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Beaver THE OAKVILLE Voted Ontario's Top Newspaper Four Years in a Row - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 www.brantflorist.com/ob 905.639.7001 www.carstaroakville.com Vital Signs on life in Oakville Page 11 905-8457579 905-847 -2595 2212 Wyecroft Rd. 547 Trafalgar Rd. Kazdan, Solomon & D'Angelo www.dentistoakville.com 905-842-6030 64 Pages $1.00 (plus GST) A member of Metroland Media Group Ltd. Vol. 52 No. 92 "USING COMMUNICATION TO BUILD BETTER COMMUNITIES" THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2009 Oakville residents say no to power plant By Kim Arnott SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Do you Shop Oakville? By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF With free ice-cream, live music and plenty of sunshine, there was almost a summer festival feel to an east Oakville anti-power plant rally that attracted hundreds of people on Tuesday night. Although organizers had worried aloud about the difficulty of attracting a crowd in the midst of the peak vacation season, the gathering of an estimated 850 people thrilled them. "This has been amazing," crowed Doug MacKenzie, president of the Chartwell-Maple Grove Residents' Association. "It's just an incredible crowd." Entire families -- complete with kids in tow and dogs on leashes -- joined well-dressed seniors, local politicians and members of four residents groups to loudly express the neighbourhood's displeasure with a proposed gas-fired power plant for the OakvilleMississauga area. Area resident Stevan Lewis and his family followed a group of teens carrying protest signs to the rally. "I thought, `If they can make time to come out, we can make time to come out,'" said Lewis, who added that he's shocked by plans to bring a power plant to a built-up urban area. "It seems so close to so many people," he said. "There LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER are all these schools here, for heaven's sake. Don't these SENDING A MESSAGE: At the Oakville protest over the gas-fueled power plant proposed guys have a conscience?" On Aug. 31, the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) is to be located in either east Oakville or just across the border in Mississauga, Aidan Chalmers joins many in waving placards. Aidan's message: We want clean air. More than 1,000 attended the rally See Oakville page 3 held in Oakville Tuesday night. More than 700 names were collected on a petition. Do you shop Oakville? If not, the Town of Oakville and the Oakville Chamber of Commerce will try to convince you to do so through the I Shop Oakville campaign launched last Friday. Supported by the Bronte, Downtown Oakville and Kerr Village BIAs, the campaign uses a variety of promotions, including advertisements in the Oakville Beaver, to convince residents of the importance of shopping, dining and playing in Oakville. "In supporting our local businesses what we do is put money back into the community, we allow them to do better economically and to expand and we allow them to create jobs," said Aby Alameddine, chair of the Oakville Chamber of Commerce. "We have a great business base in Oakville, but we want to make sure that business base gets stronger," said Alameddine. Alameddine went on to note that job creation was a particularly important side effect of pumping money into locals businesses as currently 63 per cent of residents have See Investing page 2 Tile selection made enjoyable! Factory Tile Depot www.factorytiledepot.ca