Letters, March 12

Bike lanes and roadways

Re: Safety on Wellington delayed again, Think Tank, March 9

The authors of this lengthy and only partially true article need to pump the brakes on pushing to rush bike lanes onto Wellington Crescent.

They are obviously part of the (well organized) bike lobby — which are good at advising Winnipeg’s decision makers on why we need more bike lanes, but without taking into account the effect on local traffic.

I spoke on this at the Executive Policy Committee meeting in the fall when they were trying to (foolishly) reduce the speed limit on Wellington to 30 km/h from Academy to Stradbook. Thankfully, it was voted down (by the mayor) when he correctly pointed out that no traffic studies on other streets’ usage had been done.

My neighbours and I (who live on or just off Wellington and drive on it several times per day) are growing tired of the bike lobby (who are often only on Wellington once in a while) telling us how this will be better for us.

Lastly, no matter your position on this subject, can we please agree to stop invoking the name of Rob Jenner in these discussions? His tragic death (by a young criminal recklessly driving 159 km/h) would not have been prevented by a bike lane or a lowered speed limit.

For the sake of his memory, and to no longer exploit his widow, can we call for a moratorium on using his name in these conversations … please? Even noted bike enthusiast and councillor Janice Lukes has said “I never refer to him in any of my comments to the media — no bike infrastructure could have prevented that collision.” Good on her!

Derek Rolstone

Winnipeg

Clocks, pro and con

Re: “Time and change,” Letters, March 9, by Kevin McGregor.

To counter Mr. McGregor’s argument that those who want an earlier sunrise should move to Mexico, I think many would take him up on that if he were to fund the move.

As that doesn’t seem plausible, let’s use common sense, science, and precedent dictate the path forward.

Though he and many others are at work before sunrise, two-thirds of the Canadian workforce work a standard “9 to 5” shift.

For the majority of workers, the “extra hour” they’d get from permanent Daylight Saving Time would be either worked through, or would occur on their commute home — not to mention that in Northern Manitoba, the sun would be rising after 10:00 a.m.

Either we switch to permanent Standard Time like our neighbours in Saskatchewan, or we stick with the compromise we have now.

Springing forward isn’t fun for a day. But it beats forcing a majority of Manitobans to suffer through a sunless start of their winter days for an extra hour of daylight they won’t get to experience anyway.

Joe Stover

Churchill

Premier Wab Kinew says he has no stance on permanent DST, CST, or keeping the status quo. I offer the following.

Manitoba currently favours DST nearly two days to one annually — 238 of DST, to CST, 127.

Winnipeggers now enjoy June outdoor activities, in daylight, until 9:41 pm DST, instead of what would be 8:41 CST.

Let that sink in.

At best, our latest summer sunset would as early as 8:41 pm under CST.

In June, DST sunrise is a less offensive 5:19 a.m. Think of the sun flooding your bedroom 4:19 a.m. CST.

Our CST boundary of 1,150 km, fails to account for Winnipeg’s (where most voters live) more easterly Manitoba location. Winnipeg is equivalent latitude to Whitewood, Saskatchewan, 70 kilometres outside Manitoba. Even with CST, Whitewood’s latest 9:03 pm June sunset exceeds Winnipeg’s 8:41 pm CST, a full 22 minutes.

Western Saskatchewan gets even later sunsets.

Winnipeg in particular has a lot more (daylight) to lose, than Saskatchewan, under CST.

My summer evenings are far more valuable to me than early morning sunrises, when I’m trying to sleep but cannot.

Sleep deprivation by ridiculously early sunrises is not healthy, neither is more driving in darker summer evening months as people vacation. Also, criminal activity increases during darker summer months. Another reason for Winnipeggers not to go downtown and support businesses.

If people haven’t already thought of a reason to leave Manitoba for greener, (and brighter), pastures, add being told by our “Nanny” premier to now, “Go to bed early!”, to your list.

Premier, do us all a favour, don’t return Manitoba to the dark ages.

Adopt permanent DST now!

Grant Parson

La Salle

Competition wins

The health-care system in Canada is broken and needs to be fixed. That is what all the lawn signs told us at the time of our last provincial election.

The model for a “fix” already exists in Manitoba. We should use it.

The actuary who designed the Pharmacare plan in Manitoba deserves the Nobel Prize. It is exactly the thing that would “fix” everything that is wrong with our hospitals and nursing homes.

The pharmacies are all privately owned and operated. They compete by offering better locations, better parking, free home delivery, and etc. Hospitals, nursing homes and surgical centers should all be proprietary and be managed by their owners. We need a market economy in health-care.

Pharmacare is a government insurance plan. There are deductibles. For those with a taxable income of $15,000 or less it is 3.37 per cent. There is a sliding scale of increasing the deductible until it reaches $75,000. At that time the deductible is 7.59 per cent.

This type of insurance should work just as well for the hospitals and the personal care homes.

Henry Ford said at one time, “Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away the costs.”

Henry Krahn, M.D.

Winnipeg

Who is the madman?

It’s fascinating how America loves to always claim the moral high ground when its actions say otherwise.

Officials bristle with indignation when asked about the U.S. Tomahawk missile strike on a girls school in Tehran that killed at least 165 schoolgirls. Their response is, “The United States does not target civilians.”

Claiming moral high ground is the perfect companion to selective memory. On Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, the United States of America dropped one atomic bomb each on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively killing 150,000 and 246,000 civilians. Neither target had any military significance. Japan surrendered unconditionally to President Harry Truman, who had authorized the bombings.

How soon America forgets.

President Donald Trump has demanded that the Iranian leadership and military, “surrender unconditionally”, which experts say is impossible to achieve.

Taking a page from history, and to prevent “boots on the ground”, he could order that an atomic bomb be dropped on Tehran, a city of over nine million people. Some collateral damage, but it would end the oppressive regime, end of the war, accomplish the mission and cement his name in history.

Americans (and the world) have been sold the propaganda that there is a madman who controls nuclear weapons that are capable of striking the homeland.

The propaganda is true, but the madman is President Donald Trump, who controls the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons that are capable of reaching any country in the world. Claiming moral superiority, coupled with selective memory, may just embolden the madman to commit an atrocity unlike anything seen in modern history.

Wally Barton

Winnipeg