U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Board of Peace charter announcement during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jan. 22.Evan Vucci/The Associated Press
Your own two feet
Re “Learning to live without a vehicle” (First Person, Jan. 22): I admire David A.B. Murray’s decision to walk away from his car.
Despite having grown up and gone to school in car-centric communities, I decided early on that driving was not for me. Sure, this has influenced where I live, work, shop and vacation, but almost always for the better. Being able to get groceries or meet up for a drink using your own two feet is a luxury more people deserve to experience.
What has surprised me is how political the choice I made at 16 has become. While I’ve stood still (or walked, generally), the advertised freedom of car ownership has grown ever more expensive, with rising costs to city spaces and human lives as well. Talk to anyone with a lengthy commute. You can see it in how they drive.
Kevin Dorse Ottawa
Friends like these
Re “Conservative MP Jamil Jivani is tight with JD Vance. Carney should enlist his help” (Opinion, Jan. 22): Careful readers of The Globe’s op-ed pages will be forgiven for assuming that an editor hit the wrong button and published Lawrence Martin’s April Fools’ Day column early. In what sane world, given the Prime Minister’s Davos comments, would Jivani, Pierre Poilievre’s chosen parachute MP, now on a cross-country tour appealing to the Jordan Peterson incel crowd, be considered a useful diplomatic back channel because he and JD Vance are supposedly BFFs? It is to laugh.
Jeffrey Keay Toronto
Is Mr. Martin sure Mr. Jivani and Mr. Vance are still close friends? A lot has changed since Mr. Jivani read that Bible passage at Mr. Vance’s wedding in 2014. One major about-face is Mr. Vance’s opinion of Donald Trump. Another could be Mr. Vance’s anti-immigrant – or perhaps more accurately, anti-anything-but-Christian – rhetoric. And if they remain such good friends, I find it implausible that they haven’t spoken recently, given the ongoing tension between Canada and the U.S. And I’m guessing Mr. Carney suspects that as well.
Larry Howorth Surrey, B.C.
Thanks. Thanks a lot
Re “President fires back at Carney in Davos, says Canada should be grateful” (Jan. 22): Oh, President Trump, we Canadians are grateful to the U.S. for a successful partnership of 80 warm years. It’s just that you and your administration have recently drastically altered the rules and protocols on which our friendly partnership was based.
We Canadians are very proud – and we have the rule of law in our blood. We cannot go forward with “the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.” We feel a strong need to protect ourselves and our sovereignty (we know you understand that position for a country). We will diversify by finding new trade and security partners around the world while we reduce the intimacy of our partnership.
Going forward, you can’t come over to our place to play cribbage every night – maybe just three nights a week to start.
Pete Avis Kingston
The corporate stain
Re “Hootsuite CEO defends deal with U.S. immigration department” (Report on Business, Jan. 23): I wonder if Ms. Novoselsky has ever heard about IBM’s deal with Germany during the Second World War? IBM’s punch cards and tabulating machines were used to track Jews as they were loaded into rail cars, sent to concentration camps and killed. It is a stain on an otherwise stellar company’s reputation – and it has haunted their CEOs and employees for generations.
John Anderson Burlington, Ont.
Phew
Re “Trump withdrawing Carney’s invitation to Board of Peace” (Jan. 23): Bummer about President Trump revoking the invitation to Prime Minister Mark Carney to join the illustrious Board of Peace – or as it will be known before the end of the year, the Donald J. Trump Board of Peace and Vacation Resort. No worries! Given Trump’s business past, I am sure the board will have to file for financial and/or moral bankruptcy protection in 2027, and Mr. Carney can then consider joining.
Patrick Stewart Toronto
We must be thankful to President Trump for withdrawing his invitation to Canada to join the Board of Peace, alongside such icons of peace and democracy as Belarus, Albania, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates. What an embarrassment it would have been to be associated with such countries.
Patrick Martin Westmount, Que.
The parade of “peace-loving” world leaders who signed on to Trump’s Board of Peace looks like it came straight out of a Saturday Night Live sketch. Colin Jost and Michael Che will soon be out of work.
Tony Fricke Calgary
No, antisemitic
Re “Was what the Kamala Harris campaign asked Josh Shapiro antisemitic?” (Opinion, Jan. 23): I disagree with columnist Marsha Lederman that asking Governor Josh Shapiro whether he had ever acted as a double agent for Israel was pragmatic rather than antisemitic. There is a world of difference between asking all candidates whether they have ever been an agent of any foreign government versus asking only the Jewish candidate if he’s ever been an agent of Israel.
Her dismissal of Deborah Lipstadt’s view is remarkable, given that Ms. Lipstadt is a world-renowned expert on the Holocaust and antisemitism and has been for decades. I’m going with clearly antisemitic.
Judy Slan Toronto
Canada needs allies
Re “The hard truths Mark Carney left unsaid in Davos” (Opinion, Jan. 22): One of the principal reasons given for the West’s support of Ukraine is that if Putin were to take over that country, it would only encourage him to go after other countries in Europe. So with President Trump.
The most important message in Mark Carney’s remarkable speech in Davos was toward the beginning, when he said, “There is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along, to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety. Well, it won’t.”
The hard truth left unsaid in his speech is that Canada could not withstand the unthinkable: an invasion of American troops. The country would also be severely weakened economically if Trump were to follow through with his claim that the U.S. needs nothing from Canada and stop all imports. Canada needs its friends and allies to stand with us, and we must stand with them.
Philip Unger Toronto
Sanctuary
Re “Made in Canada” (Every day): Yes, reading the news is depressing, but the artworks from Canadian galleries displayed on Page 2 are engaging, enlightening and a balm to the soul. Who knew art was so powerful, that our country has such a large number of extraordinary artists?
Kudos to whomever decided this was a good addition to the paper.
John Sewell Toronto
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