Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland holds a press conference in the media-lockup before tabling the Federal Budget in Ottawa on April 16.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Decisions, decisions
Re “Federal budget to include tax hikes for wealthiest Canadians, some corporations” (April 16): The photo of the Finance Minister trying on a pair of shoes, with a dozen or so other pairs alongside, looks like a perfectly apt image of the federal government’s proclivity on spending, deficit budgets and debt.
Rather than a single pair of sturdy and economical shoes suitable for the task of managing the nation’s taxes, one might imagine the minister simply saying, “I’ll take them all,” and paying the minimum amount on the credit card statement.
Clay Atcheson North Vancouver
Re “The budget needs bold change to fix Canada’s falling productivity” (Report on Business, April 15): I’m worried, and this opinion does nothing to soothe my grandfatherly anxiety about the future standard of living for Canada’s younger demographic.
The total citizenry should act now. Essential elements include the principles of national co-operation devoid of provincial nepotism, and mature political dialogue without persistent criticism and vitriolic rhetoric.
The youth of the nation deserve better.
John Crawford Victoria
Now?
Re “Joly dispatching Foreign Affairs deputy to China as part of attempt to thaw relations with Beijing” (April 16): I find this beyond bizarre, even for this government.
The timing feels ludicrous in parallel with the commission examining Chinese interference with our elections.
J.G. Gilmour Calgary
Get going
Re “Canada’s top soldier touts renewed Arctic strategy amid China and Russia’s push to deepen ties” (April 15): Aspirations to gear up Canada’s ability to defend our safety and way of life are wonderful. But it should be critically important that we do so with no further delay.
We don’t have 25 years to waste. If we were on an urgent wartime footing, as in the past, we would muster our resources to equip our Armed Forces as fast as possible and increase personnel. Instead we have creaking studies, reviews and procurement plans.
Sometimes perfect is the enemy of good. Bite down and get it done.
We need to prepare to defend ourselves in an increasingly dangerous world, without delay.
Lyn Cummins Toronto
Totally
Re “School boards missed a chance to make the eclipse a teachable moment” (April 15): I saw the total eclipse on a rural road near Port Stanley on Lake Erie.
I saw a lot of people beside their parked cars watching the eclipse. And guess what? A lot of them brought their kids. I met one family that made the trip from Kitchener.
Giving kids the day off, so that they could enjoy the full spectacle, was an excellent idea. In these times with a lot of anti-science sentiment, seeing such a spectacular natural event could stimulate their interest in science.
Wouldn’t it be just as easy to have a class lesson about the eclipse before it occurs, followed by a posteclipse class discussion?
Doug Payne London, Ont.
After watching the eclipse with my family, I talked to my nine-year-old grandson about it, after his excitement died down. He had been telling us what the event meant as it happened.
He said, “I knew all about it because we studied it all week in my class.”
John Whyle Kingston
When I was 11, there was an eclipse over Britain.
My grammar school in Newbury used the day as a teachable moment. We were all provided safety glasses and taken out of school to a nature area, where we marvelled at what we saw.
Of course this should have been a teachable moment in Ontario. I think boards of education across the province made a serious mistake in closing schools.
Ann Neilson London, Ont.
Family first
Re “Requiring age-verification for porn won’t save children from online harm. But it will invade our privacy” (April 10): As a parent of a young teen, I was curious to know in what ways the contributor feels age verification for online porn wouldn’t benefit kids. It turns out there are zero ways.
Instead, the focus was on how age verification would make life harder for adult porn consumers, a slippery slope from here to a full-on totalitarian state in which censorship infiltrates all aspects of our lives. Maybe there should be reminders that age limits for porn aren’t new, and finding functional ways for existing limits to apply online isn’t new censorship.
And a reality check about which future states we should fear: a world in which the needs of porn consumers are placed above the importance of kids’ safe and healthy development would be a scary one indeed.
Esther Steeves Edmonton
Stop it
Re “Do pedestrians always have the right-of-way?” (Online, April 14): To summarize: Don’t assume that motorists will stop, regardless of whether they are required to do so. In my experience, this is good advice for staying alive on two feet in a city like Toronto.
Still, it is worth pointing out some of the rules often disobeyed by motorists when it comes to interactions with pedestrians. This includes the requirement to yield to pedestrians crossing a sidewalk (for example, when exiting a parking lot), and to come to a full stop before crossing the solid white line at a stop sign or before making a right on red.
Pedestrians have the right-of-way in these situations, but are often bullied into giving way to aggressive motorists. Using a 3,000-pound piece of metal to intimidate smaller, squishier folks is uncivil.
Mark Taylor Toronto
Don’t get greedy
Re “Canada in top three countries for music exports on Spotify, but some hit artists may not qualify as Canadian” (April 12): This answers everything I might want to know about whether a Canadian artist’s song might qualify as Canadian content with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, but I suspect that many artists reading never got much past this statement from Spotify: “Canadian artists generated more than $400-million in royalties from listeners outside Canada on Spotify in 2023″
I quickly calculate that these royalties divided by, let’s say, 40,000 Canadian artists would, if equally divided, result in a cheque from Spotify for $10,000 each. And yet I hear of big-name Quebec artists getting $500 in royalties, so I begin to question whether that $400-million figure is correct.
Or maybe Tate McRae is receiving the bulk part of this for her 860 million streams of Greedy.
Ted Dettweiler Montreal
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