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
..................................................................................................................................
Parade forms here
Re Justin Trudeau: A Leader With No Parade (March 15): Margaret Wente states that progressive (the seemingly hip new term for liberal) governments around the world have failed to deliver the goods to their citizens. Please tell us: Which conservative governments have delivered these high quality, high quantity goods, particularly in these times of global economic stress?
As for Justin Trudeau being a leader without a parade, how about checking his approval ratings among Canadians?
Michael Farrell, Oakville, Ont.
.........
Margaret Wente cites a new Ipsos poll that reports that "economic confidence has plunged to its lowest point in 20 years." However, according to the Conference Board of Canada, the Index of Consumer Confidence for February actually rose – "the first gain for the index in four months."
It is no coincidence that economic confidence in Canada has actually risen since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister.
Shane Reynolds, Vancouver
.........
Please do not classify me as a Canadian not excited by our assistance of the Syrian refugees.
Do not count me in when Margaret Wente talks about Canadians who assign a lower priority to climate change, I want a better world for the next generation.
Do not include me when she talks about Canadians who are pessimistic about our economy.
For many Canadians, our hope is that as the leader of our collective will, Justin Trudeau can direct us to change the rancour and negativity in this world.
Optimism and moral fortitude is the kind of leadership we need from him – unlike the derisive and callous sideshow that plagues our neighbour to the south.
Carol Victor, Burlington, Ont.
.........
Norway's model
Alberta's failure to follow Norway's model in saving for a rainy day can't be tied to Canada's equalization program (Wrong Model – letters, March 14). The numbers belie that scenario.
Equalization cost our federal government around $17-billion in 2015. About $3-billion of that came from federal taxes paid by Albertans.
How does that compare with what happened in Norway in 2015? There the government transferred (net) 130 billion kroner (about $21-billion Canadian) of its petroleum revenues to its "rainy day fund." The $3-billion the Alberta government might hypothetically have tucked away in the absence of equalization pales in comparison. Alberta has not saved like Norway and equalization is not the culprit.
Incidentally, Norway also contributed the equivalent of more than $5-billion to developing countries in 2015, well in excess of what Albertans provide to other provinces through equalization.
Peter Gusen, Ottawa
.........
Likely, it seems
Could you humour me by explaining why a synagogue and a mosque that have been neighbours for years, have a long-standing relationship and even share a parking lot constitute "unlikely partners" for a joint refugee sponsorship (Unlikely Partners To Aid Refugees – March 14, 2016)? It seems to me a very natural partnership, indeed.
I'm not trying to be dense. I think I do understand the intended insinuation, rooted in familiar stereotypes about innate animosity between the two religions. But in these times we live in, it's not an insinuation that should be allowed to stand unchallenged.
Based on the facts in the article, the members of the two congregations sound – entirely unsurprisingly – like a fine bunch of people, doing exactly the kinds of good work that their respective religious traditions value.
There's nothing unlikely about that. To suggest otherwise does Jews and Muslims a disservice.
Grant H.P. Smith, Victoria
.........
Reasoned parenting?
Re Take A Time Out, Breathe Deep, And Count To 10: The Kids Are Going To Be All Right (March 12): Would someone like to explain how it is that there are parents among the Echo Boomers – those '80s kids who were allowed to voice their opinions and make their own choices – who think that their own kids' temper tantrums should be inflicted on the public in places where they have the space to remove the child?
It looks to me like the reasoned parenting of the past has not produced the consideration for others that we expected it to.
In the 1980s, I found myself explaining to teachers who were complaining about what some of their students were trying out on them that, no, I knew the parents, and these kids didn't get away with this at home. So, is it a general consideration for those outside the family that is lacking?
Whatever it is, we can hardly hope that this new generation of children will be more considerate of others than their parents are.
Joanna Anderson, Burlington, Ont.
.........
TIFF on TIFF
Re And The Award For The Most Problematic Awards Show Goes To … (Film, March 11): The Toronto International Film Festival is acknowledged as the most important showcase for our own cinema. TIFF screens 25 new Canadian films every year. Last September, three of our Galas were Canadian. We opened the festival with the world premiere of a film made by one of our most talented filmmakers, Jean-Marc Vallée. Each year, we give three major cash prizes to Canadian films.
We run development programs for emerging Canadian talent; every January we present the best features, shorts and student films of the year in Canada's Top Ten Film Festival, which tours to eight Canadian cities. TIFF is proud of our total and ongoing commitment to Canadian cinema.
Piers Handling, CEO, Toronto International Film Festival
.........
Friars rock on
Re On These Rocks, The Friars Briar Will Build A Community (March 10): Roy MacGregor's recent column caused a flurry of reminiscences in our family. My dad, Rev. Don Amos of Oriole York Mills United Church in suburban Toronto, was the founder of the Canadian Clergy Curling Club. On Mondays, ministers who love to curl found the rinks were mostly empty; right from the get-go, rabbis were included.
The clergymen had for a number of years been sliding in on the coattails of the Brier, which was at that time sponsored by Macdonald Stewart Tobacco. The "friars" who travelled to see the big bonspiel put on their own little event at the same time, at a rink nearby, and called it the Friars Brier. At one point, the legal staff of the multinational tobacco consortium sent word to the clergymen that they were in violation of copyright, by using a registered trademark – the word "brier." So the brothers-of-the-cloth, always concerned to play by the rules, came up with a different spelling. Theirs became the Friars Briar.
Guess who had the last laugh (or last end)? As a tobacco company, Macdonald (and their trademark wee Scottish lassie) are no longer allowed to use sporting events to advertise. But the good friars curl on in their good Canadian ecumenical way.
Robert Amos, Victoria