Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Guarded optimism
Re “A plea to Gen Z” (Opinion, Dec. 27): As a father to two Gen Z kids, Doug Saunders’ insights and guarded optimism are welcome. I had not heard the term “path dependency” before (the assumption of the continuation of downward trends) and agree with his overall thesis that it’s time to rebuild. However, he does not mention some inconvenient truths, such as our passing seven of nine planetary boundaries, how we are locked into an endless growth system and that our disconnection with nature is one of the fundamental causes of our demise.
I don’t want to rain on this parade, because what Saunders says is true and critical but not complete. In order for future generations to “clear the air” they will have to go through what podcaster Nate Hagens calls “the Great Simplification,” which is incompatible with a “build like it’s 1946″ ethos.
On the other hand, I might have fallen into a path dependency trap. So I welcome any ideas that lead to the empowerment of Gen Z, who can then figure out outstanding issues as they go.
Claude Schryer Ottawa
Vote with your (digital) wallets!
Re “When corporations become political” (Opinion, Dec. 27): Finally, clear expression that we can effectively vote with our money! Each dollar we have is a vote for what we are buying and who we are buying it from. Of course, this breaks down when we’re uninformed consumers: A red ball on a store shelf looks the same whether made by slaves or Canadians.
Perhaps when machines take more of our jobs, we’ll have more time to be shareholders, consumers and constituents and take ownership of our political and economic environments.
Jamie Brougham Ottawa
He’s paying
Re “Taxpayers along for the ride on nuclear buys” (Report on Business, Dec. 27): This interesting and painful article by Matt McClearn could have been more impactful with Ontario readers if it had plainly explained the death of Ontario Hydro.
The cost overruns and delays of the Darlington nuclear plant (announced in 1977, completed in 1993) bankrupted Ontario Hydro! The various operational components were reconstituted as Hydro One, Ontario Power Generation and the Independent Electricity System Operator. Yet 26 years later, most Ontario residents still assume it is the main source of the province‘s electricity.
Let us hope that the new Ontario Energy Board incentives for electricity distribution companies to implement non-wire solutions will stimulate real action on distributed energy resource implementation. Only lower-cost methods of generation and distribution can lead to lower utility costs.
But experience and recent events indicate that the Ontario government, regulators and utilities will be slow to adopt proven low-cost solutions –why bother when ratepayers and taxpayers will foot the bill?
Dick Bakker Vice-president of the Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-operative, Ottawa
Canada first again
Re “2025: The year Canadians re-embraced nationalism” (Opinion, Dec. 27): Who remembers the nationalists of the sixties and seventies, the Waffle group in the NDP and the Council of Canadians? It would be useful to look at the issues that most concerned them.
We were then what they called a branch-plant economy in which too many Canadian corporations were U.S.-owned.
Another concern was the influx of U.S. academics as Canadian universities expanded. While many were and are admirable people who have contributed much to this country, it did lead to a big reduction in Canadian subject matter in curriculums – so much so that a Canadian student could complete a degree without having read a single Canadian book.
This is something to bear in mind as we welcome scholars fleeing Trump. The instinctive Canadian deference before all things U.S. could lead to neglecting Canadian research and teaching.
Julie Beddoes Toronto
Who will lead us?
Re “Will 2026 be the year of Quebec sovereignty’s comeback?” (Opinion, Dec. 27): To successfully withstand the rise of any secessionist movement rooted in culture and identity, it helps to have a countervailing force that can credibly understand and argue within those core elements.
And so, unlike the Quebec referendums of 1980 and 1995, when the prime ministers in both cases were native sons of Quebec, Mark Carney would be the first anglophone to preside over the battle for a united country in a prospective third referendum.
Combined with several of Mr. Carney’s positions that have already run afoul of a majority of Quebeckers, along with the seeming implosion of the Quebec Liberal Party, it becomes increasingly evident that Canada does not have an obvious commander within the federalist forces. As such, we may very well be drifting into a national catastrophe.
Angelo Mele Newmarket, Ont.
Starstruck
Re “It’s time to leave starchitects to the past” (Dec. 27): For many years, I was in Frank Gehry’s business school building at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, almost daily. During construction, I witnessed custom-curved windows pop out and crash onto the sidewalks. Rumour was the engineers had ordered four times the windows to cover expected breakage.
In winter, giant icicles regularly slid off the steep aluminum roof coils and, during the grand opening, I saw a very old alumna almost be killed. Both sidewalks were permanently closed the next day.
The interior was claustrophobic, with sounds magnified like at a YMCA pool. Faculty, staff and students wandered, seeking classrooms they had already visited. Faculty squeezed into offices that were taller than they were long, forcing them to use ladders added later to access bookshelves almost 13 feet up.
We called it “the bully building.”
Mr. Gehry designed the same buildings over and over, paying no attention to function. Not a starchitect, but a failed one.
PS: Less than a year after it opened, there was a shooting, with one person killed and several injured. Cleveland SWAT later reported to us that it took 7½ hours or so to apprehend the gunman because no one had a final floorplan and because the multiple echoes of gunshots made it hard to understand what was happening – or where.
Debra Saxe Thornhill, Ont.
A few parting words
Re “The long goodbye” (Dec. 27): I appreciated Ian Brown’s thoughtful exploration of eulogies. He also noted that the Catholic Church doesn’t allow eulogies during the funeral mass, which is the “exclusive preserve of the word of God.” True enough, generally.
My mother died in 1989, and we had an evening visitation and event at a funeral home prior to her burial. However, she was a regular churchgoer, and the funeral mass seemed the most appropriate place for a final goodbye.
The kindly priest permitted me and my partner to both offer eulogies during the mass.
Even the Catholic Church can make exceptions!
Mary Valentich Calgary
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