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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, October 27, 2011 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 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. Guest Column Halton may get another MP Terence Young, Oakville MP Recently, some media outlets have reported misleading information on a proposed bill, which will redistribute seats in the federal Parliament. This is a very important democratic initiative of my government. I'm sure you will want to know the facts. It is part of a series of reforms of our democratic process that includes Senate reform and our Open Government Initiative, Terence Young which consists of greater access to government data in a userfriendly format for Canadians. It is important to note our government's commitment to seat redistribution goes back seven years and has been considered and discussed at length during that time. The changes will increase the number of seats in Ontario considerably, based on our fundamental democratic principle: representation by population. The goal is to establish, as closely as possible, the same number of people in each federal riding. This has proven to be a challenge because populations are growing at different rates in different parts of the country. Alberta and British Columbia will also see the number of seats in the federal Parliament increase based on the growth of their populations. In addition to representation by population, Canada has one constitutional and one legislative caveat in this process. The constitutional one goes back to The Constitution Act of 1867, which demands no province will have fewer seats in the House of Commons than in the Senate. For example, Prince Edward Island, which can have no fewer than four Members of Parliament represents a population approximately the same size as my riding of Oakville. To my knowledge, no one in Ottawa or any of the provinces has any desire to begin a round of discussions about changing our Constitution. This would take years to accomplish and distract Canadians from working to revive and energize our economy to create jobs. The second caveat has to do with the Representation Act of 1985, which guaranteed the provinces with smaller populations that their number of seats would never be reduced. For example, Québec will not have its seats reduced to below 75, nor Saskatchewan below 14. This redistribution process will be steeped with integrity because it will be based on the Canadian Census population numbers, which will be published four months from now in February 2012. A mathematical formula will determine the exact number of new seats in each province based on the latest population figures. The new distribution will be overseen by an independent non-partisan electoral boundary commission and will no doubt address the population growth in Wellington and Halton where it appears one new federal seat will be added. I am very pleased to be part of a government that is finally addressing Ontario's and Halton's underrepresentation in the federal Parliament that has existed for many years. Representation by population is absolutely fundamental to democracy. NEIL OLIVER Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director ANGELA BLACKBURN Managing Editor RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver is a division of Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville ATHENA Award PHOTO BY STEFAN STELMACH COYOTE SPOTTING: On Saturday, Oct. 22, Oakville resident Stefan Stelmach spotted this coyote in a ravine along Proudfoot Trail. He snapped the photo from a bicycle path approximately 30 metres north of the Proudfoot and Westoak Trails intersection, which is close to kilometre south of Dundas Street. The frightful g fun and horrible hype yp of modern Halloween T here are two types of people in this world: those who think Halloween is a ghoulishly great, frightfully fabulous night of tricks and treats, and those who are slightly less enthused with what they perceive to be the inanity and idiocy of All Hallows Eve. Regardless of which side you are on, there's no denying Halloween has rapidly expanded in recent years (those less enthused with the whole holiday might say it's become overgrown, or that it's even jumped the proverbial shark). Today, there are assorted websites dedicated to the Halloween Season. Season? There are some of us old enough to remember when Halloween was a night, or a few hours out of a night, not a season. At about five p.m. on Halloween, you tossed Bobby (Boris) Picket's The Monster Mash on the stereo, ripped through your closet in search of something resembling a costume, then you headed out the door dressed as a hobo (or football player, or hobo-football player, or some such), only to return home a few hours later with a pillowcase full of booty and a bellyache. Truth be told, in those days the only thing about Halloween that lasted was the bellyache. Today we live out in the country where, about two months ago, the Halloween Season began in earnest. Seriously, two months ago, with people painstakingly decorating their properties with all the usual ghostly, ghastly props and turning their homes into haunted houses. One family puts so much effort and expense into the so-called season, we Andy Juniper believe they have reached the point where, for a few months of the year, they reluctantly turn their haunted house into, well, a plain old regular home. Part of this is good old enthusiasm, part of it is the admirable love of a good time, and part of it is the more questionable need we seem to have to make everything bigger and (supposedly) better for our children -- in large part because we've conditioned them to be not nearly as easily wowed as we once were. And this relates to all holidays. Think about it: the commercial side of Christmas, which was pretty big even when we were kids, now begins sometime in September with the kick-off of hype and the birth of great expectations. Honestly, pretty soon Christmas will be year-round. If less is indeed more, these seasons we celebrate with more, more, more are in danger of becoming less, less, less, no? Of course, like Christmas, a big part of Halloween is driven by hype and commerce. Make no mistake, Halloween is big business that just keeps getting bigger. In the United States where the economy is crawling and people are having a tough time making ends meet, American adults plan on spending $72.31 each on Halloween this year for decorations, candy, and costumes for themselves, their kids and their pets. That's right, their pets. According to the National Retail Federation, bad economy be darned, that's up $10 per person this year. Halloween lovers, your time has come. Only a few more sleeps until the big day. Halloween haters -- and you know who you are, you anti-costume/candy/yard-decorating/All Hallows Eve Grinches -- only a few more sleeps and then it will all be put to bed (or back in fake coffins) for another year. Or, at least, a few months. Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail. com, found on Facebook http://www.facebook.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters.