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A sign at a restaurant advises customers of Quebec’s newly implemented COVID-19 vaccine passport in Montreal, on Sept. 6.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Vaccination laws
Re The Fragility Of The Fight Against COVID (Editorial, Oct. 1): Rational arguments appeal to the mind: The pros of doing X outweigh the cons. Normative arguments appeal to the heart: Doing X contributes to the greater good. Coercive strategies are used when the first two don’t work: Do X or face the consequences.
In Canada, we are at the stage where coercive strategies, in the form of laws, are required to increase vaccination rates. It no longer seems useful to ask how holdouts can be talked into getting the jab.
Our governments should continue to put in place rules related to all realms of daily life. Our current patchwork of guidelines should become a seamless web.
Donald Hall Ottawa
Supply and demand
Re With Pandemic Benefits Ending, Will The Unemployed Return To Work? (Sept. 27): There are persistent reports of labour shortages, particularly for low-wage jobs. This have given rise to calls for increased immigration.
At the same time we face a worsening problem of income inequality. Wealth rarely seems to “trickle down” to low-wage workers who would spend it and boost the economy.
We have an opportunity to let supply and demand bid up the cost of workers and alleviate income inequality. But no, while we let supply and demand dictate the price of goods and services, we do not like it when short supply increases the cost of labour. So we call for increased labour supply via immigration to keep costs down.
We should let supply and demand work for labour, too.
Jim Paulin Ottawa
Health care conversation
Re The Myth Of Universal Health Care (Sept. 30): It is a myth.
As a former health care executive, I have seen Canadian hospitals typically operate at 90-per-cent capacity during stable times, with frequent incursions well into the 100-per-cent-plus range. In comparison, the United States typically operates hospitals at 65-per-cent to 75-per-cent capacity and almost never exceeds 100 per cent. Why? The answer lies in our funding: I believe Canada doesn’t spend enough on health care.
Canada’s health care spend is about 11 per cent of GDP, whereas the U.S. is about 18 per cent. Leaders often justify this low spending by comparing Canada to leading European nations with similar or lower expenditures.
What they seem to ignore is our North American health care labour market, which is much more expensive than in Europe. We cannot fund our system and deliver health care at comparable levels to the Europeans. Yet that is what our funding agencies try to do.
Jim Eckler Toronto
It is worth keeping in mind the 2016 comments of then-health minister Jane Philpott: “We pay some of the highest costs in the world for health care and we’ve got a middle-of-the-road health care system.” Recent findings by the Commonwealth Fund (a New York-based think tank) of 11 high-income countries – where Canada ranks second from the bottom on an amalgam of 71 health performance measures, yet spends more of its GDP on health care than top performers Norway, Netherlands and Australia – show Dr. Philpott’s statement still holds.
The question should not be how much more are we willing to pay to move from “rickety” to “robust,” but why are we not getting that robust system we already pay for?
Herman Bakvis Professor emeritus of public administration, University of Victoria
The subject of an honest health care discussion should encompass the philosophical underpinning of our system. Canada is just about the only advanced country in the world that does not permit private health insurance alongside the public system. Why?
Other exemplary, socially conscious countries have found that the complementary provision of public and private financing of health care facilities and services can alleviate many of the drawbacks inherent in a public- or private-only system. This can be accomplished without harming the desirable objective of health care equality for all.
Given the shortcomings of Canada’s system that became so obvious during the pandemic, it is a wonder that none of the political parties raised this issue during the election campaign. The urgency of columnist Konrad Yakabuski’s call for an honest discussion should be taken up before it is too late.
Peter Bartha Aurora, Ont.
Foreign shakeup
Re Foreign Affairs Department Needs To Beef Up Indo-Pacific Expertise (Sept. 30): Columnist John Ibbitson would reform the “Foreign Affairs Department” by adopting U.S. practice, where more than 4,000 bureaucrats are replaced after a presidential election. As a Canadian diplomat in Washington when Jimmy Carter was replaced by Ronald Reagan in 1981, I can confirm that, as Mr. Ibbitson admits, the practice is also “cumbersome, partisan, time-consuming and wasteful.”
Over the past few decades, change has taken place in the making and execution of government policy. Before, the Prime Minister’s Office would ask bureaucrats for policy options, pick one, then tell them to execute it. Now, the PMO (perhaps with help from the Privy Council Office) usually decides on policy and instructs bureaucrats to execute it.
While Mr. Ibbitson’s idea would favour “openness” over experience and specialized knowledge, it would have the benefit of jobs for those in universities, think tanks and corporations. And let me add, tongue-in-cheek: the media.
Brian Northgrave Ottawa
On suicide
Re To Blame (Letters, Sept. 30): From the age of 11, deep, dark, relentless mental pain pushed me to suicidal impulses – and actions. Believe me, I am still amazed at how many dangerous drugs a person can consume and still wake up in the morning. None of this had anything to do with having “no one and nothing else to blame” but myself, as a letter-writer describes suicide.
Today, after much excellent therapy and effective drugs, I am released from this pain. I find myself a happy, thriving 70-year-old. Would that everyone was so lucky.
H.C. Lynch Toronto
Go Leafs go
Re Stuck Inside Leafs Nation (First Person, Sept. 28): I am reminded of my early years listening to Foster Hewitt broadcasting Maple Leafs games on the radio – games weren’t on television until the second period was halfway done. Ah, memories.
My biggest surprise came at the age of 8 in 1962, when I attended my first game at Maple Leaf Gardens, only to find out that Mr. Hewitt wasn’t announcing the play-by-play at the game. Who knew? Everybody but me.
A Leaf I am, and a Leaf I will be till the day I die. I’m no bandwagon jumper. At my age, I could hurt myself.
Steven Brown Toronto
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