Stephen Harper conceding defeat after the 2015 election. Mr. Harper has congratulated U.S. President Donald Trump on pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal.Ben Nelms/bloomberg
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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Curiosity satisfied
Re Harper Among Former World Leaders To Voice Support For U.S. Withdrawal From Iran Deal (May 12): I have sometimes wondered how, had he won the last federal election, Stephen Harper would have dealt with the Trump presidency. Now I know: It would have been constant kowtowing to an unhinged narcissist.
Thor Kuhlmann, Vancouver
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So nice of former prime minister Stephen Harper to add his name to an ad congratulating Donald Trump on his decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, thereby contradicting our Prime Minister’s reaction (Trudeau Says He Regrets Trump’s Decision To Pull Out Of Nuclear Deal, May 10). I had almost forgotten why I never voted for Mr. Harper’s government. Thanks for the reminder.
Tom Scanlan, Toronto
Pipelines are/aren’t us
Are the people protesting a pipeline that would undermine Canada’s international climate commitments “radical” (How Radical Protesters Help Pipeline Advocates, May 11)? Or are the people willing to delay action to address climate change and protect future generations the real extremists?
Michael Polanyi, Toronto
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Re Trans Mountain Pipeline Should be Project No. 1 For The Canadian Infrastructure Bank (Report on Business, May 8): This would represent a continuation of Canada’s 200-year tradition of financing our nation-building projects.
Where would Canada be without the Rideau Canal (the canal to protect Canada), the Victoria Bridge (built as the “longest bridge in the world”), CPR (the famous last spike), TCA (our first national airline), Polymer Corp. (synthetic rubber for the war), St. Lawrence Seaway (from Lake Superior to the world’s markets), TransCanada Pipeline (called a parliamentary wreckage, but pipe was laid), Atomic Energy Of Canada (CANDU reactor), TransCanada Microwave (139 towers across Canada), Alouette 1 (Canada became the third nation in space), Suncor’s first oil sands plant (the dream of J. Howard Pew), James Bay Hydroelectric (with First Nation agreement).
How were these big nation-building projects financed? All involved public/private sector collaboration. Eight were launched as Crown corporations, five have been divested since to the private sector, and three are still government controlled.
Four were launched as private-sector initiatives, but with the risk shared with the public sector via equity, grants, tax credits. These were multidecade projects, well beyond the financial capabilities of a single set of shareholders.
C.D. Howe, the visionary behind two of the projects, once observed that every economy needs one great project to keep it functioning properly.
Clement W. Bowman, co-editor, Canada: Winning as a Sustainable Energy Superpower, Sarnia, Ont.
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The deeply misguided argument that the Canada Infrastructure Bank should be used to financially backstop Kinder Morgan relies on faulty assumptions.
The new Crown corporation should not be utilized to support a beleaguered tar sands pipeline. Kinder Morgan would make Canada’s climate targets virtually impossible to achieve, flout Canada’s commitment to Indigenous rights, and put the B.C. coast at increased risk of a tanker spill.
Canadian oil fetches a lower price because it is high carbon, low quality and expensive to extract and transport. A pipeline to tidewater will not change this.
The Canada Infrastructure Bank must be aligned with Canada’s larger priorities, such as achieving the Paris climate agreement, advancing Indigenous reconciliation, and building infrastructure projects that help Canadians, rather than American pipeline companies.
Patrick DeRochie, Environmental Defence
Election calculations
“2018: Whither the political middle ground?” your May 10 editorial cartoon asks. The answer: It’s not too late to add Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner to the leaders debates.
Diane Duttle, Kingston
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If students are learning “problem solving and operational skills,” then they are most certainly learning “math.” Letter writers and Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford himself are almost certainly bemoaning the lack of skill of today’s younger generation in the particular subbranch of mathematics known as arithmetic (Lining Up The Options, May 12; Ford Targets Education As Ontario Election Kicks Off, May 9).
In that regard, they do have a point, but in the age of ubiquitous access to calculators, one wonders if it really is such a big deal. For example, as a person who learned their times tables by rote, I was somewhat shocked to find that someone old enough to handle cash at the entrance to a bar wasn’t sure how much change was due for a $24 cover from a $50 bill. Of course they used their phone and gave me the right change anyway. At that point, I knew that students are much better off spending their time learning “problem solving and operational skills” than learning arithmetic by rote.
Jenna Chaplin, Toronto
Rx for reconciliation
Re Land Acknowledgment (May 10): A letter writer’s pleasant words about reconciliation serve to paper over the rhetorical argument that goes like this: Colonization happened in the past. Land acknowledgments create feelings of guilt and awkwardness. Land claims are easy. We’re all settlers anyway. Okay, good talk.
The fact is that colonization is an ongoing process. Land claims have been deliberately made difficult by governments to delay and prevent them, and 100-plus years versus 14,000 years is not particularly comparable. To paraphrase Upton Sinclair: It is difficult to get a person to understand something when his land depends upon him not understanding it.
Conrad Sichler, Hamilton
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Re A Prescription For Reconciliation (May 8): There are hundreds of Indigenous tribes or nations in Canada, each of which has issues, often unique, that it wants to address with the governments of Canada, both federal and provincial. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to their issues, despite our governments’ attempts to create them. Trying to draw non-political bodies, such as the Ontario Medical Association, into this melee is political maneuvering disguised as something to make people “feel good.” They should resist.
David Kister, Toronto
It’s the 21st century
Re What The World Needs Now Is Wedding Fever, And It’s On TV (May 10): John Doyle, writing about the wedding on Big Bang Theory, says it was time that Sheldon “made an honest woman” of Amy. What century do Mr. Doyle and his editors think we live in?
Women are no longer defined by marital status; our honesty is determined by our own values, not whether we have a “Mrs.” in front of our name – a title most women do not use today.
Carol Williams, Mississauga