The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6- The Oakville Beaver, Friday January 5, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS 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 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS A DIVISION OF METROLAND MEDIA GROUP LTD. WEST GROUP PUBLISHER IAN OLIVER NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director TERI CASAS Business Manager MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd., includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, Caledon Enterprise, 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 Current thoughts Some thoughts on current events from the past week: · Where's winter?: While the unusually mild winter has many environmentalists predicting the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it, we're more inclined to agree with Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips who suggests it's wrong to look at one year and scream "climate change." Yes, it's been balmy and snow has been nearly non-existent. Our suggestion: Quit whining and enjoy it while it lasts. · GO your own way: CN, which supplies crews for GO, cuts 34 engineering jobs on Dec. 29 and on Jan. 2-- the first business day of 2007-- there are delays and cancellations galore. Coincidence? We think not. Union officials representing the engineers deny any work-to-rule protest and say they would never condone such action. Riiiiiiiiight! · Ford farewell: Say what you want about our cousins below the 49th parallel, but when it comes to honouring their fallen -- especially their presidents -- they know how to do things up right. The funeral ceremonies for expresident Gerald Ford were classy with a capital C. · Gun play: Only hours into the new year one woman was dead, another seriously hurt and two men were wounded in three separate shootings in Toronto. Gun statistics released this week also reveal that few of the 5,000 firearms reported missing each year in Canada are found by Toronto police. Explain to us again why the average Canadian needs to be packing a weapon? · Don't spend it all in one place: Ontario's minimum wage rises Feb. 1 to $8 an hour. Says Ontario Labour Minister Steve Peters, "It is to Ontario's economic advantage to see that our workers are paid a fair wage." Exactly. How MPPs, like Peters, who voted themselves a 25 per cent raise last month can sleep at night after coughing up a lousy 25 cents an hour to minimum wagers is beyond us. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. Town should not not stop at just saving 250-year-old tree Save the tree? Save all the trees in Oakville! I am observing with shock the cavalier attitude Oakville residents have toward trees and the 250 year old white oak has become a symbol for me. I have watched in horror as my neighbours cut down 50-foot tall pine trees to make way for backhoes -- contacted the Town and received no response. Residents in southeast Oakville pay millions of dollars for beautiful treed lots and proceed to cut the trees down in the interest of showcasing their beautiful house, with no intervention from the Town of Oakville. Many communities in Ontario including Niagara-on-The-Lake, Toronto and Mississauga have much stricter urban forest protection laws than Oakville. We need to learn from their example. The fact that there was even a possibility of a 250-year-old Oak tree being cut down in Oakville to accommodate a road is embarrassing. I believe any tax dollars necessary should be used to protect the trees in Oakville or we will all be much poorer as a result. Global warming is magnified in areas with fewer trees. "Bare land and open water absorb much more heat than earth covered in trees or snow," Peter Gorrie, Environment writer, The Toronto Star, Jan. 3, 2007. Does anyone see the irony? OAK-ville - we will be a town named after a tree with no trees if we aren't much more diligent in protecting our urban forest. Mayor Rob Burton made a good decision quickly and will get my vote in the next election if the environment of Oakville remains a top priority. BETH MACDONALD Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com Teens discouraged by neighbour All too often, teenagers are assumed to be up to no good. So what happens when they are actually up to good, and someone makes the wrong assumption? As parents of three teenagers, we have tried to instill the values of good behaviour, respect and fairness. We have also made a point of emphasizing the importance of spending time wisely, keeping busy with hobbies and outdoor activities. During this Christmas break with no snow, no See Teens page 8 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.