www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, November 7, 2012 · 6 Opinion & Letters The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 905-845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 632-4440 Circulation: 905-631-6095 -- 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington 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: Canadian Circulation Audit Board Member THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America Canadian Community Newspapers Association ATHENA Award Neil Oliver Vice President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The OakvilleBeaver is a division of 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 MARK DILLS Director of Production Manuel garcia Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution KIM MOSSMAN Circulation Manager Like a smile, a Random Act of Kindness (RAK) may be simple and inexpensive and yet be the most powerful, richest gift anyone can bestow on another. All too often, daily life can leave us feeling lost in the crowd, unimportant, just another face, number or name. When someone makes us feel a little more than that -- special, important, of value -- it can resonate in our heart for a long time, if not forever. Friday (Nov. 9) is Random Acts of Kindness Day in Oakville. It is promoted within the community by the Oakville Community Foundation (OCF). An act of kindness can be as simple as saying thank you or as large-scale as a charity effort -- but it builds goodwill and it builds community. That's the message the OCF wants spread. Random Acts of Kindness grew out of the U.S. around 1990 when a lot of violence was taking place. A professor in California and a group of his students, tired of hearing about the random acts of violence, decided to turn it on its head and carry out random acts of kindness. It is now a movement spreading throughout North America and beyond. Oakville is already a great place to call home. Let's all put on our thinking cap and find a way to show kindness to someone else. According to Rusty Baillie, OCF CEO, the purpose of the day is three-fold -- to highlight the acts of kindness that take place around our town, to get people out of their comfort zone and look for ways to be kind to others, and to retain our excellent town spirit. Students have been challenged to come up with ideas. Businesses are recording their efforts with the OCF. Residents of all walks of life are being urged to get involved. Some are handing out flowers, others a free coffee. Others are supporting a charitable cause. Still others will show kindness to a senior, parent or neighbour. Many will record their effort with the OCF, likely many more will just do something nice for someone. To help spread more awareness of RAK Day, OCF organizers ask the community to share their experiences with kindness from the day by sending an e-mail to rak@theocf.org, writing a blog post at www.rakoakville.com, or by tweeting to @oakvilleCF and using the hashtag #rakoakville. For information, visit www.rakoakville.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. Share a smile Gas plant cost could run $1.2B Letter to the editor Letters to the editor 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. Canadians should have a say Prime Minister Harper could commit this country to the most sweeping trade deal in a generation, without debate or a vote in the House. Passage of the CanadaChina FIPA will pave the way for China's massive companies to spend billions buyingout Canada's natural resource companies. Under FIPA, China's companies can sue Canadian governments, federal, provincial or municipal, if those governments do anything to limit the companies' profits here. For 31 years, the FIPA would make it possible for China's companies to challenge Canadian laws that create jobs, protect environment and build healthy communities with billion-dollar lawsuits that would cost taxpayers dearly. We should learn from the fact Canada has already spent hundreds of millions on penalties from lawsuits launched under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Now Belgium is facing a $3 billion lawsuit from one of China's companies because of a similar foreign investor agreement. Why would Harper lock us into this secretive and extreme deal? This is a democracy. Surely Canadians have a right to have a say in shaping our lives. Tina Agrell, Reclaim Our Democratic Canada On Friday, Nov. 2, The National Post stated TransCanada Energy rejected the government's settlement of $462 million and $712 million and the cost of going to court was expected to be about $750 million for compensation for breach of contract. Add the building of transmission lines in the order of $200 million. Then, there is still the problem of power for the GTA -- a replacement 300 megawatt plant could run to $350 million. The total cost could be more than $1.2 billion. Granted all the political parties wanted it stopped, but it was the Liberals that started it. Was Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn not the assistant to the energy minister at the time, saying it would bring jobs to Oakville? The Liberal Party and their big severances should be on the hook for this debt, not the citizens of Ontario. Tom and Linda Jachymek, Oakville Thanks for all your efforts Where are the protesters over prorogation? In 2008, facing a worldwide recession, Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament for six weeks in order to prepare a budget. Protesters gathered outside Terence Young's office in Oakville, concerned about prorogation. In June 2010, Dalton McGuinty prorogued the provincial parliament. Last week, facing an empty treasury and two scandals under his watch (i.e. the ORNGE ambulance fiasco and the power-plant cancellations), Dalton McGuinty prorogued the provincial parliament again, this time for an extended period, to avoid deeper public scrutiny. Why are there no protesters outside Kevin Flynn's office? Robert Seccaspina, Oakville This is a thank-you all the teachers and support workers who have continued to give our children a complete school experience this year despite the issues with the provincial government. School education is much more than sitting in classrooms. The extracurricular activities give life and character to the schools and help build better and happier students. For many, extracurriculars are crucial to their academic success. I want to thank, in particular, the staff at Thomas A. Blakelock Secondary School in Oakville. Peter VanDuzer, Oakville