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Ian Oliver Publisher Robert Glasbey Advertising Director Norman Alexander Editor Geoff Hill Circulation Director Teri Casas Office Manager Tim Coles Production Manager Next came passage of Bill 164 which is expected to increase insurance costs by 4%. Add on an average8% rate hike approved earlier this year for man Ontario auto insurance companies and many motorists could be facing as much as a 17% rate hike this year. The first change occurred back in 1991 when the government made insurâ€" ance companies pay a 3% tax on auto insurance premiums. Then this month it added another 5% premium tax on drivers. ernment? The latest promise to be shattered by the rudderless provincial government is that of a cheaper governmentâ€"run auto insurance scheme. While we‘re not necessarily bemoaning the loss of a governmentâ€"run auto insurance system, we‘re not entirely thrilled with the alternative provided by the NDP. With the passage of Bill 164 last week, the NDP have now provided Ontario motorists with a more expensive privatelyâ€"run auto insurance industry. I $s there any campaign promise left to break for Bob Rae‘s Ontario NDP govâ€" Estimates are the av'erage motorist is going to face paying an extra $200 for car insurance. And it‘s not like motorists have many options in which to save money. If you drive a car, you have to have automobile insurance. You could always give up driving, but cutbacks to public transportation services are making this an unpleasant alternative. Like it or not the majority of Ontario motorists will come up with another $200 for car insurance. And that means they will have $200 less to spend on something which might help revive our ailing economy. Why was Bill 164 passed. Good question. Few people seemed to be demanding its passage. Certainly not the auto insurance industry and certainly not the majority of car owners. Lawyers aren‘t completely happy about it either. Bill 164 does have some merit â€" the â€" maximum benefits paid to accident victims for lost income was increased from $600 (nonâ€"indexed to inflation) a week to $1,000 (indexed). But why pass it now when many people are still suffering economically from layoffs or lower wages and thousands of others in the public sector are faced with pay freezes or less income. The NDP has threatened to roll back any car insurance rate increase it deems excessive, but in light of the government‘s total capitulation to opposition of the governmentâ€"rum auto insurance plan we have to wonder if they have any conâ€" trol over the industry. 4 Oakville South Progressive Conservative MPP Gary says prior to the pasâ€" sage of Bill 164 he received few complaints about the auto insurance system and Halton Centre Liberal MPP Barb Sullivan is correct in stating, " It is the wrone lecislation at the wrong time." The passage of Bill 164 is just another example of the NDP government‘s continuing practice of pleasing very few people at the expense of the majority. I think the town should hire an additional eight firefighters. When the safety of the people of this town are at stake I don‘t think it‘s right to take budget cuts from them. That would go for any essential service. Perhaps if the town councilâ€" lors had to save lives or risk their lives everytime they went into work they might think again about their decision to hire only 13. Mary Atkinson I feel the Oakville fire department should hire those additional eight firemen because I believe we are paying a very high rate of tax here and receive nothing for that as far as fire protection is concerned. The other areas of town which also pay very high taxes are receiving a benefit for those taxes which we are not. Dave Atkinson EDITORIAL Another one bites the dust 467 Speers Road, Oakville, Ont. L6K 354 Classified Advertising: 845â€"2809 Circulation: 845â€"9742 or 845â€"9743 The Oakville Beaver, published every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, at 467 m‘omomlb'ls one of the Me%r“ Publishing group of suburban newspapers includes: s o o e e to, ngwood Connection, Etobicoke Guardian, G town _ Independent/ Acton Free Press, Kingston This Week, Lhdsar is Week, Mardham Economist and Sun, Stouttville/Uxbridge Tribune, Milton Canadian jon, Mississauga News, Newmarketâ€"Aurora Eraâ€"Banner, North York Mirror, ile Beaver, Orlia Toda‘ Oshawa/Whitby This Week, Pambomuo‘l This Week, At meenel roblghen in Te Oubvite Besver © protected by copy mat ie er is reproduction