Stephen Harper and Pierre Poilievre at a rally in Edmonton.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Look who’s back
Re “Poilievre wins 87.4% in leadership vote, cements hold over Conservative Party” (Jan. 30): After watching Mark Carney’s speech at Davos, I tried to imagine Pierre Poilievre instead making a speech in that venue. I couldn’t do it.
I believe Mr. Poilievre’s use of three-word slogans, haranguing attack-dog style and apparent deference to Donald Trump would not have resulted in a standing ovation or comment and discussion around the world.
Gordon Foy Burnaby, B.C.
Re “Conservatives celebrate anniversary of Harper’s first win while contemplating the party’s future” (Feb. 2): “By and large, the Red-versus-Blue Tory divisions are a thing of the past. Now, Conservatives face the challenge of recognizing why people voted for Mr. Carney’s Liberals.”
A key reason these divisions seem like a thing of the past is that the Conservatives have moved ever further to the right, so many traditional Tories in the centre and on the centre-left have dropped out, and lots of them now support the Carney Liberals. In many cases, such people do so reluctantly because they have been made to feel unwelcome in the party (and uncomfortable when almost half of the party, according to some polls, are sympathetic to Donald Trump).
It’s easy to trumpet a “united party” when so many moderates are no longer involved. Divisive American-style demagoguery and disinformation may energize a hard-right base, but it has come at the cost of shrinking the tent – and redefining unity as conformity.
Bob Pickard Calgary
Re “A warmer Poilievre, but frozen in time” (Feb. 2): Everyone wants Pierre Poilievre to change, but people tend to be who they are.
The Conservatives currently belong to Mr. Poilievre. If he changes, the party will have to change. But there are too many immovable parts that likely won’t change.
The Conservatives have had many personality, policy and name changes, and they aren’t always united. The Liberals squabble and disagree, but when they open the doors, they’re most often united and flexible – that’s the crucial difference. If Mr. Poilievre can defrost, fine, but everything left in the fridge will then spoil and have to be thrown out.
The Conservatives lost the last election yet gained more seats because of Justin Trudeau, who is now gone while Mr. Poilievre remains. Changing clothes and facial expressions is easy, but personality changes are harder, questionable and far more difficult to convince at the receiver’s end.
Douglas Cornish Ottawa
Equal partners
Re “Trump criticized for downplaying NATO allies’ role in Afghan war” (Jan. 24) and “A friend indeed” (Letters, Jan. 28): My father joined the First Special Service Force in 1942. This elite commando unit consisted of 1,800 American and Canadian soldiers who fought side by side. Recapturing Alaska’s Kiska Island from Japanese forces was their first assignment.
The 1968 movie The Devil’s Brigade depicted a rivalry between American and Canadian soldiers, which according to Dad was nonsense. In Italy and France, though they sustained heavy casualties, the force succeeded in every mission.
In 2015, surviving members were honoured with the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal for their contribution to the Second World War. Donald Trump is probably not aware of this historic, successful American-Canadian collaboration, since the contributions of these soldiers do not have a dollar value.
Rod McNair Toronto
History repeating?
Re “Dark days” (Letters, Jan. 28): A letter-writer, comparing the tactics of ICE agents to those of the Soviet Union’s NKVD secret police, brings to mind what happened in my own family: My Estonian grandfather was also disappeared.
He was a leading industrialist who owned many businesses in Estonia and was deemed by the Russian government to have been too successful. A knock at the door by the NKVD (which became the KGB) took him to Moscow for assignment and later to the Gulag slave camps where he perished. They stole everything he owned and inhabited his home.
My grandfather had hatched an escape plan for my mother and her siblings to come to Canada if there was ever that dreaded knock at the door. How far will ICE go? Will immigrant businesses in the United States be their next target?
Duncan McLeod St. Catharines, Ont.
Bigger picture
Re “Y Combinator shutting out Canadian startups is the wake-up call we need” (Report on Business, Jan. 29): The desirable economic system described here is one that optimizes economic efficiency to the exclusion of all other considerations: To use money to make lots more money. No thought, apparently, for economics that might maximize social or distributive efficiency for the benefit of the village that raised the contributor.
Call me old-fashioned, but I would rather live in a society where entrepreneurs make products that add to social equity for our community and use capital to produce their product, while extracting a modest and equitable living for themselves and their workers.
Alan Ball New Westminster, B.C.
Listen up
Re “Yes, Chinese EVs could turn into “spy cars” So could Teslas and any modern vehicle’ (Report on Business, Jan. 30): Exactly: The answer is regulation.
Chinese cars could track where their owners drive, record conversations inside the vehicle or be arbitrarily disabled by the manufacturer – we know this because other companies have already been caught doing these things. It isn’t just a question of whom we trust, but why we should trust them at all.
I see no technological reason why electric cars need to be “connected cars.”
David Arthur Cambridge, Ont.
The system works
Re “What I got from not getting myself out of jury duty” (First Person, Jan. 30): This caused me severe jury duty envy.
I recently served on a jury for a six-week criminal trial with a self-represented accused. Where the essay-writer experienced a well-run trial, mine was mired with several setbacks that led to days with almost no court time.
We spent countless hours in the jury room idly passing time. Some jurors were not paid by their employers and had to wait until trial’s end for juror compensation. Many travelled daily from small rural towns through difficult driving conditions, and others rescheduled medical appointments.
What most astonished me was despite these issues, each juror put aside their frustration and determined with serious intent what constituted “beyond reasonable doubt.” When delivering the verdict on more than a dozen counts, we understood the great impact our deliberations had on the many people involved, and how performing our civic duty was a privilege in a rules-based society.
Christine Foy The Blue Mountains, Ont.
Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Keep letters to 150 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com