CPP's failings
Re Provinces Push For CPP Boost (Oct. 3): The PEI proposal for an improved Canada Pension Plan is a step in the right direction, but it's not enough. It will fund smaller public pensions than U.S. Social Security already provides.
The reason is simple: The U.S. collects much higher payroll taxes from higher-income earners and their employers to fund the public pension system. Their maximum tax for employer and employee is $7,049 – fully three times more than the current maximum for CPP, and 50 per cent higher than the future maximum proposed by PEI.
But you get what you pay for. In the U.S., the maximum pension at age 65 is currently a modest $30,396. This compares to Canada's current totally inadequate maximum of $12,150 (plus Old Age Security of $6,552).
Canada should be ashamed of itself for not being willing to do at least as well as the U.S. in this most basic social program.
Lewis Auerbach, Ottawa
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Big Brother and DNA
Re Ottawa Looks At Plan To Collect DNA From Suspects Upon Arrest (Oct. 2): Let's see if I've got this right. The Harper government comes to my rescue to stop government from being so intrusive. First, the Conservatives free me from the tyranny of the long-form census, then I'm liberated from having to register guns. Meanwhile, Stephen Harper's government muses about one of the biggest changes to fundamental rights in our history – taking DNA from people who haven't even been convicted of a crime.
Mr. Harper tries hard to convince us he's on the side of freedom and democracy, but Big Brother is right behind his not-so-convincing smile.
Robert McManus, Dundas, Ont.
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All-day kindergarten
Re Full-day Kindergarten No Magic Bullet (Oct. 3): Margaret Wente is right to ask for objective evidence before judging the success of full-day kindergarten programs.
In Ontario, one such source of evidence will come in 2014, when the first group of full-day kindergarten students writes the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO)provincial Grade 3 reading, writing and math tests. EQAO research has shown that students whose language and cognitive development is "on track" in senior kindergarten are considerably more likely to meet the provincial standard in these subjects. EQAO studies have shown a clear relationship between early achievement and achievement in high school.
It'll take several years to determine the full impact of this program, and its benefits will need to be judged on more than just academics – particularly for children in poverty. If it is successful, then its cost will be an investment with exponential human, social and economic returns.
Bruce Rodrigues, CEO, Education Quality and Accountability Office
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A thank you to Margaret Wente for pointing out that the emperor has no clothes when it comes to full-day kindergarten. Making this expensive program universal negates any insignificant head start that well-intended educators hoped at-risk children would gain. Decades of sound research supports the fact that systematic, explicit instruction of fundamental skills in the early primary grades works best and holds long-lasting benefits for children, especially those who are at risk.
Doretta Wilson, executive director, Society for Quality Education
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Soap opera in T.O.
Re Arrest Of Ford Friend Part Of Broader Probe (Oct. 3): The soap opera known as Ford Nation has more twists and turns than Coronation Street.
It all makes for great drama, intrigue and entertainment but it is no way to really run a city. Pity.
Marty Cutler, Toronto
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NHL name change?
Re Fighting Stuck In No-Man's Land (Sports, Oct. 3): Why not call it the Neanderthal Hockey League? In addition to retaining the initials, the name would cover everything from the players' trying to rearrange each others' faces (and skulls), to their teammates on the bench tapping their sticks against the boards after a good "scrap," as commentators like to say, to the commissioner telling us that they're studying the problem. That's like saying they're studying whether tornadoes are good for the economy.
We haven't progressed since the days of the Roman Colosseum. Blood and mayhem still sell – as long as it isn't our own.
Steven H. Brown, Toronto
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Instead of debating if fighting should be allowed in the NHL, the time has come to consider exporting the concept to other pro sports.
Just imagine the NHL's revered "enforcer" concept implemented in the NFL, the NBA or at major events, such as soccer's and cricket's World Cup, golf's Ryder Cup or tennis's U.S. Open: With the equivalent of the NHL's famous "code" being enforced, boxing and the UFC would lose significant market share.
This all sounds silly, right? What's even sillier is that there has to be a debate to put an end to NHL fighting. It says a lot about the small insular world of the NHL and how disconnected it is with the real world (and with other pro sports).
Shame on NHL owners and league management for not assuming their responsibilities.
Pierre Nadon, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
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When the National Football League settled $765-million on former players suing over brain damage from concussions, I wondered if the NHL board of governors would sit up and take notice.
Apparently not.
Robert B. Day, Ottawa
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Zoos' purpose
Re In The Future: No Zoo For You! (Life & Arts, Oct. 3): I disagree that zoos are about captivity. For a good zoo, that is a means, not an end. The ends should be to: educate people about animals they may never see in the wild and stir them to protect the species; host captive breeding programs for species at risk to help restore sustainable wild populations; rehabilitate injured/orphaned animals and, ideally, return them to the wild; prevent further species loss until humans get their global act together.
If poachers in Zimbabwe can kill elephants within a national park by poisoning watering holes, how can we guarantee the protection of our wild populations?
I would like not to need zoos for these things. I just don't see that happening any time soon.
Jan Fullerton, Yellowknife
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Strong and free
Re Gender-Neutral Guard (editorial, Oct. 3): I was in Starbucks on Thursday and asked "Which is your freshest coffee?" The barista replied, "True North." I inquired, "Is it Strong and Free?"
Apparently unaware of the controversy over the national anthem's lyrics, she gave me a hard stare and said: "It's strong, but it's not free."
Emma Barrington-Foote, Red Deer, Alta.
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