Letters, Oct. 11

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/10/2023 (729 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Required reading

Dear elected representatives, both provincial and municipal: please clip Brent Bellamy’s column “Nine ideas for the province and Winnipeg” Oct. 10, then post it where it will frequently catch your eye, and then work towards making them happen.

As Bellamy states, “Public transit is vital to improving social equity and quality of life”. Restoring the 50/50 transit funding agreement between the city and the province needs to be a priority.

Marilyn Bird

Winnipeg

Mayor will be missed

As a part-time resident of Morden, I was saddened to hear of Mayor Brandon Burley’s resignation. My experience has been that he has done an exceptional job and this was reflected in his winning the latest election by acclamation. His clear support for the wellbeing of Morden residents was shown in his staunch support for people to get vaccinated during the COVID pandemic.

The abuse and hostility he (and his family) faced was completely unacceptable, as he did his civic duty in a difficult time. It saddens me to know that this outstanding individual is leaving civic politics partially due to the hostile actions of a few. Morden will be a lesser community without his presence at the civic level.

Brad Reimer

Morden and Fannystelle

Kudos to them

Re: “What a bunch of do-it-alls”, Oct 7.

What a great story!

It’s refreshing to see a sports page leading with a story about young people embracing the joy of sport — something they will hold close for the rest of their lives and likely pass on to their own children. Their coaches should be congratulated for allowing — encouraging them, even — to be multi-sport athletes.

Too often (but understandably so) coaches get swept up by the desire to pursue championships and create the strongest possible team, even if it might be at the expense of the needs of their young charges.

Don’t get me wrong; coaches should encourage excellence and commitment, but they need to be aware that the universe does not revolve around their particular team. Championships should be the cherry on top — not the primary goal.

High school athletics is a blink in the lifetime of these young people.

We want them to be able to select from the smorgasbord of athletic opportunities they will encounter for the rest of their lives.

Well done kids! Good job, coaches!

Terry Dann

Winnipeg

Back to old ballots

As a follow up to A.E. Ammeter of Elie’s letter to the editor “Mostly a success” (Oct. 6), I was quite impressed when I went to vote and saw the new ballots, followed by simply feeding them into the computer verifying their acceptance.

Unfortunately, that disappeared as I watched the embarrassment on the faces of the media staff of CBC waiting and waiting for results from Elections Manitoba, then going to bed uncertain of the final results.

Having worked a number of provincial and federal elections, I recalled that we usually had the results within half an hour or so after the polls closed, stragglers were processed, the ballot box was emptied, ballots placed in the three or four candidates piles, counted, various forms completed, and results handed to the polling station supervisory for telephoning results to Elections Canada.

I appreciate times have changed, but if this was for the better, we better go back to small paper ballots, and a ballot box where you place your ballot into the box.

I have been informed the new way is for prevention of fraud. Really? I don’t recall it ever happening at the polling stations I worked at.

Don Halligan

Winnipeg

Ending political war

Re: Paul G. Thomas article, “Too much talk of elections as warfare”, Oct. 7

As I most often do, I agree with Dr. Paul Thomas’ article about using a “war” analogy when talking about and strategizing elections. It has become negative in the extreme at a time when we must understand that violence is not the way to live.

I would go further and propose that in the new session of the Legislature, all elected members remember this lesson and use a more understanding and, dare I say, a more cooperative approach.

All MLAs purport to have the best interests of their constituents in mind, so just maybe we could see some real work together to get positive results in the end, rather than working to score points for best zinger or insults uttered, if a sports analogy is more appropriate.

Lest I be branded as naïve, let me assure you that the model already exists in municipal governance.

Some time ago I was elected (three consecutive terms), in a small municipality. There were no party politics involved, nor should there be in any municipal politics, and we learned to work together, regardless of some differences of opinion.

Using an approach taught to us all as young people, we were able to successfully work together for the good of our citizens.

I would remind all elected persons regardless of political stripe that the general public most often become disenchanted with politics, and government generally, when continuously subjected to examples of insults and bad behavior in the Legislature, as well as poor outcomes as a result of bad decisions.

When congratulating our newly elected representatives, perhaps we could all recommend this better approach.

Margaret Mills

Headingley

Means and ends

I (along with many others) was disgusted by the recent Conservative campaign, so I read Dan Lett’s article “Larkin: ‘I’m not going to apologize’” on Oct. 7 with great interest.

Marni Larkin believed that the repugnant drivel that the she was involved in promulgating was necessary to hold seats in rural Manitoba. I would tell her that I have friends in rural Manitoba who voted Conservative in spite of this rhetoric, not because of it.

I would tell Ms Larkin that the ends do not justify the means, and the stench that she had a role in creating will cling to the Conservative Party long after this election.

Ms Larkin, if you are not going to apologize you should at least be ashamed.

Tom Pearson

Winnipeg

Wise words

Thank you, Rebecca Chambers, for a succinct and true statement about why a local free press is so incredibly important (“Independent thought challenges the echo chamber,” Oct. 7).

Your point that we willingly pay a fee to access to Netflix but we somehow think that access to a newspaper of our choice should be free is unfortunately true for many, if not most of us.

If we simply give in to Meta and Google, allow them to use their incredible marketing skills without thought or care of the damage to our democratic process, I fear that demagogues and fascists will benefit greatly.

I willingly pay to access the Winnipeg Free Press. I would also be prepared to pay to access our local paper, the Express Weekly News, but it is still able to compete with giant internet companies for local advertising revenue and has not had to charge.

I appreciate deeply that our federal government is taking steps to ensure our media remains free and independent …. and is responsible and accurate.

Bill Martin

Gimli

Burst balloon

Just another example of the Manitoba PCs’ complete disregard for the environment was the hundreds of balloons decorating the stage at their election headquarters.

Balloons take hundreds of years to biodegrade and eventually turn into micro plastics. Using them was completely unnecessary and thoughtless.

Jacqueline Bockstael

Winnipeg