Letters, June 20

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/06/2023 (1198 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rail concerns

Re: Regulatory changes for railways are a bad idea (Think Tank, June 19)

Mr. Prentice describes inter-switching regulation in a manner that is easy to understand. Having Canadian goods shipped through Canada instead of the United States is a very important part of our economy. The distance for railway companies to provide inter-switching has quite a wide spread from 30 kilometres to 160 km, and to this reader, I ask myself how was this differential arrived at by our national regulator?

I ask myself: what kind of inter-switching effect does the recent purchase of Kansas City Rail by CPR have on shipping rates and transportation of goods on the Asia Pacific Trade Corridor? It seems to me that the CPR will no longer have to deal with inter-switching on north, south and east, west rail corridors. So, the former nationally owned CNR seems to be in a much more precarious situation.

Ultimately, as a city councillor in Winnipeg, I am very concerned with what all these changes will have on the ability of our railways to stay in business and contribute to all the infrastructure needs this city has related to rail lines and yards. My hope is the regulators are taking a much wider view of what regulation change can have on indirect outcomes on the economy and our built environment. To me, rail is still a better environmental transportation system than our highways.

Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski)

Winnipeg

Ballot stunt sparked conversation

Many voters in Winnipeg South Centre are angry about their byelection ballot with 48 names on it.

As a Winnipeg South Centre voter and electoral reformer, I understand their ire, but I’m happy this stunt got us talking about electoral reform.

You must admit, the longest ballot campaign did succeed in its objective to bring attention to the need for electoral reform.

Media coverage resulted in interviews with noted electoral reform expert, Dr. Pilon, several articles, two interviews with a longest ballot candidate, Glen MacDonald, four letters to the editor, an op-ed by Shannon Sampert, a question at a candidates’ forum and lots of discussion on social media.

Most irritated WSC voters preface their comments with something like “sure, first-past-the-post sucks” but this ballot is an outrage/hardship on voters/messed up, etc.

We wouldn’t be talking about how FPTP sucks at the behest of WSC frontrunner candidates as is true of the other frontrunner candidates in the three other byelections in the country.

The Longest Ballot Committee tweeted that the surest way to electoral reform is for a political leader to support it, then to act on it once in power, and admitted that 48 candidates is not a voting panacea. According to polls, the majority of Manitobans in all parties support electoral reform, but this is not one parade any governing party leader is willing to jump in front of and get going on.

Let’s welcome more longest-ballot stunts to keep drawing attention to the need for electoral reform as our governing political leaders prefer a system that sucks and would rather not talk about electoral reform. Shame on them, not the longest ballot committee.

Sheri Oberman

Winnipeg

Echoes of Humboldt

Re: Fifteen dead, 10 injured after seniors bus collides with semi-trailer on Trans-Canada (June 15)

It happened again. An accident between a semi-truck and a bus on a rural prairie highway. This had many of the trappings of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash some years ago, only this time it wasn’t a hockey team, but a minibus filled with seniors.

There isn’t much blame and finger pointing, just mourning and sadness, but there is something that could be done in light of this tragedy. This time, the crash happened on the Trans-Canada Highway, and although there are four divided lanes of traffic, the crash site was at a level crossing.

Unlike the interstate highway system in the United States, the Trans-Canada Highway is not built to freeway standards throughout its entirety from coast to coast. It’s a somewhat rag-tag system of old provincial highway routes joined together with new roadways built at its inception.

However, like the interstate highway system, the Trans-Canada is a federal highway system (or at least, it’s supposed to be) meaning that all our taxes, as Canadians, should fund its operation.

I myself am perfectly willing to support any party wanting to replace these dangerous level crossings with cloverleaf and diamond interchanges.

Peter Lenko

Langley, B.C.

Roundabout ways of fixing problem

Re: Highway tragedy should be wake-up call (June 17)

Mr Brodbeck points out the improved safety of separated grade intersections while acknowledging they are expensive, as well as saying “There are less expensive options to make those intersections safer, including reduced speed limits, traffic lights, eliminating obstructions, improved roadway angles, etc.”

What he fails to mention are roundabouts. This is an at-grade solution used all over Europe. The reason they are safer is two-fold: everyone is slowing down as they approach the circle and if there is a collision it is rarely head-on or T-bone, but rather a side-swipe between vehicles going in a similar direction. This results in less serious accidents with far fewer fatalities. They are far cheaper than separated grade solutions (construction and maintenance) and they use less land. They can accommodate complicated intersections, and large traffic flow (multi-lane or double circles).

Why we in North America have not yet made a large scale adoption of this brilliant strategy for traffic safety and flow is beyond me.

Sara Jane Schmidt

Winnipeg

Prepare children for the future

Re: More Manitoba school divisions debate book bans (June 6)

Our students’ education is under assault. How can teachers possibly expect to properly educate students with the constant threats of book bans looming? First, LGBTTQ+, then race and racism, all in the guise of protecting the children against abuse, exploitation or moral harm.

Anyone who is familiar with history will recognize what book banning and the burning of books led to in Germany in the 1930s and other countries: a Nazi regime with the goal to purify race and culture. A false sense of urgency was created, then as well, to silence and exterminate the voices and views opposing their own. This approach is not protecting children, in fact, it is exploiting them. Let’s not lose focus of the important issues affecting learning.

Let’s empower and prepare children for their future with strong history and literacy programs, rather than allowing a fascist agenda to distract us from the critical job of educating our youth. Our children’s future and our future democracy depend on it.

To parents who may object, please know that schools already have a system in place to review books that are in question or felt to be objectionable. If this is still not a suitable choice, then, there is always the option to opt out.

Anne Christianson

Winnipeg