Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
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Positive, negative
Your political bias is showing. Let's look at the headlines of four short articles grouped together (Political Digest, Aug. 20). The first has a positive headline about the NDP pledging more police (NDP Pledges 2,500 More Police Officers). The second has a positive headline about Liberal Justin Trudeau vowing to support flex-hours (Trudeau Vows To Allow Flex-Hour Requests).
The third has a negative headline about Stephen Harper trying to shift away from the Duffy affair (Harper Shifts Talk Away From Duffy). The article has nothing to do with Mike Duffy and should have read something like "Harper Pledges To Cut Red Tape For Small Business."
The fourth, a trivial item, is blatantly anti-Harper (Man Ticketed For His Anti-Harper Sign).
I expect better from Canada's self-proclaimed national newspaper.
Brian Davis, Barrie, Ont.
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Wow, can I relate to Rob Wells's frustration (Man Ticketed For His Anti-Harper Sign – Aug. 20)! Stephen Harper has been giving democracy the finger for so long in Canada, and on so many fronts, a little payback seems only fair.
But why did The Globe hold back on telling us what the sign said? I had to look elsewhere for that and my laugh of the day. Your pro-Conservative leanings are showing – again. Would you have held back if the sign had been about Justin Trudeau? Or Thomas Mulcair?
Mitchell Johnson, Toronto
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Stephen Harper says there are just two issues in this campaign, security and the economy (Harper Shifts Talk Away From Duffy – Aug. 20).
But as everyone now knows, there's at least one more – integrity. And it affects the other two.
Terry Pratt, Elmwood, PEI
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Most employed Canadians are not covered by federal labour law; many do not have health and dental benefits, some don't have life insurance, many are without a pension, others have no choice but to work 9 to 5 and, make no mistake, some aren't paid while they're at the dentist (Trudeau Vows To Allow Flex-Hour Requests – Aug. 20).
Why Justin Trudeau is supporting the working-haves and not the have-nots working with far less is beyond my understanding.
Jill Young, Ottawa
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A child's death
Re The System Failed My Son (Folio, Aug. 20): The article about the death of five-year-old Brody Meekis from a strep throat infection makes me furious.
As a toddler, my daughter was prone to strep throat infections. In then pre-walk-in clinic Edmonton, when she'd wake from a nap, skin bright red and burning, I'd call the doctor's office immediately. Busy or not, there was always room to see her. Within just a few hours, the necessary antibiotics were in her system and she'd be on the mend.
With today's improved medicine, technology, communication and transportation, there is no excuse for the tragedy of a child's death from a simple, treatable infection, even in remote communities such as Sandy Lake.
Joanne E. Betzler, New Westminster, B.C.
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The Duffy file
Jeffrey Simpson aptly notes that Stephen Harper puts the micro in micromanagement (A Trip Through The Maze Of Implausibilities – Aug. 19). Yet according to Mr. Harper, his relationship to his office minions with respect to the Duffy file was a combination of Sgt. Schultz ("I see nothing") and Manuel the Waiter ("I know nothing"). As the Duffy trial and the federal election campaign proceed, one should bear in mind that Schultz saw everything and that Manuel knew plenty.
James Allen, Victoria
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When it comes to the Mike Duffy scandal, Stephen Harper is caught between a rock and a hard place.
Scenario 1: Here we have an unsuspecting, hands-off PM served by aides within the PMO secretly plotting their cover-up of the Duffy expense scandal.
In this version, he comes off looking like a political cuckold, an object of scorn and ridicule. The more this unflattering perception grabs hold of public opinion, the less dignified and in-charge (i.e., prime ministerial) Mr. Harper will appear.
Scenario 2: Alternatively, many voters will feel that their intelligence is being insulted by an implausible cover story that Mr. Harper was left out of the decision-making loop by the connivance of flunkeys when Nigel Wright arranged the $90,172 payment of Mike Duffy's expenses with a personal cheque. In this version, wide public resentment at being so crudely played will also undoubtedly harm the Conservatives electorally.
Orest Slepokura, Strathmore, Alta.
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We have an election under way, with issues worth multiple billions of dollars at stake.
Relatively speaking, $90,000 in expenses is akin to a flea in the armpit of an elephant.
Let's move on!
Bruce W. Healy, Parksville, B.C.
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I fear that the longer the Duffy trial drags on, the more people will tune out and be oblivious as to what's really happening in our country.
Maybe the Prime Minister should just say "to heck with it" – and call a federal election.
Ken Grennan, Vancouver
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First Nations first
If Bill C-27 (the First Nations Transparency Act) has proven anything, it's that the overwhelming majority of the more than 3,000 First Nations elected officials are fairly compensated for demanding, labour-intensive jobs (Let The Sun Shine In – editorial, Aug. 20). It's a disservice and distortion to focus on a small number of outliers.
First Nations support transparency and our right to be accountable to our citizens first. Many First Nations governments have been providing this information to their members for decades.
Bill C-27 imposes accountability to the federal government first. Further, it demands that our governments provide sensitive information on revenues from their own businesses and companies, damaging our ability to compete and build our economies.
Canada should be supporting real accountability and economic opportunities for First Nations. Canada should address its own mismanagement of funding and misguided policies for First Nations. Bill C-27 does none of this. It infringes on our rights and deserves to be challenged.
Perry Bellegarde, National Chief, Assembly of First Nations
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Royals at rest
I, too, thought Katherine Parr was the only wife of Henry VIII to outlive him, until a volunteer guide in Westminster Abbey asked if I had seen Anne of Cleves's tomb (Women Rule The Stage In The Last Wife – Life & Arts, Aug. 19).
I learned that after her marriage to Henry was annulled, Anne didn't return to Flanders. Having received a substantial settlement, she lived as a very wealthy woman until 1557, some 10 years after Henry's death.
And she is buried in the Abbey.
Eleanor O'Connor, Toronto