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OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, July 30, 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 Guest Columnist 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 Wooing voters Ted Chudleigh, Halton MPP onventional wisdom in politics has it that a government accomplishes its most controversial actions in the first half of its term and then tries to make nice with the electorate in the time remaining before the election. The McGuinty Liberals appear to believe in that approach. Ted Chudleigh They have implemented or introduced a large number of controversial policies, from Draconian approaches to speeding and young drivers, and a lowered definition of impaired driving, to feel-good pesticide bans and huge new taxes. They have also imposed feel-good legislation that doubles as social engineering. It purports to target undesirable behaviour, but winds up inconveniencing responsible people while being ignored by those targeted. Such measures chip away at our freedom while adding another brick to the edifice of the socialist state. We are now halfway through the mandate handed to the Liberals in the 2007 election. Expect Chairman, er, ah, Premier McGuinty to start to make nice. It is the strength and weakness of our parliamentary system that allows a party with a majority of seats to sweep away opposition and implement rapid change. However the speed of that change often means all potential outcomes that may arise have not been fully considered in advance. People often ask me, what will we, in opposition, change if elected to government. The short answer is -- a lot. The longer answer is that two years will expose much of the nonsense in current Liberal policy and make specific necessary changes obvious. Even now we can see that government is far too big in Ontario. The Liberals have nearly doubled the Ontario budget and have increased the size of the public service. A smaller government will reduce the tax burden on Ontarians and their businesses, making this province business friendly once again. It is obvious that the pesticide ban will have to be modified. The government ignored sound scientific judgment in its approach. Instituting a sweeping ban and then allowing certain products back into the marketplace as need dictates is at least a defensible approach. However, if that was the government's intention, it should have explained it at the outset. As it stands now, the Liberals appear to be anti-science zealots, deaf to reasonable people who do not share their own world-view. The property and health of a lot of Ontarians is going to suffer before a change can be made. The harmonized sales tax (HST) boondoggle is more complicated. Now, in the middle of an economic upheaval, is not the time to be fiddling with tax policy and increasing the tax burden every day, on every Ontarian. The plan should be scrapped entirely unless the federal government agrees to exempt all the products and services that are currently exempt from PST, ensuring that no additional tax will be paid by Ontarians under this plan. Other Draconian attempts at social engineering must be dropped as soon as possible. Laws are one thing, state enforced responsibility is quite another. C 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 SUBMITTED PHOTO TEAM EFFORT: A recent fundraising barbecue by Team Brother Bear -- which supports b.r.a.i.nchild foundation at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and was founded by and continues in the memory of the late Austin Brasil -- raised nearly $3,000. Inspired by six-year-old Jack Yeilding of Jack's Lemonade Stand, Team Brother Bear gave Jack, who has a severe form of epilepsy and has raised nearly $100,000 for Toronto's Sick Children's Hospital, a legacy award honouring his efforts. In turn, Jack donated the day's $155.26 in lemonade sales to Team Brother Bear. Now Team Brother Bear will hold its second annual gala, Following a Hero's Footsteps, on Aug. 8.Tickets cost $40 and are available at teambrotherbear@hotmail.com or 289-838-8469. When your golf game, the summer and the septic all stink I was doing my impersonation of a mountain goat -- that is, I was climbing a heinous hill on a typical cottage country golf course that is long, narrow, rife with hazards and mercilessly mountainous ­ when the first call came in. In fact, I felt my cellphone vibrating in my pocket on my backswing and abruptly shanked my shot. As I bid farewell to my ball -- watching it sail over the formidable fescue and into the deep woods -- I swore a blue streak, admonished myself for having brought my phone in the first place, then answered the call. It was my wife. Apparently things were falling apart back at the cottage. Something about a basement flood and a rising need to build an ark, or some such. I suggested she turn off the water, locate the problem's source, and call me back. Truly, I was hoping she wouldn't call back. I was hoping beyond hope that the problem would have a simple fix. And I was really hoping to continue on with the round because, hopelessly addicted, I need my fix. And because it was a rare sunny day in the-season-previously-known-as-summer that has been more in line with Nuclear Winter (or what Oakvillians call Canadian Open weather): below normal tem- peratures and an annoying mix of rain and thunderstorms followed by more rain and thunderstorms. Alas, I was in the midst of putting when the second call came in. I felt my cellphone vibrating in my pocket, lost all concentration, and abruptly sent the ball scooting by the hole, setting me up perfectly for a three-putt on a Andy Juniper hole I'd already double-bogeyed. It was my son on the line, intimating that the earlier report of a flood in the basement had been grossly understated, and adding that if I valued my marriage (indeed, my life) I should skedaddle back to the cottage. Because there was indeed a flood of biblical proportions -- water everywhere, saturating carpets, sending mice and men scurrying for higher ground, and because, while investigating the deluge, my wife witnessed a cap exploding off a pipe, followed by a geyser of what city folk might be inclined to call, well, sewer water. It took me 20 minutes to reverse my ground off the golf course, dodging drives and the curses of angry hackers -- "Hey, moron, you're going the wrong way!" Ah, no kidding -- and another 20 minutes to drive back to the cottage where all hands were on deck. Rather, all hands were in the basement in full, frantic restoration mode, trying to salvage furniture, carpets, and such. Family, friends, cottage neighbors all plugging their noses and pitching in. Hours later, plumber at my side, his odious (and astronomical) estimate in hand, I placed a call to our family friend, the cottage owner who had been keeping up with the day's events from his home in Toronto. My accounting of the unfathomable estimate was met with a brief silence before he bravely gave the go-ahead for the plumber to do the work, and for me to dynamite the cottage on our way out. The next day I returned to the mountain goat pasture and finished my round, succumbing on assorted holes to the inherent evils of the course, and carding a final score that, not unlike a busted septic and this summer's weather, could best be described as really stinky. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com.