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www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, April 22, 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 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 The Oakville Beaver is a division of Guest Columnist The power of history Terence Young, Oakville MP The proposed power plant is the biggest issue in Oakville. Having lived here 24 years, I believe it is the biggest issue in Oakville's history. Led by the best organized and funded local interest group I have ever seen -- Citizens for Clean Air -- 2,000 Oakvillians recently dropped what they were doing to Terence Young protest on the lawn of Queen's Park. This is unprecedented and should have never been necessary. People should have a right to feel safe in their community, not only from criminals, but from inappropriate development that diminishes their quality of life. In the past, I have worked towards that end in community policing, for the Glen Abbey Residents' Association, on Crime Stoppers and as MPP for north Oakville. For most, their residential property is not only where their heart is, and their family, but their work and their major asset for planned retirement. That is all under serious threat in east Oakville -- from our own provincial government. The source is a huge carbon-fuelled power plant proposed to be built just a few hundred yards from a residential neighbourhood. It would spew out a large invisible cloud of pollutants in gaseous and particulate matter form to settle on an entire community in Oakville. The Ontario government reports the air shed is already "taxed." Translation: the air is already poisonous for many people. The main reason Halton children end up in hospitals is respiratory disease. On many summer days, scores of people simply can't go outside. Yet Dalton McGuinty defers all entreaties and official letters from myself and our mayor to the Ontario Power Authority and ignores his own Liberal caucus member MPP Kevin Flynn. McGuinty could put an end to this unhealthy plan for Oakville with the stroke of a pen and should do so immediately. To do otherwise is to abandon common sense, the people of Oakville and Mr. Flynn. In 2002, Dalton McGuinty promised to close, by 2007, the four remaining Ontario coal-fired plants not already ordered closed. They are all still smoking away. So Oakvillians' health must be sacrificed now in an attempt to keep an eight-year-old election promise? This plant should be in Nanticoke where it is wanted and would be away from homes and schools. The McGuinty government is spending $32.5 billion on infrastructure projects to get Ontario out of recession. The additional cost of transmission from Nanticoke could easily be considered one additional project. If McGuinty refuses to retreat on this plan, I will go to the wall with the federal powers under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act to stop the plant, but the federal power is limited to a "review" of the project on its impact regarding federal jurisdiction -- for example the rail line and the water in Lake Ontario. The outcome is uncertain and should be a last resort. To help convince Premier McGuinty to reverse this unhealthy decision, send an email today to dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org. WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com Suburban Newspapers of America Media Group Ltd. RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville ATHENA Award PHOTO BY TRACY MARINUCCI WILD!: It was just after dinner hour Friday when Oakville resident Tracy Marinucci, who lives in the area of Lakeshore Road and Shorewood Place, spotted this wild turkey in her backyard. Marinucci, who has also seen and photographed a bald eagle who stops by her property often, said it's amazing to have nature in her own backyard. The day a true pessimist came busting out of Oprah's closet T he other day I was reading Oprah's magazine -- I think it was the issue with Oprah on the cover -- when I came across a life-changing article that is finally going to allow me to be me. You see, by nature I'm kind of a pessimist. Remember Murphy's Law (whatever can go wrong, will go wrong)? Compared to me, Murphy's an incurable optimist. It's not that I wouldn't like to be perpetually positive, but oftentimes I simply find optimism to be altogether unfounded. There's an ancient Chinese proverb that suggests it's better to light a candle than live in darkness. But the way I look at it, 6.3 per cent of all house fires are caused by candles. For most of my youth, I was quite content living as a pessimist. To paraphrase writer George Will, when you live as a pessimist you are always either being proven right, or being pleasantly surprised. Of course my favourite team is going to lose. My favourite team always loses. Wait. What? They won? Well, alright! Alas, at some point in the last 20 years, my life bisected an inane age of touchy-feely, pop psychology and pseudo-spiritual, self-help nonsense -- all exemplified by Oprah Herself. Well, Oprah and a book that she backed called The Secret, in which it's theorized that your thoughts control the universe. If you want a fluffy white puppy, think about getting a fluffy white puppy and, alas, you'll get a fluffy white puppy. Right. It's an age that has persecuted pessimists and driven all but the most committed (Al Gore and Oscar the Grouch come to mind) straight into the closet, Andy Juniper leaving the world to its terminally sunny thoughts. And in the closet I remained until I read the story in Oprah that, while not exactly converting the talk-show guru from optimist to pessimist, at least noted that 30-35 per cent of Americans employ a form of pessimism known as defensive pessimism "that can lead to very positive results." According to Julie K. Norem, a professor of psychology, "defensive pessimism is a strategy used in specific situations to manage anxiety, fear and worry. Defensive pessimists prepare for a situation by setting low expectations for themselves (or their favorite team: see above), then follow up with a very detailed assessment of everything that may go wrong." Naturally, this imagining leads to further contemplation of how one will handle all that may go wrong and that gives the pessimist a sense of control. Granted, the true pessimist knows that control in life is about as sure a thing as maintaining control of a car on an icy road. On a steep hill. With brakes that have failed. But I digress. According to another psychology professor, Lawrence Sanna, defensive pessimists "tend to be successful people and so their low opinion of outcome isn't realistic; they use it to motivate themselves to perform better." And if they fail -- which we all know we will -- we're ready for it, "so it's not catastrophic." See: we're pessimists, defensive, or whatever. Not freaks. And we're so successful, the world truly needs us. Hey, Gil Stern once noted that the world needs pessimists just as much as it needs optimists. After all, it was an optimist who invented the airplane. And a pessimist who invented the parachute. Even though we're certain that the parachute will never work. Andy Juniper can be visited at www.strangledeggs.com, contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters.