Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at an International Union Of Operating Engineers (IUOE) conference in Winnipeg, on Aug. 28.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
On the block
Re “Ottawa lists federal land for affordable housing development“ (Aug. 26): Housing Minister Sean Fraser’s announcement of federal land being released for housing is welcome. Less welcome is Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s intention to sell such properties.
Mr. Fraser’s initiative would keep the asset on the federal balance sheet, and enhance its value by adapting it for much needed housing. Mr. Poilievre’s would deplete the balance sheet in that housing would be sold for something less than the upgraded value, with no guarantee that much needed affordable rental housing would be built on it.
Federal, and for that matter provincial and municipal, practice for many decades has been either to sell cheaply or give land to private interests, or to hold on to it without significantly increasing its value. Mr. Fraser’s approach breaks that pattern in both increasing and retaining its value.
Alan Broadbent, Chairman and chief executive officer, Avana Capital Corp. Toronto
The Liberal government is making a big deal over its announcement of federal lands for housing. While changing work patterns and reduced need for offices have enabled a larger swath of federal properties to now be designated, this is not a new program.
The Surplus Federal Real Property for Homelessness Initiative started in 1999 under Jean Chrétien. Nor is the current iteration a response to the affordability crisis characterized by increased homelessness and encampments. (It will take three to four years for any of these surplus sites to have homes that can be occupied.)
A more appropriate and effective crisis response would be to designate appropriate sites and expand the Rapid Housing Initiative to build supported housing (with negotiated provincial support funding) to directly attack the crisis and to gradually end encampments and rough sleeping.
Meanwhile as new supply slowly rolls out, this can gradually help meet a backlog in demand created by a mismanaged immigration system. Indeed, the bigger and more immediate housing announcement is the substantial cuts to the temporary foreign-worker program.
Steve Pomeroy, Industry professor, McMaster University, Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative Hamilton
Never too late
Re “Trudeau plans to continue to lead Liberals, dismisses Biden comparisons” (Aug. 27): On July 5, Joe Biden told an interviewer that “only the Lord Almighty” could get him to exit the 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign. On July 12, he told a rally in Detroit unequivocally that, “I am running and we are going to win.”
Nine days later, on July 21, he issued a statement announcing he was ending his presidential election campaign. Most members of his party, and voters throughout the country who were staring at the near-certain probability of a Trump victory, were enormously relieved.
There are significant reasons why the leader of a democracy would go to extraordinary lengths to postpone, to as late as possible, the day of reckoning when everyone knows they are stepping down. Announcing that step removes a huge amount of the influence the leader has, in governing that leader’s country. What was true for Mr. Biden in July is also true of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in August.
We should all be taking Mr. Trudeau’s stated intention to stay on as Liberal Leader into the next election with a grain of salt.
Peter Love Toronto
The Prime Minister states that the government needs to respond to the things that “people are actually worried about.” What if the people are actually worried about the government and the direction the government has taken?
Bill Bousada Carleton Place, Ont.
The people’s railway
Re “It’s time to look at nationalizing the railways” (Report on Business, Aug. 26): When are Canadians and their political proxy parties going to wake up and realize that government ownership of the railways (and other vital national enterprises) makes eminent sense.
The elephant in the room of course is ideological. I can just hear the shouts of “socialism” decrying such an idea. There is nothing new about public enterprise and it is vital when we think of it regarding the railways. C’mon Canada, let’s do the right thing, and yes, the left thing.
Robert Milan Victoria
I thought the historical argument for nationalizing railways was rather thin. The author neglected to mention that Canadian National Railway was created as a government corporation during a national crisis (First World War) – even the United States nationalized its railways. A key difference was that the U.S. privatized them after the war was over.
And surely anyone who has studied the issue knows that CN is a much better railway now than it was before being privatized in 1995.
Joe Martin, President, Canadian Business History Association Toronto
Solving problems
Re “I’m tired of explaining Indigenous culture” (Arts & Books, Aug. 24): A lot of the world’s conflicts could be solved by getting someone with common sense and a self-deprecating sense of humour from each side to sit down together. Here in Canada, we have Drew Hayden Taylor on the Indigenous side. Now we have to search through the back benches on the government side for someone with the same qualifications.
John Roston Richmond B.C.
Republican ruses
Re “New generation of economic populists is trying to make the GOP into the party of labour” (Aug. 26): Give me a break. If the Republican Party is trying to remake itself into the party of labour, why do Wall Street capitalists and the tech bros continue to shovel buckets of money into the GOP’s coffers to ensure the election of Donald Trump and his minions this fall?
If billionaires don’t believe the “red propaganda” of Senators Josh Hawley and J.D. Vance, why on Earth would the American worker?
Brian Caines Ottawa
Moral choices
Re “No need to be concerned by Trump or Harris victory: ambassador” (Aug. 28): Only by taking the narrowest political view could Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, be justified in her insouciance.
But this presidential election is no mere political matter. We are facing a dangerous moral crisis within the broader culture that Canada, more than any other nation, shares with the United States. The return of Donald Trump would represent the triumph of shamelessness over accountability. In both large and small ways, that’s the very last thing our culture needs.
Craig Walker Kingston
Plot twist
Re “Deadpool and Alien top charts as Blink Twice sees quiet opening” (Aug. 26): The article about box-office hits refers to It Ends with Us as a “romantic drama.” The movie is about intimate partner violence. Since when is that romantic?
Lauren Raymore Calgary
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