Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
.....................................................................................................................................
At heart, who we are
Re Calling All Canadians: Slice That Maple Leaf Off Your Backpack (Travel, July 27): I serve on the board of the True Patriot Love Foundation, a private, not-for-profit organization that raises money to support our serving military, veterans and their families. I recently spoke about the organization to a women's group in Penetang, Ont. The second slide of my presentation was a picture of the Canadian flag, which led to an animated discussion about the emotion we feel upon seeing it while travelling abroad: pride and an immediate connection.
It's not about who we aren't (Americans), it's about who we are – proud citizens of our beautiful, tolerant and culturally diverse country. Cut it from my backpack? That flag will always fly proudly from mine.
Garo Keresteci, Toronto
------------------
The drain game
Most creditors know that as you lend more and more to a debtor, you eventually cross a threshold where the outstanding debt ceases to be the debtor's problem, and becomes yours (Greece At The Crossroad, June 30). While much attention is focused on the Greeks and the "will they, or won't they?" questions, attention should be directed at the creditors and their rationale over the years in flushing big bucks down the drain.
Senior executives at the IMF and elsewhere will likely still obtain their bonuses and promotions, but let's hope lenders will learn from this crisis that there may be a link between "responsible borrowing" and "responsible lending," and that creditors should firmly say "No" or "No more," before it is too late. Irresponsible lending is not helping the Greeks, or their creditors, and the Greeks aren't solely to blame.
Andrew Kavchak, Ottawa
------------------
Serena? Again?
When Canada's two best tennis players won their first-round matches at Wimbledon, why was Serena Williams featured on the front of the Sports section (Serena Gets To Work, Sports, June 30)?
It's a bore reading about this player. There's no drama in her matches. The phony, exhausting continuous discussion about her game, her supposed illnesses, her unnatural rages and posing on the court contradict this elegant game.
Even if there were something interesting to say about her, shouldn't we be focusing on Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil? If we don't do it, who will?
Roger Stein and Rozanne Stein, Collingwood, Ont.
----------------
Dalhousie fallout
Re Dalhousie Called Out Over Inquiry Errors (June 30): The shameful manner in which the complainant was treated speaks volumes about Dalhousie University. One wonders if the president of the university or the dean of dentistry would want their daughter or wife being treated by, and leered at by, the male dental students whose graduation they facilitated.
David P. Millar, Regina
-----------
Guantanamo puzzler
Re Freedom Has Bitter, Baffling Taste For Former Guantanamo Inmates (June 29): Most of Stephanie Nolen's article was spent diminishing the efforts of the Uruguayans in helping to liberate these six unfortunate souls from what must be one of the hells on Earth. But I suspect that among Uruguay's three million citizens, a few will be able to figure out how to help these victims of U.S. hubris, even if they do stumble along the way.
She also refers to "rumours" that former president Jose Mujica was vying for a Nobel Peace Prize. This man spent many years imprisoned under a regime that no doubt enjoyed the support of the CIA; while president, he lived on and worked his farm and donated his salary to the poor. If there is a man on the planet less likely to want a prize, I can't imagine who it would be.
The article did not address the most important issue: Why didn't one of the liberal democracies step up to help these men, imprisoned and tortured without being charged with any crime?
Nelson Walker, Victoria
--------------
At a minimum
Re Opposition Criticizes Alberta NDP Plans To Hike Minimum Wage To $15 (June 29). A few "business leaders" have criticized the new Alberta government's first, incremental, minimum-wage increase of $1 per hour. This leap of $1 every 60 minutes, they say, will expand the cost of doing business and diminish hours of operation, eventually leading to tens of thousands of job losses and lack of job creation. Perhaps they believe that the $8 per day windfall (less deductions) will be spent on luxuries other than food, shelter, clothing, transportation, medicine and utilities.
Yes, further increases are planned, eventually leading to a whopping $15 an hour total minimum wage in Alberta by 2018. If business operators can't manage to pay a living wage to hard-working people, maybe they should get out of the corner office and get a job working for wages like most Canadians. That's harder than it sounds, and harder still if you're trying to make ends meet while earning minimum wage.
Murray McDonald, Kelowna, B.C.
----------------
Counting Liberals
Re Are We Witnessing The Strange Death Of Liberal Canada? (Focus, June 27): Jeffrey Simpson writes that under Jean Chrétien, the Liberals never won more than 39 per cent of the popular vote. In 1993, in his first election as national leader, they obtained 41.3 per cent of the popular vote; in 2000, 40.8 per cent. These were both higher than Stephen Harper's 39.6 per cent in the 2011 election. Only in 1997 did Mr. Chrétien slip below 40 per cent, with 38.5 per cent of the vote.
The latest aggregate of recent opinion polls by the ThreeHundredEight.com website has the Liberals running nationally 8.5 percentage points ahead of their poor showing under Michael Ignatieff in 2011. The Grits are up in all regions, including Quebec where they have moved from a dismal 14.2 per cent in 2011 to their current 23.5 per cent. A recent EKOS Research poll found the Liberals running ahead of both the Conservatives and NDP in Manitoba and in Atlantic Canada. We all, including Mr. Simpson, shouldn't count the Liberals out just yet.
Robert N. Wilkins, Montreal
---------------
Big thinkers at work
Re First Day of Traffic Restrictions Leaves Commuters Fuming (June 30): Wonder how many big thinkers at Queen's Park it took to come up with the notion that traffic gridlock hell could be solved by putting more cars into fewer lanes during the Pan Am Games?
Traffic jams are a drag on the economy and the environment. Not that this government has any expertise in either. Premier Kathleen Wynne and her cabinet should be forced to ride in the peasant lanes for the duration of the Pan Am boondoggle!
J.C. Henry, Mississauga