Letters, Sept. 3

Opinion

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This article was published 03/09/2024 (394 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More bike lanes, please

Please build more bicycle lanes. I’m a daily pedestrian and I can’t walk anywhere, especially on major roads and bridges, without rude cyclists zipping past me on the sidewalk from behind with no warnings.

My wife and I have to be on constant alert and are frequently startled. Cyclists are not allowed on sidewalks but that is no impediment to them. I’m anxiously dreading my turn to be struck!

I understand why cyclists are apprehensive about risking their lives on busy streets but do they understand that they become the bullies on the sidewalks? Perhaps more bike lanes will free up more sidewalks so that cars, cyclists and pedestrians can all enjoy our wonderful city.

Bruce Fast

Winnipeg

So the saying goes

Re: Tory spin on ER wait times fails to check out (Aug. 30)

Great piece by Tom Brodbeck on the Conservatives’ statements about ER wait times under the NDP. It definitely gives weight to the old adage, “Figures seldom lie and liars seldom figure.” Go figure.

Ken McLean

Starbuck

Poilievre looking desperate

Re: Poilievre urges Singh to end NDP deal with Liberals, force fall election (Aug. 30); “Positivity preferred” (Letters, Aug. 30)

Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s desperate letter to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to end the supply and confidence agreement with the governing Liberals to force an election this fall reeks of desperation, and, frankly, I don’t see why Singh would comply; the NDP are getting gains for Canadians out of this — why wouldn’t he continue to squeeze blood from a stone or make lemonade out of lemons if we’re continuing with the idea that the Liberals are lame ducks?

More to the point, I’m tickled pink by Poilievre asking for help from someone he’s insulting on a daily basis.

Take a ride north down Henderson Highway and you’ll see the garishly large signs of Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds. These signs now have  another sign next to them slamming Jagmeet Singh, referencing him as “Sellout Singh.”

I’m not sure why Singh, who is getting what he wants from the Liberals, is going to go over to a guy who is perpetually insulting him; and as for Poilievre, well, he clearly didn’t listen to his adoptive mother when she told him that honey attracts more flies than vinegar.

Perhaps his unassuaged anger and rude and mean demeanour is thanks to letters like that from Sowmya Dakshinamurti in the Aug. 30 Free Press, which points out that maybe this current government is not so bad after all, and that maybe political spin shouldn’t be listened to so much as facts. I’m inclined to agree.

Will Jones

Winnipeg

Adopting not so easy

Re: Adopt, don’t buy (Think Tank, Aug. 30)

While I agree with the article that the government should step in to eliminate the amount of unregulated sales of animals in this province, I have to say that obtaining one through the Winnipeg Humane Society or other agencies is a frustrating endeavour.

You have to complete pages of forms and for some agencies, and subject your home/yard to inspections. I understand due diligence like anyone else. However, it seemed harder to get a dog than it would be to adopt a child.

My husband has lived on this two-acre property just outside the city his whole life. Anytime they wanted a dog, his father would go pick one up at the WHS without any issue. Why is it so difficult now?

Seven years ago, my husband and I went to the WHS looking for a puppy. We wanted a yard dog to keep unwanted animals out of our yard. The WHS wouldn’t even allow us to look at, or see, the puppies until we completed the adoption paperwork, which we did.

The information we gave was reviewed by who knows who, and we were told that we were not eligible to adopt a puppy but could adopt an eight-year-old shepherd that looked like it was on its last legs.

We were looking for a dog we would have for at least 10 years or more.

We have had three other dogs who lived long and healthy lives because they were all treated with dignity and respect, and lots of love.

So much so, they were cremated and are still on our mantle. Is it possible that there are so many animals in shelters because the guidelines for adoption are so stringent that many people don’t qualify?

Maybe the WHS and other agencies need to review their adoption policies so they don’t end up with an over-population of animals.

Denise Carriere

Lorette

Hypocrisy in action

Re: Kinew supports forced end to railway lockout (Aug. 23)

The hypocrisy of the Manitoba NDP will never cease to amaze me.

Just months after the party won a byelection using the same election loophole for government advertising which it complained about the Progressive Conservatives using, the NDP is now back playing the PCs’ same old tricks: this time with organized labour.

Looking back at the NDP’s successful 2023 election campaign, it’s clear that party members made the case that they were supportive of organized labour. The party’s own platform mentioned strikes five separate times, of which all were criticisms of how premiers Brian Pallister and Heather Stefanson handled their relationships with organized labour. And the NDP has a point: both Pallister and Stefanson have undeniably abysmal records with unions.

But now Premier Wab Kinew is saying he supports ordering unionized railroad workers back to work, of which there is next to no historical precedent for, because he feels agriculture goods they transport are “essential.”

Kinew knows very well workers are fighting for their own safety in the workplace and the essential wages they use to feed their own families. The disingenuous wolves in sheeps’ clothing leading the NDP need to end their charade of pro-organized labour campaigns when this is how they respond to the slightest inconvenience.

Kenneth Ingram

Winnipeg

Tough game

Re: “Memories of MPI” (Letters, Aug. 30)

In reading Dan Donahue’s letter to the editor in the Free Press Aug. 30, I’m reminded of what the card shark said to the novice: “I will explain the rules to you as we play.”

James Hannah

Winnipeg

End drug prohibition

Re: ‘Rippling effect’: drug overdose deaths on rise (Aug. 29)

Unless Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith seeks the repeal of drug prohibition by the federal government there will be a lot more adulterated drug deaths to look forward to. Repealing drug prohibition to make users personally responsible for their drug taking is the tried-and-true solution to the problems prohibition brings in its train.

Rampant alcoholism in the former Soviet Union was understood to be a manifestation of the unhappiness of the Russian people living with communism as a form of government. Too bad no one ever makes the link of rampant drug addiction in the West to the unhappiness of the people living in the welfare state. Infantilizing people has consequences.

Rather than more government soul-destroying largesse through housing and income supports, perhaps a repeal of minimum wages and other misguided labour laws that destroy the opportunity for entrepreneurs to create suitable employment for the economically marginal and sub-marginal workers would bring back pride that is inherent in being an employed self-reliant person.

Chris Buors

Winnipeg