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Carbon camouflage
Re Ontario Enters Cap-and-Trade Era, With First Auction Raising $471-Million (Report on Business, March 1): Ontario raised $471-million through the auction of greenhouse gas allowances. The more accurate phrase would be the sale of indulgences.
Yaroslaw Zajac, Ottawa
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Diminished …
Re Bloc Québécois Fractures As MPs Bolt Over Leadership (front page, March 1): There was a time when the Bloc Québeçois was the Official Opposition in Ottawa. Now, to borrow from Yeats, it is "a tattered coat upon a stick." When the Bloc was unable to field candidates for leader from its own ranks, Martine Ouellet, an also-ran for the Parti Québeçois leadership, stepped into the breach. In Ottawa, Ms. Ouellet is a diminished leader, without a federal seat, of a diminished deputation. In Quebec, sitting as an independent, she's a seat without a party.
During the epic battles of Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque, Quebeckers sent strong federalists to Ottawa, and equally strong separatists to Quebec City. This seeming contradiction came to be called dual legitimacy. What we are witnessing with Ms. Ouellet and the current iteration of the Bloc is dual illegitimacy.
Howard Greenfield, Montreal
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Budget largesse. Or Not
Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have now tabled three budgets. A disturbing trend has emerged: Both have such a desire to be loved by everyone, their ongoing action plan is to sprinkle money like pixie dust on every part of the economy, hoping to gain the affection of all.
The responsibility of leaders, in both the public and private sectors, is to make the tough choices that drive the best long-term outcomes for countries or companies. That's why they're elected or appointed. Pixie dust, hope and prayer won't solve our problems. Only individuals willing to make tough, focused leadership decisions can do that. Mr. Morneau and Mr. Trudeau – a Peter Pan pair living in Never Never Land.
J.D. Lewarne, Toronto
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The avowed purpose of this week's budget was to look at public expenses through a feminist lens. Yet disappointingly, the budget only included mini-increases for foreign aid. Despite the increase in foreign aid spending, aid still will be growing at a slower pace than other expenditures. Despite foreign aid spending having been frozen for five years, the increase will still be far from keeping pace of Canada's economic growth. When you consider that those who suffer most from lack of education, clean water and proper nutrition are women, and that the PM has explicitly stated that "poverty is sexist," this budget truly misses the mark.
Jean-Francois Tardif, Gatineau, Que.
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NHL parsimony
Re NHL 'Comfortable' With Decision To Miss Olympics (Sports, March 1): So NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and team owners didn't put down the cash register and pick up the flag in order to avoid "disruption to our season."
Given that the regular season is 26 weeks and the Olympics are every four years, three weeks in South Korea represents a shutdown of 3 per cent. A tiny investment for a league that purports to grow the game internationally.
Tim Jeffery, Toronto
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As a middle power
Re Trudeau Is Delivering The Foreign Policy Canadians Deserve (Feb. 26): Kudos to David Mulroney for daring to declare that when it comes to the government's foreign policy, the emperor is indeed naked, or nearly so.
Diaspora politics should not be the driving force in Canada's foreign policy, either in Asia, Europe or the Middle East. As citizens of a middle power, Canadians must recognize that we no longer live in a world dominated by one super power; indeed, the Trump administration appears to be hastening the decline of American power and influence throughout the globe.
At the same time, major regional powers, particularly India and China, are demonstrating an increasing capacity to fill the void and assert their economic and their political prowess.
Canadian civil society needs to undertake what our government has failed to do, and that is to define what a credible and responsible Canadian foreign policy would look like, in a world facing the twin threats of nuclear war and radical climate change.
Our much vaunted shibboleths of extended nuclear deterrence and global economic growth look increasingly like military and economic formula for global catastrophe. As Albert Einstein once remarked, everything has changed, except our way of thinking.
Scott Burbidge, Port Williams, N.S.
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Cars vs. humans
Re Tory Calls City's Pedestrian Deaths A 'Crisis' After 11-Year-old Hit, Killed By Vehicle (March 1): To save one or two minutes of car travel time, Toronto Mayor John Tory encouraged the public works and infrastructure committee to defeat a proposal to make a part of Yonge Street safer for cyclists and pedestrians. This proposal was recommended by city staff and supported by the local community and businesses.
We now witness the mayor, after the death of an 11-year-old boy, stating "we cannot have this carnage continuing." Does this not echo the "prayers and condolences" offered by American politicians to victims of gun violence, who then do nothing to control guns? No, the mayor's position is neither moderation nor mediocrity, it is simply hypocrisy.
Jack Lee, Toronto
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Policing relationships
Re Are Toronto Police Playing The Blame Game? (Feb. 28): Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders is not blaming anybody. He's simply stating a fact: Many who could help the police, don't. Why can't we handle the truth?
Ian Thompson, Halifax
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A is for armed
Kudos on your edgy editorial cartoon Wednesday showing American teachers graduating with weapons in hand, part of Donald Trump's inane suggestion to arm teachers to make schools safer. No teacher should have to face such a choice. That a world power is unable to provide basic protection to its school children shows how low the United States has fallen in losing its moral imperative.
Bill Bhaneja, Ottawa
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In Mr. Trump's America, teachers will have to introduce kids to a new way of learning the alphabet: A is for armed, B is for bullet, C is for calibre, D is for Dead …
Kathryn O'Neill, St. John's
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A suitable title for Brian Gable's cartoon about the teachers' armed convocation ceremony: Graduating summa cum loaded.
Raymond Peringer, Toronto