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OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, September 10, 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 Regional 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 Going beyond spin Ted Chudleigh, Halton MPP he Ontario Liberals have quietly pushed their tall tales, telling anyone who will listen that the PC government under Mike Harris gutted Ontario's health care system. Their tales go beyond spin. Ted Chudleigh It is most telling that the Liberals never bring this into public debate, they merely use it as part of a whisper campaign, repeating it so often in their own circles that it begins to take hold among the general populace. For example, references to hospital closures I've found suggest that in total the Liberals claim the PC government closed 39 hospitals in Ontario. They arrive at this number in two ways. Several places in Ontario including Thunder Bay, Cobourg, Peterborough and Sault Ste. Marie, among others, had two aging hospital facilities. The PCs closed these old, outdated hospitals and built new ones. The Liberals have misled by omission, in failing to account for the new hospitals that were built in Ontario, some to replace aging buildings and several entirely new hospitals to serve growing populations. By my count, we closed 12 hospitals in this manner and opened 17 new ones. In addition, several hospitals located in close proximity were amalgamated to save on administrative costs. For example Oakville Trafalgar, Milton District and Georgetown hospitals were amalgamated into Halton Healthcare Services. Liberal Party math says we closed three hospitals. The truth is we simply streamlined the costs -- the facilities never closed. We repeated this in most major urban centres across Ontario. The truth is we streamlined costs, opened new facilities to replace aging or inefficient buildings and significantly grew health care facilities and increased services in Ontario during our years in government. We started the Oakville hospital project in 2001, with the new facilities slated to open in Oakville in 2009. Milton was supposed to follow. The Liberals shut down the Oakville project only to restart it in 2005 with an anticipated opening of 2014. Milton's project only barely registers on their radar. The Liberals conveniently forget the PC government opened facilities across the province to house 20,000 new long-term care patients, people who were taking needed spaces in acute care hospitals. In addition, we upgraded existing long-term care facilities that house 16,000 Ontarians. We did this because both the previous Liberal and NDP governments had ignored this whole sector of health services. These new long-term care facilities are not hospitals, but they have taken a signifi RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America T THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION RIZIERO VERTOLLI / OAKVILLE BEAVER THE CHALLENGE: The second annual Winston Park Challenge is set for Tuesday, Sept. 15 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the AMC Centrum Park. Residents can cheer on corporate teams competing in a CEO challenge, tricycle grand prix, firefighter sprint and volleyball competition, in support of United Way of Oakville (UWO). Preparing for friendly competition between Oakville firefighters and Halton Regional Police are, from left, firefighters Phil Artwright, Chad Roberts and Tim Groover, Captain Dan Atkinson, Fire Chief Richard Boyes, UWO Campaign Chair Ann Mulvale, Halton police Deputy Chief Bob Percy, sergeants Jeff Foster and Brian Lowe and constables Eric Huer and Andy Olesea. For information, visit www.uwoakville.org. See Spin page 7 The gavel of good fortune knocks noggins and clears clouds e felt like we'd been hit over the head with the gavel of good fortune. Opportunity was knocking on our noggins. We were dizzy with delight. You see: it was a summer weekend. And, remarkably, it was sunny and warm. We didn't let the irony defeat us -- that the summer for which we've all been pining arrived in its full glory on the very weekend we traditionally use to mark the season's end. No, we ran outside like kids (kids who aren't averse to foregoing Facebook in order to go outdoors) and over the threeday weekend we tried to do all the things we'd been unable to do in previous dismal and, invariably, damp weekends. For starters, we let the horses out of the paddock in which they've been treading (rain) water since spring. Then we jogged, biked and golfed (without umbrellas). We threw caution to what little wind there was and we let the sun stroke our pasty skin. We walked dogs, swam, barbecued, and one night we actually drove to our favorite bistro, sat outside (if you can imagine) and enjoyed a summery meal on the patio. Over the weekend we reveled in being able to say things we had been unable to say all summer-long. Don't forget your sunscreen. Where are my sunglasses? And (our favorite): you W know, it's not the heat, it's the stinkin' humidity. Awesome. Dear readers, we've suffered. After a long, cold, lonely winter, we were made to endure a long, cold, soggy summer. Alas, it was truly The Summer of Our Discontent, a season spent under more clouds than one cared to count: economic clouds that Andy Juniper continued to block out the golden rays of prosperity; doomsday clouds that dampened spirits (as experts theorized that the dreaded H1N1 was not gone, but was simply collecting its thoughts in another hemisphere and preparing for an ugly onslaught come September); and plain, old, party-pooper rain clouds. With the cool, damp weather, bugs went crazy, the landscape went lush and loopy, and many of us spent our days and nights slapping back bugs and trying to tame the Amazon Rain Forest that had sprung up in our yards. The weather. For the entire summer, it seemed it was all anyone could talk about. Now, I'm all for a healthy vent, but it got a little crazy when I heard people blaming bad weather for them having a lousy summer. It got even crazier when I heard people taking the weather personally, saying that God was punishing us by (literally and figuratively) raining on our parades. In the big scheme of things, I honestly don't think God has time to worry about the weather over our tiny portion of the province. And if you're letting weather foul up your fun, then you're really not trying hard enough. Continual grey skies can knock the spirit down, but they should never knock it out. I asked our daughter, all of 13 wise years, about the highlights of her summer and she was quick to mention an afternoon she spent in Grant Park in Chicago, braving the elements -- torrential rain teeming down on her head, mired in mud up to her ankles -- and listening to great bands at what she determined was an awesome outdoor concert. Ah, I guess it's all a matter of perspective. Which is not to say that I would not like a few more weekends like last weekend when summer finally came. And went. Andy Juniper can be visited at his website, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com.