6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday April 7, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 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 Spring election in hands of Prime Minister Bonnie Brown Oakville MP ust 14 months ago, Canadian voters elected a minority government. I believe they were saying Bonnie Brown "Let's give a new team a try. But let's keep them under control with a strong opposition." "Canadians are not This is exactly what is happening in Ottawa. uncomfortable with The government introduces a Bill and it goes minority governments to committee. After listening to witnesses from because they know across the country, committee members from all political parties introduce amendments to they can produce improve it. If the Bill is weak they add clauses to good laws in the strengthen it; if the Bill is extreme they modify public interest. or delete clauses to moderate it. Canadians also know I believe the amended Bills that emerge from a federal election this process are a better reflection of Canadians' costs more than opinions than the original versions. $300 million of After all, this is the process that has worked their money." in parliamentary democracies for hundreds of years. Naturally, the amending of government bills does not make minority Prime Ministers happy because they do not get their own way. But this reality has been dealt with by earlier Prime Ministers who successfully delivered very good legislation. (e.g. Lester Pearson and Medicare). Canadians are not uncomfortable with minority governments because they know they can produce good laws in the public interest. Canadians also know a federal election costs more than $300 million of their money. An election this spring would require the Harper government to fall on a matter of "confidence." Confidence is automatically tied to a money Bill. But the 2007 Budget, the main money Bill, has already passed. In the absence of a money Bill, the Prime Minister can choose to declare another vote, a "confidence" vote. If he does this he will be saying to Parliamentarians, "Vote the way I want you to vote or we'll have an election." No Member of Parliament can allow herself to be held hostage in this way. But this scenario is easily avoided by allowing MPs to bring in amendments at Committee in order to find the sweet spot of Canadian consensus on any piece of legislation. Therefore a spring election is completely in the hands of the Prime Minster. If he declares another vote to be a matter of "confidence," we'll know he's determined to have an unnecessary election. I believe all Parliamentarians should respect the results of the election held just last year and work within the parameters decided by the Canadian electorate. In respecting election results, we respect the decisions of people who voted. 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Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora Era-Banner, 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 J THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION Examining the pitfalls and the potholes of country living S pring is sprung and the snow finally fully retreats from the property laying bare the proverbial potholes of country living. For starters, there's, well, the potholes. All winter we'd been driving on what seemed like a smooth laneway. But as the ice and snow melted into a mile-long mudbath, we discovered that the potholes on which we've spent a king's ransom to remedy have returned. Now, to navigate our laneway in a car is to risk an axle. To walk is to risk being swallowed by the soggy earth. It's part of the cycle of country living. It's part of why country homes can accurately be deemed "money pits." Each spring you hire a local crew to "fix" your pothole problem. The guys arrive with truckloads of fresh gravel and grand ideas of altering the grade of the laneway so the problem is permanently remedied. Then, come winter, you pay a local snowplow guy a king's ransom to plow the snow and, with it, all the truckloads of fresh gravel (and all grand ideas of permanent pothole remedies). It's my (paranoid) contention that the Gravel Guys and the Plow Guys are in cahoots, and that they spend their off-seasons in luxury villas with me footing their bills. Part of our laneway problem and, likewise, part of our infer- nal spring-summer bug problem stems from the fact that we live on land that is officially designated "wetlands." Currently there's way more "wet" than "land." As I write, national swim team members are practicing the backstroke in our backyard. And the pool is not yet even open! In winter, this water naturally freezes, giving us a readymade rink -- acres Andy Juniper of great ice, incredibly smooth and hard. Living in the country, you can truly get back to (yechy) nature. One day last summer, for instance, our middle son ran screaming from the house like a frightened grade-school girl. He'd been watching television when something dive-bombed him. That something, I discovered, was a bat. Being a man's man, I didn't cower from the bat, I didn't run screaming from the house like a frightened grade-school girl. No, I opened every door and window in the house, then dropped to my knees and prayed that the evil creature would happen upon one of those open exits, extricate itself from my home, and thusly close the door on my living nightmare. While spring universally signals rebirth, in the country you also witness the other side of spring's spectrum. That is, death. Roadsides are riddled with road kill. Walking the dogs down a lonely country road, we come upon four raccoons and an opossum, victims of car bumpers. Suicide pact? Who knows. Even inside our own abode death visits it visits the multitude of mice who have taken up residence in our home, and who find the peanut butter in our traps too tempting to pass up. Then there are the cluster flies. They enter the home in the fall, lured by our hospitality and warmth. They spend the winter sleeping in our attic. Then, come spring, they awaken, stretch their wings and die at our windows trying to get outside. Only they don't die quickly. They die slowly. Noisily. Buzzing and flapping for hours on end, typically in bedrooms, and typically at night. Keeping everyone in the house awake and on edge. Which is why, each spring, we call Dr. Bug to come spray his magic. We pay him a king's ransom to rescue us from the cluster fly follies. Spring has sprung. Potholes abound. Our chequebooks are open. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com