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6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday April 26, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 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 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 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 MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvil ebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver is a division of Who is minding the store asks MP Bonnie Brown, Oakville MP uring the first 116 years of Canada's history, the federal government accumulated debts of 143 billion dollars. Then, in 1983 Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney took office. Upon his departure just nine years later, our debt load had more than doubled to a staggering 383 billion dollars. Mr. Harper is heir to this legacy of Conservative fiscal profligacy and he remains true to form. Having inherited the Liberals' annual budget surpluses exceeding 10 billion dollars, he has chosen to abandon our policy of prudence. Instead, he eliminated this financial cushion with tax giveaways favouring the well off and dramatically increased government spending, especially on the military. This has exposed all Canadians to the vagaries of international economic fluctuations. As a result, The Dominion Bond Rating Service is now warning "it is likely that the government would run its first budgetary deficit in over a decade". For someone purporting to represent "conservative" values, this fiscal imprudence is perplexing. It's perplexing until we recall the motto of the National Citizens Coalition which Mr. Harper used to lead. It states: "More freedom through less government". (Freedom for whom we might ask?) American economists refer to the economic policies that Mr. Harper is following as the "starvation" strategy. If you can't get the public onside with your small government agenda, just choke off the government's revenue stream and blame the ensuing social program cuts on external financial pressures rather than their true cause, your own political ideology. Sadly, the Harper government's disdain for majority opinion and abuse of the public treasury goes beyond this. Election Canada's recent raids of federal Conservative Party headquarters has brought public attention to the long brewing scandal surrounding the way that party conducted its financial affairs during the last election. Elections Canada has alleged that the Conservatives illegally manipulated financial flows between the federal party and its individual ridings. The allegations are that this "in and out scheme" enabled the Conservatives' federal advertising spending to exceed the allowable limit by over a million dollars. If true, it could have influenced the election outcome and enabled individual Conservative candidates' campaigns to receive election spending rebates from the public treasury to which they were not legally entitled. In short, this is a criminal fraud investigation. Convictions could bring a maximum penalty of up to five years in jail and a $5,000 fine for the financial agents involved. In 2000, as head of the National Citizens Coalition, Stephen Harper led an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada against election spending limits for third parties. He opposed such limits, and lost. Given his involvement in this challenge in the highest court of the land we can reasonably presume that he is well acquainted with election spending rules. Should the current allegations prove to be true, there will be no refuge for Mr. Harper. However, receiving less media attention is the fact that the Conservative Party has also been flagrantly breaking the rules regarding the distribution of household political flyers. MPs are allowed to mail a given flyer, at tax payer expense, to no more than Bonnie Brown IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora EraBanner, 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 D THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION See Actions page 7 Author is ailing and it is time to play The Blame Game ndy is ailing. If you're looking for something or someone to blame ­ and isn't it human nature to point bony fingers ­ you could blame the insidious influenza that's making its way around town. Or, if you're like Andy, you could blame your wife. Last Sunday, you see, Andy and his wife were enjoying a bountiful breakfast in a local eatery -- bacon, eggs, home fries, the whole nine yards -- when his cell phone rang. Now normally he doesn't answer his cell phone when he's dining in a restaurant, but having just read that 18 per cent of Brits surveyed (and, the survey assured, Brits are slaves to their cells) would answer the beckoning ring of a cell phone even if they were in bed with someone, well, he felt duty-bound to answer. It was Andy's eldest, calling from Toronto, to announce that he was sick as a dog. Fever. Chills. Body aches. Congestion. Coughing. Raw throat. The whole nine yards. Of course, Andy did what any loving parent would do: he sagely advised his eldest son to get plenty of rest, drink plenty of fluids, take as many drugs as humanely possible, and then call him back in the morning. However, upon hanging up, Andy's wife said he should have offered to drive to Toronto and pick him (and his bug) up and A drive him (and his bug) home so he could suffer in more comfortable surroundings and convalesce under the tender loving care of his parents. Ah, Andy thought as he transported his hacking son home, it's one of those hefty ethical moral questions over which great thinkers have pulled neck muscles: do you throw your own offspring under the Andy Juniper proverbial bus just to save your own skin, or do you take one for the team? Two days later, when Andy came down with the identical ailment that had felled his son -- as his temperature rose, his body ached, his throat was on fire and his chest began to collapse -- Andy thought he had his answer. He should have fabricated, and then cited as fact, some arcane act ­ The Quarantine Act of 1871 ­ wherein sick people should not be driven home from Toronto to Moffat and cared for by people with a proclivity to catching every bug going. That being, well, Andy. The first night under the insidious influence of influenza, Andy had fitful, spectacular dreams. Dreams, he imagined, that rivaled those of his beloved Beatles in their Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds phase. Dreams with tangerine trees and marmalade skies and a girl with kaleidoscope eyes. It was like he was having an acid flashback, only without the previous use of, ah, acid. When morning came he was anything, but well rested, and his body felt like it had been trod upon by drunken elephants in steel-toed boots. The ensuing days would only bring increasing agony. The fever caused hallucinations (how else to explain to the neighbors the whole underwear incident?). The body aches led to cramps and muscles pulls (which explains why he's walking like a geriatric Tim Conway character). And the influenza eventually settled down and planted roots in his chest and his sinuses. Andy is ailing, dear readers. You can send him sympathy cards, although he'd probably prefer cash. And if you see his wife about town, shake your head in dismay, feel free to tell her she should have known better than to play Russian roulette with her hubby's health, and ask her, what the heck were you thinking? I mean, has the poor woman not heard of The Quarantine Act of 1871? Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com.