A cyclist makes their way along a bike path into downtown Ottawa on June 7, 2023.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Where at?
Re “A summer of discontent from Ottawa’s unions is worth the heat” (Editorial, May 13): Researchers at the universities of Chicago and Michigan released a report on “return to office and tenure distribution,” where one of their findings was “casual evidence that three of the largest U.S. tech companies – Microsoft, SpaceX and Apple – faced a significant outflow of employees after implementing an RTO mandate, with more senior employees leaving at a higher rate.”
If highly paid private industry workers are willing to quit rather than return to the office, it should come as no surprise that beleaguered public servants are reluctant as well.
As a former public servant who’s spent time working in a cubicle and from home, I can attest the latter is more productive and more satisfying. So better for everyone.
Dave Sanderson Carleton Place, Ont.
We are in the midst of an industrial revolution when it comes to offices and their location. For a great many jobs, there’s no need to be in an “office” at a specific location.
I have a niece doing U.S. legal work for a U.S. firm out of her apartment, located in a Canadian city. I’ve gotten help over the phone from workers in Colombia and the Philippines.
Demanding that workers spend a certain number of days in a “downtown” office, because that space has been leased, seems to have it backward and reflects short-term thinking. Massive office towers in central locations will likely become a thing of the past – it’s just a matter of how long.
David Enns Cornwall, Ont.
Re “Unions for federal workers promise ‘summer of discontent’ of hybrid work rules” (May 9): “Bedbugs. Bats. Mice. Cockroaches. Mould. Odours. Poor air quality. Missing or broken equipment. Trash littering workstations.”
I thought this just applied to the Prime Minister’s official residence.
Bill McEachern The Blue Mountains, Ont.
I am…?
Re “Ottawa prepares bill to reinstate citizenship rights of ‘lost Canadians’ ” (May 11): We have a son who was born in the United States while we were posted there in Crown service. His children will become Canadian if they are born outside Canada.
But there should be no automatic citizenship for many others whose parents choose lives outside Canada. Choices often have consequences and the citizenship issue may be one of them.
One exception might be if a child is born stateless because of the birth country’s laws on nationality (Switzerland comes to mind). But there should not be a lot of sympathy for parents who want to have their cake and eat it, too, for their children.
Canadian nationality should be a privilege to obtain. Some would argue that Canada has been too liberal in its bestowal of citizenship over the years,
Let’s hope that whatever new legislation emerges keeps a tight rein on citizenship eligibility.
David Collins Victoria
Party on
Re “The foreign-interference scandal shows that it’s time to clean up Canada’s party nomination races” (Opinion, May 11): It is noted that in order to vote in a federal election, one must be a Canadian citizen, at least 18 years old and a resident of the riding in which the vote is cast.
The same qualifications should be required of all voters at nomination meetings for candidates in both federal and provincial elections. To further strengthen the process, voters should be required to have been members of the party’s riding association for at least three months prior to a nomination meeting.
Unfortunately, the nomination process might still be manipulated by a candidate “stacking” the meeting by signing up a large number of members of the party’s riding association. Though I deplore outcomes being decided by a candidate’s ability to sign up members, it should be recognized as a legitimate part of the democratic process.
David Goodings Burlington, Ont.
One time, I wanted to influence a provincial nomination race for party leadership.
I wanted to support an individual who agreed that my particular interest was important to include in their platform. So I took out party membership a few weeks ahead of the vote.
I attended the leadership convention and was astounded to see a large number of students who had not previously been party members. They were supporting a classmate who was running.
My candidate was outnumbered. This other individual was chosen as party leader without previous experience based, it seems, on the large number of votes from classmates. In the ensuing election, the leader stumbled badly at campaigning and the party suffered in the results. The leader quickly resigned.
We should require leadership candidates and voting members to have belonged to the party for a period of about three to six months prior to a nomination process.
Bruce Hutchison Ottawa
Polls suggest that the Trudeau Liberals have, as Janis Joplin sang, “nothin’ left to lose.” If so, they and the NDP should consider themselves “free” to do what should be done, rather than what is politically correct to maintain or increase political power.
Real reform should begin at the bottom, with the ways all political parties nominate candidates. The backrooms of politics, always dominated by a few, can now be easily influenced by any organized group.
Pass legislation, enforced by Elections Canada, that ensures those we choose represent the general will of at least the local members of their party. No more instant party members at nomination meetings. Allow parachute candidates only after a vote of local members.
Democracy depends on the dispersion of power. Control by a few is the trojan horse of democracy.
The Liberals, and by extension the NDP, are the government. Make it so.
Bill Jennings Kingston
Political parties should be the lifeblood of the democratic process.
They used to serve as unifying bodies of citizen participation and civic discourse, both between and during elections. Today I find them but empty shells.
We once had leadership conventions that generated real enthusiasm and drama, producing leaders such as Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney. That this model has been abandoned by parties today is a shame, especially given what has replaced them.
There is nothing the least bit democratic about instant members and delegate-stacking. Being a delegate used to mean something because it involved genuine party members, especially those who did the often thankless task of supporting parties at the constituency level.
The most recent leadership votes (I would hardly call them conventions) for the Liberal and Conservatives involved push-button exercises that rewarded those with no party stakes. How on Earth is this better?
Political parties should mean more.
Michael Kaczorowski Ottawa
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