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6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday April 14, 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 Non-stop electioneering is not good government Garth Turner Halton MP If you were one of the few hundred people who jammed a hall in Milton recently to hear Stephane Dion, you might wonder exactly who it is pollsters are talking to these days. Garth Turner According to the latest numbers, the Conservatives are running ahead of the Dion Liberals ­ enough some days to give us a majority Stephen Harper government. Maybe. And while polls are just snapshots of voting intentions at any one time, in our media-driven society where a headline substitutes for reality, these things hit people. Polls can drive more polls, which can influence voters. But, happily, so can leaders. That's why it was a benefit to Halton voters ­ at least those who could fit in the room ­ to have Dion drop by and hang out for an hour, answering questions. He was charming and disarming, purposeful and direct. Quite unlike the image the Prime Minister has been painting of a weak, indecisive, flip-flop artist who is too much of a pansy to even keep his MPs in line. Ah yes, according to Mr. Harper, the Liberal leader is soft on crime, soft on terrorists, bashes police, cares more for Taliban prisoners than Canadian soldiers and is an extremist when it comes to the environment. Meanwhile the Harper government has also been doing a job on me. The last couple of times I have tried to ask questions in the House of Commons ­ on economic and tax issues, to the Minister of Finance ­ the PM has ordered an attack on me personally, leaving the questions unanswered. Now, both Dion and I are big boys. Can handle this attack, no probs. But it is distressing when national politics descends to the point where political parties spend so much time trying to destroy other people, instead of worrying about voters. I thought of that as I watched all those Stephane Dion is not a leader TV ads the Conservatives ran right after the new Liberal leader was selected. Right now it strikes me there are other things for a Prime Minister to worry about than shredding his political opposition day in and day out. Despite the last budget, middle-class taxes are still vastly too high. We still need family income-splitting to bring more fairness to the system. We've done nothing for years for single seniors, especially women, whose fixed incomes are being steadily eroded. Most 50-something Boomers are completely unready for retirement and the national savings rate is zero. And this federal budget brings the greatest amount of federal spending in history, which has economists worrying interest rates will rise. I don't need to tell you that higher mortgage rates are the last thing a place like Oakville needs. Most of us have most of the net worth sitting in our houses, and any damage done by rising borrowing costs will be widespread. In fact, more than 80 per cent of all Canadian family net worth is now in real estate ­ but I seriously wonder if Finance Minister Jim Flaherty knows that. Anyway, my point is a simple one: You didn't send me to Ottawa to spend all my time dumping on other people, and trying to get re-elected. At least I assume not. Instead you sent me to try and get a few things done to improve your life and to represent you. This is why I will continue to oppose what I think is excessive government spending; attempted vote-buying in places like Quebec through a massive new federal transfer; a lack of focus on middle-class voters; the spectre of rising mortgage rates; continued inaction on climate change; and non-stop electioneering which gets in the way of governing. Stephen Harper may think getting a majority is the goal. The rest of us think it's getting a better country. The two are not equal. NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director TERI CASAS 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 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 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION Saying goodbye to the literary lion who coined: "So it goes" I found Kurt Vonnegut -- or, rather, he found his way to me -- in 1975. I was walking the halls of my high school when a friend passed me a book, like a quarterback handing off a football, and then exhorted: "You have to read this. It's incredible!" The book was Breakfast of Champions. I soon found that my friend was right. The book was incredible and unique. I'd never read anything even remotely like it before. And I haven't read anything even remotely like it since. Written in short, snappy sentences, and illustrated with purposely puerile pictures drawn by Vonnegut himself, I fell in love with the quirky book and the even-quirkier author. A few weeks ago, Kurt Vonnegut suffered brain damage in a fall in his home. Late last Wednesday, at the age of 84, the literary lion passed away. When I heard the news, I didn't know what to say. Yet I knew what Vonnegut would say if he were around to talk about his own demise. But, then, anyone familiar with his work knows what he would say: So it goes. Kurt Vonnegut was not an instant sensation. He toiled in obscurity for nearly two decades until the mainstream discovered him in 1969 with the publication of what many critics consider to be his masterwork, Slaughterhouse Five. The novel was a marvelous mix of science fiction (time travel and such) and the author's own experiences in World War II; a POW, Vonnegut survived the Allied firebombing of Dresden by holing up in a slaughterhouse. In Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut famously employed the casually philosophical phrase "so it goes" (according to Wikipedia, the refrain is repeated 106 times Andy Juniper -- every time a passage dealt with death or any time the novel was in need of comic relief). So it goes. Kurt Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed pessimist. He was insightful and influential. He was brutally honest, philosophical, provocative and perceptive, wonderful and witty. Vonnegut was a modern-day Mark Twain, only he liked his humor the way men of his generation like their coffee: black. Vonnegut had his vices ­ unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes (a pack or more a day since he was a teenager), for instance. He also had his demons; he struggled throughout life with depression and attempted suicide in 1984. Still, he was prolific, writing 14 classic counterculture novels, three short story collections, five plays and five works of non-fiction. Like J.D. Salinger, Vonnegut's work continues to captivate youth. He is revered by students, who keep his novels in print and his pearls of wisdom circulating on the Internet. Young readers love his honesty and insight, his compassion and humanism. Novelist Jay MacInerny once classified Kurt as "a satirist with a heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion." John Irving once called him "a writer with a cause." One of Vonnegut's so-called causes was the environment ­ that is, the fate of what he called "our tiny blue-green planet." He despaired at mankind's environment-destroying avarice. He once lamented: "We could have saved the Earth, but we were too damned cheap." Vonnegut was a living dichotomy. At times he carried the weight of our tiny blue-green planet on his shoulders. At times he was the life of the party. Kurt Vonnegut once wrote: "I've had a helluva good time. I tell you, we're here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you any different." Amen. God bless you, Mr. Vonnegut. So it goes. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com