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6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday July 29, 2006 Commentary The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Guest Columnist IAN OLIVER Publisher NEIL OLIVER Associate Publisher TERI CASAS Business Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager KELLY MONTAGUE Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ROD JERRED Managing Editor WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd., includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Caledon Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora Era-Banner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian Taking up the battle for property rights When trees, cows and parking lots appear to have more power than those who own them The Town of Oakville is about to pass a tree bylaw. Just like dozens, maybe hundreds, of other towns and cities have done. So, soon, to cut a tree down on your own property, even a tree you planted, will take municipal approval, a permit and $250. To the north in Nassagaweay, also in my riding of Halton, hundreds of farmers have had their net worth sliced and diced recently by the provincial government, which declared huge tracts of land a greenbelt, in which development is banned. Land prices collapsed. And down Hwy. 401 from my house in Campbellville, a country park had its finances nearly destroyed when the Niagara Escarpment Commission initially decreed it could no longer park cars there in the off season. Even on a paved parking lot. Yeah, otherwise known as a place to put cars. These are just three local examples of the fact all of us do not have the legal right to own property, and therefore have no legal right to defend it. Trees, cows and parking lots appear to have more rights than those who own them. In my humble opinion, this must change, and the battle for property rights is one I am taking up again. In the coming few weeks, I will give you a little background on this issue, and some solid reasons why I think this country needs to bestow this right upon its citizens. Just reflect on the fact Canada is one of the few western nations without such a legal right, and that it was stripped away from us with the creation of the Charter of Rights. Without the right, you cannot fight in court the expropriation of your land for a new highway, nor challenge a zoning change in your neighbourhood, nor battle the establishment of a quarry in your neighbourhood. Without property rights, the Province of Ontario one day just took a halfbuilt subdivision in Caledonia away from the developers, to appease native land claims. Without the right to own property, leaky condo owners in British Columbia had to go through hell to get even a little justice. Without this right any collection of eight or 12 politicians, well-meaning as they may be, can dictate what you can park in your driveway, whether or not you can have a clothesline or what colour your roof tiles must be. The right to protect something you own is basic, so long as society is not threatened. Hence, property rights do not mean you can carry or own a gun, pollute the stream beside your home or shut out your spouse from sharing in matrimonial assets. It simply means all of us will be given the right to ask for adjudication on laws passed by capricious, interventionist or ignorant governments. And who loses here? Politicians and bureaucrats lose. They give over power when citizens become more empowered. And what's not to like about that? If you have a comment on the wisdom of restoring this right, let me know: garth@garth.ca. I will ensure your comments are part of my actions, soon to come. Garth Turner is MP for Halton. He can be reached at 905-693-0166 or www.garth.ca Garth Turner MP RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: ATHENA Awards United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION The fleeting and sultry summer of lobster and lowbrow I 'm trying desperately to rein in the fleeting, sultry and soggy summer of 2006 because it's moving way too fast and I'm enjoying it way too much. To date it has been a summer that, personally speaking, can be divided into two distinctly dissimilar categories: the highbrow (of which I'm proud) and the lowbrow (of which I'm not so proud). In fact, I'm almost ashamed to admit, dear readers ­ because I know you hold me in such high-esteem, the lofty standard to which you all aspire (as if!) ­ that I have been wiling away many summer evenings not only (gasp) glued to the old idiot box, but, worse, watching reality television! Can you sense me blushing with that revelation? Are you repulsed by that odious admission of decadence? Do you think less of me? Ah, who cares. Truth be told, three times a week I've been tuning into Big Brother 7: All-Stars. And (secretly) liking it. And three times a week I've been watching Rockstar Supernova. And (not-so-secretly) loving it. Naturally it was my wicked wife who led me down the path of putrescence and got me watching Big Brother. As a fan of the show during its previous six seasons, it was a given when CBS announced it would be televising an All-Star version -- replete with all the crème de la crème from previous casts -- that she'd be tuning in. What was not a given was that I'd be watching it with her. Seriously, what little I'd seen of this show in past incarnations, I abhorred. Hated the show, despised the despicable "house guests"; at one point I recall saying that these people were without redeeming qualities (to which my wife replied: That's what makes the show so watchable). Anyway, I caught the opening episode Andy Juniper and somehow got hooked. Now I'm forever tuning into the moronic Nomination Ceremony and the dopey Power of Veto Competition and the idiotic Eviction Night, wherein one housemate is given the boot (or, as the ads for the show read: Eviction Night: time to take out the trash). Then there's Rockstar ­ the sequel to last year's sleeper-hit Rockstar INXS that saw Oakville's own J.D. Fortune become the new lead singer for the Aussie band. I thoroughly enjoyed Rockstar INXS, but had precious little interest in this year's version, in part because the leader of Supernova is none other than Tommy Lee. Is there a bigger goofball cliché in all of rock music than Tommy? But, ah, I watched the opening episode and somehow got hooked. Fittingly, at the end of either of these two reality shows, my wife will look at me, or I will look at her, and one of us will invariably wryly utter: "Well, there's an hour of our lives we'll never get back." Alas, dear readers, lest you think that I've allowed the vaunted steel-trap that is my mind turn to mush over the course of the summer, relax: I have not totally gone to the dark side. For every hour of lowbrow there has been at least a moment or two of highbrow. For instance, last Saturday saw me in Stratford at the Festival Theatre. For a musical! That's right, a musical. Admittedly not my cup of tea, it was well-done with excellent performances. Then, there's my choice of summer reading, namely the work of wunderkind Jonathan Safran Foer who, at age 25, produced a minor masterpiece called Everything Is Illuminated. Highbrow. A book that The New York Times noted, "mauled and energized (the English language) with brilliance and brio." In other words, the perfect antidote for an evening inside The Big Brother House, or, worse, hangin' with Tommy Lee. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com.