Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland arrives at a press conference to speak about changes to capital gains tax legislation, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on June 10.Patrick Doyle/Reuters
Whose interests?
Re “Trudeau still not saying whether Liberals were among MPs involved in foreign interference” (June 17): What allows foreign governments to interfere in our electoral processes are the loose rules of political parties around the selection of their candidates.
We should have a system in which Elections Canada runs the process of selecting candidates for registered parties.
David Hitchcock Hamilton
Re “Foreign fears” (Letters, June 14): A letter-writer asks, “What are these [Canadian] interests, and who defines them?” The question is a good one, because the answer may very well be that no one really knows.
Joe Clark once described Canada as a “community of communities.” In saying so, he wasn’t defining the country as a nation, a people united by common culture, language or history, but instead as a kind of co-op, a resource shared by people who do so to make use of its services.
The trouble is, that’s a vacuum into which almost any private interest is naturally drawn. The Globe’s own Tony Keller observed that much of what goes on in this country is simply not in the public interest, because the interests actually driving policy are private ones (”On immigration, the sum of Canada’s special interests is not the national interest” – Report on Business, Feb. 9).
In the absence of a well-established consensus, private interests too often prevail.
Charles MacRae Toronto
Safety first
Re “Alberta NDP MLA’s resignation shines a light on the fragile state of our democracy” (June 14): This brought me great sadness.
It is so discouraging to read of capable, committed women holding public office, working to make their riding a better place to live, while having their private lives and personal safety surveilled without cause. Alberta’s Crown Prosecution Service should be ashamed for not accepting the recommendation that a strong case could be made that criminal activity was carried out by the Lethbridge police officers.
How can we ever expect competent, committed women or men to hold public office, if they wonder whether their lives will be scrutinized should their values differ from those held by police officers?
Robin White Richmond, B.C.
Tax and spend
Re “A hard truth hidden beneath the political posturing over the capital gains tax” (Report on Business, June 14): A graph compares 2019 government spending as a percentage of GDP. Norway leads with 56.7 per cent, the United States ranks 10th with 30.2 per cent and Canada eighth with 40.6 per cent.
What is made of this depends on the criteria used to judge it. By income inequality, measured as the percentage of income of the lowest 50 per cent of a population, Norway was at 24.5 per cent, the U.S. at 13.6 per cent and Canada at 17.9 per cent. By the percentage of wealth owned by the top 1 per cent, Norway was at 22.8 per cent, the U.S at 34.9 per cent and Canada at 24.6 per cent.
Countries that tax and spend the largest percentage of GDP seem to have the most equitable distribution of income. Perhaps the “hardest truth” is that income and wealth inequalities lie at the heart of social and political unrest.
Bill Jennings Kingston
Could a potential solution or compromise be something along these lines? If someone is selling one medical corporation, one family cottage, one commercial property, etc., then keep the tax rates as they are now.
Doing so for a second time, or more, could then be subject to the new rate.
Martin O’Connell Burlington, Ont.
The Finance Minister may be excused if she “laid it on a bit thick” because, finally, we are confronting the issue lurking behind our untended problems: We get what we pay for.
Our 40-year social experiment that promised more for less has been a tragicomic failure. The time has come to look closely at more successful examples than the one south of our border.
I am grateful for the services our governments provide, but waiting for the free market to solve our woes is becoming increasingly miserable. Most of us resent taxation because it is human nature to credit one’s success to our own talent, and to discount the failures of those equally talented.
The results are in, and it looks like the more successful must pay a little more if we want to avoid the ever-compounding crises that threaten peace, order and good government, for both rich and poor.
Jamie Thomson Halifax
Age-old
Re “Calgary residents cut water consumption to record low as city placed under state of emergency” (June 17): It is reported that the outer concrete surrounding steel-reinforcing wires had deteriorated to “talcum,” thus exposing the wires which led to the bursting of the water main that transports about 60 per cent of Calgary’s potable water.
Funny, but the nearly 2,000-year-old Roman Coliseum, Pantheon dome (still the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome) and concrete piers immersed in seawater are still standing and functional.
Mike Priaro Calgary
Back to the future
Re “Electric dreams” (Letters, June 17): A letter-writer asks if the downstream consequences of electric cars and batteries have all been considered. While we may still be working on them, he can be assured that the consequences of gasoline-driven cars have been proven by thousands of scientists over many years, and they are disastrous.
Carbon emissions are bad for human health and destroying a safe global climate.
Dave Carson Hamilton
Re “Elon Musk wins US$44.9-billion Tesla pay package in shareholder vote” and “U.S., Ukraine announce long-term security pact while G7 agrees to hand Kyiv US$50-billion to support fight against Russia” (June 14): Contrast and compare.
Renton Stevenson Toronto
Canadian game
Re “Lack of interest in Stanley Cup final suggests hockey isn’t what it used to be for Canadians” (Sports, June 15): I’ve heard this old saw ever since the 1972 Summit Series – and innumerable Olympic gold medals, Stanley Cup teams loaded with Canadians and Canadian wins at World Junior and World Championships (often with our second- or third-stringers). I find it as tired as Connor McDavid after a double shift.
Hockey is still dominated by Canada. There’s loads of world talent on the podium, too. But this is still our game.
Nigel Smith Toronto
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