PC Leader Doug Ford speaks to the media after winning the Ontario Provincial election.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
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
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Ontario’s mourning after
The blue tsunami was not unexpected (It’s Ford – June 8). The Liberals had been at the helm in Ontario for far too long, an extra four years due to Tim Hudak’s idiotic Tea Party-style musings in 2014. That someone like Doug Ford could pull this off is simply a testament to the province’s deep desire for change.
The Liberals shot themselves in the foot on numerous occasions – millions of dollars funneled into teachers’ unions under the guise of pizzas, billions in wasted taxpayers’ money to cancel the gas plants, by-election nomination shenanigans, wonky accounting, egregious Hydro rates etc. They have only themselves to blame for their miserable showing.
Doug Ford needs to realize he is not the government, the Progressive Conservatives are. Mr. Ford has temporary stewardship of the party, and he would do well to travel a different path than the narcissist in the White House who appears to be our new premier’s political model.
James R. McCarney, Oakville, Ont.
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I am reading the Ontario election results and am only slightly less dismayed than when I watched Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton. How does Doug Ford first beat two smart, capable women like Christine Elliott and Caroline Mulroney in the PC leadership race, and then beat two more smart, capable women like Andrea Horwath and Kathleen Wynne in the provincial election?
One might not support the politics of Ms. Horwath, Ms. Wynne, Ms. Mulroney or Ms. Elliott but they are infinitely better choices that Mr. Ford. I can’t imagine a female equivalent of Mr. Ford or Mr. Trump (if one even exists) getting elected to anything. It tells me that gender still matters as much as anything in 2018. As a husband and father of two smart, capable women, I am deeply saddened.
Gordon White, Comox, B.C.
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There’s something wrong with the health of our democratic system when the Liberals win one million votes but receive seven seats, and the PCs win two million votes and receive 76 seats. Only twice as many votes and but more than 10 times the number of seats.
Maybe Ontario does need a new math curriculum.
Patricia Lindsey, Ottawa
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If our prime objective was to defend ourselves in threatening times, was it really a good idea to choose someone with even less intellect, people skills and business savvy than the buffoon in the White House? I look forward to reading our new premier’s grand plan, if he ever offers one.
Working title: The Art of the Decal?
Tim Poupore, Balderson, Ont.
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Kathleen Wynne remained as Liberal leader despite strong evidence she didn’t have the support of card carrying members or Liberal voters. For her to state she is “passing the torch to the next generation” is arrogant and insulting.
What is she passing, tatters?
Aaron Caplan, Toronto
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Perhaps your letters headline on Friday should have included a “u”: Ontario’s Mourning After. With the exception of the Ford family – and not even all of them – I can’t imagine anyone, including those of us who voted PC, is thrilled at our choice of premier. I’m counting on the caucus to control him. Those MPPs’ re-election chances will depend on it.
Sarah O’Neill, Peterborough, Ont.
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Former drug dealer now premier of Ontario. It is to weep.
Ruth Miller, Toronto
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Now for four years of that grin …
John Cadiz, Toronto
Tough trade talk
Re Trump Will ‘Talk Tough’ On Trade At G7, Adviser Says (June 7): As the director of the U.S. National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow’s words matter.
So I perked up when he downgraded his President’s protectionist bullying of Canada to a “family quarrel.” And surely the thrice-married Mr. Kudlow need not be told that quarrels can lead to fractured relationships.
As with families, so with nations, as the U.S. is hastening its decline by attacking its most important allies – allies who at some point will be attracted to rivals and enemies. A pity.
Steven Diener, Toronto
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Although Donald Trump insists that NAFTA is the worst treaty ever, rather than give six months notice that he will withdraw the United States from the deal, his object seems to have been to provoke Canada and Mexico to walk away.
Why? An obvious reason is that it would put NAFTA to the test in Congress and in an election year.
Most likely, business would be unhappy, as would many Republican politicians seeking re-election in key states. Hence the “national security” ploy permitted by the World Trade Organization.
It is a cowardly and destructive move (and, yes, insulting) but it keeps the President on the front page as a “fighter for American workers.” To save NAFTA, Canada and Mexico should have called Mr. Trump’s bluff months ago.
Ian Porter, Halifax
Child-care markets
Your assertion that child care is a “market with plenty of excellent for-profit daycare that parents rely on” is inconsistent with decades of research from Canada and elsewhere (The Ontario NDP Is Stuck In An Old Groove – editorial, June 6).
Multiple studies show profit-making child care is less likely to be high quality and less likely to care for “harder to serve” – infants, low income, special needs – children, thus serving neither children, families nor the public purse well.
And your statement that for-profit operators are not “heartless corporations but working-class women who watch a few toddlers to scratch out a living” confuses licensed centres with home child care. Canada’s market for child-care centres now includes many chains and franchises, a growing corporate sector, offshore shareholders and mergers aiming at scooping up more public money.
Check the facts and look up Australia or Britain.
Martha Friendly, Childcare Resource and Research Unit, Toronto
1812, and counting
Re The President Aimed His Fire At Canada With War Of 1812 Remark (June 7): Now that President Donald Trump has invoked the actions of Canada’s predecessors in burning down the White House during the War of 1812, it’s readily apparent that our British cousins were a couple of hundred years too early with that effort.
Martin Marino, Ancaster, Ont.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, rather than being insulted or chagrined by Donald Trump’s claim that “you guys” once burned down the White House, should take the statement as a compliment and run with it. Using an art-of-the-deal-making gangsterish approach, he should say, sotto voce: Nice little house you got there. Shame if something should happen to it, again.
Clay Atcheson, North Vancouver