Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford makes an announcement about building transit and highways during an election campaign event in Bowmanville, Ont., on May 6.Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press
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In Ontario
Re Why Trudeau And Ford Have Gone From Foes To Friends (May 4): After reading John Ibbitson’s column about Doug Ford having learned the benefits of working with other levels of government, I came up with a great new election slogan for the Ontario election: “Vote for Doug Ford: He is not as bad as he used to be.”
Gordon White Comox, B.C.
Re Buck-a-fare Is Better Than Buck-a-beer, But Neither Makes Much Sense (May 5): In what I find to be a cynical pre-election vote-grabbing scheme, Steven Del Duca and the Ontario Liberals are echoing Doug Ford’s buck-a-beer pitch with buck-a-ride transit fares.
To increase ridership, why not combine the two and offer cheap brews on buses and subways? That would be the better way.
Marty Cutler Toronto
If Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Luca was serious, he would propose permanent free transit and congestion zone charges. This could be created in a revenue-neutral manner.
Residents of affected zones and hotel guests could be exempted.
Arthur Peterson Ottawa
Re Election Off, Election On (Editorial Cartoon, May 4): One morning when I tuned in to the news, there was Doug Ford, in a blue suit, smiling just as Brian Gable portrays him in a cartoon. It could have been a photograph.
Damn the wetlands. Full speed ahead.
T.M. Dickey Toronto
Farewell
Re Coronavirus Update: Ontario Names New Head Of Expert COVID-19 Advisory Group (Online, April 29): Thanks to Peter Juni, outgoing head of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, for his wisdom and guidance during the past two-plus years.
I remember the first time I heard him on the radio. I was immediately impressed by his knowledge and advice. It was the first of many times that he provided information and a voice of reason in unchartered and scary times.
Good luck to him in future endeavours, but he should know that we will miss him. He has made a great contribution to our province.
Kathie Drummond Toronto
Get organized
Re Amazon Workers Vote Against Unionizing Second Warehouse (Report on Business, May 3): Under international law, the union that 380 workers voted to join has rights to be recognized and to have Amazon negotiate in good faith.
The company is not required to agree to union proposals. But if no agreement is reached, all relevant workers should be able to strike free from fear of punishment. As a member of the International Labour Organization, the United States should fulfill a responsibility to institute laws consistent with these norms.
Failure to do so creates “wage slaves” with no effective say in the establishment of their terms of work. They may quit. But most other relevant jobs are in establishments with similar conditions.
Under international law, the right to bargain collectively is a human right. The U.S. is one of the world’s most outstanding violators of that right.
Roy Adams Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights emeritus, college of law, University of Saskatchewan; Hamilton
So close
Re Basically (Letters, May 2): A letter-writer recalls that “Richard Nixon was close to introducing basic income in the United States – until someone told him that the poor would sit around drinking etc.” Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. assistant labour secretary under Lyndon Johnson, told a different story in his book The Politics of a Guaranteed Income.
Mr. Nixon, who grew up poor and believed food stamps humiliated the beneficiaries, advocated this welfare reform in the 1968 election and in his first State of the Union in 1970. His administration strongly supported this before the House Ways and Means Committee, stressing its child-care benefits, employment training and work incentives, as well as income guarantees.
That committee reported the Family Assistance Plan of 1970 for passage by the House, which passed it with bipartisan support. But the bill fell in the Senate due to irreconcilable demands for more and for less generosity.
Howard Teasley Vancouver
By the book
Re Strychnine Ban Has Prairie Farmers Frustrated, Nervous (April 30): Small animals exposed to strychnine die an awful, distressful death and not always “immediately.”
The Merck Veterinary Manual describes symptoms of exposure as follows: “agitation, stiff gait, tremors, seizures, respiratory distress and death.” Onset of symptoms post-exposure can indeed be rapid, but the entire episode leading to death is usually “one to two hours,“ at least in dogs.
It is possible that small rodents, such as gophers, succumb sooner. But it is hardly “immediate” and certainly not painless.
John Nightingale Retired veterinarian; Lethbridge, Alta.
Out with a bang
Re ‘A Pickle-brawl’: Sport’s Growth Raises A Racket In Victoria (May 2): What about people who have suffered from the noise of pickleball and complained to authorities?
This noise is compared to “street traffic or rain on a roof,” yet there is no proof of it from a decibel reading of people playing pickleball outdoors. To dismiss the noise as “good noise” would be to demean all the people in North America who have complained and taken this matter to court.
The presidents of the Victoria Regional Pickleball Association and Pickleball Canada advocate for pickleball hubs a considerable distance away from buildings. Let’s put the focus and resources on that to avoid this conflict.
Carol Ashwell Vancouver
On Mother’s Day
Re When Motherhood Feels Like ‘Otherhood’ (First Person, May 5): As a mother of two adult children and one grandchild, I applaud essay-writer Geeta Kamath for her gutsy and refreshingly honest perspective on being a mom. Mother love is powerful, and so is her essay.
Connie Gibbs Salt Spring Island, B.C.
Re Russian Bombing Of Mariupol Theatre Killed Closer To 600 People (Online, May 4): Before rushing out to pick up a last-minute flower bouquet or box of chocolates, I hope we take a moment to reflect on the original intent of Mother’s Day.
In 1870, abolitionist, suffragette and pacifist Julia Ward Howe appealed to women throughout the world: “Say firmly … we women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
My great-grandmother lost three sons in the First World War. Twenty years later, her grandson (my father) enlisted in the Second World War, leaving behind an anxious wife and mother. Were she alive today, my mother, whose parents immigrated from Poland, would be horrified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
What if all women, in every nation, stood up and called again for a “Mother’s Day of Peace?”
Karyn Woodland Victoria
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