by the end of April.
"Only important people, officials,
can go," said Luba, a 20-year-old
student at Leningrad University who
was hoping for a ticket.
Officially priced at 19 - six rubles
- each, tickets were said to be
selling on the black market here for
as much as $150. Just buying two
tickets would exceed what the
average Soviet worker earns in a
month.
LUBA AND her friend, 20-year-old
Nella, said they believed only a
"very small number" of tickets had
ever gone on open sale.
The vast majority of seats ap-
parently were taken by friends of
city officials, high-ranking Com-
munist Party members and their
sons and daughters.
JOHN, A bizarre dresser, will play
a total of eight concerts, four in
Leningrad and four in Moscow's
Rossiya Hotel. His appearance took
months of negotiating between his
record company, Rocket Records,
Inc., in London and Soviet Goskon-
cert officials.
He is accompanied by his mother,
Sheila Farebrother, and his step-
father, Fred Farebrother. It is not
known how much John is getting
paid for his Soviet performances.
JOhn
U
mu mmii
I
f
1
TPNIGHT AT
ONE SHOW ONLY ,
An experimental concert of rock,
jazz and "NEW WAVE"
Musics by Daevid Allen and NEW
YORK GONG, GILLI SMITH AND MOTHER
GONG, YOCHK' 0SEFFER, PRISMATIC
AND THE ZU band.-
presented by Giorgio Gomelsky's
Alternative Production Lab
Wed: BIG TWIST and
the MELLOW FELLOWS
for more info call 994-5350
}
ii
Prisoners of Chinese
invasion return home
TOKYO (AP)--The first sick and
wounded prisoners from the Chinese
invasion of Vietnam crossed to their
respective homelands yesterday under
an exchange. agreement, and both
groups discarded their personal
belongings ina show of defiance.
China's official Xinhua (Hsinhua)
news agency and Japan's Kyodo news
service reported that 120 Vietnamese
soldiers, including some women,
crossed into Vietnam at a northern bor-
der plant. Vietnam then released 43
Chinese prisoners.
China had pledged to release a total
of 1,000 prisoners captured during its
four-week incursion into Vietnam in ex-
change for 200 men it said were held by
Vietnam. The border war flared Feb.
17, and China said its offensive was a
result of provocations by the Hanoi
government.
VIETNAMESE prisoners repeatedly
shook hands with Chinese medical per-
sonnel, but threw away their packs and
personal belongings on the order of
V,ietnames security personnel when
tbey crossed the border. Kyodo repor-
ted from the "Zero Kilometer Mark" on
the road from China's Friendship Pass
to Dong Dang in Vietnam.
Xinhua said the prisoners' packs
were seized and thrown away by Viet-
names security personnel. It did not
mention the belongings of returning
Chinese prisoners but Kyodo said they
also threw away their gear to express
hostility toward Vietnamese authority.
Earlier, Xinhua reported Chinese
frontier guards were removing land
mines at the point where the Vietnames
prisoners were to be released.
DOHINIQUE BOREL, a represen-
tative of the Geneva-based Inter-
national Red Cross, witnessed the-ex-
change. The organization said its ob-
servers would attend talks on further
repatriations.
Along with a list of the prisoners,
Xinhua said, China gave Vietnamese
Red Cross authorities 41 "certificates
of disability for captives." Chinese
medical workers gave the prisoners
"meticulous medical treatment and at-
tention to their daily'life;',the agency
said.
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