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
..................................................................................................................................
Imported labour
Re Ottawa Eases Restrictions On Seasonal Foreign Workers (March 17): Given Canada's unemployment rate, and especially given the steady arrival of thousands of immigrants who also will need work, why do we need to import temporary labour?
Bruce Cossar, Kingston
.........
What happened to that government transparency we were promised? Why was there no formal announcement about this? Why no news release?
As long as we permit worker-shortage issues to be solved by importing cheap labour, employers will not pay the kind of wages that people can live on and that draw them to jobs.
This kind of thing just accelerates the slide to the bottom of the wage pail that has people rallying behind Donald Trump.
Erika Simpson, Calgary
.........
I have the same question Jason Kenney had two years ago: Why are we bringing in foreign workers while out-of-work Canadians are collecting employment insurance?
Emily Campbell, Halifax
.........
Religion, death
Re Why Religious Conscience Must Be Part Of The Debate (March 16): As a confirmed atheist, I do not normally read Lorna Dueck's columns, but as a retired physician I did read this one on assisted dying.
Ms. Dueck appears to want to define it as a battle between those who agree, and those who don't, with the Supreme Court's decision that "the sanctity of life" includes "the passage into death."
The dictionary definition of "sanctity" is "the quality of being very important and deserving of respect." I would suggest that rather than a battle, we accept that those who support assisted dying not impose their views on those who don't, and those who find it religiously abhorrent should respectfully do likewise.
Sheelagh Norman, MD, Toronto
.........
Does Lorna Dueck understand that in a free, liberal, secular democracy, human rights trump religious values?
Kim Smith, Ottawa
.........
Religion, food
Why would or should the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) get involved in the "halal" labelling business (Muslims Seek Food Purity Rules – March 16)?
If the Muslim community is concerned that labelling fraud is occurring, then let the community do what is necessary to eliminate fraud. It is not CFIA's mandate to get involved in religious matters.
Please keep religion out of our food.
Aquil Ali, Toronto
.........
Put paid to tolls
Re Why Are We Giving Drivers A Free Ride? (editorial, March 17): How absurd to assert that drivers are using roads for free.
We are paying heavily with our gas taxes, federal, provincial, and municipal taxes, sales taxes, and here in B.C., our carbon taxes.
The advent of electronic tolling and the ludicrous suggestion of added "road pricing" just give spendthrift governments more ways to surreptitiously pick our pockets instead of resolving to make the most of all the taxes that we already pay.
Vicki Dartnell, Vancouver
.........
Canada's first major toll road, the Highway 407 ETR, was sold by the Ontario government at a fire sale price to balance the books in an election year. Since then, it's been operated by a for-profit conglomerate, with a per kilometre charge to drivers roughly 10 times higher than the New York State Thruway.
And the province acts as the conglomerate's strong-arm collection agency, required under the deal with the conglomerate to deny licence plate renewals if there are unpaid tolls attributed to that plate.
Given this first domestic toll road experience for most Canadians, is it any wonder that our enthusiasm for an expanded toll road network is limited at best?
Arthur Wilson, Toronto
.........
Tuition game-changer
Re Province Condemned For 'Free' Tuition (March 17): It's important that we not lose sight of the significance of the government's improvements to student assistance – this is absolutely a game-changer for many prospective students. The new measures focus aid clearly on students from low-income families, including mature students who hadn't always qualified for assistance.
As financial concerns are always the first issue raised by these students for not attending postsecondary institutions, the new plan removes the most significant obstacle to access for many.
Higher education is a necessity in the new economy and the government has introduced meaningful reforms to encourage more people to enroll in college and university programs.
Linda Franklin, CEO, Colleges Ontario
.........
Pinpointing Trump
Re Trump Is The Result, Not The Cause, Of GOP Vices (March 17): Jeffrey Simpson writes that we cannot pinpoint the moment when the drift to the right in the Republican Party began, but I would argue that we can.
In their book It's Even Worse Than It Looks, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, long-time scholars of Congress, provide evidence of liberal-conservative voting patterns in Congress from 1879 to 2009. What we see is that congressional Republicans drifted continuously in a more liberal direction from 1929 all the way to 1979, by a factor of 0.2 on their scale. Since 1979, and specifically in 1979, the party jerked unambiguously to the right and in just 30 years shifted 0.4 in a more conservative direction – to a position more conservative than at any point in the party's modern history. What happened in 1979?
Newt Gingrich was elected in 1978, and he developed a strategy for the Republicans to regain control of Congress: 1) destroy the credibility of the institution, which was associated with the Democrats; 2) unite the Republicans and refuse any co-operation with Democrats; 3) blame the Democrats for the failures of government. It worked.
Mark A. Wolfgram, associate professor, Department of Political Science, Oklahoma State University
.........
America should recognize Donald Trump as a symptom (Clinton, Trump Rack Up Key Victories – March 16). While Mr. Trump is "tearing the GOP apart" the pathology that afflicts America may well unravel the entire country. Paranoia, another symptom, is hardly new to America (e.g., the McCarthy era) and may go a long way toward explaining the nation's gun culture. The fears that Mr. Trump represents are born of ignorance. That is the disease that threatens America.
Jo Balet, Mississauga
.........
With so many determined to get Ranting Donald out of the race to the White House, the serious players of the game of bridge offer the hope that the election in November will follow the example of the very high score of their game: the contract bid and made – a grand slam in no trump!
William Emigh, Victoria