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6- The Oakville Beaver, Friday March 28, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: (905) 632-4440 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 Let's show who is tops There's more than energy conservation and saving our planet at stake when Oakville joins the world in the Earth Hour challenge this weekend. Also up for grabs come Saturday night at 8 p.m. are bragging rights for either Oakville or Burlington. The two communities' mayors -- Rob Burton and Cam Jackson-- agreed on a friendly wager to see which municipality could reduce its hydro use by the greatest amount. Although the challenge to have our entire town turn off its lights for one hour starting at 8 p.m. is largely a symbolic gesture, the idea is to spread the message about the importance of reducing our carbon footprint. Last year, in Australia, more than two million homeowners and businesses in Sydney -- including the world-famous Sydney Opera House -- turned off their lights for one hour. The gesture created a 10 per cent reduction in hydro use while preventing about 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide -- about the equivalent of taking 50,000 cars off the road for one hour -- from being released into the atmosphere. This year's World Wildlife event is expected to see as many as 20 major cities across six continents helping to spread the message that we can all impact climate change in some way. The objectives of Earth Hour are simple: · Get as many individuals, households and businesses as possible to turn off their lights as a symbolic statement that now is the time to take action on climate change · Educate the community on the threat of climate change and what each individual and business can do to make a difference every day · Get corporate participants to commit to turning off their lights and communicate Earth Hour through internal and external communications channels · Measure the change in energy and greenhouse gas savings So don't forget, it's lights out at 8 p.m. tomorrow. Are you up for the challenge? 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 No warm, fuzzy feelings about GO, say these passengers We think Mr. Cartwright needs to start riding the GO trains again before he can comment on Ms. Eales' petition (The Oakville Beaver, March 19). In 1967, GO transit carried 2.5 million passengers. Today, it carries 50 million. Mr. Cartwright cannot know what we have endured over the past years since he no longer takes GO Transit. The trains are constantly late in the rush hours. He suggests that Ms. Eales has options such as "driving, taking the bus, using a taxi, moving closer to work or obtaining a job in the Oakville area." None of these suggestions are realistic. We, too, would love to work and live in Oakville, but this is not a viable option. There are no jobs in Oakville to be had in our area of work. We choose not to drive into Toronto and add to the already traffic-clogged roads. This is why we chose to use public transit. Taking a taxi is a wonderful solution ­ if someone has an extra $20 or more a day to pay for a taxi to and from the GO station. The buses often run late and arrive after the train has left. Buses also are not the answer for many of the GO transit commuters. Many commuters have commitments after they get back to the GO station after work and if the trains are late the buses have already left and commuters must wait for the next bus. Perhaps Mr. Cartwright did not have children to pick up at daycare, medical appointments to get children to, after school practices/activities to get children to, etc. These activities do not allow extra time to get home via a bus. When his train was late or `not moving', Mr. Cartwright wrote that he could "sleep, daydream" etc. or "read a few more pages of my interesting book." That all sounds wonderful -- but not on today's trains. We wonder if Mr. Cartwright would feel the same way about GO Transit had he been on the express train a few weeks ago on a Friday night. The 4:10 express train out of Union was cancelled with no reason given. We were told to get on an already full train on the track beside us. We arrived at the Bronte station over an hour late with little or no explanation from GO as to the cause. We doubt there was one passenger on that overly-crowded train who had the same warm, fuzzy feeling that Mr. Cartwright seems to have in relation to GO. The need for reliable service from GO Transit is what Ms. Eales is trying to raise awareness of. She is not alone -- more than11,000 people have signed her petition, Mr. Cartwright. LAURA SHEREMETA, RUTH WRIGHT 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.