Doug Ford, left, sits alongside Dean French at the Ontario PC Convention in Toronto on Saturday, November 17, 2018.Chris Young/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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Lacrossegate?
Re Ford Vows Tighter Vetting Rules After Wave Of Departures (July 12): No amount of procedures, policies or processes will fix what is wrong with the Ford government’s approach to the appointments process in Ontario if the values of the people making the appointments are not consistent with a public service based on merit. The public service appointments process is not an opportunity to benefit friends and family members.
What is the explanation for a 26-year-old friend of former chief of staff Dean French’s sons being appointed to a $100,000+ government job?
Doug Ford says his government will do a better job of vetting potential appointees, but this is not the answer either. Those appointing the candidates need to be more thoroughly vetted.
As for Mr. Ford’s claim that he cares not about the party affiliation of appointees, there are people who have been kicked out of their jobs under his tenure simply because they were appointed by another governing party.
Catherine McKay, Mildmay, Ont.
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I’m betting that Doug Ford is right when he says, “Do you really think when I walk down the street in Alberta, people worry about Dean French?” I’m pretty sure they don’t care whatsoever about Mr. Ford’s former chief of staff, or his fondness for lacrosse, or the patronage scandal dogging the Premier in his wake. Perhaps Mr. Ford hasn’t noticed, but those Albertans don’t vote in the next Ontario provincial election.
Robert McManus, Dundas, Ont.
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It may be Ontario’s voters who need to improve their vetting process. There have been no surprises under Doug Ford’s leadership. His unsuitability as Premier was obvious long before he was elected.
Stuart McRae, Toronto
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford boldly states that he takes “full responsibility” for what happens in his province. Wow. “Full responsibility.” Just what does Mr. Ford’s “full responsibility” entail? Is he personally going to pick up the Ontario taxpayers’ tab related to this patronage scandal? Hiring and firing employees costs money. Human resources staff, headhunters, paperwork, investigations … hours and hours of time wasted.
Why do I feel that when Mr. Ford says “full” responsibility, he’s full of something else?
Norman Rosencwaig, Toronto
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Of all the sports to be associated with political scandal, lacrosse seems the most unlikely. But clearly we now appear to have Lacrossegate.
Richard Holland, Grafton, Ont.
Fair play to you
Re British Ambassador To U.S. Resigns In Wake Of Leaked E-Mails (July 11): When will the other shoe drop? When will we see candid comments from America’s ambassador to the Court of St. James on the absurdities over the U.K. Brexit mismanagement?
Brian Wasson, Vancouver
Pharmacare should be a national prescription
Re Pharmacare Plan Should Be Optional, Premiers Say (July 12): Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the government should show more respect for provincial jurisdiction in implementing pharmacare. Alternatively, the federal government could do it with as little provincial involvement as is constitutionally possible, and make pharmacare about people’s health, rather than entrenching further inequality so that middlemen can feel important.
David Arthur, Cambridge, Ont.
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The current crop of Conservative premiers is so intent on protecting their own little fiefdoms – what they refer to as “jurisdictional issues” – that they are losing track of the greater good (or just don’t care about it in the first place).
The federal climate-change initiative is one example, with Quebec recently citing those same “jurisdictional issues” as its main concern. National pharmacare, which clearly needs to be national in order to be effective, is an even more egregious one. I don’t remember a time when such a collection of petty, tin-pot wannabe-dictators were in power, and showed such disdain for the country as a whole and its people.
All they seem to be interested in is hanging onto, and increasing, their own power, and pushing their own narrow agendas, at the expense of everyone else.
Luke Mastin, Toronto
Security council. Why?
Re Charest’s Wooing Of Gulf States Part Of Canada’s Too-Costly Push For UN Security Council Seat (July 12): Your article about Jean Charest’s mission to promote a Security Council seat for Canada leads to the obvious question: Why?
The omnipresent Chinese and Russian vetoes ensure that the council never accomplishes anything significant. Yes, talk is helpful – but that hardly requires Canada’s presence.
Ah, yes – nice stuff for mandarins; plush postings in New York, lavish diplomatic lunches to address the same issues over and over. Maybe a platform for Canada to support some feminist issue in a vote that delivers nothing actionable. What nonsense!
Richard Patterson, Collingwood, Ont.
Climate action, Pray tell
Re A Faith-Based Conservative Climate Plan? (editorial): If the Conservatives’ climate plan were “faith based,” it would take seriously the call of ancient words from the book of Genesis, where we are called “to cultivate and take care of the earth.”
Associating prayer with a “do nothing strategy” isn’t a fair association with what prayer is. “Prayer is words with legs” – some action is required!
John Pentland, Reverend, Hillhurst United, Calgary
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It is not at all obvious that the proposed new federal clean fuel standard will be good for Canada or for the planet, though it likely will be very good for North American agribusiness.
The standard proposes to reduce the carbon content of fuel without consideration of how much of the chemical energy in the fuel will be converted into useful output. The result of this standard will be an increase in use of biofuel, so consideration needs to be given to issues such as: land use for fuel vs. food; carbon emission by agriculture and biofuel processing; deforestation, etc.
Instead of green-signalling by the Liberal government, and cost complaints by the Conservative Opposition, I wish both sides would get into the details, and make their respective cases based on proper environmental and economic analysis (Tories And Liberals Spar Over Ottawa’s Plan For Clean-Fuel Standard, July 10).
Brian Swinney, Burlington, Ont.
Hmm …
Re CannTrust Halts All Cannabis Sales (July 12): Can I assume the company might be changing its name to CantTrust?
Steve Soloman, Toronto
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