Letters, Feb. 18

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/02/2025 (402 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A strategy for Canada

Re: Call Trump’s bluff on needing nothing from us (Feb. 14)

The only issue I take with what’s being proposed is that the government buy these products at market value. I see this as a national threat to our economy and jobs. I also see it as a finite problem that will change when the “Trump tax” makes it to the American dinner table through trickle-down increases on the things Americans buy, or we find new markets for the products. Markets the government will be looking to engage and most likely end up building the infrastructure for.

So for now, the companies with reduced demand and cancelled orders have a choice: shut down and lay off and damage the economy; or sell your products to the government at cost to keep the lights on and everyone’s paycheques flowing.

Take steel and aluminum. If the government buys it at cost and then dumps it into the global market at cost it will drive the global market for steel and aluminum down, making it less profitable for U.S. producers to reopen or expand mines and smelters.

I’m sure the U.S. will want to take Canada to the World Trade Organization claiming we are manipulating the markets but we get to say it’s in response to the global Trump tax on those products.

This approach can be applied in several sectors the U.S. currently thinks it has the market cornered on. Canada could offer farmers incentives to cover the cost of growing feed corn instead of the crops they normally would have grown for U.S. export and do the same thing next fall. Flood the markets and drive down the price U.S. farmers receive for exporting their product.

These companies would not profit from the current economic storms but they would weather them. Pair this approach with building the infrastructure to get our products to different markets and keep people in those sectors working during the pending downturns and it could be the difference between our economy slowing and our economy coming to a crawl on its hands and knees. Because on our knees is right where Trump wants us and so many others. Others we should be looking at to form stronger trade alliances with.

Brian Spencler

Winnipeg

Get rid of machetes entirely

Re: Machete-wielding man terrorizes occupants of car (Feb. 14)

Why is there a need for anyone in Winnipeg to own a machete? They should be banned outright!

I once had a blowgun from the Amazon jungle confiscated at the border as a “dangerous weapon”, saying it could be used as a “concealed weapon.” It was about six feet long (pretty hard to conceal, I would think!), and I would defy anybody in Canada to have the expertise and lung capacity to blow a dart out of it to hit anything! But machetes are available to anyone over the age of 18?

There is no rational reason for allowing machetes and “long-blade knives” in any city in Canada!

Hedie L. Epp

Winnipeg

No need to be so harsh

Re: “Lousy ‘neighbours’” (Letters, Feb. 14)

I disagree with the letter from John MacKinnon. This was very unfair.

This letter writer forgets that the American electorate is split between Republicans and Democrats, as well a sizable proportion who did not vote. It should be obvious that the Americans who voted Democrat are not to blame for the unfortunate win of Donald Trump.

I believe that British Columbia Premier David Eby has the right idea in tariff retaliations which is to target “red states” — states that voted Republican. North Dakota voted Republican and Manitobans should boycott visiting this state and spending money there.

Minnesota has two Democratic senators and voted for Kamala Harris, Trump’s very competent opponent. Let’s be smart about our protest tactics and don’t blame the people who worked hard to beat Trump in the election. Democrats are well aware of his incompetence as president.

Ruth Swan

Winnipeg

Credit to the health-care system

In the past several months I have had numerous neighbours, family members and friends use our health system for emergency and non-emergency surgeries and acute and non-acute care needs. In my personal experience and as a witness to others who have gotten care from our health system, I am so grateful that it is there for us, and grateful to the many staff providing good care.

I am sure there could be improvements to the system and have read about the concerns over the same period of months. However, the high percent (I venture better than 95 per cent) that is working is important to remember. I think we are fortunate to have our health care system, and as I read it, the government supports the system and is sincere about using the available resources to improve the areas that are running on rough terrain.

As a community I hope we can rally around our health system and help it achieve improvements in those areas.

Steve Rauh

Winnipeg

See threat for what it is

With Canada’s trade surplus with the United States sitting presently at around $40 billion, it strikes me as interesting that a nation one-tenth the population of the U.S. manages to maintain a virtually equal trade balance, factoring in crude oil exports to our southern customer. What the numbers actually demonstrate is that if anything, on a per-capita basis, Canadians are spending 10 times the amount on American products as do Americans import from us. Trade imbalance? I don’t think so.

And that doesn’t include the enormous profits U.S.-based corporations operating in Canada are directing back to their head offices, shareholders and financial backers included. Trump’s tariff proclamations are not only inaccurate, they serve to destabilize the entire global economy, creating vulnerabilities which will subsequently be exploited by those whose thirst for greed and power knows no end.

As Canadians, we need to see the threat for what it truly represents, the once-unimaginable surrendering of an identity many fought and died for.

And let’s not think for one moment that U.S. President Donald Trump cares one iota about it. His demands will continue to ramp up until such time we’re required to dismantle much of what this country has come to represent, and we as Canadians will choose to defy both his ego and flawed understanding of nationhood and human decency.

We, living in this land of abundance, have yet to begin realizing the enormous potential we collectively possess as a nation and it’s highly likely Trump has bitten off far more than he can chew.

Dan Donahue

Winnipeg