Letters to the editor: 'The major problem with this current government is that it promises much and delivers nothing by The Globe and Mail | Canada News Media
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks at Anita Anand after she was sworn in as the President of the Treasury Board during a cabinet shuffle, in Ottawa, on July 26.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Our next prime minister?
Re “Anand’s new role reveals Trudeau’s priorities” (Opinion, Aug. 19): Kudos to Konrad Yakabuski for his column. Anita Anand is the smartest minister in cabinet and possibly the only one who can get anything done. She would make a great prime minister – one who could get housing built and health care improved with the assistance of the provinces because she sets goals, takes her responsibilities and promises seriously, and acts by setting spending cuts in motion in her new portfolio.
The major problem with this current government is that it promises much and delivers nothing. Each minister is given talking points which they mouth back. They don’t answer questions, just speak meaningless phrases that will result in nothing being done. Please retire Justin Trudeau and leave us with memories of your socks and lovely family. Give the people of Canada the opportunity of voting for a centrist party with a leader who understands the meaning of the word.
Marilyn DolenkoOttawa
Hurry up and wait
Re “When foxes get to choose their watchdog” (Editorial, Aug.18): The question at the end of the editorial reads like a cry in the wilderness; that is, the bewildering indifference of the Trudeau government toward some of the most fundamental requirements of a functioning democracy.
Just as Canada’s wildfires will cost us well into the future, the failure to fulfill certain vital obligations of a democratic government will have a price none of us will want to pay.
Foot-dragging, bordering on refusal, until an essential issue disappears from the minds of an already stressed electorate, is the worst possible governance. Even worse is to assume the electorate is scarcely interested, if at all. The long-time neglect of its federal responsibility to appoint judges to our courts, until the numbers have become stuck in the high 80s, is a perfect example of the latter. It is an intolerable situation for which we are already paying dearly.
Patricia HanleyToronto
Start with decriminalization
Re “Make supervised drug-use sites safe for all” (Aug. 19): Marcus Gee raises many valid concerns around safe injection sites, but they are secondary to the main issue, which is the illegal drug market.
The solution is simple: Decriminalize drugs and make them available free at these centres.
This simple, inexpensive change eliminates the need to steal to pay for drugs, reduces criminal incentives to distribute them, and thus removes the turf wars that are a major cause of gun violence in this and other cities across Canada.
Unfortunately, such a progressive idea is anathema to capital C conservatives. It’s easier to prey on fear and abhorrence of the human weakness and simply close the centres down. I fear this is the inevitable knee-jerk reaction to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s “critical incident review.”
The studies and research have been done, and even the trials in Dauphin, Man., of this necessary policy proved successful in the 1970s. Mr. Segal knew the benefits and did his best to make this policy happen. Now is the time.
This legislation was enacted with good intentions but lacked foresight, especially in the face of warnings from the companies it would affect. Thus, Meta’s decision to withhold Canadian news cannot be described in isolation.
Bill C-18 and Meta are equally responsible for the block of information in the Northwest Territories. Both parties are bound by commercial considerations, yet our government has the paramount duty to ensure its residents are informed during an emergency.
A more balanced perspective is required – one that calls for our government to reassess the impact of Bill C-18 and take steps to increase news and information accessibility. Simply blaming Meta overlooks the nuanced relationship and shared responsibilities at play. Ultimately, our government must repair what has been broken.
Sam Hollinrake Oakville, Ont.
Isn’t it bizarre that various levels of Canadian government have come to rely on U.S. social media to communicate with their citizens? And how now suddenly we see the catch?
But there’s a logical solution, which I haven’t yet seen described: the CBC.
It’s a public broadcaster, heavily subsidized by Canadian taxpayers, available to anyone with an internet connection: Surely the CBC could be “encouraged” to have a dedicated space for public service announcements.
The CBC already runs a fine online digital news service. A dedicated add-on should be no problem, and we’d quickly get used to consulting it.
As a parent, I learned that when my kids were interrupting me, it meant they were not listening.
Lesson No. 1: Let them interrupt. I listened carefully to their interruption to figure out how I could better reach them. Then the real conversation could start. And as a professional, I came to appreciate that a colleague who was interrupting me was engaged.
Lesson No. 2: Being engaged meant interest, concern. This meant there was energy to co-create a “co-operative overlapping.” (This positive framing can be even more effective when coupled with non-threatening body language cues.)
American author Ken Blanchard once said, “Not any one of us is as smart as all of us.” To me, that means making more “room” for interruptions in our conversations.
Irene McGheeToronto
Thanks to a letter-writer for offering a rare example of where interrupting might benefit discourse and thereby, I suppose, the human condition (“Pardon Me,” Letters, Aug. 18).
I note, however, that he used written prose to make his point, frustrating my urge to interrupt him midstream. I am reminded of a favourite rhetorical gag from my young daughter, who fell into conniptions by asking me: “Knock knock, who’s there?” Her answer: “Interrupting cow!” Then she’d shout, “Moo!” before I could finish asking, “Interrupting cow, who?”
Ron BeramGabriola B.C.
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REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — In a new video posted early Election Day, Beyoncé channels Pamela Anderson in the television program “Baywatch” – red one-piece swimsuit and all – and asks viewers to vote.
In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, set to most of “Bodyguard,” a four-minute cut from her 2024 country album “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé cosplays as Anderson’s character before concluding with a simple message, written in white text: “Happy Beylloween,” followed by “Vote.”
At a rally for Donald Trump in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the former president spoke dismissively about Beyoncé’s appearance at a Kamala Harris rally in Houston in October, drawing boos for the megastar from his supporters.
“Beyoncé would come in. Everyone’s expecting a couple of songs. There were no songs. There was no happiness,” Trump said.
She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland – but she endorsed Harris and gave a moving speech, initially joined onstage by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.
“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said.
“A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided,” she said at the rally in Houston, her hometown.
“Imagine our daughters growing up seeing what’s possible with no ceilings, no limitations,” she continued. “We must vote, and we need you.”
Harris used the song in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for president.
Beyoncé gave permission to Harris to use the song, a campaign official who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign operations confirmed to The Associated Press.
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