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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, March 2, 2012 · 6 Opinion & Letters 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 Classified Advertising: 632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 --Open 9-5 weekdays, 5-7 for calls only Wed. to Friday, Closed weekends Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The Oakville Beaver THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Canadian Circulation Audit Board Member THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America Canadian Community Newspapers Association ATHENA Award Neil Oliver Vice ­ President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The OakvilleBeaver is a division of 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 MARK DILLS Director of Production Manuel garcia Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution Sarah McSweeney Circ. Manager Spend wisely Shopaholic. Shop 'til you drop. Retail therapy. These playful phrases are part of everyday speech, the `aren't-we-naughty' connotation giving people licence to have fun and spend -- even if they have to pay later. There's nothing amusing about overspending, however. The instant gratification of purchasing now with the swipe of a credit card is an illusion; the real road to happiness, it has been suggested, is through living debt-free. According to author John Hallward, whose book The Happiness Equation: The Human Nature of Happy People relies on Ipsos survey information; individual happiness relies less on annual income than the level of personal debt. In an interview posted on www.creditcards.ca, Hallward says, "The key isn't necessarily to have a high income, but instead to... avoid debt and live within one's means." How many people are doing that? Not many, according to recent Statistics Canada data. Between 2006 and 2010 Canadian consumer credit (excluding mortgages) rose 43.97 per cent, from approximately $330 billion to $403 billion. As of 2005 (the most recent data available), Canadian households cumulatively owed approximately $25 billion, a 58.4 per cent increase over the approximately $16 billion owed in 1999. Easy credit and attractive promotions have many consumers swiping their charge cards more than ever and more people opting to make the minimum monthly payment on the balance. Many families, sooner or later, find that they're falling so far behind that climbing out of debt seems hopeless. Fortunately, there are resources available in the community and online to help those who need to get their spending habits back on track. The Halton Consumer Credit Counselling Service (HCCCS), a not-for-profit division of Halton Family Services, offers credit/debt counselling. Three programs are offered: Counselling, Counselling Third Party and Debt Management. The HCCCS can be reached Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at 905-845-3811, ext. 107. Counselling times can be arranged by appointment only for Oakville, Milton and Burlington. An online resource is www.normoredebts.org offered by the Credit Counseling Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting families with financial education and debt repayment. Money can't buy happiness, but misusing credit is one way to put a down-payment on unhappiness. Using resources available, people can choose which direction their fortunes will take. 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. Letter to the editor Young comments on robocall controversy Re: Answering robocall allegations, Oakville Beaver, Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012. The Oakville Beaver reported that I stated one of Liberal candidate Max Khan's opponents in the municipal election could have had orchestrated the middle-of-thenight calls Mr. Khan claims were reported to him during the election campaign. That is not true. The Liberals' claim that organized robocalls were made into 34 ridings to send voters to the wrong polls has completely fallen apart. That's because they have no evidence. There is no evidence because no such thing happened. The Conservative Party fought a completely clean and ethical campaign and won by the rules nationally and in Oakville. The facts in this matter are this: millions of calls were made during the last election in every riding, six million by our party alone. Callers are trained to identify supporters and then direct them to the correct polling place using a script. Elections Canada changed 127 polling locations during the election, affecting over 1,000 polls. Some of the addresses could have been given in error. With thousands of polling places and over six million calls made, that can easily happen. We do not call the supporters of other parties. If mischief calls were actually made in Oakville, anyone could have made them. Mr. Khan also claims in the Beaver, he doesn't know if these claimed calls impacted the election. Yet, he lost the election by more See Cheaters page 9 Letters to the editor 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, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. Frustrated with government I would like to relay my utter disappointment and frustration with the possibility of full-time kindergarten being struck from Ontario. I would also like to share with you the reality that our family currently faces. Since 2005, I have been on Employment Insurance four times (twice for a one-year maternity leave per son, once for nine months after being downsized and again between contracts). If it weren't for the time I had on EI, allowing me to stay home with the kids and not pay for daycare, I don't know if we could have afforded to keep our home. Even with a decent household income, the past six years of daycare expenses for two children has meant re-mortgaging our house four times. We live off our line of credit until it's spent, and end up putting the equivalent cost of a year's daycare expenses on our mortgage. Our home that we paid $215,000 for in 2002 (10 years ago) has a large mortgage and still a 25-year amortization -- all so we can currently See Full-time page 9 Pud By Steve Nease neasecartoons@gmail.com