Parliament Hill in Ottawa in July, 2020.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Offside
Re “The State of the Union was a zoo – and Team USA the monkeys" (Sports, Feb. 26): How did a discussion of the U.S. hockey team evolve to insulting all professional hockey players and then extend to all professional athletes?
“Some exceptions” are acknowledged, but I don’t think that was generous enough. Ken Dryden and Randy Gregg may not have read bestselling novels, but surely legal opinions and medical journals count.
Isn’t that “smart and savvy?” And those are only two “exceptions.”
Marie Madill-Payne Toronto
Using the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team as political props is no different than politicians placing “ordinary citizens” behind them at press conferences. I find both distasteful.
Daryl Gray Chester, N.S.
Cut to the chase
Re “Productivity is an urgent problem for Canada. The response? A 15-year study” (Report on Business, Feb. 23): Spending $6-million and 15 years for a study that is purportedly not longitudinal but a snapshot? How about we save the time and money and do the simplest thing?
Ask the average Canadian the cause of low productivity and you will probably get at least two answers: The first would be government interference and the second could be a hundred things. Attack the first and the others will likely fade away.
Where do I send my invoice? It would be for zero dollars.
Clay Atcheson North Vancouver
Foreign foray
Re “Let’s stop giving billions in research funding to foreign firms” (Report on Business, Feb. 23): I believe that is only one step in the right direction.
When research and development leads to the creation of promising Canadian companies, we should also limit foreign takeovers of such companies. Otherwise, our economic prospects will be routinely truncated when the intellectual property leaves the country anyway.
Jim Paulin Ottawa
Funding flows to the universities, not the companies.
Companies contribute cash and their own personnel time and, in exchange, get a negotiated level of access to university expertise and intellectual property. Universities benefit from a mix of corporate and public funding for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and Canada gets newly trained researchers, many of whom stay in this country.
If access to these programs were limited to Canadian-owned companies, the real loss would be in graduate student support. That funding would need to be made up without corporate contributions, or we would lose those students.
The vast majority of these projects do not result in IP, but only the creation of knowledge disseminated in scholarly publications and graduate theses.
Mike Szarka Waterloo, Ont.
Re “Trump has spurred a rush to China for trade salvation. That shouldn’t sacrifice human rights” (Feb. 23): The general argument is that human rights are universal values, and claims they are merely Western values are used by governments wanting no challenge to their authority.
But extensive international research, detailed by professor Joseph Henrich in his remarkable 2020 book The WEIRDest People in the World, demonstrates the West does indeed have values that differ from the rest of the world. Human rights can only exist in cultures that recognize the individual citizen as the basic unit of society.
We are mistaken in thinking it is merely dictators and authoritarians who stand in the way. I believe we are up against whole cultures that enable them, which will not necessarily evolve by virtue of more development and greater wealth.
In this context, who exactly would we be pressuring by refusing to trade? Where is the moral cause?
Peter Conroy Ottawa
Not so fast
Re “Alberta cannot just up and leave Canada” (Feb. 23): Separation has become a convenient buzzword, and many think this relationship can be easily “uncoupled” without any fuss or muss.
In reality, it’s a legal divorce of sorts to figure out who gets the furniture and who gets the dog. To prevent people from receiving misinformation, there should be more communication about probable consequences and how they could be worse off if they leave.
This isn’t just floor crossing, it’s country crossing and like leaving home without an updated map and with only one credit card.
Douglas Cornish Ottawa
Cause, effect
Re “Building more homes alone won’t fix affordability. Here’s what else is needed” (Report on Business, Feb. 23): More supply leads to lower prices. Saying otherwise does not cut it.
Take a look at Toronto: Condo prices are dropping as a result of abundant supply. This trend line is unmistakable and creating all kinds of angst with the owners and financiers of these unoccupied units.
Next stop? Excessive development charges. A reduction there would lead to better economics, more supply and even lower prices.
Brian Johnston Toronto
If you build it…
Re “A failing grade on school construction in Vancouver” (Editorial, Feb. 23): The children and families who live in Olympic Village have suffered the consequences.
Over 20 years, the province and the Vancouver School Board could have planned to increase enrolment in neighbouring schools. Now city council is being asked, inappropriately, to approve a school too large for the site and where children have only the roof to play on.
This would jeopardize their safety by allowing too much traffic in a pedestrian-friendly community, as well as lose the trust of a community left out of meaningful decision-making. Everyone loses, unless the city has the gumption to say “no” to the school board and plan for the future in a sensible and creative way.
The school could be built properly tomorrow.
Joyce Resin Vancouver
The delay in building our school, due to lack of planning and co-ordination between the province and school board, is a great disservice to our families and puts city council in a bind.
Yes, there will be future residential “density” in surrounding areas and need for more classrooms. But because the province and school board failed to consider options to increase enrolment at nearby schools, all on larger sites, the city is now asked, in a rush and with little public consultation, to approve an extra floor for a much bigger school on this small site with no ground-level play area and constricted access.
I hope for more thoughtful, creative solutions; for co-ordination between governments; for true public engagement before decisions are cast, for our children’s sake. The original school design could start construction next spring if the city rejects this rezoning.
Let’s aim for A+, not settle for F-.
Peter Reese Retired architect, Vancouver
Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Keep letters to 150 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
Editor’s note: A letter about the appearance of the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team in Washington’s Capitol building has been updated to restore the writer’s original wording.