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OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, July 16, 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 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 Guest Columnist Delivering for Oakville Kevin Flynn, Oakville MPP Earlier this year, the Ontario government announced its economic plan, Confronting the Challenge, to assist our province through these difficult times. Ontario has been caught in the midst of a global economic crisis. Our automotive and manufacturing sectors Kevin Flynn have faced tremendous difficulties weathering the storm. And the economic downturn has led to a decline in provincial revenues that help pay for our important social services such as health care and education. During the last legislative session, our government recognized that we needed a plan to take immediate steps to create jobs now and to prepare for Ontario's economic future. We worked hard to ensure that this was the principle behind Confronting the Challenge. A major component of the plan was the commitment of $32.5 billion over the next two years for new infrastructure projects that will support more than 300,000 jobs and prepare a strong foundation for Ontario's economy to grow. The commitment by our government to stimulate Ontario's economy is targeted and unprecedented. I am pleased to announce that the plan is beginning to deliver for Oakville residents. Over the past month, I have helped to announce the first infrastructure projects in the Town of Oakville and Halton Region that will receive provincial funding. The provincial government has announced $15 million in funding for a new Oakville Transit Facility, $16.7 million for improvements to the Oakville Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant and more than $27 million for various projects in Halton Region that will assist with the growing population in our community. This is on top of previous commitments from the province for projects, such as the new parking lot structure at the Oakville GO Station. And the money continues to be delivered in Oakville and across the province. Most recently, I was on hand to announce $500,000 of provincial funding for improvements to the Bronte Athletic Fields and $167,000 in repairs to Kinoak Arena so more athletes and spectators can enjoy Oakville's sporting facilities. Failure to invest in our infrastructure as has been done previously is, in reality, just another form of deficit. Each of these projects will also receive funding from the federal and local or regional governments. I believe it is a positive sign that all levels of government are recognizing the importance of the moment and that all governments are working together to create the type of projects that help keep our community moving and prepare for the future. 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 NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER PULLING FOR THE KIDS: Canadian Weightlifting Champion Ryan "6 Pack" Lapadat pulls a 26,500pound school bus at a Trillium Camp for kids with Cancer at St. Marguerite D'Youville last Friday to raise money for the camp. Scotiabank is matching every donation dollar for dollar. Lapadat will be pulling four more buses this summer for Trillium Camps. In the fall he will go back to pulling school buses to raise money for Sick Kids Hospital. For more information, go to www.6packlapadat.com. See Turning page 8 Singing in the correct key and taking potshots at perfection P erfection, some sage soul once noted, is a moving target. Still, human nature being what it is, we keep eying that target and taking potshots. Not that perfection isn't an admirable goal. Trouble is, in an increasingly shallow and plastic society, we're fast losing sight of two things: what truly constitutes perfection, and the fact that, ironically, it is oftentimes our imperfections that bring us closest to perfection. The late Michael Jackson is said to have considered his face to be an ongoing work of art. And while beauty is in the eye of the beholder, most people agree that with every procedure he underwent to alter his once cherubic countenance, the more he went from perfection to punch line. And Jackson was not alone. The celebrity world is rife with examples of cosmetic surgery gone mad (Donatella Versace) and cosmetic surgery gone bad (Mickey Rourke and the likes of Meg Ryan, whose seemingly frozen face is no longer capable of conveying emotion -- not a tiny problem for an actress). Jim Furyk is a professional golfer who possesses a swing that is about four time zones away from perfection. Just how ugly is his stroke? A commentator quipped that it looks like an octopus tumbling out of a tree. Still, despite years of having experts and so-called experts attempting to alter his swing, he sticks with it to the point where he has basically perfected imperfection. The perfect swing? Not quite. But a swing that has snared him two Canadian Open championships and a U.S. Open title. Back in 1985, Northern Lights -- the Andy Juniper cream of the Canadian crop of popular recording artists -- gathered in Toronto to record Tears Are Not Enough for Ethiopian famine relief. Super-producer David Foster was at the helm of the project and he was striving for perfection for this worthy cause. After hearing Neil Young lay down a line in his renowned flat vocal style, Foster casually criticized the singer for being off-key, to which Young famously replied: "That's my sound, man." The sound that made Neil one of our nation's most revered singer-songwriters (#34 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time). The perfectly imperfect sound of a legend. All of which brings me to the bee in my bonnet. Yes, I'm wearing a bonnet and, yes, there's a bee in it: that bee is AutoTune. Auto-Tune is an "audio processor" that is used to correct imperfect pitch (the kind of pitch that is Neil Young's sound, man). While Auto-Tune has been around since 1997, the pitchcorrection software is becoming more ubiquitous and more controversial as artists are lining up to either sing its praises (in perfect pitch, naturally) or rail against it (artists like Death Cab For Cutie and Jay Z, who has a song out called D.O.A. -- Death of Auto-Tune). Personally, I'm firmly entrenched in the anti-Auto-Tune Camp. What, you may wonder, is so inherently odious about vocal enhancement/voice manipulation? Aside from the fact that it reeks of cheating -- like juiced-up sluggers swatting tapmeasure home runs -- it also sucks the soul out of music, making everything homogenous, robotic. It takes the perfect imperfections of the world's Neil Youngs, Bob Dylans, Paul Westerbergs et al, and with the push of a button, turns them into imperfect perfection. Ah thanks, but no thanks. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com.