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

6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday November 24, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com 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. Commentary Guest Columnist 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 Metroland Media Group 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, MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver is a division of Best yet to come with Harper Terence Young Oakville Conservative Candidate he best is yet to come: for Canada and Oakville. This is an exciting time for both. First, your federal taxes are going down again -- to the lowest level in nearly 50 years, including five per cent GST. It will be easier for you to save, pay down credit card balances, invest or purchase things you need. Second, the Conservative government is investing billions back into our communities and environment. Oakville is getting $11,758,109 from the federal Gas Tax Fund for infrastructure over five years. For years our municipalities pleaded the Liberal government in Ottawa for a percentage of the gas tax -- to no avail. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper came through with $829 million for the GTA from 2006-2010. This is part of "Building Canada" ­ the largest new investment in infrastructure since World War II ­ where Ontario cities and towns will get $ 4.4 billion for public transit, sewers, roads and other essential infrastructure. Our government has taken dynamic action on green house gases -- for our children's future. Mandatory targets have been imposed on industry to achieve an absolute reduction of 150 megatonnes in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Targets have been imposed on industry that will cut their air pollution in half by 2015, and the fuel efficiency of cars and light duty trucks will be regulated beginning with the 2011 model year. Significant grants are now available to people who improve the energy efficiency of their homes, their businesses, and for buying energy efficient cars. The government is acting to make our streets safe. A series of armed robberies of youths in Oakville parks, and recent arrest of a young man with a loaded automatic 45calibre handgun remind us Oakville is not immune to violent crime. In Toronto this year police have reported almost 1,000 crimes involving firearms or restricted weapons. Nearly 40 per cent of them were committed by someone who was on bail, parole, temporary absence or probation ­ a legacy of the Liberal rule. Conservative crime bills stalled by the Liberals in Parliament and the Senate last year have just been reintroduced as the Tackling Violent Crime Act. We know this bill will pass this time because while Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have been voting on key votes by standing up for Canada in Parliament, Bonnie Brown and other Liberals have abstained -- by staying seated -- as if they weren't there. I believe Canadians expect better than `Sitting down for Canada' from their MPs. The Prime Minister kept a blistering pace this summer visiting the West Indies to promote trade, Haiti to offer financial aid, the Arctic to announce establishment of a deep water port to ensure sovereignty over our Arctic territories, and then met with the presidents of Mexico and the U.S. in Quebec to promote trade and our security. Stephen Harper stood up boldly for human rights in China, recently greeting the Dali Lama, and made the imprisoned leader of the pro-democracy movement in Burma an Honourary Canadian Citizen while imposing the toughest trade sanctions in the world against the oppressive Burmese regime that imprisoned him. All Canadians can be proud of that. In a recent national poll 37 per cent asking Canadians who would make the best prime minister, 37 per cent named Stephen Harper, 20 points ahead of Jack Layton, with Liberal leader Stephane Dion trailing at 13 per cent. The prime minister's outstanding integrity and leadership on what matters to Canadians are no doubt the reason why. Terence Young IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. 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 RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America T THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION The boat is listing and the lunacy has been put on paper T alk about a cosmic coincidence. As I was sitting at my desk creating a new and dispiritingly long To Do list ­ an intimidating and exhaustive compendium comprised mostly of all the tasks I failed to complete on yesterday's dispiritingly long To Do list -- I saw a headline in my morning paper that questioned: Do you make the (To Do) list or does the list make you? Wow. That's one of those huge philosophical questions over which big thinkers pull small muscles in their heads. Do we truly exist? If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there does it still cause a woodchuck to shake his head and wonder, what the hell? Still, as your resident big thinker, I'm going to take a shot at this one and answer: the list makes me. Sadly, readers, I confess: I am a list man. I submit myself to list lunacy. If I were a boat, I'd be list-ing. Seriously, I have lists in my calendar. Lists in my notebook. Lists on my computer. Even as I write, I'm compiling a list in my head. I have HoneyDo lists, prompted by my wife. I have Daddy-Do lists, incited by my offspring. I have work lists, driven by editors (the only reason I'm writing this is because it's on my list). I have Around-theHouse lists. I even have an Outdoor-Job list that, thankfully, is almost complete now that winter is rearing its hideous head. I have embarrassingly longs lists of the sporting variety (best named sporting franchises, topped by The Savannah Sand Gnats), and the music variety (best pop songs featuring cello, topped by The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby). I have a comprehensive list of books I'd like to buy and pile on the nightstand beside my bed and, hopefully, maybe one day even read. And Andy Juniper another long list of CDs I simply cannot live without (I will gladly forward this list if you're wondering what to get me for Christmas). In fact, I have multiple music lists such as my Top CDs of the 2000s. Speaking of Christmas, I have innumerable Christmas lists. I have a To-Do list of things that need to be accomplished before the big day. I have a list of what I'd like. I have a list of what my wife would like. I have a list of what the kids want. And a list of what ideas off their lists I have already offered to others to put on their lists. Oh, and I have a list of things I really think we should pick up for the hounds. Lists, of course, are all about maintaining the illusion of con- trol (and consolidating our stress). When we write a list we are in essence saying, my life is chaos, but now that I'm writing a list I'm getting this unmanageable mess organized (hell, prioritized!) on paper, so everything will be okay, right? I'm not so sure. There are days when I'm transferring the todo tasks I failed to do yesterday to the list of things I won't get done today, when I think that my lists are actually causing me anxiety, and only adding to the chaos. I've got items on these lists from 1979. Seriously, the following item has been on my to-do list each day since last February: Clean Jeep. Like I won't remember the Jeep needs cleaning when I get inside and see the coffee spill on the console and the squirt of ketchup on the mat? But, then, I guess it's good to be reminded on a daily basis of your short-comings and failures. On rare occasion when I actually get something done off one of my lists I make a big production of not just stroking it off, but taking a bold, felt marker and scribbling across it, emphatically, multiple times. This, by the way, drives my wife nuts. Lots of things I do drive my wife nuts. I believe she has a list. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com.