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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 30, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS 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 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher 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 ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager Railway safety As children, we are bombarded with messages intended to help keep us safe. Always wear a helmet when riding a bicycle. Don't talk to strangers. Look both ways before crossing the street. Never give out personal information over the Internet to someone you don't know. As adults, we sometimes need to be reminded of dangers that exist if we are not careful. One of those reminders involves staying clear of railway tracks and demonstrating common sense when approaching a railway crossing. While it may seem a no-brainer that bringing a freight train together with a pedestrian, cyclist or motorist is a recipe for tragedy, statistics suggest many Canadians aren't heeding the warning. According to Transport Canada, there were 209 railway crossing collisions in 2007, with 27 fatalities and 21 serious injuries. There were another 100 incidents involving trespassers on railway property, resulting in 57 deaths and 25 serious injuries. "When you take into account the many near collisions that take place each year at crossings or on rail tracks, as well, we clearly must remain focused on building public awareness," said Canadian Pacific police Const. Ron Morrison. This week (April 28-May 4) is Railway Safety Week in Canada -- a time to remind everyone of the serious risks that exist by crossing the paths of trains. In addition to the risk of death or serious injury, people who trespass on railway property or fail to yield the right-of-way to an approaching train at a crossing are subject to being charged federally under the Railway Safety Act. While railway officials conducted safety blitzes at two Burlington railway crossings on Monday (April 28), they continue to appeal to the public to keep a watch out for anyone who may be putting their lives -- and others -- at risk. Anyone witnessing trespassers on railway property or motorists who ignore warning signals at crossings is asked to report them immediately to local police or by calling 1-800-7169132. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Politicians should refrain from campaigning in guest columns Recently, both Terrence Young and Bonnie Brown have appeared as guest columnists in The Oakville Beaver. Young's column began rather well. However, at some point, it took on the form of a campaign speech complete with a slam on the Liberals, and a "ra, ra" moment for Stephen Harper. In her column, Brown lunged directly into taking down the Harper government ­ by the roots, in fact ­ and, for the duration of her piece, offered nothing but a litany of PC evils. I would have received Young's column with a much higher level of regard, had he stuck to his title theme of "reasons to be optimistic" and left his political antics for another occasion. As for Bonnie Brown's piece, I gleaned nothing new from it, and nothing to think about -- I didn't even find concrete reasons why I should vote Liberal, just reasons why I shouldn't vote PC. My question is: why are politicians, from any party, not asked to refrain from activities that represent the promotion of political interests when invited to write editorial? We're all accustomed to the inability, on the part of many politicians, to focus on the task at hand -- in this case, writing a column -- without falling into grandstanding and/or opposition-bashing. We're so numbed to it, though, that we don't even seem to mind when it finds its way into venues where these practices might not be appropriate. My point extends beyond these two examples, though -- the editors of The Beaver were following many precedents by allowing these guest columns to appear as they did. As I understand it, the point of editorial columns is to comment on current events and pertinent issues in a manner that provokes thought and open discussion. To do this, columnists can choose to objectively present researched facts and/or offer opinion that reflects respectful consideration of all sides of an issue. Political campaigning will have time and space designated to it, as do corporate promotional submissions. These elements all coexist within a publication, of course, but shouldn't there be times when their convergence is discouraged? There is so much that our government officials could comment on when they are invited to write a guest column, for any publication. I'd much rather see them construct thoughtful articles which offer useful insight reflecting their experience and knowledge -- than use these opportunities to campaign or backstab. Also, I wish that our newspapers would be more vigilant about keeping our politicians on track, with respect to the purpose of editorial -- allowing them to stray into political acrobatics only cheapens the experience for the readers. MARIA DIDANIELI Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com 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.