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6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday February 9, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com 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 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 NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVE HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager Metroland Media Group Ltd. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Caledon Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver is a division of Guest Columnist Child care dilemma Garth Turner, Halton MP Does the state have an obligation to help parents look after children? Politicians have been struggling to answer that question for years, and as they do, the situation in Halton blossoms. We have kids, kids and more Garth Turner kids. There are more than 35,000 children six or under, and over 10,000 more up to the age of nine. There's been a 17 per cent jump in the under-six crowd in the past six years, which means we now have the largest baby boom in Canada. As you'd expect, the surge in children has come along with a mushrooming of the population, as this area I represent ­ Milton, north Oakville and north Burlington ­ has seen 22,000 more names added in the past few years. This is not news to anyone driving around. New subdivision streets have been going in weekly, especially along the Dundas highway where the farmers' fields of two years ago are now bustling with homes, streets and minivans. The growth has put a lot of pressure on services, schools and our roads, but nowhere is it being felt more than by parents looking for child care. Face it: With the cost of housing around here, most families need two incomes, so child care becomes an economic necessity. However, there isn't enough of it. And it costs a bundle. There are about 7,000 licensed child care spaces in all of Halton, and the Region figures we need another 9,000. Right now I'm told by both parents and child care operators there's a wait of up to six months to get a space ­ and the cost runs from a low of $200 a week to about $260. That equals more than $13,000 a year, in after-tax dollars, which means many people are working fulltime just to pay for gas and someone to look after their offspring. So, what are politicians doing, at least at the federal level? The Conservative solution of Stephen Harper has been to send $100 to each family every month for each child six or younger. This $1,200 is taxable in the hands of the lower income-earner within each family. The money's appreciated, but $1,200 (taxable) is a long way from $13,000 (in after-tax dollars). So, lots of people tell me they're quite unhappy and feel like they're falling further behind financially. In the last election the Liberals campaigned on the idea of a $5-billion national child care plan in conjunction with the provinces, that in Halton would have seen the addition of a couple of thousand more spaces. In the coming election campaign I suspect the Liberals will expand on this, while the Conservatives may propose adding some more funds to their monthly payments. Personally, I have mixed feelings. Realistically, promising every family affordable child care amounts to a massive financial commitment. But giving a hundred bucks a month to defray costs of over $1,000 every 30 days can hardly be called a solution to anything. So, the questions is: Does the state have on obligation to help mind children? How much? At what cost? What do you think? This is the topic of three special MP Town Hall meetings coming up. If you want you voice heard, then please show up. In Oakville, Feb. 19 at the municipal offices; in Milton, Feb. 20 at the Sports Centre and in Burlington Feb. 21 at Tansley Woods Library. They all start at 7 pm. See you then? IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora EraBanner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian 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: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION High school confidential and other lovesick confessions N othing is perfect. Not me (close, but no cigar), not the new Mountain Goats CD, not my beloved New England Patriots (arghhh), and certainly not love, dear people, certainly not love. It's something to keep in mind as we close in on Valentine's Day. I fell in love when I was still a kid. It wasn't my fault. I didn't go looking for love. Love apparently came looking for me, early on in the school year, from across the classroom in Grade 10 science. It's not that I wasn't already aware of her. Oh, I was aware. Acutely aware of the incredibly cute, incredibly shy girl who had a smile that could turn a boy's heart to honey, and his mind to mush. I don't want to sound corny, but love is corny: one day our eyes met, she smiled, and... it was all over. People have different ways of reacting to being struck by Cupid's arrows. Tom Cruise jumped up and down on Oprah's couch in profession of his passion for young Katie Holmes. Sting held the hand of his true love, Trudie Styler, and whispered emotionally to Oprah: "My goal is to die with this woman loving me." Well, I had just turned 15. At the time there may have been an Oprah, but, alas, there was no Oprah show. In Oprah's stead, one night while helping out with the dishes, I confessed to my mom -- confessed that I was certain I'd found "the one." Thankfully, she didn't laugh. And, thankfully, she didn't lecture because, in retrospect, the moment was screaming for a mother-to-son sermon about there being "other fish in the pond," and about my being "too young to be taken off the market." Just turned 15: too young to have one's tender heart plucked. Andy Juniper But my heart had been plucked. With this girl, I felt reborn, brought into a whole new world. What once seemed important had been rendered irrelevant; what once was trivial was suddenly magnified in its significance. Her and me. Two hearts beating as one, and a perilously overpopulated planet abruptly reduced to just two people. We have a Polaroid taken of us on our first date: our school's Sadie Hawkins dance. She's smiling. I'm smiling, two like souls, two cats who've just swallowed canaries. Maybe we knew something. Maybe we knew that that night was just the beginning, a snowball starting its roll down a mountainside. We dated throughout high school. We had our ups and downs, some days we were off and some days we were on. But even when we were officially `off', I think at some level we were still on. Once, post-high school, we split for a considerable period, divided our world in half and went to separate corners to nurse self-inflicted wounds. Time passed and one day we met by chance in a clothing store in our hometown. I just looked up and there she was. It was hard for us to talk, considering our hearts were jumping out of our chests. At that moment I don't think either of us could recall why the hell we weren't together. We were engaged the following year. And married the year after. I'm still short of breath for her. I'd still jump up and down on a couch, professing my love for her. And my goal remains to die with this woman loving me. Nothing is perfect. Not me, not the new Mountain Goats CD, not my beloved New England Patriots, and certainly not love, dear people, certainly not love. Love cannot be perfect because people aren't perfect. But, baby, it's pretty darn close. And life without love is a huge mistake. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com.