Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
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Aug. 6, 1945
I was born in Kobe, Japan, the son of Lebanese parents. Hours after I blew out the three candles on my birthday cake, Hiroshima was incinerated (Hiroshima Bombing – Folio, Aug. 6).
A week or so later, my dad went to see that hellish place. He was by nature a talkative man but when, as a curious teen, I asked him to describe what he saw, he slowly swept the top of our dining table with his forearm without uttering a word.
That simple gesture taught this perennial student of nuclear affairs everything about the effects of an atomic detonation.
Nothing is left standing. Pure and simple. May humanity never again witness such an event.
Eddy A. Elia, Vancouver
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In large, bold type, the headline "Atomic Bomb Rocks Japan" startled me on Aug. 7, 1945, when picking up my uncle's Globe and Mail, three cents per copy at the local drugstore. The sub-headline read: "Cosmic Energy Harnessed to Unleash Greatest Force Ever Discovered by Man." A reproduction of that front page is now displayed in my garage. Even as a 12-year-old, I had sensed the momentous implications.
Neil Burk, Nepean, Ont.
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Greens at the table?
While I have a very high regard for Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, and hope that she is re-elected, I regret her insistence on being treated as a leader equal to the Big Three, and running candidates with little or no chance of being elected. That is very counterproductive (For Mulcair And Trudeau, A Fight To Become Harper's Chief Opponent – Aug. 6),
It is not just a matter of wasted votes. Votes may be siphoned off from the two parties who share many of the Greens' policies, ultimately allowing a Conservative candidate to be elected.
One has to have power to get things done. Under our current electoral system, the Greens have no power, nor are they likely to have. Surely it is better to get some of one's platform accomplished rather than none.
The other Green candidates should withdraw.
Archibald Wilkie Kushner, Ottawa
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Excluding leaders of legitimate national parties from participating in a debate is unworthy of The Globe and Mail (Greens Want In – letters, Aug. 5). When many voters depend on the national debates to hear policies defended and commented upon, it is simply not fair to exclude some federal parties. How often have you run articles on the problems with democracy in Canada? Reread them, reconsider and engage the electorate in a debate with the full range of policies on offer.
Bonnie Lawrence, Saskatoon
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Message control
Jeffrey Simpson compares the temperament, personality and political strategies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper with disgraced U.S. president Richard Nixon (Nixon, Harper And The Hallmarks Of Power – Aug. 6).
Notably, both men shared a distrust of the media. After his first failed attempt at the presidency, Mr. Nixon famously groused to the press, "You won't have Nixon to kick around any more."
It brings to mind the parting words of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a name that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of Mr. Harper.
Asked if he had any regrets at his retirement, Mr. Trudeau winked to reporters, "Well I won't have you guys to kick around any more." Now there's a guy who was in control of his message.
Ross Howey, Toronto
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Sorry to sound like a nattering nabob of negativism, but if Stephen Harper is Richard Nixon, then Pierre Poilievre is Spiro Agnew.
Doug Paul, Toronto
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It's bad tax policy
Re What's Wrong With A Home Reno Tax Credit (editorial, Aug. 5): This Conservative campaign promise is yet another example of bad economic management.
First, it boosts one of the few areas of the economy considered too "hot." It would also aggravate an already serious consumer debt problem. And it would leave the government with $1.5-billion less money available to spend on pressing challenges, such as health, poverty, crumbling infrastructure and climate change.
A program to encourage energy-saving retrofitting, especially if it were targeted to low-income households, could be justified because it would contribute to lowering emissions and make a lasting contribution to poverty reduction. That program was one of the first the Conservatives cut.
The Conservatives can't seem to come up with anything better for government to do than give out tax credits, which don't work very well to boost the economy or solve social problems.
Stephen Harper, when announcing this promise, was forced to admit he can't deliver on it for several years because the Conservatives have already given away too much, especially after the child-care tax credit and income-splitting boondoggles.
Dennis Howlett, executive director, Canadians for Tax Fairness
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Don't discount the Donald
Folks dismissed an actor called Ronald and a bodybuilder named Arnold (The Populist Fervour That Fuels The Campaign Clowns – Aug. 6). Never underestimate the alchemy of money and media to make magic.
Unlike citizens of totalitarian countries like the former USSR who view their media with the skepticism state organs deserve, many in the West have yet to develop the intellectual self-defence mechanisms to cut through corporate and state agendas.
Fed a steady diet of mindless entertainment, they remain largely uninformed and apathetic, and hence easily manipulated.
Bread and circuses, the Romans called it. Don't discount the Donald yet.
John Dirlik, Pointe Claire, Que.
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Stop trophy markets
Re Air Canada Bans Trophy Hunter Shipments After Cecil Outcry (Aug. 4): Kudos to Air Canada.
Will Canada's government ban importing such trophies, all domestic sales of elephant ivory and rhino horn, and crush our nation's stockpile of confiscated ivory in a public ceremony as other countries have done to send a clear message that there should never be a market for ivory?
Linda Bronfman, organizer, Global March for Elephants, Rhinos, Lions – Toronto
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Bureaucratese
I've forgotten some of the "bureaucratese" prevalent when I was a civil servant, but your article about Barack Obama's trip to Africa brought back memories (Why Obama is Losing Africa – Aug 5).
On a Cost Benefit Course I attended, we were told that we had to "internalize the externalities." I now read that the President's visit was short on "tangible deliverables." I asked my wife what she thought it meant. She suggested it was when groceries were brought to the front door.
Malcolm Niblett, Kingston