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6- The Oakville Beaver, Friday October 12, 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 IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager The choices made Heading into the 2007 provincial election Progressive Conservative Party Leader John Tory was hoping Ontario voters would show their anger at four years of broken promises by the Liberal government. Instead, the electorate turned its anger towards Tory and his ill-conceived idea of full funding for faithbased schools. And despite all the spin doctoring by Tory apologists and supporters, the reason the Conservatives will once again be sitting in the Opposition benches at Queen's Park is because their leader misjudged Ontario voters. It was not the media's fault. It was not Premier Dalton McGuinty "misrepresenting" the issue of faith-based funding. The blame rests at the feet of John Tory, who ironically, lost his bid for re-election at the hands of Liberal Education Minister Kathleen Wynne in the riding he called home for most of his life. As we stated in last week's editorial, this was Tory's election to win as the McGuinty's Liberals served up a host of issues on which the Conservatives could focus their campaign -- broken promises, questionable grants, inaction on a number of issues, a needless legal fight against parents of autistic children, etc. But voters -- not the media as many bruised PCs will whine -- were enraged at the idea of faith-based funding. A last-minute back-track by Tory on the issue did nothing to turn the tide and only weakened the PC party leader's credibility. While he vowed to stay on as PC leader, we doubt he will be leading the party when we next head to the polls in 2011, nor should he. The Liberals, and particularly McGuinty, did not run a great campaign, but they ran a winning one. The premier avoided any potential potholes, kept Tory on the defensive, and did more than enough to convince voters that, while he made mistakes in his first term, he was an improvement over the last years of Mike Harris/Ernie Eves and, therefore, deserved another chance. NDP leader Howard Hampton managed to gain seats for his party and a decent hike in the popular vote so it is unlikely there will be calls for his head. The Green Party, disappointed in not electing its first member to the Legislature, showed with its popular vote total that it is likely only a matter of time before they make that breakthrough. In the horribly-publicized referendum on electoral reform, voters wisely rejected the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) option in favour of the current First-Past-the-Post method. Locally, Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn was easily returned to his seat at Queen's Park. There was never any doubt of his victory. However, it was not so easy for Halton Tory incumbent Ted Chudleigh who, at many times during the night, trailed Liberal candidate Gary Zemlak. Chudleigh eventually prevailed, but the returning PC was sent a strong message from Halton voters. One special note about Oakville Tory candidate Rick Byers; he accepted defeat with class and ran a clean campaign. We hope to see him back in four years time. 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@oakville- Chances missed in referendum Another election hangover and the results are in. Liberal government with 100 per cent of the power from 66.4 per cent of the house seats with only 42.2 per cent of the popular vote. Greens with eight per cent of the popular vote and no seats, no representation, no say. Greens BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com voted and still others speak for them. All the advertisements about voting were brilliant, to have a voice and not to let others speak for you. Well, over 350,000 Ontario citizens voted green in this election and still others speak for them. This will reinforce voting "does not matter", especially when major green support comes from our young and informed 18-34 age bracket. Young, and now disillusioned, voters who voted and have no say, must let others speak for them. What is most sad about the election results is only 52.6 per cent of eligible voters made it to the polls. Meanwhile, citizens of other countries like Burma fight and die for the right to vote. We here have a majority, greater than the number who voted for the winning party, deciding voting isn't worth it. Is this not what Canadian soldiers are fighting and dying for in Afghanistan, the right for them to self govern and create democracy to give the individual a right to have a say? Here the majority of us feel it just does not matter. Sad! Pud See Green page 7 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.