One reader believes that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, seen here in Ottawa on Oct. 23, 2019, and his Liberals should 'form a majority coalition with the Conservatives.'Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
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Westerly winds
Re Kenney Warns PM: ‘Many Albertans Feel Betrayed’ (Oct. 23): As a former Albertan, I tend to agree that the province has been betrayed. I feel they were betrayed by a series of Klein, Stelmach, Redford and Prentice governments that mismanaged Alberta’s oil and gas bounty, and left the province in a fiscal mess. Alongside past premiers, the Harper government, which included current Premier Jason Kenney, was unable to get any pipelines through the approval process. Not even close.
Ken Lutes Vancouver
I feel privileged to live in the riding of Edmonton Strathcona, the only one in Alberta and Saskatchewan that did not return a Tory to Ottawa, but rather an NDP MP. Edmonton Strathcona is also home to the University of Alberta, where I happen to work, and Jason Kenney is about to roll out his budget. I worry he has the ivory towers of postsecondary education firmly in his sights.
Way to wipe a postelection smile off a man’s face.
Nigel Brachi Edmonton
A thought: Let’s eliminate Alberta’s contributions to equalization payments. No one can blame Albertans for balking at money transfers to provinces that despise its source.
Canada should then take steps to invest those funds in large-scale green technology projects based in Alberta. One day the internal combustion engine may be a quaint relic in museums. Building pipelines may end up short-sighted and pointless. The Canadian government should give Albertans something to hope and strive for.
Jim Reynolds Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
Oil and gas is the lifeline of the Prairies. But with the Bloc Québécois wielding influence to the east in Quebec, and the NDP in British Columbia to the west, it seems the federal government cannot get an economic necessity through political barriers. Here is one way to map success that meets everyone’s needs: To the north, the Liberals still rule.
Therefore I propose building pipelines to run north through the Northwest Territories and Yukon to the port of Yakutat, Alaska, on the Pacific Ocean. Voilà!
Peter Fedirchuk Kanata, Ont.
I have never seen hard times anywhere in Canada like I see now in Alberta. Intelligent, hard-working people are struggling to survive. All we need to stop this is to get our oil products to the world market. (We are even willing to share our profit with other provinces.)
In these next four years, I ask Justin Trudeau to let us at least have a pipeline to the West Coast. It should be the right of Albertans to have access to the coastline like any other Canadian.
Eric Luz Calgary
Power out
Re Blanchet Emerges As Only Winner In A Field Of Losers (Oct. 23): All the noise about the power of the Bloc Québécois seems like hot air to me.
The Liberals, whose agenda has been progressively left of centre, need only the NDP to pass any legislation, and Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh are relatively civil with each other. Those two parties seem to be at the centre of power in this minority government, not the Bloc. There would not even be any hope on the other side of the floor, as a Bloc-Conservative coalition would fall far short of a majority.
Former Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe discovered this over a decade. Unfortunately, the same fate awaits current chief Yves-François Blanchet.
Sam Laraby Kirkland, Que.
System error?
Re Why Doesn’t Every Vote Count? (Oct. 23): Columnist Elizabeth Renzetti expresses gratitude that Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada was shut out of Parliament, while at the same time also lamenting for the very system that would have guaranteed him seats.
The binary nature of first-past-the-post is imperfect. It doesn’t record the depth of victory in a riding, only the simple yes-no: Who won, who lost. But it does usually exclude fringe parties from gaining a seat.
Realizing that no system is perfect, I prefer a system that manages to exclude extreme voices in favour of a commonality of voices that better represents the will of the people.
Ian Hopkins Oakville, Ont.
Two provinces have held referendums on electoral reform.
In April, 2019, 51.7 per cent of PEI voters voted No in a referendum to change the provincial voting system from first-past-the-post to mixed-member proportional representation. In the fall of 2018, 61.3 per cent of B.C. voters, voting in their third provincial referendum on the voting system since 2005, chose the current first-past-the-post system.
I am a proponent of mixed-member proportional representation and I have voted for electoral reform in British Columbia. While I would welcome the Prime Minister championing federal electoral reform, I think it would be misguided for anyone to suggest that this would necessarily result in a consensus on this issue among Canadians.
David Leishman Brentwood Bay, B.C.
With almost all of those elected in Alberta and Saskatchewan being Conservatives, we now read that these provinces feel their voices will not be heard by a Liberal government. But almost one-third of the voters in those provinces actually voted for the Liberals or NDP. Will the voices of those voters be heard?
I believe our winner-take-all electoral system promotes this kind of alienation. I hope our government will finally get electoral reform on the agenda.
Art Heidebrecht Dundas, Ont.
Surely Alberta and Saskatchewan should be among the country’s staunchest supporters of proportional representation. After all, some 14 per cent of voters in Alberta’s 34 ridings voted Liberal. Under proportional representation, that percentage could have returned some five Liberal MPs to Parliament, not to mention the NDP representatives as well.
I ask Jason Kenney, then, to go for it: proportional representation to end Western alienation. Or am I missing something?
Bert Jenkins Picton, Ont.
How about this wild and crazy idea: Why don’t the Liberals form a majority coalition with the Conservatives? Think what even an attempt would do for national unity.
Neil Donnelly Kingston, Ont.
Blue in Ontario
Re Scheer Accuses PM Of ‘Demonizing’ Ontario Premier (Oct. 23): After Doug Ford’s 40-day silencing, it seems Andrew Scheer is attempting to shift blame to Justin Trudeau for his inability to break through in the Greater Toronto Area.
What’s next? Will Mr. Scheer blame the U.S. government for his dual citizenship? Is LinkedIn at fault for his misleading job history? Perhaps YouTube should take responsibility for any old videos detailing his views on same-sex marriage? I think I’m in danger of whiplash.
Ian Kamm Toronto
Canada the good
As a Canadian, I had the opportunity to exercise my right to vote in the federal election. It is a right I am stripped of in my home country of Pakistan because I belong to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a heavily persecuted sect of Islam.
How incredibly liberating it feels to be part of a nation that champions diversity and inclusivity.
Wardah Faryal Toronto
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