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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, October 9, 2015 | 6 Keeping you informed It's National Newspaper Week (Oct. 4-10), a week set aside to celebrate how daily and community newspapers in Canada deliver news and advertising to you. Each week more than 1,000 English and French community newspapers just like the Oakville Beaver go about the business of telling stories that matter to their respective communities. We are at your rinks and schools, school boards and council meetings. We are at the scene when tragedy strikes. We celebrate your milestones. Our job is to cover Oakville, warts and all. And we are good at it. More than 20 million copies of community newspapers are distributed across the country. Independent research shows more than 70 per cent of Canadians read their community paper. Despite our collective strength, ours is a medium easy to ignore. Because we focus on Canada one community at a time, we lack the sex appeal of other media. We've seen our share of federal government advertising gradually erode over the years. Our regional and national associations have met with government MPs, opposition MPs, cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats to promote our case. We are always met with courtesy and a promise that things will get better. Well, things are not getting better. So, we believe, the time has come to tell you. In short, the federal government is all but ignoring community newspapers and ignoring you and your community's right to be informed about programs and services offered by the Government of Canada. In the last scal year, the federal government spent $75 million on advertising. More than $26 million of that went to TV ads, while another $15.5 million went to Internet advertising -- an industry dominated by American-based companies like Google and Facebook. Creating ads and paying ad agencies ate up $10 million, while $7 million was spent on radio advertising. By comparison, community newspapers saw a paltry $867,000 in total advertising from Ottawa -- or an average of about $25 per week per newspaper. Your community newspaper generates debate and serves as a forum for discussion. It is also one of the few places where local MPs actually receive editorial coverage outside election season. That's why those MPs submit letters to the editor, columns or buy their own local advertising to share their work with the community. They know the power of your local community paper. If the federal government continues to ignore our community newspapers, some communities may lose them. When that happens, a vital voice is silenced. If you believe, as we do, that government should invest in meaningful communication with citizens through community newspapers, we ask you to let them know. In the meantime, we'll continue to make sure your voice is heard. Editorial S A F E T Y "Connected to your Community" C H A M P I O N S 5046 Mainway, Unit 2, Burlington ON L7L 5Z1 General Inquiries: (905) 845-3824 Classi ed Advertising: (905) 632-4440 Circulation: 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington (905) 631-6095 Volume 53 | Number 81 The Oakville Beaver is a division of Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Vice ­President and Group Publisher of Metroland West NEIL OLIVER The Oakville Fire Department recently held its 16th annual Fire Prevention Week kickoff open house to raise awareness for Fire Prevention Week (Oct. 4-10). During the event, Birnie CurrentSafe and Union Gas each presented cheques to Oakville Fire as sponsors of the open house. Pictured, from left, are Birnie CurrentSafe representatives John Romanetti and Michael Neumann; Oakville Fire Deputy Chief George Birtig; and Union Gas representatives Marc Hoewing, Mark Egbedeyi-Emmanuel and Jeremy Getson. | photo by Graham Paine ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) Regional General Manager Advertising Director DAVID HARVEY DANIEL BAIRD Managing Editor ANGELA BLACKBURN RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director Business Manager Director of Production Letters to the Editor Editor's Note: The following letters were led with the Oakville Beaver in regard to our story, Conservatives did not attend all-candidates' meeting, Oakville Beaver, Friday, Oct. 2, 2015. SANDY PARE MARK DILLS Young's campaign provides reasoning Thank you for inviting Terence Young to participate in Reclaim Our Democratic Canada (RODC) and Fair Vote Canada's (FVC) Oakville all-candidates meeting. Please be advised Mr. Young will not be attending. During the last election, Mr. Young was invited to an event organized by RODC and FVC, the nature of which was misrepresented. Mr. Young was advised only candidates would be asked to speak for several minutes about why they were proud to be Canadian. Instead, the person who appeared as the moderator opened the meeting with a highly partisan statement against the government, followed by the other candidates in a similar vein who were obviously advised of different rules. In the interest of Oakville voters who seek to understand the positions of all of the major party candidates, all-candidates meetings must be non-partisan with rigidly-structured rules to ensure fairness. Mr. Young will be participating in two allcandidates meetings organized by the Oakville Chamber of Commerce and Unifor Local 707. We are con dent these meetings will be conducted in a fair and non-partisan manner. Members of Reclaim Our Democratic Canada and Fair Vote Canada are, of course, welcome to attend and participate in these meetings with other members of the public. Thank you again for your invitation. Christopher Mourtos, campaign manager Terence Young Campaign MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager Director of Distribution CHARLENE HALL KIM MOSSMAN Circulation Manager Proud Official Media Sponsor For: Canadian Circulations Audit Board Member Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Event organizer has a different view On Sept. 30, Millcroft Golf and Country Club made history. It was the scene of the rst ever all-candidates debate in the brand new riding of Oakville North--Burlington. Seven energetic, passionate and highly articulate candidates made the debate, hosted by Reclaim Our Democratic Canada (RODC) and Fair Vote Canada (FVC), a night to remember. Only Conservative candidates failed to appear. In declining the invitation, Christopher Mourtos, campaign manager for Conservative candidate Terence Young, had this to say... (see above letter). Mr. Young has never attended an all-candidates meeting organized by RODC. In April 2011 Mr. Young was invited to attend A Day for Democracy hosted by RODC. see Past on p.7 Proud Official Media Sponsor For: 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, 5046 Mainway, Unit 2, Burlington ON L7L 5Z1 or via email to ablackburn@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. 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.