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Mr. Chrétien's advice
Re Chrétien Support For Putin Role In Syrian Conflict Draws Fire (Oct. 2): With friends like Jean Chrétien, Justin Trudeau needs no enemies.
Martin C. Pick, Cavan, Ont.
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Jean Chrétien – "My view is that if Putin wants to help, he should be welcomed" – did not utter a media "gotcha" gaffe. He spoke the truth. We are brainwashed by a perspective dominated by U.S. interests in the world.
Ask yourself: Are Syrians better off today than they were before the Arab Spring? Are Egyptians, Libyans, Tunisians, Lebanese, Jordanians? Is Iraq better off today than before Dubya set his eyes on it? Or Afghanistan and Pakistan?
Canadians should be everlastingly grateful that when he was prime minister, Mr. Chrétien said no to George W. Bush – keeping Canada out of Iraq and this whole godforsaken Middle East mess.
James G. Heller, Toronto
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NDP's niqab politics
Re NDP Slide In Poll Appears To Signal End Of Three-Party Tie (Oct. 2): Rather than twisting themselves in knots over the niqab, perhaps NDP candidates in Quebec should simply do the full Voltaire: "I disapprove of what you wear, but I will defend to the end of the election campaign your right to wear it."
Louis Desjardins, Belleville, Ont.
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Choice: Conservative
Former PC leader Tim Hudak lost the past two Ontario elections, the Liberals didn't win them. All he had to do was stifle his Mike Harris credentials and focus his criticism on the most incompetent government in the province's history, a government that feels your pain because it caused it.
We are now seeing a repeat in the federal election: The "progressives" (their word, not mine) can just taste the Anybody But Harper mood of the country. If that is what Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair are really interested in, they both should have kept their promises to a minimum, and left it to the country to vote the Conservatives out.
But it was never about Stephen Harper; it was about who was going to replace him. So now we have Liberal strategists seal-training their leader to say the same thing over and over, and the NDP trying to pretend that their leader is the reincarnation of Tony Blair. Neither effort is credible.
If the visceral hatred of Mr. Harper is so powerful, citizens are prepared to consider almost anyone, I suggest they opt for Elizabeth May, who at least has a handle on the issues and can be counted on to be consistent in government. I am not endorsing her because her program is fiscally wrong, but at least her platform gives progressives a real choice.
Bernie Teitelbaum, Toronto
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Choice: Liberal
Failure to invest significantly in infrastructure over many years has generated traffic jams that delay the delivery of goods and services. It has saddled us with outdated sewer systems, unable to handle the flooding that halts commercial activity for days (if not weeks) at a time. It leaves us victims to extended electrical outages because power lines still remain exposed, felled in increasingly severe weather.
Employers find themselves unable to convince ideal candidates to accept positions because the commute to major centres – like Toronto – is now so horrific.
Though my family falls within the bracket whose taxes will rise under the Liberal plan, I am keenly aware that private citizens – no matter how wealthy – cannot modernize commuter systems, cannot upgrade anachronistic sewer systems, cannot improve roads and bridges.
Endless tax cuts and boutique credits have undermined government's financial ability to discharge responsibilities that individuals or businesses simply cannot perform alone. Justin Trudeau's infrastructure plan has the potential to address significant aspects of the reasons behind our country's low productivity. It's a long overdue investment that will benefit every single one of us.
Penny Gill, Dundas, Ont.
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Choice: NDP
Almost 900,000 Canadians use a food bank each month. For years, I volunteered with a local food bank. The saddest visit was an elderly woman who came hoping for some tea, fruit and incontinence supplies. "I lived through the Blitz in London," she wept as we packed a bag together. "We thought we were building a better world. Coming here to a food bank is almost as hard as the Blitz was. I never ever thought I'd have to use a food bank."
Food banks were introduced as a temporary measure in the 1980s; here we are, 35 years later, and decades of Liberal and Conservative governments have failed to address hunger caused by growing inequality. Almost 37 per cent of those who use food banks are children and youth.
Even the UN has condemned Canada for failing to address food insecurity for our low-income citizens. Unless we are brave enough to vote for a huge change in Canada, food banks will continue to be a stop gap measure.
Children, people with disabilities, seniors and the working poor deserve adequate nutrition in a country as well off as Canada.
It's time to stand up for ourselves and each other and vote NDP. It's time for a change.
Virginia Brucker, Nanoose Bay, B.C.
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Life after petroleum
Re Next PM Needs To Be Ready For A Postpetroleum World (Oct. 2): Oil and gas are not going to disappear overnight. But if Canada continues to sit by the side of the road counting, and counting on, our oil and gas earnings, we will look up some day to realize the road is grown over and the on-ramp to the new energy highway is far, far in the distance.
Sheila Petzold, Ottawa
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Pen, well in hand
No one would have enjoyed Dave McGinn's fine update on handwriting (Learning To Put Pen To Paper – Life & Arts, Oct. 1), more than Paul Kitchen, former executive director of the Canadian Library Association, who died Aug. 29 of leukemia. This notable hockey historian and writer of parliamentary watching briefs was an inveterate advocate of cursive writing, who practised what he preached. On May 2, 2010, he took pen in hand and, in firm, round scroll wrote on lined foolscap: Ode to the Pen; or, a diatribe on aimless texting:
Cursive writing is a skill m'ore taught;
Key pad is king, the quill forgot.
In days before, the pen was treasured;
Alas today its time is measured.
Great thoughts are born of quiet reflection;
The pen, to others, secures a connection.
Thought alone serves little purpose;
Conveyance to others is what doth serve us.
The flow of the hand, not the press of the key,
Transmits the genius that serves you and me.
J.W. (Bill) Fitsell, Kingston