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High flyer
Re Sajjan Racked Up $670,000 In Costs On Government Flights (Jan. 3): NDP ethics critic Nathan Cullen's petty sneer that Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan used a government plane for his air travel "because he doesn't want the hassle of mixing with ordinary people" doesn't fit with my experience of Mr. Sajjan.
Last year, I sat next to the minister at the front of an Air Canada plane for the short flight to Montreal. I am an "ordinary person," but nonetheless we were in the middle of a conversation before takeoff when the pilot asked for two passengers to move to the rear to balance the load. The minister was the first person to move. Perhaps it was our conversation, but I think it was because he was doing the right thing.
I stayed put.
Rod Phillips, Ottawa
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With a nod to High Flight, what are the surly bonds of "responsible" budgets when weighed against the appeal of chasing the shouting wind along in an eager government craft through footless halls of air? It seems our Defence Minister is truly a high flyer, at least when it comes to the taxpayers' dime.
Samantha Rogers, Calgary
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Tolerance sweepstakes
Re Scheer Says Tories More Tolerant Than Liberals (Jan. 3): Andrew Scheer believes he is more tolerant because he tolerates the intolerant within the Conservative Party. Interesting!
Sounds more like he will tolerate anything that will get his party elected – and then we get to find out what he really tolerates. Of course, he may find that there are those among his traditional supporters who see this lack of a principled position on issues as intolerable, while others cannot tolerate a hidden agenda.
Stuart McRae, Toronto
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A bigger button
Re As Seoul Offers To Talk With North Korea, U.S. Stresses Nuclear Ban (Jan. 3): In John Le Carré's novel The Secret Pilgrim, his celebrated spy George Smiley is sent to try to bring to heel a well-connected British arms dealer who is selling to anyone and everyone, and not giving a hoot about the consequences.
It's a doomed mission and Smiley later describes the man as "a wrecking infant in our midst."
As an apt description of both Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un as they continue to trade nuclear threats, this would surely be hard to beat.
Ray Jones, Toronto
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More worrying than claims about whose nuclear button is bigger, is the fact that Kim Jong-un's button is on his desk. I sincerely hope that Mr. Kim's office cleaner has been briefed to be careful with his/her dusting cloth.
Roger Hough, Calgary
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Meat and 'sin' taxes
Re Eating Meat Is Not A 'Sin' That Should Be Subject To Taxation (Report on Business, Jan. 1): Whatever one may think about the subject, some – actually, most – of the arguments presented by Sylvain Charlebois against taxing meat are singularly unconvincing.
The professor says that the case of meat is not like tobacco, because tobacco "is not essential to life." Well, neither is meat (food may be, but meat in particular is not).
And to say that "taxing a food product that has been entrenched in our culture for so long is idealistically silly" is, well, idealistically silly, because the same can also be said of alcohol and tobacco, both of which are taxed.
Luke Mastin, Toronto
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Liberals' pot narrative
Re Majority Of Canadians Are Against Legalizing Pot By July 1, Poll Finds (Jan. 3): Since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first floated his plan to legalize marijuana, the narrative has always been that by cutting out the black market, this would protect children who are at serious risk.
Having been a police officer for close to 40 years, this is a leap into fantasy land. Black market pot sales have continued in the states of Colorado and Washington after marijuana legalization, and they will do so here.
Organized crime groups already are heavily involved in supplying illicit tobacco and alcohol, so they merely need to switch to marijuana. The government is unwittingly aiding organized crime by allowing anyone over 19 to grow their own pot, which will surely be exploited.
Sadly, the government has touted the benefits of legalization, while ignoring increases in cannabis-impaired driving, more workplace accidents and the negative impact on our ailing health-care system when marijuana is legalized!
Larry Comeau, Ottawa
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Success fees
Re The Price Of Success (Report On Business, Dec. 30): The Bombardier story illustrates the hazy line between bribery and "usual" business practices around the world. In the 1970s, a close friend was working as a physician in Kinshasa when he received a notice from the post office that a parcel had arrived for him.
At the post office, he was informed that there was no parcel. After returning twice more on subsequent days, it finally dawned on him that the parcel would only be "found" if he slipped the employee a "success fee" of a few dollars, whereupon it miraculously materialized.
"Bribery" greases the wheels in many parts of the world in a way our Western consciousness will never grasp or accept.
Paul Thiessen, Vancouver
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Top parenting? Try this
Re How To Be The Top Parent Of 2018 (Life & Arts, Jan. 2): Your experts talked a lot about turning off screens but missed an important tip for aspiring "top parents." Read to your child – every night – from three months until they tell you to stop. If you are lucky, that won't be until they are 10 or 11. (Don't make your kid read to you. That would be homework, not downtime.)
Read fiction or non-fiction, comic books and graphic novels, picture books or novels. Some children can find lists of trucks very entertaining, some enjoy reading (or even learn to read) with the visual storytelling of graphic novels. Make it a rule to try three chapters before they are allowed to say, "This book is too boring." Conversely, you have to put up with reading books you aren't enthused about.
Reading to your child allows you both to enjoy books that work for their comprehension level, but are above their reading level. You may have to stop every once in a while to explain a word, context or outdated attitude (e.g. in those days, that's how girls were expected to behave). That's how they – and you – learn.
Best of all, you and your child get a cozy time at the end of each day with materials that (thanks to a library card) can cost nothing and can deliver years of pleasure. That's top parenting.
Gillian O'Reilly, Toronto