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
...................................................................................................
In the year 2100
"Canada Commits To G7 Plan To End Use Of Fossil Fuels" by 2100 (front page, June 9).
And pigs will fly by 2101.
But who among us will ever know if either promise is kept?
Ken Kramer, North Vancouver
.........
What bold leadership the G7 is showing! In 2100, Stephen Harper will be 141; Barack Obama, 139; Germany's Angela Merkel, France's François Hollande and Japan's Shinzo Abe will all be 146. The baby of the crowd, Italy's Matteo Renzi, will only be 125.
Try to imagine that politicians in 2100 will care one bit what these leaders promised 85 years earlier. Just think of this year's G7 Summit having on its agenda promises made in 1930 by Canada's R.B. Bennett, U.S. president Herbert Hoover or Germany's president, Paul von Hindenburg.
Are we supposed to laugh at all this, or cry?
Tom Morris, Whitby, Ont.
.........
While we're at it, let's pledge to achieve world peace and a cure for all known diseases, too. In the meantime, perhaps we could make some meaningful changes that will show results, if not in our lifetime, at least in our children's.
Perhaps our government could acknowledge that human activity is changing our climate. Perhaps it could recognize that, given a free hand, scientists might be able to find ways to start reversing the trend before the next millennium. Perhaps the government could invest in renewable energy now, rather than continuing to do the oil companies' bidding.
Implementing any of these suggestions would be more valuable than sprinkling verbal fairy dust and promising things will be better when we are all dead.
Elizabeth Hay, Ottawa
.........
They might as well commit us to a colony on Mars. At this rate, its climate may be more accommodating than ours by 2100.
David Wood, Mildmay, Ont.
.........
Climate epiphany
Re Boycotts And Petitions: A Tempest In A Tims Cup (June 6): Here I am, idling in a drive-through at my local Tim Hortons, thinking "what can I do about climate change?" when an epiphany strikes me like a bolt of lightening. Sign a petition to stop Enbridge from spinning their corporate shill at my Tim Hortons.
I wonder if I can sign online so I don't have to get out of my comfortable, if not fuel-efficient, shockingly large SUV.
Whew, I think I can.
Bill England, Edmonton
.........
Help each other?
The Globe's editorial board has certainly gone whole hog into the glories of the marketplace by lauding the Uber model of surge pricing – and condemning the fact that regular taxis in Toronto during the transit system's subway meltdown on Monday could not similarly boost their prices (Economics On Wheels – June 9).
This in addition to suggesting that ordinary car drivers should have been recruited to charge for taking stranded commuters to their destinations. Let the marketplace solve the problem, says your editorial.
Alas, those of us brought up believing we lived in a community where in times of crisis, one helps one's neighbours and expects the same from them, are appalled at The Globe's position.
Should not, and likely did not, many drivers offer free rides into the city to many of those stranded commuters?
Isn't that what occurs in civilized communities?
David Balcon, Toronto
.........
It wasn't laziness
Re There Is No Middle In The Middle-Class Debate (June 8): Konrad Yakabuski tells us "the recession of the early 1990s exposed the disincentive to work inherent in easy-to-access welfare programs."
That recession was not an attack of contagious laziness, but resulted from the collapse of spending due to sky-high interest rates and a high exchange rate, brought about by the Bank of Canada to beat inflation down to zero, regardless of the cost.
Rod Hill, professor of Economics, University of New Brunswick
.........
Tune out patronage
Lawrence Martin nailed it in his column about the CBC and patronage appointments (It's Time To Take Down The Spoils System – June 9). But it doesn't have to be that way.
When Carole Taylor, a former CBC chair, became finance minister in the Campbell government in B.C. she was instrumental in putting in place a "merit based" board of directors to govern the provincial educational broadcaster, Knowledge Network.
The old board was terminated and an entirely new one appointed. It was "arm's-length" from government and comprised a mix of educational, broadcasting, legal, financial, business and community-service expertise and experience. That board was given the responsibility to hire and fire the CEO, and to put in place a new strategic plan. Despite reduced public funding, it's been a success by concrete measurements, including ratings, quality programing, fundraising and community support.
Critical to the revitalization of the CBC or any public-service media organization is a government that believes in the idea. That may be the CBC's biggest disadvantage.
Beth Haddon, former member, board of directors, Knowledge Network, British Columbia
.........
In and out of play
Cathal Kelly has a clever way with words and a deep knowledge of the sports he writes about, but every once in a while he allows an inner eejit to rear its head.
There is a very good reason why Edmonton was made the venue for the FIFA Women's World Cup opener: We Canadians originally became thrilled by our own women's soccer teams at the spellbinding (I was there) 2002 under-19 final in Edmonton.
For some unfathomable reason, Mr. Kelly, or his alter ego, appears to believe everybody loves Toronto. Please, let it – or him – know T.O. is not the centre of the universe, that the sun does not shine from its back, um, streets, and that for its size, it's had an embarrassingly abysmal sports record over the past several decades.
Please tell him to put his hidden alter ego/eejit back in its box.
Tom Priestly, Edmonton
.........
Now that the opening game in the Women's World Cup is over, it appears Cathal Kelly must admit that Edmonton, with its supposedly "not all that interested locals," broke its own record for the most-attended home game in Canadian soccer history (women or men).
Alex Kubish, Edmonton
.........
It is a delight to open each morning's paper and read an inventive and literate article by Cathal Kelly.
Where else would one see Germany's women's soccer team's personality described as having "the gentle efficiency of a bowling ball dropped from an airplane" or U.S. player Abby Wambach's etiquette explained as "she doesn't just colour outside the lines, she'll stab you in the eye with the crayon"? Mr. Kelly's descriptions are endlessly inventive: I love it!
Just don't let him make a speech at anyone's wedding.
Duncan George, Stouffville, Ont.