Letters, June 16

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/06/2023 (1185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Vote for legitimate candidates

Re: 48 candidates is no voting panacea (Think Tank, June 15)

Thanks to Shannon Sampert for exploring the mess created by the Longest Ballot Committee in Winnipeg South Centre’s byelection. One problem she didn’t mention is that a legitimate independent candidate, Tait Palsson, is being lost in the noise of Longest Ballot’s 42 so-called candidates.

We certainly do need a citizens assembly or some other non-politicized approach to examine and reform our first past the post system. Yes, we need to enhance voter engagement as Sampert mentions.

I believe that voting for independent candidates is one way to express displeasure with our current system. However, let’s do so with legitimate candidates who want to represent us.

John Van Walleghem

Winnipeg

Stephen Harper must be kicking himself that he didn’t think of the Longest Ballot Committee himself if it isn’t one of his front groups. If its members weren’t recruited by the Canada Growth Council then it is hard to fathom how it gained such a large number that are that naive.

Electoral reform is an admirable pursuit. The first past the post system is deeply flawed and allows a single party absolute power without support of the majority of the population. Throw in a little gerrymandering and you get a party with a majority of seats that has a minority of the popular vote forming government. We even had a minority government that overthrew a majority coalition a few years ago by misapplying its prorogue powers. We need electoral reform to prevent dictatorships.

The misguided bunch that are flooding byelections such as the one in Winnipeg South Centre do nothing to further this endeavour. Electoral reform is supposed to enable popular representation. A ballot with 48 candidates on it in our current system, rather than with mixed member popular representation for example, will result in the opposite, since only one MP can be elected. Conservative voters are not in favour of democratic reforms. They will vote for the Conservative candidate.

It would not be the first time a Conservative was elected in the riding and I am sure the party will appreciate the help. Contrary to the ostensible objective of the Longest Ballot Committee, the result would be the election of a candidate with the largest number of votes, first past the post, of 48 candidates and this will be a minority, possibly a very small one.

So while this group enjoys the circus it will have hammered 44 nails in the coffin of democracy.

Ann La Touche

Winnipeg

Councillor speaks on bike registry

Re: Nobody’s a perfect traveller (Letters, June 14)

Letter writer Patrick Dirks suggests that I’m on a “one-man war against cyclists” with my suggestion that the mayor’s improved bike registry would be even better with a mandatory visible license plate on adult-sized bikes. That is absolutely not the truth.

The proposal from the mayor was to improve bike licensing so that more stolen bikes are returned to their rightful owners and the hope that bike thefts would be lowered. Just last night, one of my best friends had bikes stolen from their garage. By making licensing for adult-sized bikes mandatory with a visible plate, it would make it harder to ride/buy/sell a stolen bike than even the improved program the mayor is proposing.

The issue I raised with the Free Press that didn’t make it into the story is that bikes are a frequently used transportation mode for people committing crimes. The anonymity of a bike makes it easy to traffic drugs and commit other crimes. If a plate was mandatory, police would know who the registered owner of a bike is without pulling them over.

I acknowledged that there are good and bad vehicle drivers and the same for cyclists. Trying to “crack down” on bad cyclists was the lowest on my list of reasons why a licensing regime with a visible plate was desirable. I also acknowledge there are not a lot of resources and that it’s not practical to be enforcing all road rules on cyclists on a continual basis.

Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan)

Winnipeg

Opportunity in traffic jams

Re: Road construction on key routes turns daily commute into crawl (June 15)

This is a missed opportunity. An opportunity to get commuters onto public transportation.

Buses should be fast tracked through these bottlenecks. What better motivation could there be to get people to try the bus?

Then Winnipeg Transit needs to step up and provide the kind of service that will keep people riding the bus.

Park and rides would be extremely helpful.

Marilyn Bird

Winnipeg

Pay attention to prostate health

Re: Avoiding PSA test wasn’t worth the risk (Think Tank, June 13)

It’s unfortunate, to say the least, when a man finds that his newly detected prostate cancer is already at an advanced stage.

It’s doubly unfortunate when that delayed discovery is due to avoidance, since some years ago, of the simple PSA test “because it isn’t perfect”. Regular testing involving both the PSA test and the digital rectal exam (DRE) greatly increases the likelihood that any cancer present is detected at an early stage when it’s more treatable.

Neither of these tests is perfect, but they serve as flags alerting to the requirement for further investigation. Needless to say, an early alert can have a profound impact on the future course of any disease that may be present.

Both these tests are simple and pose no undue burden on the patient. Hence there is no reason to avoid them, considering the consequences of a possible missed early diagnosis of malignancy. If a man has prostate cancer, the sooner he learns about it the better off he’ll be. Thus there is every reason to encourage men to “be tested” on a regular basis.

Our local Ride-For-Dad group does yeoman work in raising awareness of the prudence of such testing. Their messaging provides a great service to the prostate cancer community in Manitoba. All men should pay attention to that message.

Joseph Borsa

Past-Chair, Manitoba Prostate Cancer Support Group

Winnipeg

Good move by California

Re: California consumers forcing changes in pork industry (June 10)

When I was around seven or eight years old I visited a hog and chicken farm with my family. What I expected to be a fun experience of petting animals in an idyllic setting turned out to be a horrifying experience.

I got a glimpse into the terrible conditions under which sows are kept. These intelligent, sentient creatures were kept in pens so small and tight that they were inadvertently crushing their newborn babies because they had no space to turn, lie down or properly nurse them. These crushed babies lied in filth and rotted with their helpless mothers struggling to keep the rest of the piglets alive.

The mothers had sores from the metal bars confining them. The scene was traumatic to say the least and for this reason I don’t eat pork.

The new rules being proposed in California are a step in the right direction.

Sarah Secter

Winnipeg