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Budget, in words and deeds
Re Ontario Bets Strong Economy Will Keep Budget Balanced (April 28): One reason I have little respect for most politicians at all levels is their desecration of the English language. In their unwillingness to call a spade a spade, they fall back on what can at best be called euphemistic spin and at worst outright lying. Their current favourite is referring to all spending, even the most wasteful and self-serving, as "investing."
But Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne hit an all-time high (or low, depending on your point of view) during an interview after Thursday's provincial budget when she referred to the sell-off of Hydro One as "broadening of the ownership." Egad.
Lyman MacInnis, Toronto
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Many of those who cannot afford necessary prescription medications are people with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease (Ontario Liberals Unveil Major Boost To Health-Care Spending, Free Prescription Drugs For Youth In Budget – Folio, April 28). Providing the chronically ill with free medication would not only improve their health significantly, but result in savings that range from preventing complications that must be treated to the reduced costs inherent in bulk buying.
But I guess there are more uncommitted voters to be had by targeting the under-24s.
Suleman Remtulla, Mississauga
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Feel-good feels good
Re We Are Canada Is Just Bafflingly Bad TV ( Life & Arts, April 27): Why is John Doyle so down on the CBC and We Are Canada? What's wrong with reflecting feel-good Canadian values, such as people with limitations doing remarkable things or do-gooders making the world a better place? I far prefer that to the dark values in some of the U.S. series Mr. Doyle praises. Can't we just relax in front of the television and feel good about ourselves for a change?
Sandra Heft, Waverley, N.S.
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Confidence in top court at stake
Your editorial Supreme Hope (April 27) is correct in saying that a reasonable ruling in the James Cody case which is now before the high court could "protect the reputation of the justice system." As well, it could restore the public's confidence in the Supreme Court itself, which should have been able to foresee the chaos that has resulted from its decision on delays in the R. v. Jordan case.
Peter Tobin, Ottawa
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Embrace 'free, prior, informed'
Re Veto Worries (editorial, April 26): When are Canadians, and The Globe and Mail, going to stop fearing the notion of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) with Indigenous peoples? First Nations in this country are another level of government (with their own laws and varying governance structures long before colonialists arrived). Just as British Columbia can withdraw its consent for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and Alberta can give it, so too can varying Indigenous governments.
Everyone benefits when FPIC is respected. If a developer considering an LNG terminal approached Indigenous communities early enough, that developer might just discover that a massive project at a critical salmon habitat will never get consent, but moved to another location, it might (with only hundreds, not billions of dollars being spent). If we're serious about working toward reconciliation, we need to embrace FPIC and know that not every project is going to go ahead (just as it doesn't now with other levels of government). If we don't, our courts will keep telling us differently and the conflicts over land-use decisions will only increase.
Nikki Skuce, Smithers, B.C.
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Corporate tax-cut benefits?
Re In His Quest To Cut Corporate Taxes, Trump Should Take Cues From Canada's GST (April 27): You report that "today Ottawa collects almost as much in GST each year as it does in corporate taxes," having cut the corporate tax rate "by almost half, to 15 per cent from 28 per cent" since 2000. So, what have Canadians gained from this shift of the taxation burden onto consumers? Higher employment rates? More secure employment? Better pay and working conditions? Improved pensions? Better public services? Improved public finances?
Have any benefits accrued to the majority of Canadians who are not owners of corporations?
Michael D. Arkin, Toronto
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Don't rush the goodbyes
Re Goodbye To All That: Is The International Order As We Know It Over? (Folio, April 27): Niall Ferguson points out the irony of the liberal international trading system having as its primary beneficiary a Communist, one-party state. A fair point but one that is somewhat too dismissive of the Chinese people and their economic circumstances.
Here is an irony that Mr. Ferguson might not appreciate. The problems surrounding economic globalization may well have been a result of not too much global governance, but of not enough. Those calling for appropriate labour standards – not disguised protectionism – to be built into trade pacts were right to do so, as this would have tamed a galloping globalization and thus provided better job protection for workers in the industrialized world.
The liberal international order needs to be reinforced rather than dismissed.
Simon Rosenblum, Toronto