The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, July 1, 2010 · 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 Feeling the HST sting Ted Chudleigh, Halton MPP If you haven't yet felt the sting of the HST you soon will. By now everybody understands the McGuinty Liberal government's decision to force a combination of provincial and federal sales taxes into a single Harmonized Sales Ted Chudleigh Tax is going to hit them hard. Even the Premier has admitted it. People are angry. They've hit the tax wall. They are also upset that a provincial government, which is presiding over a $25 billion annual deficit is trying to buy their apathy with money they borrow on the promise of future taxes -- $300 payments for singles and $1,000 for a couple. Dalton McGuinty is trying to sell the unsellable. Ontarians, unlike people in British Columbia, have no method to force a referendum on the measure. Tim Hudak recently announced his intention to bring in such legislation if elected a little more than a year from now. The Liberals have set up the HST to be very difficult to rescind. They have taken billions from the federal government to pay some transition costs and they agreed to make no changes for five years. They did so without giving any consideration to the most obvious of exemptions like utility bills and gasoline. Remember, McGuinty has skirted around the Taxpayer Protection Act for as long as he's been in office. Originally meant to protect taxpayers from tax increases without their direct consent, McGuinty first rewrote the rules and then essentially ignored the Act altogether. He called his Health Tax a Health Premium; and he refers to the HST as an increase of the existing sales tax, rather than a huge modification of its applicability. Recently Premier McGuinty unveiled a website -- www.strongmedicine.forontario.ca where he tells us in a video clip that while the HST is going to hurt it is necessary medicine to create jobs. Dalton's assertion is ridiculous and will be lost on the hundreds of thousands of Ontarians who have lost their jobs and millions more who worry every day that they will be next. The HST might help small business a little on their bottom line. It will reduce by one the onerous regulations that small business owners must face, as they will now make one sales tax filing rather than two. It will not, in any real sense, create employment. Ask those people in the Maritimes who have had the pleasure of an HST for several years if it created jobs and sparked an economic rebirth. Premier McGuinty still has his rose-coloured glasses on, seeing economic growth where there is job loss and seeing glorious new programs where there is job killing taxation and deficit spending. 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 The Oakville Beaver is a division of WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America Media Group Ltd. RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville ATHENA Award RIZIERO VERTOLLI / OAKVILLE BEAVER TEACHERS GIVE OUT CASH: The Retired Women Teachers of Ontario (Oakville) donated cash to a trio of local charities including Fareshare food bank, Kerr Street Ministries and the Lighthouse Program for Grieving Children. Cheque presentations were made at the group's recent meeting at the Oakville Executive Golf Club. Pictured are, from left, Benjamin Ward, executive director of Kerr Street Ministries, retired teacher JoAnne Oatridge, Tom Horlor of the Lighthouse program, Dudley Clarke, volunteer executive director of Fareshare and Maryellen Love. The human pincushion gets his yin and yang energy charged I was supine on a bed in a small, darkened room, combating claustrophobia and an itch that I was unable to scratch because I'd be pretty much rendered immobile. Truth be told, as a quasi-control freak, the whole `pretty much rendered immobile' state of affairs had me a bit anxious, too. You see, I was getting needled: two-dozen tiny needles, to be precise, strategically placed, expertly inserted and masterfully manipulated, all in the name of overall good health. It was not the first time I'd been needled. And, according to my acupuncturist, who communicates with me in broken English (which, admittedly, is better than my broken Chinese), it should not be the last. Acupuncture: the ancient Chinese art of being used as a pincushion. I was drawn to this alternative form of therapy -- alternative, that is, in the Western world; in other areas it's mainstream medicine -- not because I'm a masochist who actually likes to be needled, but because (a) Western therapies and our health care system in general, had failed (b) for what ails me, acupuncture is slowly being scientifically recognized as a viable option (c) I admire any type of treatment that is actually older than me -- seriously, any therapy that predates me must be praised for its persistence, if nothing else. Acupuncture, it is believed, was practiced in China as far back as the Stone Age and, for certain, as far back as the Shang Dynasty of 1600-1100 BC. How it is supposed to work remains a mystery to me. Something about zang-fu, yin and yang organs Andy Juniper and energy forces that may well be blocked or stagnant or unbalanced (most likely the latter in my case). Whatever. All I know is that it works on assorted ailments to varying degrees. Personally, I've had acupuncture on three different ailments. On a severe case of tennis elbow, I found it to be ineffective. Post-op on a knee, I found it helped reduce swelling and pain and increased mobility. And, on IBS, or what I delicately call `gut rot', I've found it extremely helpful. I've been a mild IBS-er all my life. I've been to innumerable doctors, waiting forever in their overcrowded waiting rooms to hear their omnipotent advice ("drink more water") and to be prescribed pills that proved to be more of a bane than a boon. Conversely, with acupuncture, I've actually experienced success. Is it a panacea or magic cure? No. But, honestly, it helps. And then there's the acupuncture experience itself. Admittedly for the initial sessions I was skeptical, reluctant and anxious; if I hadn't been feeling so lousy at the time, I would never have put myself in the position of a pincushion. However, once I got used to the process, I found the session to be, well, remarkably relaxing. The most relaxing hour of my week. Rendering me about as relaxed as one wound-up guy can get without actually sinking into a coma. That said, the sessions are not without inherent complications. Once the needles are inserted, it's difficult to move a muscle. And by `difficult', I mean painful. So, dear readers, picture me resting on my stomach, needles up and down my back and arms, trying to answer the persistent, urgent vibrating of my cell phone. By finally, desperately pressing the talk button. With my nose. Andy Juniper can be visited at www.strangledeggs.com, contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters.