Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
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PM has it covered
Wow. Not only does Conservative deputy leader Lisa Raitt claim that the Rolling Stone piece on Justin Trudeau is a threat to NAFTA (Tories Slam Trudeau's Rolling Stone Cover, July 27), but Andrew MacDougall, Stephen Harper's former director of communications, devotes a column to the idea the Rolling Stone article is somehow bad for Canada (Trudeau's Celebrity Helps Trudeau, Not Canada, July 27).
The same edition of The Globe and Mail (Folio: Communication) includes an interview with Marshall McLuhan's biographer, Douglas Coupland, on the prescience of McLuhan's understanding in the 1960s of the power of image. It appears Conservatives, too, think McLuhan nailed it. While they might dislike Liberal policy initiatives, it's the PM's image that really terrifies them.
Dale Churchward, Toronto
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Who put the sour grapes in Andrew MacDougall's oatmeal?
Martin Plumstead, Dieppe, N.B.
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A leader who is a preening narcissist, a relentless self-promoter who distracts using social media, comes from privilege, has a career launched because of a well-known father, resulting in unexpected political success and unmet promises. Thank goodness we don't have that in Canada.
Nigel Smith, Toronto
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Lisa Raitt believes it's fine for a Conservative MP to appear on Fox News, not known for its honest reporting, to badmouth a decision based on Canadian law – but Justin Trudeau shouldn't appear in a U.S. magazine to promote Canada?
Rolling Stone picks its headlines, just as Fox "News" picks its. That Americans can ask if our PM would make a better president shows how right-wing autocratic regimes like Donald Trump's sow divisiveness and anger. Canada had a small taste of that during a decade of darkness under Ms. Raitt's former boss. It seems she hasn't learned a thing since then.
Ali Weisenberg, Kingston
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This is the kind of language I would expect with Breitbart, not The Globe and Mail. Every time you publish a piece like this, you take a step toward normalizing this kind of offensive language and behaviour (Milo Yiannopoulos, anyone?). As for Andrew MacDougall using such language ("barf bucket"), he should have his mouth washed out with soap.
James Barrow, Ottawa
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"Barf bucket?" Make that a barf barrel! Although, at least in a printed article with the verbal tics edited out, there isn't, um, the constant "um." You, um, get the picture.
Helena Wolf Smith, Regina
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Wages feed spending
Re Loblaw Faces Rising Hurdles As Labour Costs Set To Spike (Report on Business, July 27): Just imagine, another $190-million a year being put in the hands of low-paid workers of just one employer in Ontario and Alberta, workers who will promptly spend it on clothes, groceries, furniture and other stuff! That's the real headline in rising labour costs. Higher minimum wages mean an increase in purchasing power for those who will put those dollars into circulation, rather than fatter retained earnings that never enter the economic mainstream.
Ray Argyle, Kingston
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Trade in the angst
In the article on B.C.'s stillborn liquefied natural gas development plans (B.C. Must Move On From LNG, But To What?, Report on Business, July 27), you report that B.C. still has a strong economy and that the province "led the country in real GDP growth and job growth over the past two years" with prospects looking good to be "near the top" again in 2017. And to think this growth occurred under a carbon tax currently pegged at $30/tonne.
You have to wonder what Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, is getting so worked up about (Climate Plan Threatens Competition, Trudeau Warned, Report on Business, July 26). Including the carbon pricing systems in place in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, about 80 per cent of Canada's population is covered. Just recently, California, the world's sixth-largest economy, voted to extend its cap-and-trade carbon pricing plan out to 2030. Perhaps it's time for the Chamber of Commerce to rethink its position on climate change.
Chris Gates, Warkworth, Ont.
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Milkweed: Think BIG
The back-and-forth letters response this week to Margaret Wente's article – The Monarchs Are Back (So Are The Bees), July 25 – overlooks what is obvious.
Agreed that milkweed is needed to sustain the monarch population. Decades ago, Eastern Canadian farms were largely 100-acre operations. Farms were divided with a lane down the centre, with eight- to 10-acre fields hooking into this lane. A drive through our countryside today is a totally different picture. Lanes and small fields are gone, and with their disappearance, the fence rows that were the habitat for milkweed. Modern farming demands BIG. Big tractors, planters and combines, and with that, BIG fields.
There is a solution. Almost all these land blocks have a small percentage of untillable land. Offer the owners a small incentive to plan milkweed and pollinator-friendly cover. A small price to pay for our environment.
Martin C. Pick, Cavan, Ont.
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I, too, am pleased to have noted a modest increase in monarchs here in the country, but I have also noted a seemingly hopeless increase of dog-strangling vine. This rampantly invasive species, a member of the milkweed family, attracts the monarchs but, sadly, the resulting larvae die from lack of nutrition. When can we expect to see progress in this area?
Lynn Taylor, Uxbridge, Ont.
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How Trump thinks
Re Trump's Ban On Transgender Military Personnel Draws Criticism (July 27): Donald Trump's decision to ban transgender people from the U.S. military raises an important issue about military representation. For many, the military is a space separate from discrimination, a field where people are judged only on merit.
The military should represent its country: all ethnicities, sexual orientations and genders.
As it has many times during the past seven months, America has taken a step backward. The argument of "tremendous medical costs" associated with transgender people cannot be supported; Mr. Trump is proposing a $54-billion hike in defence spending.
As Canada launches into NAFTA negotiations, we must be wary of a man who is focused solely on "decisive and overwhelming victory." Those who believe he will be influenced by Canada's humane value system may find their optimistic attitudes quickly fading.
Chantal Elias, Toronto
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Re U.S. Senate Pivots Toward 'Skinny' Repeal Of Obamacare (July 27): The only thing that really bothers Donald Trump and his followers about the U.S. health-care bill is the name Obama in Obamacare. So, change its name to Trumpcare. Problem solved.
Doug Hacking, Sarnia, Ont.