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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday August 22, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS 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 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director TERI CASAS Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager Back to school safety lesson In 13 days nearly 80,000 students will return to class within Halton's public and Catholic schools and our city streets will become noticeably more chaotic. School buses will begin their daily routes and school crossing zones will become active intersections where pedestrians and motorists must co-exist. According to Young Drivers of Canada, more than 4,000 children are hit by cars each year while playing outdoors or walking to school. As drivers, the new school year reminds us to re-familiarize ourselves with safe driving practices. Young Drivers of Canada offers the following advice to all drivers as we approach the start of another school year: School zones/school bus safety · Look well ahead to spot school buses and school zone signs. · Reduce speed in school zones (40 kmh) and wait for children to cross completely before proceeding. · If you are driving your children to school drop them off in a safe area away from traffic (most schools now have designated drop off zones). · Stop at least 20 metres behind a school bus when the upper red lights begin to flash. · Motorists travelling in both directions must stop for the school bus except if the road is divided by a median. · Do not proceed until the school bus `stop sign' is closed and the red lights stop flashing. · Use the ground viewing technique by scanning under parked vehicles for the feet of children approaching traffic. · Lane change early to make room for children on bicycles, skateboards or roller blades. In the car · Child Seats - children under the age of 13 are safest in the back seat away from passenger air bags, and it's the law. Have the correct type of seat that corresponds to your child's weight and size. A booster seat should be used for a child weighing between 18-36 kilograms (40-80 lbs.) and less than 145 cm tall (4-foot-9). The child may be ready to use a seat belt alone once they exceed either one of the above criteria. · Avoid driver distractions such as using cell phones, eating or drinking, and personal grooming which impact on how effectively you drive. Give items such as books or toys to children to occupy their attention so that your focus is on the road. For more road safety tips, visit www.yd.com. 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. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Mixed-Member Proportional system costly and undemocratic Re: electoral reform I welcome the opportunity to express my strong opposition to electoral reform. The cons of the proposed alternative far outweigh the imperfections we have now. Advocates of the proposed voting system, Mixed Member Proportional (MPP), say their system improves democracy. That's quite the opposite. If their side wins on the Oct. 10 referendum, one out of three Members of Provincial Parliament will not be elected, but appointed to the Ontario Legislature. Only two out of three MPP's will have constituencies. The other third will be appointed from political party lists. These non-elected MPP's, while on the Ontario public payroll, won't answer to the Ontario public. They will answer to their party leader. Worse, they could be appointed Cabinet Ministers. So, it's predictable how parties will develop their lists: offering patronage appointments. When the next election comes, they can avoid voters by getting re-appointed. As a result, they will never be held accountable for their actions. To implement the proposal, electoral districts? boundaries will increase in size. This leaves the remaining two out of three elected MPP's to carry a larger workload. By ratio, we will have far less MPP-to-person contact. Ontario could also be stuck with minority governments for eternity. That means an election every 18 months; the average time minority governments survive. Elections, as does this referendum, cost millions of dollars to operate. At a time when taxes are high and public infrastructure is starved for cash, we can illafford something so unnecessary. I support the current voting system because I'm in favour of democracy. All MPP's, not two out of three, should be elected by the people to represent the people. I also support its costeffectiveness. I don't want to pay for extra elections or non-elected MPP's. Mixed Member Proportional is costly and undemocratic. That?s why on October 10th, I'm voting to keep the status-quo: the First-Past-the-Post voting system. BRENDAN STEWART Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com 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.