Canadian border guards are silhouetted as they replace each other at an inspection booth at the Douglas border crossing on the Canada-U.S. border in Surrey, B.C., on August 20, 2009.The Canadian Press
Down the middle
Re Invest For The Future Of Oil Today (Editorial, Sept. 29): A terrific editorial that demonstrates Norway’s sensible middle-of-the-road approach to developing its energy industry while making real efforts to respond to climate-change concerns.
I’m guessing most Canadians would choose this ahead of lining the pockets of oil companies or even turning off all fossil-fuel taps to slash carbon output. I hope we have enough time – and will – to reverse course.
Jeff Zuk Hamilton
Hard times
Re The Affordability Crisis Is Hitting Seniors Hard (Sept. 27): What happens to people who did not work outside the home, and don’t therefore qualify for Canada Pension Plan payments?
The people I’m thinking of are mostly women. They raised children. They volunteered countless hours to their communities. They babysat grandchildren. They provided elder care to neighbours and aging parents, and taxied others to a multitude of appointments.
Now they are growing frail and may need care themselves. After a lifetime of giving, they seem relegated to receive less than those who relied on their largely unacknowledged care.
Our economy relies on this form of labour: uncompensated, yet imperative to the functioning of everything from sports leagues to schools, arts communities, neighbourhood associations, religious institutions and charities.
The least Canada could do is guarantee a dignified standard of living for all, no matter the perceived value (based on CPP contribution) of one’s life’s work.
Carrie Snyder Waterloo, Ont.
Re These Are Desperately Serious Times. We Need Serious Politics To Match (Opinion, Sept. 24): I am not an economist, just an everyday old woman living on a pension. I know inflation is all over the world. It does not stop at our borders.
I’m not as erudite as columnist Andrew Coyne (who explains it beautifully, but with many more big words) but I think I have the gist of it. Putting signs on one’s gas-guzzling truck won’t fix it. Voting for extremists won’t fix it. Hating on people won’t fix it. Flipping a switch won’t fix it. Really smart people in charge just might get a handle on it and steer us out of this – if we let them.
Wake up and look around: Inflation is the entire world’s problem.
Claudette Claereboudt Regina
Me time
Re The ‘Me Generation’ Grows Old: Are Baby Boomers To Blame For The Ageism They Face? (Opinion, Sept. 24): For seniors to embark on a program to strip the comfortable fallacies of youth is a setup akin to educating young barbarians to personal hygiene. It’s for their own good, but not without pitfalls.
With rose-tinted trifocal lenses on, I see the mysteries of aging as its own reward. The gloss and ambition of youth, given time, should endure and develop into a patina of understanding and experience. Getting unapologetically older means one should know their mind and dispense unasked-for wisdom based on their long-lived past.
Honouring elders means valuing our own capacity to age. It’s bound to happen, so might as well be at peace with it.
The alternative is far less attractive.
Tina Fong Canmore, Alta.
Getting personal
Re Will Canada Face A ‘Tech Lash’? (Opinion, Sept. 24): Many large firms collect massive amounts of data about their customers. Tim Hortons went so far as to catch the attention of Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, resulting in a lawsuit. Strangely, the public seems little concerned.
Yet a keystone of marketing is that a business knows as much about its customers as it can. Information helps guide product development and selection.
In our daily lives, overloaded with information, many people appreciate retailers and service providers that package offerings to meet their personal needs. Many of them willingly give up personal data in hopes of such an outcome.
Unless there is evidence of illegal acts being fuelled by this mountain of information, it would seem to be not an issue at all.
David Kister Kingston
A little respect
Re Let’s Stand Up To The Petty Tyrants (Sept. 24): Should government employees treat us as “valued customers”? Perhaps, but we should remember that we are not customers of our governments – we are their owners. And employees typically treat their bosses with elaborate consideration.
Perhaps that mindset might help here as well.
Peter Ferguson Grey Highlands, Ont.
I have travelled the world extensively as a Canadian. In all my working life, I have never experienced elsewhere the “guilty-until-proven-innocent” behaviour that I consistently receive when entering Canada.
Canadian guards frequently seem high on authority, or interrupted from what they’d prefer to be doing. It’s such a contrast to the reception elsewhere and to the reputation Canadians have historically enjoyed.
On one occasion, I contacted senior officials at the Canada Border Services Agency to relay a horrific experience. They were kind enough to listen, and put me in touch with the actual agent to ensure our grievance was fully shared.
We are barraged with surveys on levels of service, from a sales experience at Home Depot to how well an online technician did to address poor internet service. Our federal government would do well to listen to how its civil servants are performing for those they serve.
Ken Topolinsky Scottsdale, Ariz.
Meeting border guards and immigration officials is daunting for many. Their responses affect us.
I recall vividly my first encounter with Canada, when I landed as an immigrant many years ago and was met by an immigration official at the airport. One is tired and emotional after a long flight. In my case, the meeting was in the early hours of the morning.
The official was utterly polite, formal and welcoming. She checked my papers and stamped them, then stood up (and I stood up), shook my hand and said, “Welcome to Canada!” She did it four times: for me, my wife and my children.
It was a magnificent, affirming experience I shall never forget. It gave me a sense of hope that this was a place in which I might make my home.
Christopher Albertyn Toronto
Checks notes
Re Canada’s 1972 Summit Series Team Honoured In Toronto (Sports, Sept. 29): My husband has been asking me lately whether I watched “that game.”
We were both in first-year law school and hadn’t yet started dating. He had caught the game on some communal television set. I had to check the diary I’ve been keeping for over 50 years.
I did not watch that game. I was revising class notes. Oh that I had watched that game!
Marianne Orr Brampton, Ont.
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