I targeted costs (David Rotor)
Grit: Tories chose fighter jets over families (Post)
Potash politics (Globe)
Various commentators on the rejection of the BHP bid miss the essential point in calling for greater clarity in the criteria under the Investment Canada Act. As a former principal adviser on cases considered under the act, I can attest that, by design, the legislation provides the minister of the day with great flexibility in determining whether a proposed takeover constitutes net benefit to Canada.
I would argue that such flexibility is necessary in the political and economic context of the times, witness the only formal rejections by a Conservative government and none by various Liberal governments. Tighter criteria would only undermine what are, after all, as much political as economic decisions. That’s how democracies work.
Andrei Sulzenko, Ottawa
Potash strategy
The media always have two stories at the ready. This time, they picked: What kind of a message is Canada giving the world by blocking the takeover of Potash Corp.? If Industry Minister Tony Clement had come down in favour of the sale, the likely message would have been: Harper sells Canada.
Give it up, already
Jean Lazar, Medicine Hat
Say ‘ah’ and pay up
Judging by its front-page editorial (A Prescription For Health Care – Nov. 5), The Globe has fallen victim to the notion that our publicly funded health-care system is no longer sustainable and that it’s time to consider major changes, including further private-sector participation. This is more of the nonsense we’ve heard for several years from people who tack to the right and, yes, that includes The Globe’s editorialists.
Cost control is a major challenge facing health care, but so is the maintenance of government revenues, especially when everyone is looking for a tax cut. The private sector has no magic wand; its target is patients who can pay its fees. Those without that financial ability are out of luck. These poorer patients will have the public system to turn to, but it will be weakened by a strengthened private sector whose priority is profit. The editorial says “it's time for a new age of innovation in health care, one that puts results before ideology.” The Globe might want to consider practising what it preaches.
John Harvard
Winnipeg
NOVEMBER 1-8 EDITION
Il faut tirer les leçons du passé (Latulippe)
Harper's standing up to world's bullies
Less is ... less (Globe)
Commendations to Jeffrey Simpson for an introduction to positive feedback loops (As The Sea Ice Melts, So Melts The Arctic – Oct. 23). Unfortunately, the relationship between melting ice and accelerating warming was stated exactly backward. Rather than “more water instead of ice means more reflected sunlight, which, in turn contributes to warming,” it is actually more water instead of ice means less reflected sunlight, leading to warmer oceans. Less ice leads to even less ice.
Elizabeth May, Leader, Green Party of Canada
OCTOBER 26-NOVEMBER 1 EDITION
Lettres - Précisions sur Statistique Canada | Le Devoir (Wayne Smith)
Droits et Démocratie - Vers un sombre avenir? | Le Devoir (Longangué)
UN rejection
This is the biggest international embarrassment for Canada since the men’s hockey team lost to Switzerland at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
J.D.M. Stewart, Toronto
Fatheads ‘R’ Us
If I lived in Toronto, I don’t think I’d vote for Rob Ford as mayor. But my opinions about him have nothing to do with his weight or his height or his hair colour.
Stephen Marche’s churlish column (Rob Ford’s Not Popular Despite Being Fat. He’s Popular Because Of It – Focus, Oct. 16) is a cruel attack based on dated assumptions about obesity and image. Mr. Marche should cultivate a little compassion and see Mr. Ford and others like him for what we are: human beings.
Trevor Lynn, Ottawa
Stephen Marche voices all that is shallow and hateful among the bottom-feeders who give my beloved city of Toronto a bad name.
Brian Henry, Toronto
You have reached a new low in ad hominem attacks. How does this article enlighten the voters? Shame on you for printing such rubbish.
E. Lefler, Toronto
OCTOBER 9-15, 2010 EDITION
CRA crackdown (Minister)
Ignored our debate (Terrance Wills)
Airline squabble raises serious questions (Ramsey Withers)
Canadian Islamic Congress responds
Women CEOs (Globe)
I thought it was misleading to use Moya Greene’s photo on the Saturday cover (Women in Power series) as the poster woman for talented executives who cannot obtain CEO positions in Canada. An appropriate photo would have been that of a Canadian woman unable to obtain a CEO position in Canada, but able to get one elsewhere. Ms. Greene was the CEO of Canada Post until she left by choice to head the Royal Mail.
Kathy Roczkowskyj, Vancouver
Blame game
Contrary to your editorial (Playing The Blame Game – Oct. 13), the Harper Tories have not maintained Canada’s long-standing position of global leadership, as the embarrassing rebuff at the United Nations demonstrated.
You praise the government’s maternal-health initiative, but by neglecting the integral right to abortion, our Prime Minister deprived women in the developing world of the ability to independently determine their future. Nor has our government enunciated an “unambiguous message” on human rights and democratic principles, as you claim. Mr. Harper has axed or kneecapped dozens of Canadian NGOs working for human rights because he disagreed with their messages.
While it is true that Israel is a thriving democracy, it is specious to state that Canada has aligned itself with that country because it respects Canadian principles of human rights. The well-documented breaches of universal human rights and international law that occurred during the Gaza war, to mention just one such event, tell a different story.
Finally, your conclusion that Canada’s loss of stature at the UN says more about the world body than the foreign policies of the present government is as specious as Minister Lawrence Cannon’s quite ludicrous attempt to blame the Liberal opposition for this sobering setback to our international reputation.
Erna Paris, Toronto
SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1
We're just 'mowing the lawn' in Afghanistan (Post)
RCMP outreach tries to avert radicalizatiom (Citizen)
Nigel Wright (Globe)
In Canada, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get experienced senior executives to fill such positions as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister (The Wright Stuff: The Onex Guy And The PMO – Oct 6). This is due to the tight constraints of the Public Accountability Act, the 18-hour-a-day workload and the significant drop in pay they must accept.
When people of Nigel Wright’s ability, experience and integrity are willing to fill such positions, they should be commended rather than subjected to petty, ill-founded, partisan abuse even before they commence work.
Preston Manning, Calgary
SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1
Letter - The Afghan Election, as Seen by Karzai’s Brother - NYT
Crown and country (Globe)
I have no knowledge of the options Stephen Harper considered in the constitutional crisis of 2008, but it seems clear that a prime minister who believes a governor-general is abusing the office might well insist the Queen dismiss the miscreant (Harper Pondered Appeal To Queen Over Prorogation – Sept. 30).
Could the Queen say no? An utterly absurd situation, to be sure, but one of the consequences of our absurd – indeed, dangerous – retention of the monarchy as a foundation of Canada’s Constitution.
Michael Bliss, professor emeritus, University of Toronto
Sex sells (Globe)
Justice Susan Himel’s ruling is just one stage in a long, deliberative process (The Weighing Of Complex Harms – Sept. 29). Beyond the appeal already announced, Parliament retains ultimate power. If elected lawmakers conclude that the highest judges get the balance wrong between society’s interests in prohibiting conduct relating to sex work and prostitutes’ safety or liberty, they can use the notwithstanding clause to uphold their law.
Your editorial writers court hypocrisy. After all, in 2003, The Globe named the Ontario judges who had allowed same-sex couples to marry as Nation Builders of the Year. Opponents of gay marriage could have levied the same flawed arguments against those judges. There, too, Parliament had the final say. The government simply declined to exercise its right to appeal.
Rather than exaggerate judges’ power under the Charter, call elected lawmakers to account for the ways in which they use, or choose not to use, the potent powers within their hands.
SEPTEMBER 19-24 EDITION