Toronto's newly elected Mayor Olivia Chow makes her way through the crowd as she celebrates her win at an election night event in Toronto, on June 26.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Democracy at work
Re “Mayoral powers” (Letters, June 28): A letter-writer suggests Toronto’s incoming mayor does not have a “mandate for change” when 61 per cent of eligible voters chose not to vote. In a democracy, that is their choice to not take the opportunity to shape policy through that tool.
Olivia Chow does have a mandate. It is not her fault that 61 per cent of voters chose not to participate.
Vicki Nash-Moore Collingwood Ont.
Re “Get the party started in Toronto’s vote” (Editorial, June 28): As a volunteer over many years in two parties at the provincial and federal levels, I have concluded that they are little more than sandboxes for politicians and staffers to play in. I find them autocratic, angrily divisive and unprepared to govern democracies.
The presence of parties in Toronto would interfere with intergovernmental co-operation and constipate long-range planning and policy. They would not serve democracy well.
Glenn Brown Pickering, Ont.
Speak up
Re “Parlez-vous français?” (Letters, June 27): A letter-writer argues that the quality of the Supreme Court would be improved if bilingual requirements were dropped. An interesting proposition, but what might the consequences be?
Would he be content to have his case heard by a panel of unilingual francophones? Or, perhaps, even unilingual Haida, Mi’kmaq or Inuktitut speakers?
The proposal seems to come from a bygone, neocolonial, anglocentric world. It might be better to call for more consistent and intensive instruction of our two official languages in schools across the country.
That would promote both greater understanding and a better Canada, not to mention a wider field for appointing judges.
Eric Bergbusch Ottawa
In answer to a letter-writer: Canada is a sovereign state and its sovereignty is exercised in both English and French.
In that respect, Canada differs from the United Nations, European Parliament and the International Criminal Court. Our two constitutional languages are both instruments of power. French is a language of power equal to English.
The Supreme Court’s role is existentially linked to the use and interpretation of the law as power’s instrument in both those languages. Surely the legal profession, in recognition of this reality and new legislation, will ensure the maintenance of a reserve of excellent bilingual candidates.
Jean Jacques Blais PC, KC Ottawa
Less and less
Re “Toronto Star owner Nordstar, Postmedia in talks to merge” (June 28): What will the Competition Bureau think about this potential merger? News is at risk.
Journalists are also at risk around the world and journalism schools are cutting back. This collaboration would control much of the news in Canada and is about money.
We need more investigative journalism, not less competition.
Marianne Freeman Vancouver
Care package
Re “Canada’s other health care crisis: Costs are on a vicious spiral – a looming economic mess” (Report on Business, June 21): This sentiment may yield as much agreement among Canadians as “wildfires are getting worse” and “we don’t want Maxime Bernier as PM.”
More helpfully, contributor David Jones, citing a study from the C.D. Howe Institute, suggests that “a general consensus is forming around the necessary reforms, which offers a decisive opportunity for intervention.” So why does the only intervention seem to be clamour for more funding, implying more of the same to meet increased volumes, rather than necessary “transformation?”
Federal-provincial jurisdictional complexity is a frequently cited obstacle to reform. However, diversity among provinces and territories could also be an asset, permitting pilot programs on parallel fronts that could validate and refine improvement ideas and address potential barriers.
This approach might help shift debate from the current funding-centric, territorial finger-pointing to an evidence-based assessment of initiatives, benefits, feasibility and costs that addresses the broad belief that health care cuts across partisanship.
Chester Fedoruk Toronto
Re “Reorganizing primary care could alleviate family doctor crisis” (June 24) and “Taking care of ourselves without a family doctor has been a challenge” (Opinion, June 24): Access to care is getting a lot of attention right now, and rightly so. Necessary, but insufficient.
Continuity of care matters. Elements of continuity include relationship context, or the importance for patients to be known as persons; well-functioning teams, with patients having a most responsible provider, usually a family doctor or nurse practitioner, and understanding the role of other providers in their care; professional responsibility and attitudes; comprehensive and convenient care with 24-hour availability.
We can do this. Examples of such innovative models of care exist and should be scaled up. All levels of government should sustain a goal of strengthening comprehensive primary care close to home, irrespective of the party in power or election cycles.
Let us hope that governments will seize the opportunity that has come with recently announced federal funding to make comprehensive primary care close to home a reality.
Francine Lemire MD; past CEO and president, The College of Family Physicians of Canada Corner Brook, Nfld.
Re “Patient’s death in ER with no doctor available calls attention to Nova Scotia’s staffing crisis” (June 27): I hate to burst this bubble, but this is not strictly a Maritime problem and it is indeed national in scope. The reality is that, given the current state of disrepair and lack of system planning, every rural Canadian emergency room is one sick call away from the threat of closing, service disruption or unattended emergency given current levels of staffing.
The first item of business in addressing the crisis should be to aggressively pursue the retention of experienced emergency nurses. The second should be to consider a regionalization plan that concentrates precious human resources and advanced technology in regional centres, guaranteeing rural Canadians reasonable timely access to quality emergency care.
The third should be to free health care planning of the four-year election cycle. The fourth should be to hold a national emergency health summit to give health care providers a voice.
The alternative is more preventable deaths.
Alan Drummond MD, Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians Ottawa
Now and then
Re “Canada’s grocery industry doesn’t give consumers enough choice, Competition Bureau finds” (Report on Business, June 28): It would be interesting to see how the government comes up with a food inflation number of approximately 18 per cent.
I remember prepandemic prices for many products I buy: Cereal was $3.99, now $6.49; apples $1.49, now $2.99; jam $2.99, now $4.49; tomatoes $1.29, now $2.99; milk $4.49, now $5.49.
I wish they would point me to the grocery store where they do their research.
Laurie Kochen Toronto
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