U.S. President Donald Trump.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
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
..................................................................................................................................
Comrade Trump
Donald Trump’s protestations and denials notwithstanding, the accumulated evidence that suggests he is a Russian proxy is very convincing (A Real Possibility: The U.S. President As Russian Agent, Jan. 15).
While this may seem unbelievable on its face, and certainly his Republican enablers and sycophants are continuing to carry his water, so many things about Trump-Russia simply fail the common sense test. Ultimately one comes to the likely conclusion that Mr. Trump has been co-opted by Vladimir Putin as a consequence of financial, and perhaps personal, malfeasance that he needs to keep hidden from the public view.
This hold over him has then been used to influence his otherwise inexplicably puzzling behaviour toward Russia, against U.S. interests and those of its historical allegiances.
Frank Malone, Aurora, Ont.
..................................................................................................................................
It might just be conceivable that Mr. Trump is an anarchist, as much as a Russian agent.
I don’t think for a moment he has the intellectual heft to be philosophically an anarchist but he acts like one, subconsciously perhaps. An anarchist may believe that we are prisoners of the institutions we have constructed, and seek to tear them down. From that point of world view, Mr. Trump’s attempts to weaken NATO, the European Union, NAFTA, meetings of world leaders, the FBI and CIA, even the Republican Party, not to mention the U.S. government itself, make sense. It would seem probable to forecast that he will also attempt to undermine the United Nations.
Ian Guthrie, Ottawa
Spoiled food
Why does Health Canada consult with the food industry in order to come up with new regulations and a food guide (Food Industry Outcry Recasts Ad Rules For Kids, Jan. 14)?
Health Canada’s duty is to be solely concerned with the health and wellbeing of its citizens. Keeping Canadians healthy can also save billions of dollars.
On the other hand, the food industry is actually only interested in the bottom line and totally oblivious of Canadians’ health. It has consistently proven this, by promoting processed foods. Processed food is made with the cheapest possible ingredients, and includes unpronounceable chemicals, colours, flavour enhancers, preservatives and sugar. The food industry should be barred from the discussions. Health Canada would commit gross negligence in surrendering to the food industry.
Monique Fischer, Toronto
Wobbly wall
Niall Ferguson sets up a straw man – open borders – as the alternative to a U.S.-Mexico border wall, even though he must know that very few serious politicians of any stripe support an open border policy (Why I’m Not Writing Off Trump’s Wall Just Yet, Jan. 14).
The true choice is between reasonable, thoughtful controls and a wasteful, inefficient and unpopular vanity project. Framed that way, the chances of a wall being built look much more remote.
John McLeod, Toronto
..................................................................................................................................
Commenting on the wall that U.S. Donald Trump wants to build at the Mexican border, Mr. Ferguson notes that “all over the world, people are on the move from messed-up countries.” He might have at least mentioned that the mess-ups in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala (whose citizens are “on the move” toward the United States) are largely the result of American efforts during of terms of several presidents to destabilize existing governments and install leaders favoured by the United States.
Ab Dukacz, Mississauga
Cellphone jail
Re Police Plan Ticket Blitz On Distracted Drivers (Jan. 14):
As a pedestrian who has had too many “near misses” while crossing downtown streets, I welcome the crackdown. I am left to wonder, however, why the penalties are merely more of the same? The fines and demerit points don’t seem to be working, so I fear increasing them will similarly have little effect.
I am, therefore, left to wonder why we don’t implement a different punishment and deterrent – impound the cellphone. We impound cars for excessive speeding, so why not take the phone away? Take it to the local police station and advise the delinquent driver that they can come and pick it up in a week. Maybe that will get people to leave their phones in their pockets and keep their eyes on the road, other cars and pedestrians.
Richard Kilburn, Oakville, Ont.
Democratic foundations
Konrad Yakabuski’s column reminds us why we should be grateful for Canada’s system of government, inherited from the British (Democracy In America Is Down, But Not Out, Jan. 12).
The policies that the elected members of Parliament believe in are, by definition, the policies that the executive branch (the Prime Minister and cabinet) will implement. That’s because the Prime Minister depends on Parliament’s approval to maintain office. The U.S. government is dysfunctional because the system allows gridlock between the legislative and executive branches; witness the U.S. government shutdown train wreck.
Britain, itself, is a case study in dysfunction, over the Brexit mess (The Hard Path, Jan 12). Why is that? Blame the unprecedented deviation from the traditions of Parliamentary democracy, represented by the 2016 referendum that started the whole thing. The British Parliament has the option of carrying out the verdict of that referendum, or of acting in the country’s best interests. It cannot do both.
Peter Love, Toronto
..................................................................................................................................
In 1842, before the Civil War, before The American Century, Charles Dickens said this of the United States:
“If I was a painter, and was to paint the American Eagle, how should I do it?... I should want to draw it like a bat, for its short-sightedness; like a bantam. for its bragging; like a magpie, for its honesty; like a peacock, for its vanity; like an ostrich, for putting its head in the mud, and thinking nobody sees it. … And like a phoenix, for its power of springing from the ashes of its faults and vices, and soaring up anew into the sky!”
Let’s hope he was right.
Thomas O. (Tim) Davis, Victoria
Spare change adds up
Alison Gzowski’s article on saving toonies to travel struck a chord with me (How To Travel On Toonies A Day, Jan. 12).
When I was pregnant with our first child 34 years ago, my husband and I started saving all our coins.
Every night we’d dump them in a coin counter – no exceptions. Our goal was an education fund for our future children. By the time our son was 18, we had saved $40,000 for his university fund. It adds up.
Susan Harrop, Mississauga