Have Your Say

I am wondering who will I vote for in the 2011 Manitoba election. I don't feel confident or even motivated to vote for any of the current provincial parties and their leaders.

NDP? Well I know everyone loved Gary Doer, but what did he actually accomplish over the last 10 years? He played the ultimate game of survival and then exited "with seconds left on the clock." He never really took a chance on pushing much needed policy changes in key areas. He floated on federal transfer payments and, I guarantee you, there is going to be a truckload of Doer waste that is going to weigh down the NDP in 2011.

Liberals? I love Jon Gerrard and think he would have excelled 10 years ago if he had a strong team, but now he is tired and who else is on that team anyway?

Hugh McFadyen? Oh yes, he could bring the beloved Winnipeg Jets back if he was elected. Not the guy I want deciding the Top 5 Priorities for Manitoba. If some of the American NHL teams continue their downward spiral, then the Jets may come back to Winnipeg. It will be Mark Chipman and crew bringing them back, however, not any premier. For the record, I would love for the NHL to come back to Winnipeg, but I am just calling a spade a spade.

I know there are a lot of solid people across Manitoba who feel the same way I do, but would they come forward to dedicate the time and effort required to help make a fourth party option a reality?

Daren Jorgenson

Winnipeg

Co-operation in space

Re: U of W Prof hopes to join NASA team (Jan. 8). I'm certainly excited about the opportunity that the University of Winnipeg has to be part of this exciting space mission, which could see asteroid pieces brought back to Earth, including to labs at the University of Winnipeg. I'd like to make a quick point of clarification: NASA does not ask or expect anyone to lobby the Canadian Space Agency for contributions. NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have a long history of collaboration, such as a Canadian-built elemental analyzer on the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory mission.

These joint missions are partnerships which stem from a shared interest and common goals. Even prior to the selection of our mission, the Canadian Space Agency had committed to supporting a Canadian contribution to any qualifying New Frontiers mission.

Edward Cloutis

Department of geography

University of Winnipeg

The perils of denial

Re: The perils of racial profiling (Jan. 9). Islam is, as far as I have always thought, a religion, not a race. One can be a Muslim no matter what one's racial origin. I know of no race whose members willingly sacrifice themselves to destroy others. It's a religious belief that promotes this inhuman activity.

Consider an aircraft with 300 passengers, including Jews, Catholics, Buddhists, Mormons, Scientologists, Protestants, Hindus and atheists. The probability of there being a suicide-bomber on board would be zero. Introduce a Muslim passenger and that statistic changes, modestly, but positively.

GIFFORD CLARKE

Winnipeg

Downtown is dead

Re: Rescue plan for retail in core (Jan. 9). Downtown Winnipeg will never be what it was. I can't see why the developers of this city can't see it. You need to create more living spaces for the young people who want to walk to work and play. Then and only then will some retailers and restaurants make a profit.

When the overpasses went up, that was the beginning of the end for downtown the way it was.

I recently went to The Bay (downtown) to meet a friend for lunch and to do a bit of pre-Christmas shopping. Got there before The Bay opened and left in the noon hour. My cost was $8 to park my car. Little wonder I don't go downtown. We shall meet at Polo Park from now on. I could have used that parking money for gas.

Sylvia Gabriel

Winnipeg

Bikes versus cars

As a year-round commuter cyclist, I take exception to some of the assumptions in Rae Butcher's letter, Winter cycling dangerous (Jan. 11). Winter cyclists do not make judgment calls regarding the safety of their chosen mode of travel. I make judgments about how and where to ride on a daily basis, based on weather, road conditions and, most importantly, on traffic volume. Butcher can rest easy that I do not want to end up under his car and choose to ride safely.

The second assumption is a little more troublesome. Throughout the letter he repeatedly speaks of "our" roads, meaning that the roads are only for motorists -- "these cyclists are being allowed to remain on our streets and in our driving lanes ..." As far as I know, city roads belong to everyone. I have a job and a house. I pay taxes. I believe that gives me at least some right to claim the roads as "mine" and legally ride on them.

As for bike paths, the assumption is that they actually go somewhere and are safe to ride on. Wrong on both counts. They are largely recreational and are never plowed. Side streets are also troublesome because parked cars inhibit plowing, causing a buildup of snow in that lane. Sidewalks are intermittently plowed. Paradoxically, the safest place to ride is on the busy main streets, which are plowed and salted with every sprinkling of snow.

As for assuming that I feel morally superior, I don't. I ride for many reasons, some of which are ecologically related, but the big two are economy and convenience. I don't care whether Rae Butcher rides or not -- I just want to get to work and back as safely and economically as possible. On my roads.

Ian Toal

Winnipeg

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I have to respond to the person complaining about having to put up with bicyclists in the winter. It would be easy to say we have to put up with his attitude and car all year round, so what is his beef? The other answer is that the world is changing. The car is no longer king. Winnipeg is doing transit corridors and looking at light rail. Gas is a finite resource. It is clowns like me that bike all year round that are actually not using gas and thus keeping the price down.

Anyhow, thanks for the warning. I know you are out there and I'll be on the lookout (as always).

Doug Lang

Winnipeg

Three words for Rae Butcher and all others who feel that "our streets" and "our driving lanes" are the personal private property of motorists: share the road!

Howard Ryant

Winnipeg

Ottawa was correct

In his column Religion stories in '09 that made waves (Jan. 10), John Longhurst attacks the Canadian government for ending its funding to the non-governmental organization KAIROS, and minimizes the impact of KAIROS' strident political advocacy on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The evidence clearly shows that KAIROS endorsed the poisonous anti-Israel divestment campaign. Its website contains a link to material from a KAIROS partner, Sabeel, a radical Palestinian NGO, including a hate-promoting statement describing Zionism as "an ideology of empire, colonialism, and militarism." Such demonizing rhetoric is entirely inconsistent with moral and humanitarian objectives.

Gerald Steinberg

NGO Monitor

Jerusalem

We're stuck with it

Re: Heroin use rises, spread feared (Jan. 11). One good way to get people off of shooting street smack is to give them free drugs at a clinic. Heroin maintenance programs, where the user comes to the clinic and gets a free dose of pharma-grade heroin, have been a huge success in Europe. Much like giving the user methadone, laboratory-made heroin is about as safe as any other painkiller.

The benefits of giving out free heroin are many fold: it gets the user away from the street dealers, gets them involved with health-care professionals who encourage better lifestyle choices, it gets them away from the adulterated imported street heroin, reduces the spread of wildly expensive disease like Hep C and HIV and, since "the fix is in", it dramatically reduces crimes like panhandling, prostitution, mugging and petty theft.

The only downside is that the people who make these decisions are a bunch of hand-wringers and cops, and they don't approve of people using "drugs", so it looks like you are stuck with this mess.

Russell Barth

Nepean, Ont.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 14, 2010 A11