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The wizards of Oz. Oh my!
Re Putin Brandishes 'Invincible' Nuclear Arsenal (front page, March 2): Vladimir Putin has an invincible nuclear arsenal. Donald Trump is modernizing his nuclear armoury, the other little one is playing with his nuclear button. Without doubt, the Oscar for the dumbest species on the planet should be awarded to the human race. But there won't be anyone left to accept it, will there?
Helen Godfrey, Toronto
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When I was a kid, I saw The Wizard of Oz. Yesterday, I looked at the picture on your front page, and there he was again, updated, the wizard. "Oh, my," I said to myself. "Lions, and tigers and bears! Oh my!" Where are Dorothy and Toto when we need them?
Geoff Smith, Kingston
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Progress? Jury's out
John Semley offers a trenchant reminder that, notwithstanding Steven Pinker's panegyric for an Enlightenment notion of progress, "the governing ideology of progress … demands sustained criticism" (Keeping Calm And Carrying On – March 1).
A quick scan through other recent front-page stories suggests as much: hundreds of thousands of Rohingya assaulted, displaced or killed through the characteristically modern modality of ethno-nationalist genocide (under the watch, no less, of erstwhile progressivist icon Aung San Suu Kyi); ongoing Syrian carnage, fuelled by the duelling interventionism of powers practising the post-Enlightenment technique of seeking to re-engineer countries to their own advantage, often enough under such progressive guises as promoting democracy and fighting terrorism.
One need not wish to romanticize the past (a way of viewing history that is, as it happens, partially a by-product of progressivism) to recognize that the "Pollyanna"-ish "forward-march of progress" is not all it's cracked up to be.
Andrew M. Wender, Victoria
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Ontario's NDP
Re Ontario Deserves Our Pity, Not Our Resentment (March 1): Gerald Caplan wonders about the role of the Ontario New Democratic Party. The role of the Ontario NDP is to be the third wheel on the Ontario bicycle, like a training wheel. It keeps the machine lurching ahead in a more or less straight line. Sometimes the Tory wheel is steering in front, sometimes the Liberal wheel is leading the way. When the Ontario electorate experimented with the NDP as the front wheel, the machine crashed into the ditch.
Mr. Caplan knows the third-wheel role well. When Tory Bill Davis was steering the bike, Mr. Caplan was chief mechanic on Stephen Lewis's third wheel. His job was to tighten the nuts.
Orland French, Belleville, Ont.
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Guns there, here
A partial solution to the problem of guns in the U.S. is in the hands of the credit card companies. If they were to stipulate that their cards could not be used for the purchase of automatic weapons, sales would likely drop sharply.
Morley Lertzman, North Vancouver
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It is past time for the Trudeau government to restore the gun controls deleted by Stephen Harper's crew. We aren't immune to the danger of some narcissistic idiot wanting to shoot him/herself quite literally into the news, in a school, on the streets, or inside someone's home.
Nicholas Tracy, Fredericton
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Canada has had comprehensive gun control laws for many years. So even more laws are better, right? Well, it depends on who you are trying to control. Owning a firearm here already requires an extensive licensing process. A firearms licence is much, much more difficult to obtain than, say, a driver's licence or a passport.
Despite what the media coverage might lead you to believe, firearm fatalities in Canada have been on an almost steady decline for the past 40 years.
The problem with our current firearms laws is that they are almost completely focused on the law-abiding firearms owner, not the criminal misuse of firearms. So when governments claim they are "getting tough on crime," in reality they are only further regulating the law-abiding firearm owner who is not a problem in the first place.
Mark Stead, Sherwood Park, Alta.
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8-per-cent non-solution
Deficits, in themselves, are not necessarily bad, but only if accompanied by an off-setting stimulus to economic growth (Prosperity In The Balance – letters, March 1). Instead, we see no increase in spending on capital projects or measures such as tax incentives for business investment. The federal budget includes the now-familiar emphasis on Indigenous opportunities, gender equality and other social priorities, and a whopping 8 per cent increase in the cost of government's own operations. Possibly more expensive and entirely useless trips by the Prime Minister to India and China?
Norman Paterson, Thornbury, Ont.
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Fearful symmetry
Re Trudeau Won't Be Back In India Any Time Soon (March 1): I got my T4 slip at work this week. Now I know who paid for the Trudeau family's trip to India and their fancy Indian garb. I take some comfort in knowing that the family will continue to get good use out of the outfits for years to come.
Paul C. Bennett, Richmond Hill, Ont.
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Following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's trip to India, the general perception is that he probably wishes he'd never gone.
This is after a disastrous experience which caused immeasurable harm to the diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Events ranged from Mr. Trudeau getting involved in domestic Indian and separatist Sikh politics, to his outlandish outfits for each occasion, to being snubbed by Prime Minister Nahendra Modi for most of the trip.
It's been followed by a diplomatic storm with Mr. Trudeau accusing factions in the Indian government of sabotaging his trip and a damning response from the Indian government. Odds are Mr. Trudeau certainly won't be seen anywhere near India ever again. All this after his disastrous visit to China a few months earlier.
Johann van Rooyen, North Vancouver
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Further to Campbell Clark's reference to John Diefenbaker's 1958 visit to India and the potential of going on a tiger hunt is the fact that the prime minister did indeed go on the expedition.
As The Globe and Mail reported, "Bengal tigers, more interested in their love life than in being shot, stayed out of sight of Prime Minister Diefenbaker today as the Canadian leader went on his first tiger hunt."
Diefenbaker was pleased with the outcome. "I was quite happy to bag nothing," he recalled in his memoirs. "It was a most relaxing day, without official duties or the need to dress in anything more stylish than old fishing clothes and a rumpled straw hat."
J.D.M. Stewart, Toronto