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It's a start, Mr. Trudeau, but …
Re Trudeau To End Controversial Cash-For-Access Fundraisers (Jan. 27): Lifting the secrecy from cash-for-access fundraisers is a start, but it is only that. There is still the basic fact that access carries a price in these situations, and for many Canadians – I dare say most Canadians – $1,500 is a whole lot of ka-ching. My headline would have been: Trudeau To Amend Controversial Cash-For-Access Fundraisers. It's still $1,500. It's still cash-for-access. And it's still controversial!
Mercy Roberts, Winnipeg
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No tolls? Where's democracy?
Re Wynne To Block Tory's Toll Plans For Gardiner, DVP (Jan. 27): What will the provincial Liberals do next to win votes?
First the cancelled gas plants, next "cash-for-access" and now denying the City of Toronto the right to impose road tolls.
The latter defies all the principles of democracy. Perhaps next time, those voters living in "swing ridings" can expect Premier Kathleen Wynne to give them an exemption from provincial taxes?
Don Forsey, Toronto
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Wall-to-wall Trump tensions
Re Tensions Flare Between Trump, Mexico Over Costs Of Building Wall (Jan. 27): It has become clear how President Donald Trump will create those promised 25 million jobs, and practically overnight.
They will all be in the construction of what he has all along meant by "infrastructure" – that long and costly border wall. The paycheques will come from cuts to whatever remains of U.S. public education.
Yet another way to make America backward.
Way to go, USA.
Ila Bossons, Toronto
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Thirty years from now, the Mexican president visits Washington. She gives an emphatic speech: "Mr. President, Tear Down This Wall!"
Marek Jakubik, Toronto
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Colleges' tough road
Re Ontario Colleges Face Tough Road Ahead: PwC Report (Jan. 26): Colleges Ontario commissions a report that predicts an imminent enrolment and funding crisis. At the same time, college boards propose giving college presidents raises of 30 per cent and 40 per cent (in one case, more than 50 per cent). The justifications are absurd: York University (53,000 students, overwhelmingly full-time) is used as a comparator for Fleming College (about 16,000 students, most of them part-time).
Note the timing of the alarming report: It's a bargaining year for faculty.
The fear the report stirs up might be as unrealistic as equating York and Fleming.
George Fogarasi, Peterborough, Ont.
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Colleges are instruments of the province, funded by the province (and students) to provide training. They are an extension of the public school system. The amount of funding that we (via the provincial government) provide for them reflects how willing we are to collectively invest in Ontario's citizens and its future.
Anyone who has been in an Ontario college knows that there is already enough aggressive cost cutting going on. Our colleges are not businesses and this trend to treat public schools and students like corporations, whose goal is profits, betrays our covenant with them and their purpose.
E. T. Spanier, Toronto
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'Women and children' in 2017
Yet again in The Globe and Mail I see reference to harm to "women and children" ('No Words' For Attack Aftermath – Jan. 25). The implication is that harm to women is somehow inherently worse than harm to men. At best, the expression fosters the sexist view that women are more innocent or in need of protection than men. At worst, it links us with children as less than fully developed members of society. The male refugees killed and injured are equally victims of this tragic attack.
In 2017, it's time for this sexist phrase to be retired.
Hilary A.N. Young, Fredericton
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A canine friend, treasured
Re A Dog Lived Here (Facts & Arguments, Jan. 26): This essay hit me right in my broken heart. I recently lost my companion of almost 13 years, my best friend in so many ways – most of which my much-loved husband cannot begin to comprehend.
Casper took me on at least two walks every day where we met so many dog walkers with whom I developed a strong friendship. Often I never knew their name, only their dogs', but we managed to talk about so many things, from politics to personal experiences, which it turned out were a common thread affecting our lives. I always returned home feeling I had learned important lessons and facts I might never have discovered on my own.
My dog could comfort me when I felt as though my life was spiralling downward, being my constant companion wherever I went. I miss his companionship more than ever. People say, yes, but now you can travel and you no longer have that big responsibility. True, but responsibility is a fact of friendship, and canine or otherwise, it should be treasured.
I am so grateful to essayist Laurie Best for putting into words the same feelings I hold dear in my own life.
Jennifer Zelmer, Ottawa