Thursday, June 25, 2009

Gee, McGuinty, thanks a lot for all the new weeds and grubs

Ottawa Citizen

June 24, 2009 Wednesday
Final Edition

Gee, McGuinty, thanks a lot for all the new weeds and grubs

BYLINE: John Angus, The Ottawa Citizen

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A13

LENGTH: 340 words
I would like to thank Dalton McGuinty for the legislation banning herbicides and pesticides from our lawns. For the past two years, I hired a lawn care company in the summer to dump herbicides and pesticides to reduce weeds and grubs. This had the effect of enormously altering my lawn's health and appearance. I particularly noted a reduction in grubs, which were everywhere.
Now, thanks to this legislation, I can't use herbicides or pesticides so my lawn is again half covered with weeds, and is a playground where the grubs and ants roam free.
Yet my neighbours, many of them elderly, are much more active now, frantically attacking weeds on their previously immaculate lawns with various implements of destruction. It's true that some of them will probably have health problems, as a result, but that will only provide extra work for the health care industry.
As for us middle-aged folks, particularly those with bad backs, well that's what sick leave is for.
McGuinty must be receiving all kinds of complaints about the ban --God knows my neighbours despise him for it.
But I think his decision to please activists and take the decision away from city councils, which can be swayed by the wishes of homeowners, will surely pay political dividends down the road. He knows what's best for people -- or he knows what his advisers tell him is politically advantageous.
Children will soon be able to run and play amidst the weeds, grubs, ants and thistle, without fear that the grass that used to be there has been treated by a herbicide rigidly tested, controlled and approved by Health Canada. Chemicals are bad, every single one of them, and with Mr. McGuinty's help, there will soon be fewer of them in our lives.
Oh, the homeowners may curse him now, but one day they'll come to love their new weed lawns, and when Liberal candidates come visiting next election, they'll be gifted with the wondrous greenery of our suburban world.
I may not wait, in fact. I may ship Mr. McGuinty a box of dandelions to brighten up his work day.
John Angus,
Ottawa

If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF GREEN:
or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)
If you would like more information, please Contact us
Follow us on Twitter  http://twitter.com/turfkingofgreen
Join our Facebook page  

Copyright 2009 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.