Letters, Feb. 26

Overpriced housing

Re: Ottawa spending $3.7 billion to boost military housing stock (Feb. 24)

Really? Ottawa is set to spend $3.7 billion dollars to build 6,000 units?

This is $616,666 per housing unit. How can this be considered even remotely good use of taxpayers’ money?

Many modest and affordable housing units of many kinds could be built with that kind of money … 6,000 for military, if that is needed, plus many many more for Canadians struggling to find adequate housing at affordable cost. This looks like a way to move hard-earned taxpayer money into the hands of private developers and their adjacent friends hands.

This is nothing short of shameful.

Shelly Blanco

Winnipeg

Poor play by Hellebuyck

Re: U.S. men’s hockey team feted at State of the Union; Trump says women’s team will be honoured ‘soon’ (Feb. 24)

I admired Connor Hellebuyck’s performance in the gold medal game. I admired him for stating that the U.S. was outplayed by the Canadian team.

Now he has gone to Washington to buddy up to U.S. President Donald Trump. So, sigh, I guess he wants to be traded. You have to admire a guy who expresses himself so clearly. Get on it, Mr. Cheveldayoff!

Mark Doerksen

Winnipeg

Any hockey-loving Canadian that saw the women play know that the U.S. women’s team deserves far more respect than they got from their president: on that phone call, the women weren’t merely an afterthought but an obligation.

Keep in mind U.S. President Donald Trump and his ilk have demonized trans people to protect women athletes and the integrity of sport; we see how little respect most transphobes have for women through Trump’s interactions. No respect for their hard work, skills, or accomplishments.

Trump and the U.S. men’s team made it clear how little they care for these women athletes.

Connor Hellebuyck was in the room for the joke. Did he laugh at the disrespectful conduct towards his peers?

Hellebuyck was in the Oval Office. Did he think to tell Trump that the Team USA women deserved the respect he’s been shown?

Hellebuyck was at the State of the Union. Did he cheer and clap for the lies as he consented to be a political prop for the president?

Hellebuyck will recieve the highest civilian honour in the U.S.. Will he talk to Trump about his threats against Canada?

Athletes only want to keep politics out of sport when they’re asked to account for their apathy or their antipathy towards others.

Kelsey Enns

Winnipeg

Speaking up for EVs

Re: ‘Electric vehicles work really well’ (Feb. 24)

I applaud the electric vehicle owners that have taken Ted Falk to task for his misinformation campaign against EVs. I did read his pamphlet from six months ago and was quite miffed with the content.

One of the issues for me is how uniformed many politicians are about EVs, and renewable energy in general. When I bought my EV five years ago, I started writing to politicians encouraging them to look into the whole picture.

I wrote to the provincial government several times about charging infrastructure needs. I wrote to my city councillor about charging in Winnipeg and made suggestions to enhance it. I did receive replies.

What struck me was how uniform the replies were. There was a lack of understanding of how charging networks worked, how they were being developed, and how EV technical development was progressing. Most had misinformation about EV performance. I had phone calls with assistants who did not have any background in this area. These are probably some of the people who are supposed to do research for their political bosses.

So, I am now in my fifth winter with my 2017 EV. It works great. For utility, cost, maintenance, drivability and reliability it out performs all the other gas-powered vehicles I have ever owned.

I have, however, kept my last motorcycle.

Brian Marks

Winnipeg

Self-inflicted injuries

Re: Anti-immigrant rant shows Poilievre’s bad hand (Feb. 24)

Dan Lett’s article about a rant from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre explains why members of Poilievre’s party are crossing the floor.

Lett states “the video is a master class in unfounded allegations and misrepresented facts.” The facts that the article outlines are available to Poilievre, all other parliamentarians and any interested people such as reporters. The lies in the rant encourage hate toward immigrants, mistakenly claim Canada spends too much money on the program and promotes fear that Canada is harbouring foreign criminals. This sounds like a Donald Trump diatribe.

Unless we do not want any immigrants at all, Canada seems to have a worthy program that is being controlled and has in fact deported people when justified. Poilievre’s claims therefore appear to be a cold, cynical calculation designed to appeal to our less generous impulses. I don’t want a leader who promotes unfounded distrust and dislike for vulnerable people from difficult parts of the world.

I hope more members of his caucus will cross the floor despite Poilievre’s angry efforts to demean and discredit them. Canada needs strong leadership that acts in the best interests of all and not leadership that is negative.

Brenda Trevenen

Winnipeg

Britain’s fall

As an ex-Brit who came to make a life in Canada I look back at the “old country” with profound disappointment. Great Britain was always looked on as the country with laws that were steeped in history and were meant to be fair for everyone.

Now we have an ex-prince, Andrew, and an ex-lord, Peter Mandelson, both involved with Jeffrey Epstein. It appears, according to the British media, that both of these men while in government and royalty positions might have been passing confidential information on to Epstein.

It will eventually show if the ex-prince or the ex-lord gained financially while in these positions of trust. I have no doubt that there is a lot more to come and that there are powerful men and possibly women whose knees must be shaking and waiting for that knock on the door when they will be found to be part of this disgusting situation.

The ex-prince will not be beheaded as Charles the First was, and the ex-lord will not be jailed for life, but shame on both of these men who were in positions of power that they abused.

Ken Butchart

Winnipeg

Get rid of daylight time

Daylight savings time is about to rear its ugly head.

This is a message to our provincial government. You will be entirely responsible for perpetrating child abuse, worker abuse, elder abuse and economical frustrations. As a retired shift worker, I detested the sleep deprivation caused by daylight savings time. As someone who was familiar with child care, I saw how overtired parents dragged their cranky children to daycare services. Students do not do well in school because of being forced to get up an hour earlier.

Workers are constantly tired trying to perform their work duties. Older people’s routines are off schedule looked after by overly tired health-care workers. This applies to all health-care fields. The economy suffers because of poorer production because of tired workers.

Daylight savings time has been medically and scientifically proven to be detrimental to humans. Stay on central time for the good of humanity.

Harvey Levin

East Selkirk