6 Oakville Beaver Weekend Sunday May 21, 2000 T h e O akville B eaver lan Oliver, Publisher Neil Oliver, Associate Publisher Norman Alexander, Editor Kelly Montague, Advertising Director Steve Crozier, Circulation Director Ten Casas , Office M anager Mark Dills, Production M anager Riziero Vertolli, Photography Director Metroland Printing. PubSshing & Distributing Ltd., includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, AJfeton Herald/Courier, Barrie Advance. Barry's Bay This Week, Bolton Enterprise. Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burfngton Shopping News, City Parent. CoSngwood/Wasaga Connection. East York Mirror. Erin Advocate/Country Routes. Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Post, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Huronia Business Times. Kingston This Week. Lindsay This Week. Markham Ecnomist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, 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, Peterborough This Week. Picton County Guide. Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror. StouffviHe/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: o II Y vmca y y Since 1930 B R O N If:* * * U T T E R F L Y 'T i S r f f l g f 4 . J C & I f * ^ L \c tff TV AUCTION unjedw^ I 'jp ^ X s 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 846-3824 Fax: 337-5567 p m | m m m oakvllle galleries | ONTARI O Editonals Time for exploring This weekend marks the beginning o f Tourism Week in Ontario. For many of us, the word tourism may seem to apply to visitors from other provinces or countries. But the fact is that this province has a There are certainly lot to offer its residents if they'll only take the reasons for all of us to time to do some exploring in areas little known to them. take pride in this area of Toronto is surely a mecca for foreign tourists Ontario and what better but th e re are to u rism tre a s u re s th ro u g h o u t week to check out Ontario waiting to be discovered. In H a lto n , and p a rtic u la rly O a k v ille , the some of the in c re a se in th e n u m b e r o f h o te l ro o m s has attractions in our increased our visibility as a spot to stop and take own backyard? in some sights. And part of that reeling in tourists here will be the installation of some new signs to guide visitors to areas of interest. With tourism an estimated $54.4 million a year business, it's important that we trumpet the reasons for tourists to get o f the QEW or Hwy. 401 and check out Oakville and Halton. There are certainly reasons for all of us to take pride in this area of Ontario and what better week to check out some o f the attractions in our own backyard, such as the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame, Bronte Creek Provincial Park or even the Farm Museum in Milton. Or how about a peaceful walk through the streets of old Oakville and then relax in one of the many coffee shops and restaurants? Ontario tourism provided over 270,000 direct and 190,000 indirect jobs in 1998 and contributes $7.8 billion to the province's Gross Domestic Product, ahead of mining, logging and forestry. That's not small potatoes. Summer is just about here...enjoy and explore Ontario this year. e F o rty -s e v e n p e r c e n t o f divorced or separated Americans personally know someone who is going to hell. Fifty-seven per cent daydream about being fam ous. E ig h ty -o n e p er cen t b elie v e in some sort of afterlife. Thirty-three per cent have talked to a therapist at least once. And 21% have been awakened in the past month by a nightmare. T hese in terestin g and som e w hat in sig h tfu l sta tis tic s w ere culled from the New York Times Magazine's "The Way We Live" poll -- an am bitious nationwide su rv e y ta k e n in an a tte m p t to d e te rm in e th e m a k e u p o f America's inner life. H a v in g sp e n t a few h o u rs p e ru sin g the p o ll's ex h au stiv e summaries, I came to two conclu sions that, not surprisingly, the m a g a z in e fa ile d to re ach . F o r starters, Americans are way wack ier than I ever imaged -- which w as w ay w acky to begin w ith, considering that this is the country whose leaders contemplated blow ing up the m oon as a show o f technological and military might during the Cold War. And, second ly, the age of polling the prover bial pants off people has reached new, dizzying heights. N ot that our Yankee D oodle Dandy neighbours stand alone in their obsessive passion of polling. O ur very ow n B ank o f C anada recently conducted a poll to try s u iv e y s a probably not make the back of the bills because he also resided in Scotland and the U.S. And Terry Fox, who died in 1981, is consid ered to be "too recent." P e rso n a lly , I 'd lik e to see another poll taken to determ ine ju st how m any C anadians have any idea whatsoever of who/what the Famous Five are/were... Give courageous women who fought to have women enshrined as equals in the law -- but, then y 'all knew that, right? I th in k in ste a d o f sp en d in g money on focus groups, the Bank of Canada should have just asked one typical Canadian (and here, I'm leaning toward me) what he thinks. W hat image do I believe should be on the back of our bills? Hmmm. How about one of our famous funny people like Dan Ackroyd, Martin Short, Jim Carrey, Harland W illiam s, A ndrea M artin, John Candy, etc.? O r how about our funny Greens, Red or Tom? How about the Guess W ho? Or one of o ur w orld -fam o u s divas? How about a mouth-watering image of a little back bacon burning on an open fire? Wait a minute! I've got it. How about Alex Trebek? We could put the Canadian-born Jeopardy host on the back o f a $5 bill and mint the bill in the form of a question: What is worth about $3.50 in the United States? and determine what image should replace the birds on the backs of our current currency. Those polled had many bizarre things to say about the im ages they were shown. For instance, the re n o w n e d G roup o f Seven painters were called "unrealistic." C hildren playing hockey on an outdoor rink were written off as "a guy thing." The 90-year-old hero ine of Margaret Laurence's classic Canadian novel The Stone Angel was considered too "sultry" (yeah, baby!). And the troubled genius that was the late-great m usician Glenn G ould was dism issed as being "neurotic to the p o in t o f being damaged." Hey, Glenn, wel come to the club! Consequently, all were axed off the list of the images contending to grace the bills (from $5 bills up to $100). A ccording to the poll, the m ost p o p u lar im ages w ere Alexander Graham Bell, a tribute to peacekeeping, a com m em ora tion o f the discovery o f insulin, national hero Terry Fox, and the Famous Five. Bell, however, will Pud By Steve Nease m