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www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, December 3, 2009 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 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. Commentary Guest Columnist NEIL OLIVER Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY Regional 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 WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com New HST is just higher taxation Ted Chudleigh, Halton MPP Ted Chudleigh charge more for your product. Reducing your costs is entirely within your control. You choose where to cut; you choose how to do it. Charging more for your product sounds good, but what if your customers buy less, or go to your competitor? It's a situation not unlike the one Premier Dalton McGuinty is facing. Ontario is spending billions of dollars it doesn't have. It's in trouble. Instead of taking a step toward rationalizing the Province's operations, cutting the superfluous, and getting down to the core business, our current Premier has decided to charge more for his product. Dalton McGuinty will ask you to pay eight per cent more for a whole range of products and services beginning next summer. He wants you to pay more for government. He says he's simply shifting the way taxes are collected. If that's the case, why bother? Why go through all the difficulties of making the change for nothing? The truth is the Premier knows he will be collecting about $3 billion more each year from you and me. The Premier is trying to sell his odious plan by saying the increase in HST will be offset by an income tax decrease for 93 per cent of taxpayers. Of course, he ignores the fact that 100 per cent of consumers will pay the increased HST. In fact for every $100 of HST collected, only 18 cents will be returned to Ontarians in the form of the much ballyhooed income tax reduction. And what's worse, is the tax shift will fall squarely on the shoulders of those low income people who pay little or no income taxes, but who will now pay 13 per cent on their purchases. And the pain is aimed right where it hurts the most: on gasoline, utility bills and necessary home services. Any benefit is far outweighed by the particular viciousness in how this tax is applied and by the economic difficulties that so many people are now battling. RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: O kay, let's say you operate a large sprawling business. Your company is in trouble. You have a choice, you can reduce your costs or you can United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION NIKKI WESLEY/ OAKVILLE BEAVER TEA FOR TOYS: Henderson Partners Managing Partner Christie Henderson speaks those attending the Oakville Toy Tea charity event hosted by Henderson Partners, LLP at the Oakville Club. More than 125 women donated a new unwrapped toy as a donation and enjoyed a fashion show, an afternoon of music, and entertainment. For the past seven years, Henderson Partners has organized the event has provided over 1,000 toys annually to families in need within our community. To everything, there is a season, even buying ketchup hen my wife and I were initially considering getting married, buying a beginner home, having our first baby, having our first nervous breakdown after having our first baby, we sought that ever-elusive thing known as "the perfect time." That being the time wherein the planets and stars magically aligned, Higher Beings (bank managers, employers, and such) smiled beatifically down upon us, and we finally managed to get our heads together and all of our proverbial ducks in a row. At some point relatively soon into the process of growing up and getting on with this great seriocomic tragedy we call life, we determined that perfect timing does not really exist, that it is a mythical creature, like the Abominable Snowman, Big Foot and responsible government. Accompanying this determination, was the greater realization that if you really want to move forward in life you need to just close your eyes, have a little faith, and leap. In other words, you are best off simply following the sagely words of the famous Dutch philosopher Van Halen: "Ah, might as well jump." Now along comes Mark Di Vincenzo, author of Buy Ketchup W in May and Fly at Noon, who not only believes that timing is everything, but, also, that there is indeed a perfect time for everything. And I mean everything. The perfect time to buy groceries or go out for dinner? Wednesdays. Perfect day to request a raise? Thursday or Friday. Perfect time to buy a pair of shoes? Late afternoon or Andy Juniper early evening. And he's not just picking perfect times out of thin air. No, Di Vincenzo invested more than a year of his life researching optimum times. Which is how he knows that it is best to buy shoes in the late afternoon or early evening because your feet swell during the day. Do you want to be wearing a pair of new shoes that murder your feet by noon? Best day to fly? Saturday. Best time to fly? Mid-day. Why? Because in the ebb and flow of airport life, airports are less nutty at noon and practically empty on Saturdays. Hence, better and more timely service. Currently making the rounds on the talk-show circuit, the author recently appeared on the Rachael Ray show, dispensing advice that made him sound as sagely as that Dutch philosopher Van Halen. Best time to view the Mona Lisa? Sunday at 9 a.m. Best time to chew gum -- and this is a question over which I've pondered for years, whenever I'm not preoccupied with gazing at my navel? After eating. That's right: chew gum after eating. Best time to buy furniture? January and July (stock discounted before new models come out in February and August). Oh, and the best time to buy ketchup? Heck, the best time to buy any condiment is in May, as we swing into picnic season -- you see, high demand in the cutthroat condiment market drives prices down. Okay, it is possible that in specific instances there is such a creature as perfect timing. And it's more than just dumb luck. The Di Vincenzo code indicates that there is method to the madness of life. But, then, where was he when my wife and I were planning our first nervous breakdown after having our first baby? Andy Juniper can be visited at www.strangledeggs.com, contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, and followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters.