Folarin Balogun of the United States after the team's 1-4 defeat in the FIFA World Cup round of 16 match between USA and Belgium on Monday in Seattle.Luke Hales/Getty Images
Know the score
Re “America rigs the World Cup, then bows out as a laughingstock” (July 7): The headline on Cathal Kelly’s column about the U.S. men’s team loss to Belgium appositely stated the situation.
CNN saw it rather differently: “The United States men exit the World Cup knowing they inspired a nation to believe they could win it all one day.”
How to explain the disparity? French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville travelled to the United States in 1831 to take the measure of the fledgling democracy, concluding in Democracy in America: “The majority ... lives in perpetual adoration of itself; only foreigners or experience can make certain truths reach the ears of the Americans.”
Adam de Pencier Toronto
Re “Belgium shatters U.S.’s World Cup dream with emphatic 4-1 win” (Online, July 6): I think Donald Trump’s request to reverse the game ban on the U.S. striker Folarin Balogun had the opposite of its desired effect, causing the U.S. team to play way below form and lose the match to Belgium. The embarrassment caused by Mr. Trump’s intervention would have weighed on many of the players and affected their psyches. Nice work, Mr. Trump.
John McMahon Thornhill, Ont.
Did anyone else find it ironic that Donald Trump intervened in Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension? This is the same Mr. Trump who railed against birthright citizenship, the reason that Mr. Balogun could play for the U.S.
John Manning Oshawa, Ont.
‘Land of the free’
Re “At 250 years old, America is barely recognizable” (Opinion, July 3): Columnist Gary Mason is absolutely right. An America born 250 years ago with the highest of ideals has become unrecognizable. Donald Trump’s second term reminds one of words from W.B. Yeats’s apocalyptic poem The Second Coming: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Will the United States ever find its better angels again? One can only hope.
Tom MacDonald Ottawa
Re “Why the American idea still matters” (July 4): This rests on the false assumption that Thomas Jefferson’s pen provided the value statement for modern democracy.
First, “the consent of the governed” that Marcus Gee mentions, had been evolving long before 1776 in what became the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Swiss Cantons, Holland and elsewhere.
Second, and more importantly, the idea is flawed. No individual can enjoy life, liberty or the pursuit of much of anything without a stable, just and well-governed community.
A good, durable constitutional ideal begins not with individual rights alone, but also with a culture of reciprocal responsibilities and a commitment to the common good; both are needed to create and maintain the robust, well-governed institutions upon which a free society depends, and which, partially as a result of “the American idea,” the United States currently lacks.
Canada, at its best, despite our problems, has come closer to that durable ideal.
David Laughton Edmonton
Pipeline dreams
Re “Alberta, Ontario propose new pipeline in bid to boost Canada’s energy independence” (July 7): The proposal to build a new oil pipeline from Alberta to Ontario is long overdue, very welcome, and very much in the national interest.
It would eliminate the need to ship crude oil through the U.S. to reach refineries in Ontario and Montreal and could easily be extended to other refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick – two provinces that together import about 400 million barrels a day of foreign crude oil. The pipeline could also provide our European friends and allies with stable supplies of crude oil and refined products.
Bravo to Danielle Smith and Doug Ford. Now, what say you, Mr. Carney?
Mike Priaro Calgary
The possibility of a new pipeline to make more Canadian oil available in Canada is encouraging. But looking at the map showing the proposed route is even more exciting. It would be so close to Quebec and not that far from James Bay. Spurs could be built to send our crude to the provinces in the east now using foreign crude oil. How brilliant would that be!
John Dawe Toronto
Re “Taxpayers asked to foot the bill for another pipeline” (Report on Business, July 4): I think ownership and control by the government of a new oil pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast is a good thing. How good depends on whether one thinks the pipeline is an investment with money to be made for Canadian coffers or a risky gamble on the future of oil. The oil sands have significant foreign ownership regarding extraction, but the more we control the better.
Robert Milan Victoria
Methanol method
Re “Second to lose” (Letters, July 6): A recent correspondent suggests that the wide attention given to a recently opened carbon-capture facility amounts to greenwashing, since the plant can remove only a fraction of the global CO2 emitted each day. I disagree. Certainly, it is not a victory, but it is a realistic demonstration. What carbon capture needs is a serious market for the carbon it captures. For example, the CO2 can be used to make methanol, which can serve as a motor fuel or chemical feedstock, creating a virtuous cycle. Methanol production needs considerable research, and investing in it would promote the environmental bona fides of the Carney government. Perhaps we can end up with CO2 being the aluminum can of industrial waste.
Eaton Lattman Toronto
Down with subs
Re “Canada picks Germany’s TKMS over South Korea’s Hanwha to build submarine fleet” (July 7): What folly of thought has prompted the federal government to use taxpayers dollars to accrue more debt for submarines we do not need.
Canadians need health care, clean energy solutions and better quality-of-life options. It is time to stop spending money on weapons and start spending more to keep people healthy and make sure the planet can meet our needs with clean air, water and food.
Climate issues with heat waves and increased militarization are killing us all faster than any foreign enemy.
Georgina Kirkman Victoria
Childbirth champion
Re “‘Renegade’ family physician Dr. Michael Klein fought to demedicalize childbirth” (Obituaries, July 3): As a long-standing pediatric colleague of the redoubtable Michael Klein, I can say that he unequivocally did more than any other physician I knew in my 40-plus-year career to reduce unnecessary medical interventions in childbirth. He was fiercely devoted to the well-being of his patients, even in the face of opposition from more traditional practitioners. He was particularly concerned that women not receive unnecessary episiotomies, which had become very common in routine childbirth practice. He firmly believed and taught that this intervention was necessary in only a small minority of births.
Paul Thiessen MD, Vancouver
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