Health-care shame
My late husband Herb Gray – a former deputy prime minister – had to wait in the emergency room for 48 hours or more on a number of occasions during the last years of his life.
Due to Parkinson's disease, he had frequent falls, sometimes causing injury that required treatment. Because of other chronic conditions, he required hospitalization from time to time, usually arriving by ambulance. These waits were very stressful for both of us, and not good for his health status (Granny Killing – letters, Sept. 24; Seniors-On-Stretchers: A Health Care Disgrace – Sept. 23).
I was CEO of the Canadian Healthcare Association for many years and a leading advocate for our publicly funded health system, something I continue to be. However, I always knew that changes were needed, particularly in senior care, and I and others kept proposing solutions that never seemed to come to fruition
The problem is a health system that is primarily hospital-based and does not adequately address chronic and continuing care needs. We can't keep talking – we just need to do it – and we require leadership from the federal government so that Canadians have equitable access to required services throughout our wonderful country.
Sharon Sholzberg-Gray, Ottawa
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Climate's rank?
Re Harper's Base Couldn't Care Less About Climate (Sept. 24): Jeffrey Simpson sure likes to criticize our Prime Minister. It is not just Stephen Harper who does not care. When the UN asked what the rest of us think, some four million people from member nations said the top priorities are better education and health care, less corruption, more jobs and affordable food. Global warming was in last place as priority No. 17.
When the Pew Research Center asked Americans this year to rank 20 top priorities for the President, they focused on jobs, education, health, the economy and terrorism. Climate was No. 19.
Philip Beaudoin, Beaverton, Ont.
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Right-wing thinkers have strong market-based beliefs that are challenged by the climate crisis. "Conservatives" need to be reassured of the mounting economic evidence that Canada can use the market to solve the climate crisis: Put a predictable price on carbon pollution and return the revenue back to citizens.
Political will for a revenue-neutral carbon tax can be changed with newspapers educating voters about carbon-pricing policies and Canada's disappointing track record on climate change. A thank you to Jeffrey Simpson for yet another hard-hitting column.
Cathy Orlando, Citizens' Climate Lobby (Canada)
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Re Canada More Muted Than U.S. In Climate Commitment (Sept. 24): U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli are representatives of two of the world's largest superpowers and economies. At the UN summit, each leader took pains to express these nations' deepened commitment to addressing climate change. The world's climate experts are as close as the scientific community ever gets to universal consensus that this issue is of the gravest concern to the human race in terms of its potential economic and human toll.
Yet, Stephen Harper cannot be bothered to join his fellow leaders at the climate talks. To put it bluntly, where does Canada get off displaying this level of arrogant, cavalier disregard of this vital 21st-century issue?
Brian Collinson, Oakville, Ont.
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Netflix, Cancon
Re CRTC's Reach In Question As Netflix, Google Stand Firm (Report on Business, Sept. 24): I find it strange that the CRTC is fighting with Netflix over statistics. Why aren't they fighting over Canadian content? That's their job. Imagine if the CRTC demanded, as the cost of doing business, that Netflix invest in five Canadian series. It could put millions of dollars into the economy and potentially put hundreds to work.
Keith Ross Leckie, Toronto
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Wheat, chaff, politics
Without knowing how many tonnes of grain the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) has handled since 2011/12, without knowing the salaries paid, without knowing how many taxpayer dollars have been transferred to the CWB ($177-million in 2011/12 but a government secret since then), without, in effect, any financial knowledge because the government has been hiding the numbers since 2011/12, The Globe's editorialists have decreed the carcass of the CWB a success (Free At Last – editorial, Sept. 24).
The CWB is now just another cog in the wheel that ripped off billions from Western farmers last year.
Stewart Wells, grain farmer, Swift Current, Sask.
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At last count, there were over 350 inland Prairie terminals owned by foreign multinationals. These are the same multinationals who own the vast majority of critical port terminals on the West Coast . At best, the new Canadian Wheat Board will be a bit player among these giants. Canada's grain will now be traded by foreign corporations, not a marketing board controlled by Canada's grain farmers.
Ken Larsen, Benalto, Alta.
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Canada as a target
It is profoundly worrying that Prime Minister Stephen Harper fails to recognize his role in making Canada a public target of Islamic extremists(Canada Aligns With Global Push Against IS – Sept. 23). In the past, Canada's global role as a country of peacekeepers and neutral arbiters allowed us a prominent place in international disputes. It was a role which also prevented hate-mongering groups from successfully hanging a target of convenience on our doorstep.
When Islamic State now says "attack Canada," the group has a reason to do so. Our foreign policy under Mr. Harper is largely hypocritical, helping those countries who bring us direct economic benefits. We are dogmatic in our support of Israel, confrontational and one-sided in our views of world events, reckless about our contributions to climate change, and willfully blind to the military quagmire that was created by the U.S. in Iraq.
Michael Slattery, Toronto
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Leafs Nation
Yup, the headline on Cathal Kelly's column nails it: Toronto Fans, Let The Annual Winter Of Discontent Begin (Sports, Sept. 24). We Leafs fans are "discontented" about having to spend another season wading through negative media coverage like his – and this article after a 4-0 Leafs win.
Jean Mills, lifelong member of Leafs Nation, Guelph, Ont.
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No more Cathal Kelly until after breakfast, I'm tired of snorting granola out my nose.
B. Parks, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
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Ford Nation
If no Ford is elected in Toronto next month, will Ford Nation consider holding a referendum on independence (If Not Scotland, Then Where? – Sept. 24)?
Pat Helcl, Cobourg, Ont.