At the heart of health care
So, Danny Williams, like other big politicos, headed south for treatment ( Nfld. Premier Travels To U.S. For Heart Surgery - Feb. 2): Jean Chrétien went to the U.S. for medical care; so did Robert Bourassa.
Small wonder President Barack Obama is having trouble convincing Americans to adopt a health-care plan that is anything similar to Canada's. It says a lot about our "free" health care in Canada when the very politicians who profess to value the "excellent" Canadian system get treatment outside the country.
My spouse has been waiting since October for surgery that may, or may not, happen in June.
L. D. Cross, Ottawa
Obama's edge-of-cliff speech
The man of many words had this to say: "We simply cannot continue to spend as if deficits don't have consequences, as if waste doesn't matter, as if hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money, as if we can ignore this challenge for another generation" ( U.S. Deficit Reaches Record $1.6-Trillion - Feb. 2). I was willing to suspend doubt and provide some measure of support to Barack Obama when his wordy lecturing was aimed at the fallout from vaguely described, previous policies that he arguably had not fully supported.
Mr. Obama's rhetoric, however, has long since descended into the realm of the absurd. Here we have the bus driver, having just sped to the edge of the cliff, continuing to lecture the passengers on the folly of reckless driving while he continues to apply his foot to the accelerator.
Frank Killoran, Surrey, B.C.
Chilly in Mexico
As a frequent visitor to Mexico, I can attest to the black mark left on Canada's reputation ( While Mexicans Fume, Our Reputation And Revenues Take A Hit - Feb. 2). I've met more than a few locals who shelved trips here due to the difficulty in getting a visa. If it wasn't for their reliance on tourism from our country, the Mexican government would have retaliated with a visa of its own. The Harper government exploited this lack of bargaining power.
I'm embarrassed to admit to my amigos in Mexico that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is my local MP. I supported Mr. Kenney and his colleagues in the last election and expected more reasoned actions than they are demonstrating.
We need to remember, too, that Mexico is an important partner of ours in NAFTA. Mexicans deserve better from us.
Tony Johnson, Calgary
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I just got back from an extended holiday in Mexico. Most Mexicans I met commented on the need for visas. None blamed Stephen Harper; they felt he had no choice. They said the visas are not that difficult to get.
On a lighter note, the temperature in Queretaro dropped to 5 one night. The next morning, the weatherman did his forecast from the street; he was exercising to stay warm. His comment: "O Canada, first their visa, now their weather!"
Charles MacLeod, Red Deer, Alta.
Our prudence has roots
I agree "Canadian financial prudence should not be smugly taken as a given, or as a gift of national character" ( Canada Is Not Innately Wise - editorial, Feb. 2); I wish there were greater knowledge of the roots of our financial prudence.
Those roots date to 1817 and the incorporation of the Bank of Montreal, which was heavily influenced by the Charter of the First Bank of the United States, which the Americans had allowed to lapse. Another important event was the 1864 Quebec City Conference, where, unlike the U.S., delegates decided banking and currency should be federal responsibilities. Then came the Bank Act of 1871, which provided for regular reviews to ensure the act was adjusting to changing times.
The quality of the legal framework for banking in Canada was brought out in the 1907-08 fiscal crisis. The 1907 Canada Year Book said this: "In monetary circles, the year 1907 will be long remembered as a period of grave embarrassments and anxiety caused by the extraordinary financial stringency prevalent throughout the world. The crisis was most acute in the United States. …Such conditions had naturally a reflex action upon the financial position in Canada; but whilst values were greatly depressed the shrinkage was at no time accompanied by panic and the Canadian banking system proved once more the stability of the principles upon which it is conducted."
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose - so it was in 1907/08, so it was in 2008/09.
Joe Martin, director, Canadian Business History, Rotman School of Management
Think less, eat more and govern
About those "scientists who found that the public prefer their male politicians to be on the rotund side" (Social Studies - Feb. 1): According to Shakespeare, Caesar said it long ago: "Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous."
Kenneth Murphy, Canmore, Alta.
Prorogation's lonely task
Norman Spector has taken up a lonely task in defending Stephen Harper's right to shutter the people's elected House at his whim ( Does Michael Ignatieff Really Want This Constitutional Dance? - Feb. 2). He imagines months of "secret backroom discussions" lurking behind opposition proposals to limit prorogation powers, but this is not correct at all. It is average Canadians who are demanding limits, and though Mr. Ignatieff has not been inclined to co-operate with New Democrats in the past, it made good sense to meet with my Liberal counterpart last week to discuss bringing our prorogation proposals together. I'm hopeful we can get results for Canadians sooner than later.
Libby Davies, MP, Vancouver East
Guidelines for pelvic exams
Your editorial ( When Unknowing, Hardly Implied - Feb. 1) stated that "Canada-wide guidelines appear to allow pelvic exams on unknowing patients."
In fact, in 2005, the Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Canada (APOG) and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) created a joint policy on the teaching of pelvic examination that states "The surgeon should inform the patient that she may be examined by a trainee at the beginning of the surgery." What André Picard describes - "a group of medical students parades into the operating room and they perform gynecological exams (unrelated to the surgery) without your knowledge" - is clearly in violation of this policy ( Time To End Pelvic Exams Done Without Consent - Jan. 28). To describe this as "standard procedure" is simply wrong.
It is important that the public understands that educators in obstetrics and gynecology and our trainees consider our ethical obligations to patients of the utmost importance.
Alan Bocking, president, Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Canada; Susan Chamberlain, chair, APOG Undergraduate Committee
Colliding with the usual suspects
Let me get this straight ( Two More Pedestrians Struck By Buses - Feb. 1). If I'm a pedestrian and I go for a walk on a Toronto street while talking on my hands-free cellphone I am, essentially, asking for it by distracting myself from the vital task of dodging cars. But if I then jump into my multi-tonne SUV and continue my conversation at 50 or 60 km/h, while checking my voice-activated GPS, listening to the radio and drinking my drive-through coffee, I am being a safe and responsible driver?
Patricia Chartier, Toronto
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Much ink has been spilled apportioning blame for the spate of pedestrian fatalities this year. Rather than rounding up the usual suspects (pedestrians, motorists and TTC drivers), let's consider another possibility: The absence of snowbanks, which would normally separate our roads and sidewalks, makes streets more accessible to pedestrians who, bundled up against the cold, are less able to see and hear.
The lack of snow and ice on our roads this year means drivers aren't modifying their speed. A pedestrian will never win when pitted against a moving vehicle. Let's combine forces against a new common enemy, Mother Nature. United we stand; divided we fall.
Eya Donald Greenland, Toronto
The new kid on the block: fear
I was grateful to Lysiane Gagnon for her commentary on the results of the 2009 Angus Reid poll on crime and punishment ( This Take On Crime Is Irrational - Feb. 1). She asks if the dramatic shift to hard-line attitudes from a similar poll in 2004 (pre-Conservative government) can be the result of a campaign on the part of the Conservatives to create fear where it did not previously exist. Anyone who has received one of their several "tough on crime" flyers (mailed at taxpayers' expense) could answer that. It is a shameful strategy to artificially create a constituency for a political agenda.
Brian Sheppard, Toronto
Awl those homonyms
I was intrigued by your online Sports headline, Newest Flames Bare Watching (Feb. 1). Were we to take from that their equipment would not arrive in time for them to suit up against the Philadelphia Flyers?
Or, is it that you rely on spell check? Eye four one chews knot two ewes such modern contrivances and believe its risky too dew sew with awl of the homonyms English offers.
Tim Keane, Montreal