Kelly Craft, United States Ambassador to Canada: ‘Even when we disagree, we Americans appreciate and respect our Canadian friends and neighbours.’Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
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Canada had its Zaperto moment?
Re Spain Has Its Justin Trudeau Moment (June 28): Konrad Yakabuski suggests Spain’s new Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has imitated our PM in naming a government consisting of 11 women and six men as ministers. In 2004, 11 years before Justin Trudeau swore in Canada’s first gender-balanced cabinet, Jose Luis Zapatero, Mr. Sanchez’s predecessor as socialist leader, named Spain’s first “parity” government of eight female and eight male ministers. Is it not more likely that Mr. Sanchez – and possibly Mr. Trudeau – were following Mr. Zapatero’s lead?
Richard Sanger, Toronto
Out of many, (n)one
Re The Lie Behind Trump’s Bogus Muslim Ban (June 28): That founding principle of the U.S. to which you alluded in your editorial, should perhaps henceforth be “E blunderbuss nukeum.”
Howard Greenfield, Montreal
Friendship and fairy tales
Re The Canada-U.S. Trade Relationship Will Always Thrive (Report on Business, June 27): The U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Kelly Craft, a Trump appointee and campaign donor, refers several times – among other sugar-coated platitudes – to Canadian and American “common values.”
Trade, guns, medical care, immigration, race relations, religious fundamentalism, politicized judiciary, militarism, political tribalism: Was there ever a time when it was more obvious that the culture and values of the two countries are vastly different?
J. David Murphy, Barrie, Ont.
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Surely the opinion of Kelly Craft on Canada-U.S. trade relations is meant to reassure us that despite the recent quarrels between our two countries, all is still good. What else is an ambassador supposed to say?
I have a very different view. As a Canadian, when I see what is supposed to be our close ally trash-talking our country and leader, I react the same way as if a close friend or neighbour did the same: I lose trust and respect, and start looking elsewhere for more favourable relationships.
Of course as a polite Canadian, I won’t engage in conflict or publicize my action. I’ll just move on, which is exactly what I am doing. I avoid anything American when I can – no more Starbucks, flights through U.S. hubs when possible, or online purchases from the U.S.
And yes, just as with that old friend or neighbour or business partner, it will take a long time to rebuild the relationship.
Jean Marc Roberge, Montreal
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I read Ambassador Kelly Craft’s – for lack of a better term – fairy tale, well as much of it as I could stomach. She writes, “Even when we disagree, we Americans appreciate and respect our Canadian friends and neighbours.” Does Ms. Craft pay any attention to what her boss is doing and saying?
I realize it would be a vast breach of protocol, but could we please expel her, and while we’re at it, let’s stop the cruel and unusual punishment and recall our ambassador to the United States. Nobody should have to suffer the Republican administration.
Michael Cole, Kitchener, Ont.
Adventures in voting
Re B.C. Asks The Question The Wrong Way (June 27): Both cultural anthropologists and commonsense West Coasters have long recognized a proclivity for social and political adventurism in British Columbia.
Even a cursory review of jurisdictions using different versions of PR (often after so-called electoral reform) verifies they, too, often produce divisive socially- or regionally-based voting blocs within unstable governmental structures. If first-past-the-post is not retained, any of the other three ballot options will inevitably lead to what we don’t want: even more political parties with greater divisive culturally- and geographically-based voting blocs.
Electoral reform in B.C. is neither warranted nor wanted.
Ron Johnson, Victoria
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If the president of Fair Voting BC’s effort is the best that PR advocates can do to explain why we should switch from FPTP, I am boycotting ice cream forever (Electoral Reform? Pick A Flavour – letters, June 28). I can only say WTF, and I assure you I mean What The Flavour was that?
Sarah Green, Vancouver
Teachers’ school days
Re Re Absent Teachers Aren’t Solving Problems – They’re Creating New Ones (June 23): My son (Grade 10) went through two weeks in April during which three of his four teachers were absent, and another showed up half the time. They were either on school trips, sick or temporarily filling in on “more important” administrative duties, as the director assured me. I only learned about this because I had asked my son to report daily on the absentee rate of his teachers. School boards need to start giving parents this information so they become more aware of the extent of the problem – and how it might relate to their child’s performance at school.
Marc Patry, Ottawa
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As a recently retired teacher of 30 years, I’ve witnessed a different attitude by teachers toward taking days off. The causes are many, and not solely based on changes to sick-leave policy.
Rightly or wrongly, many teachers believe they’re not treated as professionals, and therefore they act the part by taking days off. Naomi Buck sees teachers in a societal vacuum. Today, in general, employees do not show loyalty to employers, as employers do not show loyalty to employees. Why should teachers, in the absence of being regarded as professionals, be held to a different standard?
In 2012, when the McGuinty government in Ontario changed teacher sick-leave benefits, the unions told the government this would cost the province more. Why blame employees for the decisions of management?
Ms. Buck claims students are mirroring the attitude of teachers toward attending and learning in school. I suspect they learn more about this from parents’ attitudes toward education. Parents routinely remove their kids for vacations, movies or shopping trips.
You can tell it is almost summer break when teacher-bashing is in season.
R.E. Jackson, Toronto
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It is a reward in itself that one is healthy. Sick leave should be in a collective agreement for those who are sick, not those who are lucky enough to be healthy. As a person who left employment with many weeks of sick leave unused, I’m just glad that, unlike many others, I’ve been healthy.
Sheila Dunnachie, Mayne Island, B.C.
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Re Last Day of School, 1925 (Moment In Time News Photo Archive, June 25): It’s been more than half a century (gulp) since I gleefully recited the end-of-school anthem, so I had to Google it, just to be sure my aging brain wasn’t steering me wrong. To my relief, it still begins “No more pencils,” not “no more teachers.” Good thing my phone is attached to my mitten string, so I could find it to report this grievous error.
Doug Hacking, Sarnia, Ont.