Green Party Leader Elizabeth May speaks at a rally this week against Kinder Morgan's proposed Trans Mountain pipeline project.Justin Tang/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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Yes/no/maybe hypocrisy
Re B.C.’s Crude Hypocrisy (editorial, May 25): The real issue is not with oil or gas, but dilbit, the incredibly toxic material that will be flowing in huge volumes through the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline, and into tankers in Vancouver’s beautiful harbour. This poisonous product will then be taken through treacherous water on its way to the ocean.
Even with a “world class” spill response system, any discharge of dilbit into the environment would be an ongoing catastrophe. The damage to B.C.’s economy would be incalculable.
Premier John Horgan’s opposition to the movement of this horrific mixture is entirely science-based, sensible and environmentally essential.
Colin Lowe, Nanaimo, B.C.
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Since 2004, Kinder Morgan been shipping diluted bitumen. The sole remaining refinery on British Columbia’s Lower Mainland cannot process bitumen. Diluted bitumen is 100 per cent for export. And diluted bitumen poses unique concerns in the case of a spill. There is no hypocrisy in B.C.’s position. Crude, or synthetic crude, for local use makes sense.
A seven-fold increase in risky tanker traffic to export toxic diluted bitumen is not welcome.
Elizabeth May, MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands; Leader, Green Party of Canada
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Was Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, merely ahead of his time when he wrote in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There: “‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’”?
Presumably, now as then, Alice would have a problem in identifying which of our two feuding Western provinces was Tweedledum and which was Tweedledee.
Richard Seymour, Brechin, Ont.
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If in fact Canada is a country, then the country collectively has the right to decide what happens to its resources.
If Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is built, will we meet our Paris climate accord commitments?
Does it mean that other provinces will need to reduce their carbon footprint in order to allow the development of the tar sands?
I would like an answer from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Kinder Morgan. If they are not willing to do so publicly, I think it is safe to say that they know that’s not possible and that they don’t give a damn.
Robert W. Stevenson, Toronto
Plasma possibilities
Re Paying For Plasma Donations Is Harmless, Report Finds (May 25): The issue of allowing Canadians to sell their plasma presents a wonderful opportunity to support local non-profit societies by giving Canadians the opportunity to gift their blood donation to non-profit causes.
Local or non-profit societies could rally their supporters to assign their payment to them. It is an opportunity for a win-win-win.
Blood donations would increase, non-profits would get financial support, and local citizens would feel good about supporting their local non-profit.
Jim Gillis, Comox, B.C.
#OurWinnipeg
Re The Jets Are Out, But Winnipeg Is Definitely ‘In’ (online, May 22): Winnipeggers cannot allow Benjamin Shinewald’s disparaging narrative to go unchallenged.
His article betrays how shallowly, compactly and distantly his roots in Winnipeg appear to lie, having been part of “the generation which left in the bad old days of Winnipeg [and] is not returning, not to live at least.”
He doesn’t know what I know, what all my friends know.
Winnipeg is a city of connection and impact.
It’s a city where downtown streets are often quiet because young and old can more often afford the housing that allows for backyard barbecues instead of $15 drinks at your local.
It’s a place where a few friends can think of a good idea and make it into reality – whether that’s Red Rising Magazine, Tuesday Ultimate with the Couchsurfing group at Memorial Park, or the plethora of young businesses from Heart Acres Farm to Feast Café Bistro.
It’s a community that rallies when called upon, and where your social actions count.
In Winnipeg, young people’s leadership and advocacy lead to better policy and opportunities, such as Amina and Nusaybah Mohamed’s work to bring sports hijabs to Dakota Collegiate or Aboriginal Youth Opportunities’ new harm reduction initiative, #13MoonsWpg, offering a safe, fun and sober environment on Saturday nights.
You might even count that time Jets season tickets sold out in 17 minutes flat, proving the viability of bringing back an NHL team.
So, yes, it’s a home in which we choose to stay and to which we return, again and again – to raise our families, start businesses and build community.
This is #OurWinnipeg.
Anny Chen, Winnipeg
Signs of Ontario times
I have always disliked the proliferation of political signs at election time, as illustrated by your photo of six large signs on a tiny front yard of a corner property (Whose Sign Is It Anyway? Election Advertising Can Be Complicated On Rental Properties – May 24).
It’s not just the visual scar on the neighbourhood that puts me off. It’s the mentality that more signs, and bigger signs than anyone else’s, are needed to win.
I propose that all such signs be banned. In their place, I propose that each political party deliver one – and only one – carefully crafted letter to as many voters as they wish, outlining their platform. The format and length of the letter would be completely up to each party – one page, 60 pages, point form, budget information, character references, family photos, Q&A section – whatever they choose to present.
Such letters would provide us with some very interesting insights to make an informed voting decision.
Ken Dixon, Toronto
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Re Ontario PCs, NDP tie for lead in election campaign (May 23): NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says that on June 7 there will be a new Ontario premier, and that the decision for Ontario voters is, “Is that going to be Doug Ford or me?” Doug Ford exclaims that on June 7 Ontarians are “either going to vote in a radical NDP… or they can vote for a Doug Ford PC government.”
So when did the battle-hardened Kathleen Wynne withdraw from the race? She has passed legislation that is enabling many underprivileged Ontarians to go to college, she’s raised the minimum wage, she is managing an economy that is booming. Many Ontarians will regret that she’s no longer in the battle for ballots.
Ben Labovitch, Toronto
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Re None Of The Above (letters, May 23): Decling a ballot is futile. By making a choice among three greatly flawed candidates, there’s a fairly good chance that a minority government would be the outcome. Not ideal, but better than the alternative.
Heather Macleod, Toronto
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When I lived in San Francisco years ago, a man dressed in a nun’s habit ran for mayor … calling himself Nun of the Above.
Linda Peritz, Vancouver