in whole or in part of this material gft?wbn%enwmn consent of the publisher. \QUESTION OF THE WEEK A sampling of the best answers will be published in the next Weekend edition of the Oakville Beaver. Do you share Premier Bob Rae‘s belief that the federal government is economicalâ€" ly discriminating against Ontario? Give us your opiniion on this topic by calling 845â€"5585, box 5012. All callers are allowed 45 seconds to respond and must provide their name, address and phone number for verificaâ€" tion. , eady for another. sea " change in shopping patâ€" .terns? This phenomenon is gathermg steam in the shopping malls and chic boutiques of sunny California. The Los Angeles Times calls it "Cross Shopping". What‘s happening is unpreceâ€" dented numbers of men shopping for women and women are shopâ€" ping for men â€" but particularly the former. Los Angeles retailers are reporting whole new herds of males poking around the lingerie and notions departments, where only.the female of the species used to congregate. What‘s it mean? No one is quite sure. Some experts think men cop an illicit thrill just infiltrating "behind enemy lines". Other behaviorists tug their beards and warn of a dark side to cross shopâ€" ping â€" they say it represents an attempt by men to exert control over their spouses. I say phooey. I don‘t think there‘s anything sinister or illicit about cross shopping at all. I believe it represents but one more revolution of the Gender Blender that‘s been turning us into biologiâ€" cal vichyssoise for years. And about time too. I come from an age when there were sepaâ€" rate entrances at the public schools marked BOYS and GIRLS. I come from an age when all public tavâ€" erns had a special door marked LADIES AND ESCORTS. I can remember a kid in my Grade 8 class being sent home in tears. Her crime? She dared to wear slacks to class. Just to show you how much times have changed,; consider the Cross shopping trend has behaviorists tugging their beards M(CLIENTSARE Nf SUING YoU FoR PAIN AND SUFFERING» case of Brett Martin, an 18â€"yearâ€" old senior high school student in Knoxville, Iowa. He, too, got in hot water for "inappropriate dress" â€" but with a distinctly 90‘s twist. Brett was nailed for showing up at his Knoxville High School prom dressed in a wig, mascara, and a red, sequined, spaghettiâ€"strapped dress he borrowed from his sister. Brett did it as a lark, but the Knoxville High School principal â€" a humorless sod who must have been caught sneaking in the GIRLS entrance as a student â€" didn‘t laugh. Instead, he had Martin charged with criminal tresâ€" pass. The principal should get with the times. Hasn‘t he heard about Teresinha de Jesus Gomes? Teresinha is a bluff, gladhanding 50â€"yearâ€"old woman who‘s been famous in military circles of Portugal for the past two decades. Her army buddies knew her as Tito Anibal de Paixao Gomes. But not as Teresinha de Jesus Gomes. Uh, that‘s General Tito Anibal de Paixao Gomes, to be precise. For 19 years, "the General" regaled his/her fellow officers with tales of daring militaryâ€"intelliâ€" genceâ€"gathering adventures in South America and behind the Iron Curtain. They were great stories, but that‘s all they were. Teresinha/Tito had been impersonating an officer since she donned a general‘s uniâ€" form and her dead brother‘s name away back in 1974. She‘d probaâ€" bly still be in the Portuguese army if she hadn‘t run up colossal debts for her intended State Wedding. Authorities took away her generals uniform and let her off with a threeâ€"year suspended sentence. Oh yeah, and the wedding is off, too. But the good times are just starting for Damian Taylor down in Brisbane, Australia. Damian is a 24â€"yearâ€"old Australian lifeguard, who‘s on the threshold of a whole new career. There was a picture of Damian in my newspaper last night. Damian‘s wearing a sash across his torso in the photograph. _A man has won the ‘Miss Wintersun Beauty Contest in Australia. "Now that I‘ve done this, who knows what I can do?" said a teary Damian. "I don‘t want to cause any waves with Miss Australia, but I‘m going for it." Sure, go for it, Damian. It‘s just one more skirmish in the neverâ€" ending Battle of the Sexes. Nobody‘s ever figured that one out, but the comedian George Burns came as close as anybody I know: The sash reads Miss Wintersun 1993. "There will always be a battle between the sexes," said George, "because men and women want different things." "Men want women...and women want men."