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It's not the tweets
Re Why Twitter Should Ban The President (Jan. 4): Certainly Donald Trump's tweets are bizarre, to say the least, but they simply reflect a person who should not be President of the (currently) most powerful country on this planet.
Banning Mr. Trump from tweeting would be like taking the microphone away from a singer you don't enjoy listening to. Mr. Trump would continue to get his rants out to his base and the public by different means. It was during his speech at the UN last fall for example, that he promised to "totally destroy" North Korea.
His tweets are just the messenger. America needs to banish Donald Trump.
David Enns, Cornwall, Ont.
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Wrong catastrophe
Re Atlantic Canada Battens Down As 'Weather Bomb' Descends (Jan. 4): First we had a "polar vortex," then "snowmageddon" and now it's a "bomb cyclone." We need to stop catastrophizing the weather, and start catastrophizing climate change. While "bomb cyclone" and "polar vortex" are actual meteorological phenomenons, the words had no place in the public consciousness until recently, when they were exploited as attention-grabbers by the media.
We don't need hysteria-inducing terms to describe cold, snow, and wind storms during winter. We need them to describe drastic changes in weather norms connected with human activity.
Warren Cass, Toronto
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The rush to slow down
Re Majority Of Canadians Are Against Legalizing Pot By July 1, Poll Finds (Jan. 3): Yet again we're told that Canadians do not want to rush our municipalities, provinces and country into legalized marijuana. In the more than two years since the election of a government supporting the legalization of recreational marijuana, reactionary talking heads have taken every opportunity to stall and delay the implementation process.
We have had more than ample time to discuss the important issues and prepare as well as can be expected for the legal sale and distribution of cannabis in Canada. California, a state with a population greater than Canada, voted to legalize recreational marijuana in November of 2016 and the product is already available for purchase in their state.
It would now seem that the last hurdle is a requirement to mollycoddle every social conservative and his/her dog before proceeding. This group has had years to change the minds of Canadians and has failed.
It is past time to get on with it.
Gary Vickers, Nepean, Ont.
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Gratitude for a nation
While I agree with historian Charlotte Gray that a giant rubber "duckie" missed the mark on Canada 150 celebrations, I strongly disagree that "the idea that it was the carnage at Vimy that constituted the birth of modern Canada is straight mythology" (It's Our Party And We'll Complain If We Want To – Opinion Section, Dec. 30).
The "birth of a nation" stems not from carnage, but from our success where our allies had tried and failed to take Vimy Ridge. They expected us to fail, too, but they took notice when Canada, fighting for the first time as its own force, won a resounding victory at Vimy.
Due to meticulous planning, training, and new techniques, especially in artillery counter-battery fire, the Canadians took most of the ridge within a few hours on April 9, 1917; the battle was completely over on April 12.
Canada's record at Vimy helped it win a separate signature on the Versailles Peace Treaty that ended the war.
According to Ipsos, three-quarters of Canadians felt that the 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge should be one of the most important celebrations during Canada 150 events.
I was proud to have the opportunity to visit and to fly over the memorial as a member of Vimy Flight to honour not only our veterans, but Canada's "birth of a nation."
Gordon Cooper, Vimy Flight pilot/retired RCAF CF-18 pilot, Richmond Hill, Ont.
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So Charlotte Gray, a Canadian historian of note, has declared that our celebrations for Canada 150 were close to a bust. Perhaps she is right. Perhaps there are simply too many things wrong with Canada to dare any attempt at gratitude.
However, it is her conclusion that is most irksome. She concludes that to really celebrate Canada with coast-to-coast euphoria, "we'll have to wait for the next big hockey win."
It is time that Ms. Gray, and the media in general, accept the fact that not all Canadians sit with heads bowed in reverence to worship at the altar of hockey wins. There is more to Canada than a puck in a net.
Glenn Kletke, Kanata, Ont.
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No risk of sentiment
Re The Accidental Prime Minister (Dec. 29): My mother, historian Betsy Dewar Boyce, chose to write the biography of the unloved Sir Mackenzie Bowell (1823-1917) because, for one thing, she didn't like him. There was no risk she'd become sentimental and biased.
Mainly, though, writing Bowell's biography was the pretext for a social and political history of much of the 19th century, examining constitutional issues and cases – of which, as you point out, the Manitoba School Question was one, and promoting interest in Louis Riel, whom she did like, was another.
Mary Boyce, Toronto
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'Us self-righteous snobs'
Re The Lost Art Of Music Snobbery (Opinion Section, Dec. 30): When I was a young, avid record collector, to buy a new album was ceremonious … finding that rare import, buying it with the little money you'd earned that week. The anticipation on the ride home as you couldn't wait to spin that record. And the climax... the utter joy of listening intently (not passively) while reading all the liner notes and enjoying the sleeve's artwork.
I don't have a clue who played bass, or who arranged, or who (fill in the blank) when I listen to something new on Spotify. Since music is essentially free nowadays, we listen to a few bars, go "meh" and move on. No respect!
When I "earned" that record back in the day, I gave it the chance it deserved; it's a big reason why my tastes have become so sophisticated in the unsophisticated musical world we now live in.
Unfortunately, today's listener is partly to blame for the underutilized musicianship and absence of daring creativity as a result of this passive "listening while checking Instagram" behaviour.
I know it sounds like "Hey kids, get off my lawn!" to most millennials, but they really don't get it. I can't blame them as they're a product of their environment, but they are missing out. Music will never be a part of their soul like it was and still is for some of us self-righteous snobs. This I truly believe.
John Enghauser, San Francisco