Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened to rip the executice contracts at Hydro One.Fred Lum
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Mr. Ford’s dead rabbit
Congratulations on The Globe and Mail’s clever analysis of how much Premier Doug Ford’s heavy-handed ousting of the Hydro One board will really cost us to get rid of the “$6-million man” (The Real Cost Of Ford’s Hydro One Shakeup – July 13).With a cash payout of about $9-million for the CEO alone, plus an additional $4.9-million for the directors who were also forced out, that brings Mr. Ford’s tax-saving boast to get rid of Hydro One’s high-flying execs to more than $14-million. Way to save us money, Mr. Ford, just to prove your point. Come to think of it, what was your point again?
Pam Harrison, Toronto
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Hydro One controls the transmission of hydro. It does not, repeat not, set rates. All of Doug Ford’s Hydro One grandstanding will do nothing to lower hydro rates in Ontario. What a colossal smoke-and-mirrors show to pull a very expensive, very dead rabbit out of a taxpayer-funded hat. Donald Trump must be envious.
Jenna Simpson, Oshawa, Ont.
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Now let’s see if/when hydro rates – which have nothing to do with Hydro One – actually drop, how this will be accomplished? Either by increasing the deficit, or … will it again be the taxpayer? Another sad (and costly) day for Ontario.
Bruce Walker, Oakville, Ont.
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Beyond the $14-million cost to push out the CEO and directors, there is the more than $500-million immediate loss in the value of Hydro One stock. That’s about a $250-million cost to the taxpayers, who own nearly half of Hydro One. Great start to the cost savings.
Isaac Muskat, Toronto
After Greyhound
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Re Ottawa Urged To Step In Amid Greyhound Withdrawal (July 11): Since the 1980s, much of Canada’s train service has been cancelled, and now about half its bus service (if we include both Greyhound and the Saskatchewan’s government bus service). In that time, China has built thousands of kilometres of high speed rail (average speed with stops 200 km/h) and dozens of new subway lines. China is a developing country – while Canada obviously is not developing anything but further means to worship the automobile.
David Crowe, Calgary
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What a golden opportunity for the chiefs of the bands that will be losing bus services. They could unite to form a transportation company, buy some of the Greyhound buses that operated on these routes, and with a fee- and route-structure and drivers in place, they could take over when Greyhound shuts down the affected routes.
The provinces involved could provide venture capital to get the new company rolling. That is an investment, not a subsidy. This would help Indigenous people run a service that is meaningful to them (Cutting Greyhound Service In The West Puts Indigenous Women At Risk – July 11).
Peter Fedirchuk, Kanata, Ont.
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If the federal government can buy a pipeline, then why can’t it buy a national bus service? That would be not only a potentially great “vote getting” idea, but also the right thing to do.
Douglas Cornish, Ottawa
Decoding NATO
Re Trump’s NATO Claims On Spending Clash With Allies’ View (July 13): While I believe that Donald Trump is likely the worst President in U.S. history, I do admire his ability to always claim victory, no matter what reality might otherwise suggest and I have decided to adopt that attitude.
As a long-suffering fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, I hereby declare them to be Stanley Cup champions. Anyone who disagrees with me is living in a world of fake news.
Phil Ford, Ottawa
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Perhaps someone should remind Donald Trump that the only time Article V of the NATO treaty (an attack on one is an attack on all) has been invoked was following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City. More than 40,000 Canadian Forces members served with NATO’s mission in Afghanistan: 158 Canadian Forces members died there, one diplomat, four aid workers, a government contractor and a journalist also lost their lives. Some 2,000 Canadians were wounded in Afghanistan. Other NATO nations also suffered losses. Would that Mr. Trump could express some gratitude and perhaps humility.
Barbara Martin, former diplomat; adjunct professor, Queen’s University; CGAI Fellow; Chelsea, Que.
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NATO was created as an alliance of equals (with the U.S. as the global champion of freedom, human rights and democracy); maybe a Trump-led United States does not see it that way.
European NATO members have capabilities ranging from nuclear weaponry to conventional forces to defend themselves. Ever-growing economic interdependence today is also becoming a greater deterrent to war than weapons. More than six decades after the Second World War, the time has come for Europe to re-assess its independent security role.
Bill Bhaneja, Ottawa
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A fact sometimes forgotten about U.S. military spending is the very strong domestic social and industrial drivers pushing it that don’t exist in other countries. The U.S. military employs millions of people directly and indirectly. It supports technology, aerospace and equipment manufacturers through “Buy American.” Donald Trump is not being entirely honest when he says the U.S. is supporting the defence of other countries – in fact, a big factor in high U.S. military expenditure is the support of U.S. domestic policy, having no bearing on or being of benefit to other NATO members whatsoever.
Gawain Smart, London, U.K.
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NATO spends a staggering $1.013-trillion on so-called “defence” expenditures. This is not enough for Donald Trump. He wants an increase from its current arbitrary assessment of 2 per cent GDP to 4 per cent.
In his prescient Farewell Address to the Nation in 1961, president Dwight Eisenhower warned “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex.”
We have yet to heed his warning.
Mark Leith, Canadian Physicians for Global Survival
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Donald Trump accuses Germany of being “totally controlled by” and “captive to Russia” because it buys gas from Russia. By the same token, we could conclude that “Trump. Inc.” and its head honcho is “totally controlled by” Russia due to the substantial Russian funding of the Trump property empire.
Richard Cooper, Ottawa
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If the Russians really did collude in the 2016 U.S. election by financing activities that helped to elect Donald Trump, they’re certainly getting their money’s worth.
Jamie Alley, Victoria