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

www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, October 25, 2012 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 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. 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 905-631-6095 Democratic distress Why is Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn smiling? This is a moment of deep democratic and political distress and one of the most powerful governments in our nation has decided it is more critical to preserve the legacy of a leader and a party than face a very public inquiry about the actual cost of the gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga. The backdrop is the real lives of the electorate, struggling families, the dismantling of the manufacturing sector, job loss, anguish in education, a health-care system teetering on the edge, an aging population, acute youth unemployment amidst global economic uncertainty. The Liberal Party has fooled itself into thinking it has clamped the wound and now can do some internal mending and rebranding. Premier Dalton McGuinty has fallen on the sword to save the party and himself, thinking the Liberals can rebirth and reinvent a message. However the seeds of personal ambition, cowardliness, self-centredness, dishonesty and pretense cannot give birth to an insightful transformative government. With the prorogation of the Legislature, a precedent set by the Harper government, the electorate is increasingly disengaged and cynical. Essentially, our government has decided the gaudiness of political discourse, debate and inquiry is too grueling a spectacle for their delicate natures, and no work can get done. Ah, well my friends, this is the work. The Legislature is the medium and at times rancorous discourse is part of the job at hand and they cannot recoil from the `battle'. We are not immune in Oakville, the community is growing rapidly, there is an expanding divide happening in Oakville, the gap between the haves and have-nots deep- Letter to the Editor Neil Oliver Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West 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 RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association MARK DILLS Director of Production Manuel garcia Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution KIM MOSSMAN Circulation Manager Website www.oakvillebeaver.com The OakvilleBeaver is a division of Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville ATHENA Award NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER / @halton_photog A HEALTHY BOOST: Halton Regional Police Association President Duncan Foot, left, presents a cheque for $8,000 from the proceeds of the HRPA's annual Charity Golf Tournament for McMaster Children's Hospital, in Hamilton, represented here by Jeff Sandy, Tamara Sandy, Chase Sandy, 7, and McMaster Children's Hospital Development Officer Parker Neale. ens, public schools have closed without explanation, older residents have to move from lifelong homes to survive and many young people who grew up in this town cannot afford to live here or return after school. The whole notion that a power plant could have been built here so close to a residential neighbourhood and schools is beyond intelligent comprehension. The electorate is not a project line or data that needs to be managed, we are interconnected humans living in diverse communities with complex needs. The poets Keats and Woodsworth refer to us as "human creatures" with an "electric fire" embedded in our nature, one that continually transforms us. The Canadian political landscape has become a club of powerless leaders that want to govern without a deep understanding into the nature of being human, without respect for humanities, critical discourse, courage and insight. The actions of the Ontario Liberals are the most recent example of this egregious descent, they are suffocated by the easily distracted nature of the spasmodic media culture and spend more time spinning stories than imagining innovative solutions relating to one another and to us. So, indeed, this is an unhappy time, the Liberals have denied the value of the Legislature as a serious vehicle for the representation of the electorate. They have asserted the survival of the Liberal Party over the necessity of listening, mediation, advocacy, innovation and our essential relationship to a living democratic system. How can the population not be cynical? So one has to ask how can Mr. Flynn or any Liberal be smiling now? Che Marville, executive Oakville NDP Riding Association Halloween hijacked by adults anxious to unleash alter-egos alloween has been hijacked. What was once the exclusive domain of the young has been annexed by adults. What was once a pretty tame time for toddlers, tykes, preteens and maybe the odd teen trick-or-treating for candy, has become an excuse for grown-ups to unleash alter-egos and unfetter inner-selves to an unsuspecting world -- in outfits they wouldn't be caught dead in on any other day of the year. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. But it is indeed an odd thing. Men invariably dress up as comic book superheroes; women as variations of super vixens: sexy flight attendant, sexy nurse, sexy cowgirl, sexy French maid, pirate, proctologist, take your sexy pick. Honestly, Halloween has been out-of-control for a long time. The amount of thought and effort that goes into the night quadruples every year. When I was a kid -- granted, this was back in the day -- you began contemplating a Halloween costume about 10 minutes before you were set to head out with your buddies. H You donned an old football helmet, rubbed some charcoal under your eyes and, presto, you were a football player. You took a toy gun, rubbed some charcoal under your eyes and, presto, you were a soldier. Nowadays? People were posting on Facebook in August: "Like, I wonder Andy Juniper what I can be for Halloween?" Helpfully, I responded: "You're 33 years old. Why don't you be Too Old For Halloween?" Nowadays, everything's a fad -- a YouTube sensation. Thankfully, we all survived last Halloween wherein people paraded around in Lady Gaga meat costumes that were the envy of attack dogs everywhere. This year? One of the best-selling costumes is Gangnam Style, the music/dance of South Korean PSY. Hands up anyone who hasn't been involved in a Gangnam parody at this point in time. I thought so. Even in the age of overkill, this is overkill. Everywhere we look someone's going all Gangnam, from navy midshipmen to Star Trek Klingons to a Stratford Shakespeare Festival troupe, featuring broadcast journalist Peter Mansbridge, no less. Maybe it's time we put this Gangnam baby to bed. Alas, another hot costume is actually based on a bestselling book, which I refuse to name. However, I will say this: If your costume involves handcuffs, and you're not going out as an officer of the law, there's a chance you've crossed some kind of line. Maybe I'm being too judgmental. Maybe I shouldn't say that so definitively because, as we all know, somewhere between black and white there exist about, I dunno, Fifty Shades of Grey. Yes, Halloween has indeed been hijacked, taken from the toddlers and tykes by the likes of PSY and Anastasia and Christian -- shady, grey characters. Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, found on Facebook at www.facebook.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters.