Verizon's no thanks
Re Verizon Backs Away From Canada (Sept. 2): One wonders what type of contribution Canada's Big Three might have made toward Verizon's Vodafone deal.
Harry McKeague, Toronto
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Perhaps the CEOs of Rogers, BCE and Telus should have read their Shakespeare before launching their campaign opposing the rules for new entrants into the Canadian wireless market.
To paraphrase Queen Gertrude in Hamlet: The lads they do protest too much, methinks.
Ian Savidge, Brampton, Ont.
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Reading between the lines, I respect Verizon's integrity in not entering Canada in response to the will of Canadians who want the element of fair play.
Murray Katzman, Toronto
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Capital ideas for Ottawa
Re It's Time To Renovate Our Capital (Sept. 3): Lawrence Martin is singing my song. So much is wearing out in our great country and our entire focus seems to be on lower taxes and a "good enough" philosophy.
Do we want a great country or do we want a cheap country? Do we want a national capital that we can all be proud of or one that is constantly under emergency repair? Not only is our public infrastructure falling apart, but our social infrastructure, too.
Can we please find some leaders who see us as a young, growing country that, just like a young, growing family, must invest in the future. We cannot live forever in the aging and crumbling facilities that our forefathers had the vision and the courage to build.
George Brookman, Calgary
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Having recently moved to Ottawa after almost 30 years away, we have been dismayed to see the untended, deteriorated state of our country's capital.
We see garbage piled up and scattered around bins that – clearly – aren't emptied often enough. We see unwashed sidewalks and cracked roads. We see parks that used to be tidy and inviting that are now a scary mess. Even the pride of Ottawa – the Rideau Canal – is falling apart. Just walk along and look at how the metal railings threaten to fall into the water due to the cracked cement.
J.B. O'Reilly, Ottawa
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Lawrence Martin says that it is unfair to compare Ottawa to London or Paris. Why? The great cities of the world treasure their "derelict" buildings, put pedestrians before cars and keep their train stations downtown.
Ottawa used to have idiosyncratic charm and character. It has all but been destroyed by freeway-type roads and demolition of locally distinctive buildings. A National Portrait Gallery in the old U.S. embassy building would be a great way to show the world we are not all classless hicks.
Deborah Percy, Toronto
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Ottawa is not just a symbol, it is a city with real people who live and work there. I'm sorry Lawrence Martin disapproves of our "mediocrity" and "seediness."
However, we would appreciate it if some consideration could be given to us before transforming our home into a museum exhibit for the rest of the world.
Adam Waiser, Ottawa
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Designer ABCs
Re Specialized School Programs On The Rise (Sept. 2): I don't mind there being more choice in the public education system. But it's time to stop treating life (and public services) like a candy store.
Our public education system would seem to have other priorities than catering to the consumer demands of every privileged, entitled parent who wants a designer solution for their child.
I don't want people with their jammy lifestyles to pervert an egalitarian and community-centred education system so their already advantaged children can get get a further leg up. Let them run to the private system.
Fred Freedman, MD, Toronto
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Educate vs. train
Re Universities Educate, Em-ployers Train (Sept. 2) and Unions Are Here To Stay (Sept. 2): Your opinion pieces on the role of universities by Max Blouw, and on the importance of unions by Jerry Dias are two of the most clear-headed and informed columns I have read in some time.
Now, if we could just get universities, and especially business schools, to require course content on unions, what they do and are capable of doing, and why they matter to Canadian society.
I cannot think of a better way to encourage the intellectual breadth and critical thinking advocated by Prof. Blouw, while at the same time ensuring that students are properly informed when they enter the "real world."
John Godard, professor, Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba
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Has Max Blouw, the chair of the Council of Ontario Universities, forgotten that it was the university presidents and their administrators who, against the outcry from the professoriate, started calling university students "clients" and "customers," who argued that universities are businesses, who forced the measuring of university programs based on "outcomes," who created "skills transcripts" and "extracurricular transcripts" for university students, in addition to academic transcripts?
University presidents compete with each other to name every faculty after a wealthy business person as payback for a donation, some made with strings attached.
These are exactly the reasons why universities have transformed into training centres and businesses that – using Prof. Blouw's words – produce "plug-and-play" graduates.
Perhaps university presidents should collectively start acting to reverse the tides they created. Perhaps they should start paying attention to the academic aspects of universities, rather than creating larger and larger bureaucracies, armies of vice-presidents, associate vice-presidents and assistant vice-presidents, offices of this, offices of that.
Universities need to return to their traditional focus: teaching, learning and research, period.
V. Ismet Ugursal, professor of mechanical engineering, Dalhousie University
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Education's measure
Your editorial The Seven Essentials Of Education (Sept. 2) states that "Canada's education system is actually quite good."
What you mean is that provincial and territorial schools are quite good. These are the only school measured by the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment. Canada's national education system, i.e., the federal/First Nation schools, are explicitly excluded from any regional, provincial, and international assessments.
Ron Phillips, associate professor, education, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ont.
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Three things …
Re The Eternal Sport (Sept. 2): When I was young and played hockey, I thoroughly enjoyed it – lots of enthusiasm, not so much skill. But I can't see any fun in watching someone else shoot a puck, hit or kick a ball.
There are three things in life you must do for yourself to enjoy: eating, sports and sex.
John Owen, Dartmouth, N.S.