:format(jpeg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/74CPZPSEVFE6RNZPY22DIXXWFQ.jpg "Letters to the editor: ‘A few of our legislators are eager to steal energy from their constituents.’ Readers reply to assaults on our constitutional democracy,")
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/74CPZPSEVFE6RNZPY22DIXXWFQ.jpg "Letters to the editor: ‘A few of our legislators are eager to steal energy from their constituents.’ Readers reply to assaults on our constitutional democracy,")
Ontario Premier Doug Ford participates in a dialogue with now Alberta Premier Danielle Smith after making a keynote handle on the Manning Networking Convention in Ottawa on March 23, 2019.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Abuse of energy
Re Dropping Sight Of What Canada Stands For (Editorial, Dec. 30):
I agree that Canadians are, for essentially the most half, being poorly served by their provincial premiers. Quebec’s François Legault is blinded by a myopic and too usually misguided give attention to language. Ontario’s Doug Ford is a bully whose capacity to formulate technique and grasp complicated ideas is clearly restricted. Alberta’s Danielle Smith is out of contact with actuality, preventing grievances which can be largely figments of her creativeness and priming the pump of division. None of them has proven an understanding that the sum of the entire is bigger than the elements. The most effective factor that might occur is for all of them to be turfed from workplace on the earliest doable date.
Frank Malone Aurora, Ont.
It’s onerous to disagree that we’ve got just lately seen a handful of premiers selecting to play quick and free with Canada’s structure to swimsuit their fancies. From Mr. Legault in Quebec to Mr. Ford in Ontario, it positively seems as if a few of our legislators are eager to steal energy from their constituents, if the opposite choices on the desk (particularly compromise and co-operation) appear to be an excessive amount of effort. Sadly, our struggling Prime Minister has performed that very same sport as effectively.
It’s been practically a yr for the reason that trucker convoy made the journey to Ottawa, in an try to motive with an unreasonable and unrelenting authorities. What had been they asking for? Nothing greater than a return to normalcy, and the precise to bodily autonomy. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to provide these peaceable protesters a single minute of his time, and selected as a substitute to invoke the harshest of measures towards them. These protesters, with their bouncy castles and scorching tubs, could have been a nuisance to some residents of Ottawa, however they had been nowhere close to a risk to our nationwide safety.
The Prime Minister abused his energy, setting an instance for the premiers that it’s okay to do likewise if a bunch of your constituents disagrees with you or challenges your insurance policies. It’s really unlucky that any of our leaders, be they provincial or federal, assume it’s acceptable to make use of and abuse our structure this fashion.
Devon Girt Kitchener, Ont.
It’s apparent The Globe and Mail – and most Canadians – detest the usage of the however clause by varied politicians. What isn’t apparent, and is downright curious, is why everybody insists it’s unconstitutional to make use of a clause that, as Part 33, is definitely a part of the Constitution.
Claire Hoy Toronto
The extremely commendable thought of a obligatory civics course for Canadian politicians would possibly effectively begin with the reflections of our first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.
In Nation Maker, his wonderful biography of Macdonald, Richard Gwyn catches the stress that Macdonald needed to handle within the earliest days of Confederation between those that noticed the brand new nation as a “compact among the many provinces” and those that noticed it as one thing “bigger than the sum of its elements.”
As Mr. Gwyn notes, the latter was Sir John A.’s “absurdly formidable imaginative and prescient” for Canada. Greater than 150 years later, we’ve got not resolved this vital query. Our incapacity to take action and aspire to a bigger imaginative and prescient of our nation threatens to decrease the entire past something Canada’s founders would acknowledge. Now, like then, the query is ripe: Who speaks for Canada? A Civics 101 examination query, maybe.
Stuart Culbertson Victoria
Higher therapy
Re Why Canadian Medical Grads Educated Overseas Are Giving Up On Jobs At Dwelling (Dec. 13); Too Many Bureaucratic Hurdles And Too Few Residency Spots: Why Canada Is Dropping International Physicians To Different Nations (Dec. 14); Ontario To Rent International-trained Docs To Tackle Disaster In Well being Care (Dec. 16):
Take into account a broader perspective, one drawn to my consideration by a medical specialist in Kingston.
He was contemplating a brief transfer to the USA for 2 causes: His wage would double, successfully serving to to repay his scholar loans fairly darn shortly. However he was apprehensive he would possibly simply take pleasure in all that an excessive amount of and keep there.
The nursing state of affairs is fascinating. Each nurses and elementary-school academics require levels plus primary coaching. Even permitting for the various variations, take a look at at their median salaries: A full-time nurse earns a median wage of about $69,500 a yr whereas a full-time instructor earns about $90,000.
My query to our leaders is that this: Why can we not deal with the medical occupation as we deal with others which can be as vital to our communities?
Mary Lazier Corbett Prince Edward County, Ont.
Funding stalemate
Re Don’t Write Provinces A Clean Cheque (Dec. 14):
The adolescent bickering over well being care financing reveals a elementary flaw within the Canadian well being funding mannequin: cut up accountability. Provinces need extra federal cash with out strings, as if it had been free, ignoring that extra federal cash comes from the identical taxpayers as provincial cash. The feds need some management over how their cash is spent.
The answer is apparent: Make well being care accountability (together with financing) completely one or the opposite. Tax factors might be transferred as they’ve been up to now. Bickering stops. Cash now not wasted bickering can be utilized for well being care as a substitute.
Jim Ironside Calgary
They shoot horses
Re Ottawa Accused Of Shelving Pledge To Ban Transport Of Horses For Slaughter (Dec. 27) and All Animals Created Equal? (Letters, Dec. 29):
That is undoubtedly a merciless and weird punishment. Horses are animals of prey. To keep away from their predators and to hunt their security and survival, a horse’s first response is at all times to flee by working away as quick and so far as doable. Their first intuition is to flee after they encounter something scary or uncommon. Think about how a horse would really feel tightly confined in a crate within the physique of a loud aircraft. Are you able to consider something extra terrifying and appalling? It’s time to ban this despicable behaviour.
Nelson Riis Ottawa
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