Letters, March 10

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/03/2025 (245 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Try it out

The more I drive the more this drives me crazy so I’d like to share please.

Just as we are equipped with brains to use, our vehicles come equipped with signal lights.

Use them please! It’s not that difficult.

A small thank-you wave is also a simple gesture — let’s be kind and thoughtful behind the wheel, eh?

Janice Michnowicz

Winnipeg

Make America Sick Again

In his bid to “Make America Great Again,” one thing that U.S. President Donald Trump has overlooked is the fact that disease knows no borders.

Of course, most Americans couldn’t care less, as a poll suggests that only 10 per cent of Americans think that too little is being spent on foreign aid. The vast majority, 69 per cent, according to a 2023 AP-NORC poll, feel that too much is being spent on foreign aid, when there are so many domestic challenges requiring funding such as healthcare, education and infrastructure.

This in spite of the fact that foreign aid spending is around one per cent of the federal budget. The abrupt cut in funding of USAID will stop the fight against a number of life-threatening diseases.

In 2023, USAID supported five million people to complete their tuberculosis (TB) treatment — not that we can now substantiate this, as the USAID TB report, previously on their website, has been taken down.

Do you think TB will stop abruptly at the U.S. border?

No, in fact every country, and every individual in the world will now be threatened by a disease that could have been eradicated. Years of progress in TB elimination will be halted by a chainsaw-wielding pal of the U.S. president.

In Cambodia alone, active case finding for TB has been halted resulting in over 100,000 people missing out on TB screening.

Good luck building a wall to keep TB out of the U.S.!

Connie Lebeau

Victoria, BC

Please speak up

Neville Chamberlain boasted of “peace for our time” after signing the Munich Agreement, agreeing to the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia, negotiated in the absence of Czechoslovakia.

Winston Churchill declared the agreement a disaster at the time.

U.S. President Donald Trump is eager to arrange a similar appeasement to Russia in Ukraine.

While Chamberlain naively trusted Adolf Hitler and had no expectation of personal or national gain in the agreement, Trump is clearly motivated by the acquisition of mineral resources, nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize, as well as a remarkable appeasement of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Who in the U.S. will speak up for Ukraine, as Churchill did, to prevent a disaster now?

Len Lewkowich

Winnipeg

Emperor, not king

The Free Press editorial of Feb. 12 (Tariffs, executive orders and the dangerous neighbour) concluded with speculation that U.S. President Donald Trump may wish to return the America Republic to a monarchy. A better supposition would be his desire to move forward and turn it into a dictatorship, with him as its first emperor.

Trump’s personality, values and actions are like those of Caligula, an early Roman emperor, regarded as one of the most scandalous emperors. He was capricious, unpredictable, and considered mentally ill. He was a populist who ignored government institutes and threatened and killed political opponents. He did not care if people disliked him, provided they feared him.

Romans finally became tired of Caligula and the Praetorian guard (his security detail), assassinated him, ending his four-year rule. Hopefully, Trump’s second term will not exceed four years.

However, might he trump up some national emergency and convince the spineless Congress to make amendment the Constitution?

Robert Tarry

Winnipeg

Time for a new plan

Re: Even if tariffs go away, Canada should look elsewhere, Editorial, March 6

Canada should not only look at alternative markets to the United States but seize this opportunity to redesign our whole export and manufacturing strategy.

The first (un)fair trade agreement with the United States, negotiated between the Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney governments, effectively stopped a century’s worth of progress Canada had been making to be more than just the suppliers of raw materials.

Canada’s manufacturing sectors, primarily in Ontario and Quebec, were devastated and our social programs such as Unemployment Insurance (as it was then known) were gutted to bring it in line with the much weaker U.S. version.

Canada’s meat packing industry virtually disappeared as live animals were shipped over the line to be processed in the U.S. and sold back to us at higher prices. To paraphrase from our current prime minister, can someone “make this make sense?”

I am also in agreement with recent letter writers Tim Sale and Sig Laser that Canada and Manitoba should consider imposing 10 per cent export tariffs on essential minerals, oil and electricity exports. Let’s add potash and food to that list as well.

If the meat in the grocery store, raised in Canada and exported to the U.S. for processing is now 35 per cent or more expensive, the much-reduced Canadian meat packing industry will immediately benefit, as will consumers determined to buy Canadian.

The export taxes collected drive up prices for American consumers even more, while also providing a pool of money to help Canadians the most impacted by the current trade war, and can subsidize the needed development of new trade and production strategies.

John Hutton

St. Francois Xavier

Fitting punishment

When will we start giving harsher punishments for dangerous driving?

The recommended sentence for murder is a life sentence without possibility for parole for 25 years, but if you are driving a car and you murder someone, you just get a slap on the wrist?

As someone who commutes to university during the snow-free season by cycling, these incidents make it harder for me to justify getting on my bike, because drivers can just speed, endangering vulnerable road users without any severe consequences.

It is disgusting the disregard for life that the court holds for people killed by bad drivers and without change, cyclists will keep on losing their lives to bad drivers.

All this despite the fact that hitting someone in a car at high speeds is essentially murder.

Rylan Gallinera

Winnipeg

News ownership

Canadians have been showing their patriotism by shunning American products and business in response to the shameful behaviour of Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

We need to ask what led to America’s current state, and how to avoid it — urgently. One obvious problem is the country tilting at a trade war with us owns and operates a massive propaganda arm within Canada: Postmedia.

Perhaps the scandal embroiling Alberta’s UCP right now would seem less appealing to voters if every paper in town wasn’t owned by the same foreign-funded conglomerate?

It’s worth a try with our sovereignty at stake.

It’s time to enforce Canadian laws against foreign-owned news media. If we are taking the trade war seriously, we must pressure our government to take the information war seriously as well.

Alex Gagne

Winnipeg