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OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, June 18, 2009 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 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 Vice-president and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY General Manager 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 SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com Cash for Oakville Terence Young, Oakville MP One of the things that has impressed me most in Ottawa is how the people in the National Press Gallery spend most of their time speculating about who's winning and who is losing, who made personal gaffs, and which party is on its way up or down in the polls. I think this trivializes the work parliament Terence Young does, especially when important public policy initiatives only get a six-second clip on the TV news. I sometimes chuckle when I see TV journalists on `the hill' actually interviewing other reporters as they express their personal opinions or speculate on various matters to each other. Most of what you hear and read in our media has little to do with the real work going on here. The truth is our minority Conservative government is getting a lot done to help Canadians deal with the world-wide recession. This was evident when the Liberals voted for our January budget without asking for even a single change. Here is a brief summary of our initiatives and bills presented to parliament since November, which have been passed or are in various stages of passage through the Commons: $12 billion in spending to generate new economic activity across Canada, the largest economic stimulus in Canadian history. During the last election campaign I promised to get a fair share of federal spending for Oakville. The largest previous capital investment in Oakville from Ottawa was $2 million for the Bronte outer harbour, 17 years ago under Conservative MP Otto Jelinek. That's why I am proud to have already announced federal funding for four major new projects for Oakville totalling almost $54 million: the GO Transit parking facility for 1,000 cars: $15.5 million; the Oakville bus facility for 120 buses: $15 million; a wastewater treatment plant in southwest Oakville: $8.4 million; and, $15 million for Sheridan College for campus expansion. Forty new government bills include a major initiative to create jobs here by expanding our trade, starting with Peru, Columbia and Europe. Six of the bills will, amongst other things, make sure drug dealers who sell drugs to our children face mandatory minimum sentences, not sit at home playing video games. They will create a new offence against drive-by shootings, establish a much-needed, four-year minimum sentence against murder connected to organized crime, re-instate lapsed terrorism measures to prevent terrorist attacks, and improve the federal sex offender registry so it actually helps police officers protect our children. The Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, will extend our protection of our pristine Arctic waters from 100 to 200 nautical miles, and establish the third largest park in Canada at the Nahanni National Park Reserve -- almost as large as Vancouver Island. These are just some of the initiatives I am proud to make happen on your behalf. If you want any information on these or any other issue, call my Oakville office at 905-3382008. I hope you and your family have a healthy and happy summer. 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: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION GRAHAM PAINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER SPECIAL MOMENTS: Halton Regional Police held their annual Special Friends Day at Country Heritage Park in Milton Sunday. The event included games, live entertainment,lunch and plenty of prizes. Here, Melissa Knapman, 9, left, and her sister Jessica Knapman ,12, have some fun peering through the cutout of the football toss game. Jessica is a Special Friend and took part in the Special Olympics torch run last week. Prose for the poolside and perfect books for the beach For entertainment. For insight. To escape. To engage. To exercise the mind. To experience diverse cultures and ideas. And because, as philosophers have often noted, novels are art and art humanizes us. Okay, now that we know why we should read, let's look at what we should read. Summer starts this weekend. Thus it's time for my annual offering of superb summer reading -- Books For The Beach, Perfect Prose For The Poolside -- a recommended reading-list that has been known to incite bedlam in bookstores, lunacy in libraries and rioting, or at least, reading in the streets. The English Major by Jim Harrison. I fell in love with Jim Harrison's provocative prose back in the mid-1980s when I read (spellbound, twice) Sundog. Since then, my love (like the author's reputation) has only grown; whenever anyone debates the Greatest Living American Writer, Harrison is rightly considered. The English Major is the perfect summer book: wry and readable, hearty and humorous, and brimming with pearls of Zen wisdom. Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. Set in the despair of Great Depression, Gruen's arresting offering tells the story of a young man who, upon learning his parents have been killed in a car crash, hops on a train and ends up in a circus caring for the animals. Kudos to Gruen for doing her homework (the novel depicts in detail the Depression and the seedy circus subculture), and for creating a genuine page-turner. The Retreat by David Bergen. The Andy Juniper Winnipeg writer's fifth novel, and his first since winning the Giller Prize for The Time in Between, is another gem. The book opens with an 18-year-old Ojibway boy being taken by a local policeman to a remote island and being left for dead. Miriam Toews (The Flying Troutmans), who knows a thing or two about writing, says Bergen "is a master of taut, spare prose, that's both erotic and hypnotic." Breath by Tim Winton. Bruce (Pikelet) Pike is a survivor. But he's haunted by all he survived while growing up in the 1970s in a small Western Australia town. Pike's past includes a childhood taking absurd risks as a "rebellion against the monotony of drawing breath"; and his past includes an older woman who virtually asphyxiated his youth in one frightening afternoon. If this book takes your breath away, try Winton's earlier works, particularly Cloudstreet, The Riders and Dirt Music (the latter two having garnered Booker nominations). American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. This is the dramatization of Alice Blackwell, the fictitious First Lady of the United States of America who unmistakably resembles none other than Laura Bush. Sittenfeld takes you inside Alice's head, the political life and even the White House. Slam by Nick Hornby. From the engaging author of High Fidelity -- the best book ever written about the kind of guys who are obsessed with both music and making best-ever lists -- Slam is Hornby's first foray into young-adult fiction. And, given the author's insights and the book's casual and charming style, it's an adult-friendly winner. Hey, this ain't literature, but it's lovable. It's summertime. Let's get reading. Let's crack some spines. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com.