A customer pays for gasoline at a Mobil gas station in Miami on Wednesday.Marta Lavandier/The Associated Press
Government we deserve
Re “Canada is a country drowning in a flood of red ink” (Editorial, April 4): “The most worrying deficit … a galling shortfall of political courage.” I too would applaud political courage, but it’s impossible to bring about change from the opposition benches.
In the United States, for all of the destructive, immoral and illegal acts of Donald Trump, it’s the price of gasoline which will likely be his undoing. Canadian electorates are no different: When we vote for populists and secessionists, for short-term benefits and cheap gasoline, it’s difficult for courageous politicians to stand for planetary survival, generational fairness or strengthening democracy.
At every level of government, candidates can see what voters want and what their jurisdiction needs. Balancing a platform to get elected is difficult enough; surviving in power long enough to effect change is tougher.
If we want courageous politicians, we likely also need wiser electorates. Lowering the voting age might help.
Len Ashby Toronto
Tiny tweak
Re “Release of Trump spending agenda demonstrates breakdown of U.S. budget process” (April 4): We are reminded that every American schoolkid learned the maxim: “The President proposes, Congress disposes.”
I think we need to change that to: The President imposes, Congress reposes.
Tom MacDonald Ottawa
En français
Re “Air Canada CEO’s premature exit shows language is still identity in Quebec” (April 4): Language is part of culture. It is an exact way for any culture to express itself.
Our native language is the first with which we learn to communicate. So it’s neither trivial nor unique to the Québécois to want to preserve their language.
I wonder how people would have reacted if the Air Canada CEO had only spoken in French.
(By the way, I think 132-million-plus Mexicans might object to the reference to “a continent of English speakers.”)
Monique Fischer Toronto
Re “Governor-General’s husband says the couple are planning their exit from Rideau Hall” (April 4): Whit Fraser seems confused about the meaning of the Official Languages Act.
He suggests that speaking an Indigenous language should somehow excuse Mary Simon from having to speak French. For the record, there are two – and only two – official languages in Canada and they have equal status before the law: English and French.
We can’t substitute either of them with any other language, Indigenous or not. Imagine a governor-general who only spoke French and Atikamekw. I bet that would not go over well in English-speaking Canada.
Mr. Fraser feels it is hypocritical to criticize Ms. Simon’s inability to communicate in French after five years on the job. He claims he is not trying to diminish the importance of French in Canada, but that seems to be exactly what he is doing.
Who is the real hypocrite here?
Denis Schingh Toronto
Fight back
Re “Alberta will rid ideology from schools just as soon as it stops dogs from barking” (Opinion, April 4): This brings to mind the fascinating documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin.
In it, a teacher in a rural Russian town takes on Putin directives aimed at controlling public opinion about the war in Ukraine by monitoring what is acceptable to teach in the classroom, as well as requiring teachers to report those who defy the rules.
Albertans can only hope there is a Ms. or Mr. Nobody ready to take on the Smith regime.
Sally Cochrane Toronto
Wild things
Re “As caribou mysteriously vanish from the NWT, Dene researchers hunt for answers across the frozen tundra” (April 4): In 2009, my wife and I canoed the Burnside River heading for Bathurst Inlet on the Arctic Ocean. This was our second time after a previous trip in 1980.
On both trips, we witnessed and experienced wildlife unique to the North in its pristine environment. On the second trip, we got out of our tent one morning to find ourselves surrounded by approximately 1,000 caribou on their migration path.
The day was magical, watching the caribou feed, gather and get ready for a river-crossing. Things got even more exciting when three grizzlies showed up. We will never forget it.
I am saddened to learn the Bathurst herd is now estimated at only 4,000 caribou, down from a half-million when we first travelled the area. I hope researchers are successful in learning the cause of this dramatic caribou decline, and generating effective strategies to reverse this trend toward extinction.
Jim Miller Qualicum Beach, B.C.
Keep reading
Re “It took me six months to read the 800-page Middlemarch. Here’s why I think you should, too” (Arts & Books, April 4): This reminds me of a quote by the novelist Philip Roth: “If you read a novel in more than two weeks you don’t read the novel really.”
Ed Seaward Halton Hills, Ont.
I ducked Middlemarch in undergrad, only to make amends more than 30 years later by taking it on during the pandemic. George Eliot’s insights are as penetrating as they are eternal.
At this time of polycrisis and existential threats, we can take solace from exchanges with our friends, neighbours and acquaintances, remembering that the “growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts.” Stop doomscrolling the narrow and vain Casaubons of our time with their snake oil, easy answers and “key to all mythologies.”
Middlemarch will leave a reader more reflective of the human condition, and certainly humbler.
Allen Sutherland Ottawa
I read Middlemarch in 1967 at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) in Margaret Atwood’s undergraduate Victorian literature class.
I had been introduced to it previously at what was then known as Macdonald College. I remember how I hated the characters married to the wrong people, making wrong decisions.
But I was inspired to return to it with surprising satisfaction 10 years later, as Robertson Davies advises, and now wonder if I have the courage to admire it in the moonlight of old age.
Daniel Parkinson Toronto
-30-
Re “Former Globe journalist Tamsin McMahon led a team in California that won a Pulitzer Prize” (Obituary, April 7): In a world filled with cynical hype, it is a delight to read about Tasmin McMahon, a dedicated journalist who made life better through great reporting and, moreover, superb leadership to help others make narratives and the accounting of facts better.
Her story reminds every journalist, young and old, that one can accomplish great things by simply focusing on what people need to know and telling great stories.
Paul Thomson Brockville, Ont.
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