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www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, January 14, 2010 · 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 Regional 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 Liberal spending being felt by all Ted Chudleigh, Halton MPP o you don't like the HST? Well, you'd better sit down. The HST is just the beginning. And what's worse, our new tax regime is coming hard on the heels of a huge number of tax and fee increases since 2003, all from the man who promised he would not raise taxes and would run balanced budgets. Since 2003, corporate and personal income taxes have risen, property tax has risen, taxes on beer, wine and spirits have risen, driver's license renewal fees have increased, the Province has allowed new land transfer taxes and vehicle registration fees to be charged by municipalities and fees have increased on electronics and tire recycling. Ontario is facing a budget deficit for this year alone of more than $25 billion and the only solution Premier McGuinty has is to increase taxes and fees. Over the holidays, he quietly announced huge increases in fines for traffic offences. The typical two-income household in Ontario now pays $720 each year in the McGuinty Health Tax, while the HST impact, will be about $2,000 each year in additional tax paid by people making around $50,000 per year. The money you have paid in Health Tax went down the drain of eHealth with $1 billion spent and nothing to show for it. The promised income tax reduction allegedly in place to offset the HST, actually amounts to less than the added tax the average driver will pay on gasoline alone. It has apparently never entered the Premier's head that the cost of government is too high. The McGuinty Liberals have nearly doubled annual provincial spending during their six years in office. They have a $25 billion deficit on top of that bloated budget for this year, and they are introducing a huge new daycare program under the guise of an early learning program for four and five year olds. Rather than scale back its nanny state, the McGuinty Liberals simply assume you want more of it, and that you are quite willing to pay, and pay, and pay. Ending useless programs, getting out of parts of the economy in which government has no business, scaling back employees and their entitlements and generally being better stewards of the public's finances are not something they will entertain. The Ontario Liberals have a significant history of raising taxes. They have no history of scaling back government services a much more difficult task. As the spring budget approaches you already know what they will do, despite their rhetoric, their claims and their promises. Ted Chudleigh RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America S THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION KAREN NEWMAN / OAKVILLE BEAVER FOR MIKE: Sharon Burns and Lisa Moffat from the Canadian Cancer Society, Oakville Unit, accept a cheque for $25,000 from Terry Budd of Budds' Imported Cars. The money was raised by the 2009 Feast of the Fairway golf tournament held in August at Glen Abbey Golf Club. When the information highway meets the congested highway T he other day I was jogging down one of those inherently dangerous country roads (narrow, twisting, hilly, snowy, slippery, with no sidewalk in sight) when I was sent scurrying off the road and nearly down into the ditch by an oncoming car being recklessly piloted by a pinhead preoccupied with his cell phone. Once I managed to swallow my heart out of my mouth and back into my chest, where it had jumped around the time my entire life was flashing before my eyes, I threw the driver a belated one-finger salute. And then I thought to myself (major sarcasm alert): you know, what drivers need nowadays is more newfangled technology in their cars so they can be further driven to distraction. So, you can imagine my shock when the very next day I read in the New York Times that automakers and technology titans such as Google and Intel are teaming up -- "to the dismay of safety advocates" (not to mention, joggers and cyclists) -- to make the Internet accessible to drivers via what amounts to a desktop on the dashboard. Why? Pure profit, of course. As the Times noted, common sense be damned, the tech industry sees "vast opportunity for profit in working with the automakers to create the next generation of irresistible devices." And who are we to get in the way of technology or irresistible devices? If you think cell phones, CD players, makeup applications, and five-course meals are problematic for people behind the wheel, wait until you get hit later this year by the first wave of what the autotechie types are calling dashboard "infoAndy Juniper tainment systems": 10-inch screens mounted on the dash with the capabilities of showing HD movies, 3D maps, and any webpage onto which you feel like surfing. Imagine, the information highway on the congested highway. Seriously, why would anyone ever want to look at the road? How is the clogged QEW to compete with rollerskating babies on You Tube? I know what you're thinking: you're a responsible, mature adult who knows that more accidents are caused by driver inattention -- the aforementioned cell phones, CD players, etc. -- then by car malfunction, driving conditions and drunk drivers combined. So, you'll just take a big old educated pass on this dan- gerous technology. Well, think again. The new systems are expected to be standard issue in a wide range of new cars. Short of dismantling the device with a crowbar, you're stuck with it. The only option you'll have is whether or not to turn it on. Ah, temptation. And who among us can resist temptation? While the systems will come equipped with some safety features that won't allow a driver to access some applications when the car is moving, web pages and the like will be accessible anytime. And while I swore I would never use my cell phone while driving, I admit to having pulled it out once or twice to make really important phone calls: like, do we need bread? So, who am I to stand on my soapbox and say that I'll never (in a moment of stupidity or weakness or sheer boredom) fire up my dashboard Internet and quickly check a baseball score, or, ah, watch the second season of Chuck in its entirety? Hey, I've seen the future. And it looks like a car, piloted by a pinhead, hurtling toward me. I've seen the future and, despite the dazzling 10-inch screen, it looks kind of frightening. Andy Juniper can be visited at www.strangledeggs.com, contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters.