Letters, April 19

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This article was published 19/04/2024 (873 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pothole problems

Re: High-speed route crater takes toll on vehicles, motorists’ nerves during morning rush (April 18)

I sympathize with the drivers who hit the pothole on Abinojii Mikanah, which must have been very frightening, frustrating, and possibly expensive.

However, the quotes in the article point to some choices made by many drivers that increase the chances of accidents, including vehicle damage during pothole season.

First, safety experts recommend three to nine seconds of following distance. In my experience, most Winnipeg drivers choose to follow only one or two seconds behind, limiting their options when the unexpected happens, increasing the number of driver accidents. This is especially true when following trucks because they block more of the view of those following.

Second, safety experts recommend slowing down if cars behind you are following too closely, reducing their stopping distance and the likelihood that they will rear-end your vehicle if you have to slow or stop suddenly. This may frustrate the drivers behind you, so you must choose what is more important to you, reducing their frustration or increasing your safety.

Stuart Williams

Winnipeg

Every time I read a complaint about potholes, liability for hitting them and the desire for someone to pay, I cringe.

Thirty-plus years in the claims business led to many such claims of innocence pleaded to me. To each and all, I say balderdash, nicest word I can find.

Every driver of every vehicle is responsible to operate the vehicle in accordance with current conditions, including road and weather. It is called driving prudently, there is even a Highway Traffic Act charge for not doing so.

To those who did not see the crater-sized pothole because it appeared in front of them, guess what? You were driving too close to the vehicle in front of you and if you’re driving at the speed limit during pothole season, it’s most likely too fast for road conditions, giving yourself little time to react. There was likely signage warning you of rough roads. The spring weather caused the hole to occur, the city fixes them as fast as they can, there is no one else to blame.

Forget trying to transfer liability, you are it.

The tip I promised basically is slow down. Let’s add “put away that cellphone, breakfast meal and grooming tools, and pay attention.” You are driving a bullet.

John Zaplitny

Winnipeg

The devil we know

Re: Common sense and nonsense (Think Tank, April 18)

Professor Wiens’s op-ed was succinct and to the point, however I feel he is just preaching to the choir.

A decade long campaign to address the shortcomings of Justin Trudeau has convinced far too many Canadians that he is unfit to lead.

Evidence to the contrary — of his handling of the COVID pandemic and the resulting supply issues, inflation with the resulting rise in interest rates, has left Canada, in a much better position than the rest of the G-7 countries — is overshadowed by the daily attacks by the leader of the opposition.

Opposition once meant criticizing the sitting party’s programs and policies and pointing out how your policies would address these issues in a better way. It has turned into personal rants and ridicule instead.

Ask a supporter of the CPC why they possess this venomous loathing of our sitting prime minister and they will mumble something that resembles one of Pierre Poilievre’s bullet points, or some other supposed sin, or just stare back blankly.

To assume Trudeau is faultless in his reign as prime minister is in itself ludicrous, and typically governments running out of steam is the norm.

However, until the opposition can show us a better path, with concrete solutions instead of just gaslighting, I will stick with the devil I know.

Thomas Tierney

Winnipeg

Excellent piece by John Wiens. Tragically for Canadians, Pierre Poilievre will continue to avoid serious analysis of complex social issues, and instead feed his simplistic slogans to the lowest common denominator among us, as long as the polls support this strategy.

The rights of minorities, the welfare of the disadvantaged, any action to combat the ongoing horrific effects of climate change — all of these he willingly casts aside in favour of his greed for political power.

Ron Menec

Winnipeg

Budget benefits

Re: The foundation for a future election (Editorial, April 18)

The recent Liberal budget, like all federal budgets, is admittedly a flawed one.

However, Canadians can count on two things as a result of this document. First, the wealthiest individuals, those with annual incomes over $1.4 million, will cry foul at having to pay more tax on capital gains over $250,000. (This at a time when the gap between rich and poor increases, the source of so many of society’s ills.) Second, within hours these same wealthy Canadians will be on the phone to their accountants devising ways to pay less or no tax.

And we might add a third certainty: that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will stamp his feet like an angry child as he thinks up more simplistic three-word slogans.

Robert Coutts

Winnipeg

Silence on vax cutoff

Re: Paxlovid no longer available for free to provinces (April 1)

Amid concern over the increased inaccessibility of life-saving COVID anti-viral drug Paxlovid, another potentially dangerous change is occurring almost completely unnoticed.

According to the Manitoba Government’s COVID vaccine eligibility website, the province is about to cut off public access to COVID vaccines from May 1 until “Fall 2024.” (From experience, we can infer that “Fall” likely means well past the date that students and educators return to their classrooms — now recognized to have repeatedly been the impetus for significant spikes in COVID cases.)

At a time when older adults and other high-risk people are being encouraged to seek an additional three-month booster, a note about this decision was quietly slipped into the government’s online materials without fanfare — presumably because endangering the lives of Manitobans is not “good optics” for our political leaders.

Since there has been no active publicity by the government about this change, it apparently falls to the residents of our fine province to warn each other to get their boosters ASAP or face a summer and early fall with waning protection and more-severe COVID outcomes.

Kristen Hardy

Winnipeg

In defence of the U.S.

Re: Give peace a chance (Letters, April 17)

In her letter Hélène Roy comes down pretty hard on our neighbour to the south. Quoting a 13-year old survey, regarding the main threat to world peace, to support her opinion does not make it more credible.

In the survey she is quoting, Russia was selected by two per cent of respondents. In a unipolar world, where the U.S. was so dominant, it is not surprising that it would rank at the top. Similarly it is usually the political party in power that gets the most criticism. But all that is changing with the rise of China as a world economic powerhouse and as demonstrated by its expansionist policy in the South China Sea.

Without going into detail, suffice it to say that many of the accusations the writer levels against the U.S. are highly questionable. Certainly the U.S. is responsible for some misdeeds, but to quote Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie A Few Good Men, we should not “… rise and sleep under the blanket of freedom they provide” and then “question the manner in which they provide it.”

Just to be clear I am not a U.S. “fanboy,” and I digress, but let’s not forget that the U.S. is by far the largest donor of humanitarian aid worldwide.

J.D. Marion

Winnipeg