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6 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday January 16, 2009 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS 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 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: NEIL OLIVER Vice ­ President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The Oakville Beaver is a division of Media Group Ltd. DAVID HARVEY 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 Leaders need to get a grip Perception is reality. With the daily barrage of doom-andgloom stories about our faltering global economy, it should surprise no one that consumer confidence continues to wane. With more than 100,000 net job losses recorded in Canada in the last two months of 2008, the average consumer is starved for some indication that better times are on the horizon. To date, few have been offered. Unfortunately, some very powerful people who control vital segments of our economy have done very little to gain the trust and faith of consumers when it is needed most. When the price for a barrel of oil dropped a whopping 74 per cent (from July's all-time high of $147 U.S. to $38 U.S. on Tuesday) and the price of gasoline at the pump has dropped just 42 per cent (from roughly $1.30 per litre last July down to about $0.75 per litre earlier this month), is it any wonder that consumers feel ripped off and less eager to spend? When the Bank Of Canada recently reduced the key overnight lending rate by 75 basis points -- its lowest level in 50 years -- and none of Canada's Big Six banks matched the interest rate cut, they shouldn't be shocked that consumers are shying away from big purchases requiring loans. Finally, there was this week's news that a $254-million federal contract to build 1,300 trucks for the Canadian military had been awarded to a U.S.based manufacturer's Texas plant -- probably a bitter pill for unemployed Canadians from the automotive sector to swallow. Combine it with the fact that the same Illinois-based company just handed layoff notices to 500 workers at a Chatham, Ontario plant that builds -- you guessed it -- trucks, added insult to the financial injury of all those recently added to the growing list of the unemployed. If leaders in government and commerce find it hard to grasp why this recession has taken such a stranglehold on consumer confidence, perhaps they would benefit from remembering just three little words -- perception is reality. 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. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Speaking as a GO Transit user, I am tired of being consistently late to work and home. The service GO Transit provides a commuter is pathetic. We pay a hefty price for this service and letters of complaint to the Ministry of Transportation, GO Transit and our MPP Kevin Flynn, have provided no reassurance that the serious problems with GO service will be fixed. As a matter of fact, GO commuter issues challenge to MPP not one solution has been offered. Ontarians should be concerned about this problem because people will inevitably start driving to work instead of using an extremely unreliable public transit system. Who would blame them? We can't help but wonder if there is any political will to fix this serious problem. Is there even one GTA-area MPP who uses GO Transit? I challenge all GTA-area MPPs, Kevin Flynn in particular, to use the GO train to get to and from Queen's Park. Perhaps he should see first hand how his constituents who use GO Transit are poorly served. I believe that if he uses the service, he will be more inclined to help solve this serious problem. Every GO Transit commuter should challenge Mr. Flynn to use GO transit. NANCY TIBBO Israel not acting in self defence Re: Rabbi says Israel has the right to defend itself, Oakville Beaver, Jan. 14 I find Rabbi Stephen Wise's defence of Israeli actions in Gaza extremely biased. Rabbi Wise laments about some Israelis not having a vacation for three years. What a pity. What he conveniently ignores is the fact that all Palestinians have been deprived of their many basic human rights and freedoms for more than 40 years. A hundred times more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli actions than Israelis by Hamas rockets. Thousands have been evicted from their properties and many thousands are languishing in Israeli jails for years without ever getting a fair trial. Does this depict a picture of a country that genuinely wants peace? I don't like or support the philosophy and many actions of Hamas, but if they see their people being strangled by Israel withholding all world aid going to Gaza at will and regularly killing their men with lethal weapons, what are they supposed to do? Raining death and destruction on thousands of innocent men, women and children in retaliation of one or two Israeli deaths by crude rockets fired by Hamas before the start of the current war is against all norms of the civilized world. This type of totally disproportionate retaliation, when you knowingly kill a hundred times more innocent civilians, is not self defence, but a naked aggression. That's why these atrocities are being condemned by all nations and people, including many Jews, who have a sense of fairness and justice. ARIF MASUM Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.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.