Left to right is Oshawa MP Colin Carrie, Haldimand-Norfolk MP Leslyn Lewis, Christine Anderson and Niagara West MP Dean Allison.Supplied
At the top
Re “A year into the invasion of Ukraine, some Russians still don’t want to speak out” (Feb. 25): “The historian Timothy Snyder reminds us that all nation building is based on some form of myth making.”
I would like to add that a country does not start a war – its leaders do. The abomination of war is a failure of humanity and diplomacy, and eventually written as a regular, but fully lamentable, history of mankind.
Peter Keleghan Toronto
The ultimate conclusion of this dreadful war would be from within Russia, by dissidents rising up to out the present leadership.
In his seminal 2005 book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, historian Jared Diamond details how great civilizations have historically collapsed from within, and not from external threat. Collapse usually takes the form of corruption, mismanagement and weak, self-serving leadership. This is what I see Russia going through now.
If this were to happen to Russia, it would be a win-win solution to this unsustainable situation: peace for Ukraine and respite for long-suffering Russians.
Raymond Stern Ottawa
Follow the money
Re “CSIS uncovered Chinese plan to donate to Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation” (Feb. 28): To paraphrase, meddling puts the legitimacy of government at stake and weakens confidence in our democratic process.
If legitimacy and confidence are underpinnings of elected governments, then both solicited and unsolicited political donations should be up there with interference from all foreign entities, including “friendly” countries and not just the villains du jour.
Bill Bousada Carleton Place, Ont.
Any suggestion that the Prime Minister did not know about the Chinese businessmen’s donation should be considered nonsense. I knew about it – it was reported in The Globe and Mail (“Trudeau attended cash-for-access fundraiser with Chinese billionaires” – Nov. 22, 2016).
Brian Grier Calgary
Person of interest
Re “Conservative MPs knew what they were getting into with Christine Anderson meeting: organizers” (Feb. 28): If an ordinary person like me knows that Christine Anderson is a far-right German politician who has spoken against immigration and has downplayed the Nazi dictatorship and the Holocaust, under what rock have these Conservative MPs been hiding?
Ms. Anderson’s views are well known and have no place in Canada. The Jewish community and refugees wanting to immigrate to Canada should be concerned.
Marianne Freeman Vancouver
Do not enter?
Re “The Roxham Road situation requires a diplomatic solution” (Feb. 27): Many people appear to think that the closing of Roxham Road must be airtight. That is neither realistic nor achievable. The goal should be to change perceptions.
Travellers on the refugee trail know anecdotally that Roxham Road is wide open. Canada should correct that perception.
Close Roxham Road as best we can, change refugee beliefs and reduce the volume of illegal entry to a manageable trickle.
Martin Stockton Carleton Place, Ont.
It should not be a question of the difficulty of closing Roxham Road, but that our Prime Minister seems to be encouraging illegal immigration.
Canada is a welcoming country because we have carefully managed immigration at a rate that does not create the kind of social upheaval evident in some European countries. Subversion of our legal immigration policy is irresponsible and could be dangerous to social cohesion.
Joe O’Brien Halifax
Bank on it
Re “The big banks’ dependence on housing undermines Canada’s prosperity” (Editorial, Feb. 27): The post-Second World War baby boom led to housing shortages and moved the government to permit banks to write mortgage loans, which they have been successfully doing ever since.
Over the decades, there have been those who feel the No. 1 priority of government has been to provide housing. Others, including this editorial, have pushed the productive use of capital as the No. 1 priority.
As The Globe and Mail concedes, there are no easy answers. But as an individual, I always felt I could be a more productive member of the economy if I had my own home, no matter the size of the mortgage. I find it difficult to accept that “existing real estate is a non-productive asset because it doesn’t create jobs or new innovations.”
Surely, as a consequence of the pandemic, we have seen that remote work can produce not only innovation, but also create jobs.
Joe Martin President, Canadian Business History Association; Toronto
An old quote by German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht comes to mind: “What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank?”
Robert Milan Victoria
At odds
Re “Alberta moves to slow rollout of controversial oil wells cleanup program” (Feb. 25): The Bank of Nova Scotia thinks a core capitalist principle is “that private companies should take full responsibility for the liabilities they willingly accept.” How quaint.
But if capitalism’s prime directive is actually to increase shareholder value (and by happy coincidence, executive remuneration), then the core principle seems to be that companies should wriggle out of those liabilities, nose-thumbing at poorly enforced regulations hobbled by lobbyist influence.
If not a principle, certainly common practice.
Kishore Visvanathan Saskatoon
Next step
Re “Vaccine for urinary tract infection awaiting Health Canada approval” (Feb. 28): This is a lightning bolt of hope for those of us who suffer chronic urinary tract infections. It holds out the possibility of a pain-free promised land for so many of us.
Let’s hope for a warp-speed approval process from Health Canada.
Pamela Edwards Burlington, Ont.
Mr. Pinsent goes to Ottawa
Re “Actor Gordon Pinsent, the friendly face and roguish heart of Canadian cinema, dead at 92″ (Obituary, Feb. 27): Gordon Pinsent went on to quite a career, but I will always remember him first and foremost for the show Quentin Durgens, M.P.
His portrayal of Durgens was Canada’s answer to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, made some 30 years earlier. The times were different, but civic virtue was not yet outdated. Even the “turn on, tune in, drop out” set of the late-1960s could get into our then-new-prime-minister Pierre Trudeau’s act.
Perhaps it will take a real-life Newfoundlander like Durgens to renegotiate the Churchill Falls deal with Quebec. “Lard tunderin’ Jaysus,” the province could use “a gift to last.”
Howard Greenfield Montreal
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