U.S. President Joe Biden departs the White House for travel to Wisconsin accompanied by Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed at the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 8.Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
But when?
Re “Canada is getting a foreign-agent registry (at last)” (Editorial, May 9): The Liberals announced a foreign-agent registry. The keyword is “announced.”
My bet is that a registry won’t happen before the next election, when it may be the Conservatives who will have to implement it.
David Chalmers Toronto
Mission accomplished
Re “Results? That’s not Ottawa’s business” (May 9): Consider the process.
Legislation is drafted and passed. It goes to the departments involved.
Civil servants meet to identify issues for drafting announcements and application forms. Redrafts are prepared and circulated. Further meetings are held. Eventually announcements are publicized.
Then the work of assessing applications begins. As we have learned in the ArriveCan nightmare, there are dozens of small consulting companies that guide applicants around the labyrinth of pitfalls to pass muster with the bureaucracy. Eventually a few applications get a passing grade, and cheques are written.
It is not the job of the civil service to assess the wisdom of a project, or its success. The wisdom is up to Parliament and success, if judged at all, is the field of the Auditor-General.
The job of Ottawa has always been to spend money. Who, what, where and when are the easy questions. Why and how seem rarely asked.
Tom Curran Prince Edward County, Ont.
Before and after
Re “Time’s up” (Letters, May 5): “Why would Justin Trudeau tarnish his singular achievement (delivering us from Stephen Harper)?” I laughed out loud when I read this.
Thanks to Mr. Trudeau for delivering us from balanced budgets, low national debt, a growing economy, moderate inflation, house prices, taxes and rents, a functioning immigration system, international stature, pervasive national unity and a belief in the incorruptibility of our government.
Even funnier to me is the idea that Mr. Trudeau’s “most egregious mistake” would be “delivering us to Pierre Poilievre.” Wouldn’t it be a Canadian tragedy to return to common sense, order and good government?
Douglass Tadman Edmonton
Re “The Trump-Biden rematch was a sequel no one asked for, and now no one can look away from it” (Opinion, May 4): Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau and likely other world leaders all seem to have one unfortunate thing in common: They are under the delusion that they are the only ones who can save their countries.
Alison Dennis Calgary
Symbolic nature
Re “Of course the keffiyeh is political. But it still shouldn’t be banned from Ontario’s legislature” (May 9): My issue with the Ontario Speaker’s decision deeming the keffiyeh “political” – banning a core part of traditional Arab attire from provincial legislature – is that it effectively politicizes Arab existence.
The fact of Arab culture shouldn’t been used as a political issue subject to reasonable debate. It’s a part of our history, culture and tradition, and it is our right as Arab Canadians to embrace that tradition and culture.
That Arab and non-Arab MPs have chosen to wear that attire in support of us reflects those rights. I believe that prohibiting them from doing so, by reducing our cultural symbols to a “political” issue, seeks to erase them, and us.
Malcolm Aboud Toronto
Other emissions
Re “Just one planet” (Letters, May 9): “Canada is the seventh largest emitter of CO2 in the world … we need to change the business-as-usual mentality.”
One should remember that Canada exports our fossil fuels so that other countries will stop burning, or greatly reduce the use of, coal – a much more polluting agent.
R. R. Innes Brampton, Ont.
Outlook is…
Re “Shopify shares plunge nearly 19 per cent on lower-than-expected outlook for next quarter” (Report on Business, May 9): I find it admirable that Shopify gives next-quarter guidance whether good or bad, as long as the company is consistent.
What I find disconcerting is the number of companies that give no guidance. Studies have found that approximately 30 per cent of companies give quarterly guidance and 30 per cent annual guidance. This leaves 40 per cent of companies that give no guidance.
Markets are regulated. Why do regulators leave such an anomaly to exist? If investors are to be treated equally, then either all companies should give guidance or none should do so.
To do otherwise would be to make investors devoid of all the facts necessary when making investment decisions.
Gary Raich Westmount, Que.
Neighbourhood watch
Re “No Paris of the West” (Letters, May 7): There is a delicious irony to likening densification to “neighbourhood busting,” and asking why Vancouver can’t be a great city like Paris.
Paris as we know it today is the work of Georges-Eugène Haussmann, a French urban planner who was unafraid to demolish the piffling suburbs that made up Paris at the time, and replace them with six-storey buildings, wide parks and public squares.
Ian Starwell Toronto
“Neighbourhood busting” is praised as an apt term for adding more people to it.
Surely it is the opposite: that preventing people from moving into an area, for them to become productive members of the community, is what thwarts some neighbourhoods from progressing and thriving.
Gabriel Lamo Toronto
Now and then
Re “Elephant in the room” (Letters, May 8): “The mysteries of reproduction were to be revealed during classes in physical education – for boys only. What happened with the girls, I’m not quite sure.” As an experienced sex ed teacher who is offering to help Saskatchewan, I can answer this letter-writer.
In the 1960s, when I was also a student at Humberside Collegiate in Toronto, we girls were not taught the mysteries of any interesting body parts.
The great mysteries of male genitalia were revealed in our new Grade 13 biology book and taught by a marvellous rookie to the profession. I remember great discussions with my mom when she saw the book – and my father’s hasty exit from the room, lest he see himself in living colour.
That rookie biology teacher went on to instruct teachers in the “new“ topic of sex education. And we know what happened to me.
I’m waiting for a call from Saskatchewan.
Edie Linscott Lewis Brantford, Ont.
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