Readers write in to share their opinions about writer Katherine Ashenburg's complicated feelings about having a house cleaner.Christie Vuong./The Globe and Mail
No shame
Re “Coming clean: My complicated feelings about having a house cleaner” (Opinion, April 19): While I appreciate the author’s honesty, I think her guilt – and the hierarchy she implies between her job and her cleaner’s – does more harm than good. By assuming her own white-collar work is more meaningful, she undermines the dignity of labour and the value of the cleaner’s work.
I come from a family of cleaners. Some of them genuinely enjoy their work – they take pride in making spaces feel cared for and orderly.
Others don’t particularly like it, just like many people don’t love their office jobs. But they do it for the pay, the flexibility, or the ability to build something for their families.
The assumption that cleaners must find their work degrading reveals more about our social biases than it does about the job itself.
Instead of indulging in performative guilt, we should focus on fair pay, safe working conditions and basic respect.
Izzah Khan Delta, B.C.
As a single person with a physical disability, I noticed that Ms. Ashenburg’s opinion piece did not include seniors or people with disabilities, who may actually need cleaning help.
Every two weeks, I have a housekeeper clean my apartment and so does my elderly mom, who also lives alone. I cannot speak for her, but I do not feel awkward, shameful or uncomfortable, but grateful for the assistance.
While I can keep my place tidy in-between visits, most tasks take me longer than they would for her, such as changing my bed, and I cannot wash the floors by myself.
She and I have a great rapport and she is worth every penny. My place is always pristine when she leaves. After all, cleanliness is next to godliness.
Mary Dufton Ottawa
Broken promises
Re “Nearly a decade after Ottawa pledged safe drinking water for all First Nations, promise remains unfulfilled” (April 19): Since 2015, Ottawa has invested $4.61-billion on water projects and lifted 147 long-term advisories.
As new water issues seem to be arising faster than they can be addressed, it is beyond mind-boggling to me that no one has asked the obvious questions.
How did a large number of First Nations communities end up with poor water? Who installed the water treatment plant? Who was paid, equipped and tasked to do the required maintenance? Was maintenance done? If not, why not?
Spending billions of dollars to fix the problems without accountability is not a solution. It is a repetition of a previous error.
Martin Stockton Carleton Place, Ont.
Lesson learned
Re “Speed, comfort, low emissions: Europe’s expanding high-speed rail networks offer lessons for train laggard Canada” (Report on Business, April 19): It’s a great mystery why Canada, a country whose very existence required train services, has resisted investment in high-speed, electrified passenger rail service. Especially when airlines fly numerous short-haul, fuel-wasting flights among Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City.
We also spend millions of dollars for highways to serve the same destinations. And yet we invest next to nothing in an antiquated Via Rail service for those same cities.
David Kister Kingston
I appreciated reading Eric Reguly’s column on the lessons Canada could learn from Europe’s high-speed rail networks (I am touring Scandinavia on a rail pass as I write this letter to The Globe).
One additional benefit of passenger railway trains, as seen in Europe and Japan, is that railway stations tend to be located in the heart of the city. When you fly, you may have to spend an extra hour and probably $50 and upwards on both ends to get to your destination from and to the airport.
I hope Canada can really move forward with high-speed rail this time.
Richard Northcote Mississauga
Leaving aside the question of just how frequent such a service could ever hope to be, if one adds the time needed to get both to and from downtown stations, plus the wait times, then we’re back at most probably the same six-hour journey!
It’s all achievable by car with considerably less hassle, which also has the added benefit of total flexibility. Add the expense of possibly having to purchase two or more tickets and factoring in our comparatively cheap gas and electricity prices, then the train makes absolutely no sense economically either.
Instead of investing untold billions on such a pie-in-the-sky scheme for some distant day, we should start spending those dollars right now where they are truly needed – on vastly improving the inadequate urban public transit used daily by millions.
Alan Scrivener Cornwall, Ont.
If we recall the attempt to bring high-speed rail to Canada some decades ago, there were two problems that grounded the trains to a halt.
The first was having to share the tracks with freight trains, something that would have to be circumvented by laying a new dedicated track looping north near Ottawa.
The second is the killer. Snow and ice. The trains decades ago had to slow way down or sometimes stop to avoid being derailed by chunks of ice.
That problem cannot be circumvented unless the entire new route is enclosed by some kind of housing. Or buried in a tunnel underground.
Timothy Bond Toronto
Pragmatic solution
Re “Pipeline problems” (Letters, April 19): A letter writer is right to be skeptical about the need for a West-to-East oil pipeline. Nevertheless, we still need an energy corridor coast-to-coast (and maybe coast-to-coast-to-coast) whether that be for oil, gas, hydrogen, electricity, or whatever.
Our national productivity regarding essential energy infrastructure needs to be dramatically improved.
Brian Swinney Burlington, Ont.
For safety’s sake
Re “Alberta transportation minister wants bike lanes gone, critics say stay in your lane” (April 19): We have had years to convince other road users to drive attentively, skilfully and courteously. But that message isn’t getting through to some drivers in Alberta, where distracted driving seems to be particularly problematic.
A 2024 report estimated more than 33,000 motor vehicle crashes in the province were related to distracted driving. It also found distracted driving is responsible for 25 per cent of road fatalities in Alberta.
Last year, the Alberta RCMP laid more than 9,400 charges related to aggressive and dangerous driving and a separate survey conducted in 2024 found 80 per cent of road users in the province witnessed some form of road rage.
So, it’s not surprising that those who use other forms of transportation such as bicycles enjoy the sections of our journey that keep us separated from motorists. We’d like to see cities continue building more bike lanes.
Liam Rourke Edmonton
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