The Gordie Howe International Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., on Wednesday.Sarah Rice/Getty Images
Wait it out
Re “Carney has call with Trump after President’s threat to block opening of Gordie Howe Bridge” (Feb. 11): The Gordie Howe International Bridge was imagined, planned, designed, engineered and for the most part built at a time when relations between Canada and the United States were reasonably cordial, with goods and people going freely across the border to the mutual benefit of both countries.
That was then. Now the U.S. government seems to be trying to stop all commerce between our countries. Many Canadians are shunning U.S. goods, and few sensible Canadians will go to the U.S. unless absolutely necessary.
The best response to Donald Trump’s shakedown attempt would be to write off the expense of the bridge and just leave it until the U.S. forms a more stable, sensible government.
John Horman Waterloo, Ont.
Donald Trump is at it again.
The worst thing Canadians can do is get excited, put our elbows up yet again and start shouting as if our collective hair is on fire. That would be exactly what Mr. Trump wants and expects.
Far better for Mark Carney (and Doug Ford, too) to stay low-key, do nothing and say nothing – for now. The new bridge can and will open, when it opens.
We’d be wise to leave it to our friends in Michigan and other affected border states to sound the alarm and protest. Mr. Trump would hear them long before he ever hears us shouting.
Ken Cuthbertson Kingston, Ont.
Double standard?
Re “Cuba loses its Canadian tourists” (Morning Update, Feb. 11): Mark Carney seems to understand international bullying. He calls for “a new order that embodies our values, like respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.” So why is he silent so far about the U.S. attempt to strangle Cuba?
Mr. Carney says Canada should be principled and act consistently, “applying the same standards to allies and rivals.” That appears to be Canada’s position when it comes Greenland, but what about Cuba?
Mr. Carney specifically says we can’t “criticize economic intimidation from one direction, but stay silent when it comes from another.” So what about Cuba?
Mexico is not silent on Cuba’s situation, sending 800 tons of humanitarian aid. What about Canada?
Or are we just going to wait until we are the ones being economically terrorized by the bully?
Don McLean Hamilton
From experience
Re “Mother, do you think we’ll get the bomb?” (Feb, 6): I have a master’s degree in geophysical engineering and I worked for 30 years as a federal seismologist.
My main research topic was using seismograph recordings to detect underground nuclear weapon tests. This led me to being the Canadian technical representative for nearly two decades at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, particularly in discussions of a global seismograph network to monitor underground nuclear tests under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. I was also the Canadian technical representative in negotiations for the treaty, which was finally signed in 1996.
I spent the last six years of my career at the international organization in Vienna that implements the treaty. My role was in the division that is installing a monitoring network with 321 stations around the globe.
Do you think I would agree with Canada having nuclear weapons?
Peter Basham Kelowna, B.C.
Lifesaver
Re “Ottawa must decide whether the downsides of allowing Chinese EVs into the country are worth it” (Feb. 9): For those of us old enough, we should all remember how alarmist Canadian autoworkers were in the 1970s, when Japanese automakers came in. Honda came to North America and the unions all felt it would be the end of the world.
Ironically enough, will Japanese automakers now be the only ones building here? I would argue that foreign imports saved Canadian autoworkers. Will Chinese electric vehicles do the same?
If all these North American companies are leaving, who’s going to build here? My attitude is let Chinese automakers come.
Keith (Angus) McDonald London, Ont.
We bought a 2024 Lincoln Nautilus and found out it was made in China and shipped over in a sea can. The Buick Envision is also made in China.
So I wonder why this is okay, but Chinese electric vehicles are causing such concern?
Bruce Sharp Medicine Hat, Alta.
Lose-lose
Re “We need a national Sunshine list, publicizing salaries of individual federal workers” (Report on Business, Feb. 3) and “Don’t tell me” (Letters, Feb. 10): My husband was on the Sunshine list, and there were always people who just had to comment on it.
My standard answer became, “The only thing worse than being on the Sunshine list is not being on it.”
Sydnie Crockett Woodstock, Ont.
Free fallin’
Re “Lindsey Vonn failed, but she tried – and that’s something to celebrate" (Sports, Feb. 11): Falling is part of life. Lindsey Vonn’s response to her fall is a worthwhile reminder: “It wasn’t a storybook ending or a fairy tale, it was just life.”
It seems we spend so much of our life avoiding falls, both literal and metaphoric. I fear we are bubble-wrapping our kids and shrinking into fear, which isn’t life, as suggested, “it’s waiting for death.”
We all fall. Taking safe risks allows us to fall upward into something newer and greater. The Olympics can help us focus on both falls and feats.
In my experience, when we allow ourselves to fall, surprisingly we discover something better. It is just called life.
John Pentland Reverend, Hillhurst United Church; Calgary
I am troubled by the maxim that a life without danger is simply a matter of “waiting for death.”
I can celebrate the exploits of Olympic athletes. But when undertaking any feat riskier than changing a light bulb while perched perilously on the third rung of a stepladder, I defer to the wisdom of Socrates, and my wife, who demand: “Know thyself.”
Farley Helfant Toronto
-30-
Re “How to write a death notice, according to an obituaries editor” (Feb. 5): I have written my death notice already, with instructions to my family that it goes in The Globe and Mail on a Saturday.
It will say my name, date of birth, date of death and one line: “Please cancel subscription.”
Elizabeth Thompson Oakville, Ont.
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