What is news, however, is that we all have a powerful weapon in the war against raccoons at our disposal. One of the wildlife people told me raccoons don’t like the sound of voices, and advised me to put a radio set to a station with a lot of low-volume talking in their proximity. I put a radio tuned to CBC near to them, and faster than you can say Stuart McLean, the mom raccoon moved off with her babies, back to the ravine.
They also don’t like lights at night. We leave an exterior light on in a raccoon-vulnerable area. No more raccoons.
Elizabeth Laregina, Toronto
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No more, please
Does anyone, except another politician, really think we need to spend money on more of them (Tories To Add To Commons Seating Plan – June 2)? What happened to less is more?
Emily Russell, Fredericton
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Old, young
Gordon Gibson (No Room In The Middle Of The Road – June 1) advises Liberals to “focus on the young (who are the future) instead of the old (who are the past, but have the votes).”
The old are not “the past,” they live in the present, where all of us, young, middle-aged, and old reside. Yes, they have votes; shouldn’t they? As for the young being “the future,” yes, they will be alive 20 years from now while most of those who are now old will not be. But they are not in that future yet, they are stuck in the present with the rest of us, and all of us together, young, middle-aged and old, surely have to try and make that present as good as it can be for the entire community.
Policy that sets young against old is offensive.
Patrick O’Flaherty, St. John’s
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Dust in our eyes
I applaud Margaret Wente for bringing to our attention the vacuity of Tim Hudak’s platform (Gossamer, Fairy Dust And Chain Gangs – June 2). Comparing an absent political vision to mythical entities is right on the mark. But it makes me wonder what Ms. Wente might have been thinking when, in the course of criticizing Dalton McGuinty’s energy policy, she refers to his closure of “perfectly good coal-fired power plants.” With ever-worsening climate change, there is no such thing as a good coal-fired power plant. Talk about gossamer and fairy dust.
Byron Williston, Waterloo, Ont.
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Okay, I get it. Tim Hudak, bad choice; Dalton McGuinty, bad choice. Ringing silence about the NDP. It’s going to take a legion of fairies, dust-bearing or not, to entice those of us who remember the last NDP government in this province to go that route.
But wait. I must have inhaled too much dust – the terrestrial kind; my wife made me help with the cleaning – because for one scary moment, I thought the world might have tilted and Ms. Wente had crossed to the Orange Side. Please ask her to weigh in with her views on that front. God forbid we have in her an agent for Orange?
John Hall, Toronto
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Done with dusted
If I see another picture of someone dusting the Senate or vacuuming the Commons every time these Houses return to sit, I am going to storm barricades or something. This is getting to be the biggest photographic cliché in the business. Something must be done! Please find another image to show us when Parliament resumes. Run a contest. Show the gargoyles on the Hill. Anything but the cleaning.
J.D.M. Stewart, Toronto
