Letters, Aug. 30

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/08/2024 (401 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Positivity preferred

Re: PM’s positivity pleas unlikely to sway Liberal-weary voters (Aug. 29)

Let me get this straight — despite this country having climbed out of a devastating pandemic with lower mortality than most of the world, all due to robust public health measures; despite having “the lowest inflation in the G7” and lowered interest rates; despite the Canada Child Benefit, child-care support, dental care for seniors and pharmacare — the political zeitgeist would have me ignore the government responsible for these admitted positives, and instead support the one group that opposed every single one of these beneficial measures?

Why?

The problem isn’t summed up in a weirdly jaunty three-word bon mot like “Canada is broken.”

The problem is that by portraying Canada’s public institutions and infrastructure as “broken” and unworthy of support, we lean in to the dismissive apathy that hollows out social programs, cuts health care and hunts for usefully powerless scapegoats.

We saw it in Manitoba before the last provincial election, so why would it be different nationally?

If things are at a breaking point, I want someone who has a positive vision and a collaborative approach to improve the situation, not a tax credit filched from my neighbour’s pocket and a bouncy castle in my front yard.

Sowmya Dakshinamurti

Winnipeg

Memories of MPI

Re: Spa navigates aftermath of vehicle collision (Aug. 29)

While reading the story of the Gibeaults’ struggles with insurance providers with respect to the damage inflicted upon their business by an errant automobile, I was reminded of my own experience arriving home one evening to find a vehicle had smashed into the front of my home, a good 60 feet from the street.

I gathered up the pieces of plastic bumper and made my way to the closest police station, where I filed a report and was advised to make a claim with MPI. It was there I was advised I had no coverage because it couldn’t be proven the vehicle was registered in Manitoba.

When I argued my case, I was referred to a series of managers who, in rather condescending fashion, continued to dismiss my claim.

I suppose I ought to have suggested it was MPI’s responsibility to prove otherwise, but knowing the legal costs involved in pursuing the case, I opted to swallow the loss. What stung the most was MPI’s determination to find a convenient loophole through which they could deny me coverage for my loss.

My having been a customer for over 45 years ought to have meant something, but apparently not when a monopoly gets to determine the rules of the playing field — and ultimately, to whose benefit, I ask?

Dan Donahue

Winnipeg

Consider the recipient

Re: ‘You have to fight for it’ (Aug. 26)

The article refers to the Ukrainian Unity Run this past Saturday at The Forks to raise money for the 12th Azov Special Forces Brigade. Not a single word about the Azov Brigade, including its continued use of Nazi symbolism. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported credible allegations of the forces’ use of torture of civilians.

The Azov Brigade is reported as attracting neo-Nazi extremists, and extremists from the group bragging about Canadian military training. Israeli activists have protested that arms sales to Ukraine might end up in the hands of Azov, which openly espouses neo-Nazi ideology. Meanwhile The Forks holds a fundraiser to arm Azov.

Norman Rosenbaum

Winnipeg

Tariffs beget tariffs

Re: Tariff power play could leave Trudeau out in the cold (Aug. 26)

The announcement of a Canadian 100 per cent import tariff on Chinese EVs to emulate the Americans will likely result in tariffs on Canadian agricultural products like wheat and meats, was the immediate response from a farmer friend yesterday and similarly in Dan Lett’s column.

Tariffs beget tariffs. And our cost of living goes up and the efforts to battle man-made climate change are blocked again.

Personally, I think the still-heavily-subsidized (and obscenely profitable and polluting) oil and gas lobby is protecting its profits, just as it negated Premier Wab Kinew’s gas tax holiday. Chinese labour practices are a red herring; the beneficiaries are Big Oil (including single-use plastics) and internal combustion engine vehicle makers. Business as usual.

Stop subsidizing and kowtowing to dinosaurs. Subsidize green energy, clean air, clean water, including low or no tariffs on them.

Then we all win.

Andy Maxwell

Swan River

Cycling through solutions

Re: Cyclists want to stop … having to stop (Aug. 21)

Based on cycling thousands of city kilometres:

1. The Idaho stop makes sense and works. Such an allowance lets a cyclist avoid risky situations and decreases car drivers’ frustration and indecision. It works; experience and evidence bear this out.

2. The Idaho stop is not a licence to blow through intersections. Priority still goes to pedestrians and according to the order in which vehicles and cyclists reach an intersection.

3. Winnipeg motorists are generally respectful and cautious around this cyclist. Often this is overly so, resulting in confusion, indecision and, therefore, additional risk (e.g., arriving second or third at a four-way stop and everybody waiting for you to go). There is no simple solution to this nice problem.

4. A small amount of cyclist common sense and courtesy in shared spaces go miles — e.g., signalling, yielding, leaving allowances, a wave or thumbs up. In 15 kilometres of cycling just today, two friendly waves and a thank-you received.

5. A law is needed quickly to limit the access of motorized bicycles and scooters on walking/cycling paths to those whose motor-assist cuts out at 15 km/h. The accidents waiting to happen needn’t and there is no need for additional speed as an assist in typically unmotorized spaces.

6. Keep cycling as uncomplicated, accessible and unregulated as walking.

Ken Clark

Winnipeg

Social conscience on strike

Social conscience should be about putting the “common good” above “self-interest.”

Today we are witnessing greed overshadowing social consciousness throughout unions and in their leadership.

They do not care if their actions hurt the city, province, or country. They do not care that they will widen the wage gap. They do not care that products will be more expensive for people. They do not care that people are struggling — working more than one job to make a fraction of what they, themselves, are making.

They position the employers as hostages, using the rhetoric that they are being treated unfairly and are only asking for a fair wage. A great example is the ongoing railway labour dispute and the impending Air Canada strike.

As reported by the National Post: in 2023, the average conductor earned approximately $121,000, not including pension and medical benefits; in 2023, the average locomotive engineer earned approximately $150,000, not including pension and medical benefits; and by combining Duty and Rest Period Rules (DRPR), paid sick days, personal leave days, and existing rest and vacation provisions in their collective agreements, conductors and locomotive engineers currently work approximately 160 days a year.

And in January 2024, CN offered the TCRC a modernized agreement that improved safety, wages, and work/life balance while protecting acquired rights.

This offer was refused.

We need to rehabilitate these union leaders by sending them to binding arbitration for them to be truly socially conscious.

Peter Kowalyk

Winnipeg