The people of Massachusetts
Gil Troy ( Driving From The Centre - Jan. 21) tells us Barack Obama needs to lead from the centre. I would say that depends where the centre is.
The neo-conservatives have dragged the new centre well out to the right. It would be impossible to find common ground with a substantial number of Republican members of Congress.
Jim Currie, Calgary
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Forget about the centre of the road for Mr. Obama's health-care reforms. They're pretty much road kill, courtesy of the Bay State.
Janice Halford, Saint John
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It is not the Obama policies that were rebuked by the Massachusetts electorate, but the manner of delivery. Mr. Obama represented himself as a fighter for everyday folk, and it is this fighting spirit the people are seeking. They saw it exhibited by Scott Brown, but not by Martha Coakley.
Catharina Summers, Kingston, Ont.
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Barack Obama lost Massachusetts because Democrats failed to turn out to vote for him - because he'd compromised so much on issues such as health care, Afghanistan, the environment, Guantanamo. It doesn't work to "split the difference" between left and right. People want a resolute leader who stands up for his convictions, even if he lacks the votes in Congress to get his legislation passed. I keep defending him for compromising with the right, but my left-leaning friends dislike him the most.
Metta Spencer, Toronto
A tough marketplace for ideas
Omar Ha-Redeye in his letter suggests many Muslim youth feel peripheral, marginalized and excluded in our society ( Muslim Youth And The Media - Jan. 21). I'm sure there's much truth to that.
But if Muslims really want to "participate in the marketplace of ideas," as Mr. Ha-Redeye says, they must accept that it can be a very bruising experience - as Jews, Christians, atheists and others have long since found out. You must be prepared to have your most precious beliefs satirized, shredded and rejected. Unfortunately, I think we've all got the message that there are many ideas concerning Islam and Muslims that are simply not open to debate or analysis in the public forum. We find ourselves dancing polite minuets around Muslim sensibilities.
(Remember how we tried to form opinions about certain cartoons without actually being allowed to see them? A bizarre moment in our open society.) Inevitably, portrayals of Islam in the media come out "unfair and unbalanced." How could they be otherwise under the circumstances?
George Patrick, Oakville, Ont.
Signs of the Olympic times
The Squamish Nation received full approval from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to build nine digital signs in six Vancouver locations ( Billboard Boycott The Latest Sign Of Games Protest - Jan. 20). We listened to community concerns and scaled back our original plan, reducing the number of signs from 28 to nine - a significant compromise.
The digital billboards are one economic aspect of investment the Squamish Nation is undertaking. Citizens for Responsible Outdoor Advertising (CROA) is waging a pressure campaign against potential advertisers, threatening to boycott their products and services. CROA have said they support the Squamish Nation's right to manage our own economic development, but this boycott campaign is a direct contradiction of that position.
By calling for a boycott, CROA are not only interfering with companies who choose to advertise on the boards, they are also impacting revenues that would help fund Squamish Nation social and educational programs.
Gibby Jacob, Chief of the Squamish Nation
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This week, my friend and I and her young boys attended the torch lighting ceremony in Chestermere, Alta. We stood through an hour and half of a blatant live advertising campaign by Coca-Cola and RBC, not to mention other advertisements on a huge screen, until the torch runner arrived. The presentations were "packaged" as entertainment, but their purpose was clear. Many children from the area were bussed in for the ceremony, only to be handed Coke flags to wave and RBC tambourines to bang. It made my blood boil to watch such a sacred event turned into yet another corporate advertising campaign, to witness a blatant attempt to indoctrinate children.
Critics would say an event like this couldn't happen without corporate sponsorship. I say, an event like this should only happen without corporate sponsorship. It would truly bring communities together and demonstrate what the Olympic spirit is all about.
Brian Stollery, Calgary
Avatar, from the distance
Re Avatar Shares Lead In Nominations For British Film Awards (Jan. 21): It's amazing what tech steroids can do for a Star Wars clone.
Bob Kotyk, Toronto
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Cultural critic Neil Postman said that the line separating child and adult in our society is getting blurred. The line is gone. Avatar is basically a children's film. The special effects are bright and pretty but the plot is clichéd, the dialogue is leaden, there is no character development, the last part is cartoon boom-boom stuff, featuring big war planes fighting people with arrows on big birds.
Mr. Postman said the "adult-child may be defined as a grown-up whose intellectual and emotional capacities are unrealized and, in particular, not significantly different from those associated with children." Avatar and the reaction to it surely exemplify his observation.
Laryssa Carter, Toronto
Men with guns in Haiti
The front-page photo on Jan. 20 showed armed Canadian sailors arriving in Leogane. This picture of men with guns perfectly captures the efforts of the U.S., Canada, and the UN in Haiti since 2004.
I was in Haiti a few days before the quake, and saw heavily armed UN forces and the similarly armed and Canadian-trained Haitian National Police move through the streets of Port-au-Prince, rifles in hand.
The Haitian people despise their foreign occupiers, and have a difficult relationship with their police force, which was being rebuilt along the lines of the now-disbanded and deeply unpopular Haitian army. The police, not the Haitian people, are the real insecurity threat in Haiti at the moment. After this devastating quake, a new approach to Haiti is needed, one that involves supporting, not repressing, the people.
Stuart Hammond, Canada Haiti Action Network, Vancouver
Here, here for Canadian operas
I applaud Robert Everett-Green's persistence in pursuing why we don't hear opera by Canadians on the Canadian Opera Company main stage ( Davis Takes First Turn At COC Podium - Review, Jan. 21). While there's no doubt that the Canadian Opera Company is riding a wave of popularity and doing excellent work on a number of fronts, their record of producing Canadian opera is appalling. There are many smaller companies across the country providing commissioning funds and production money for new Canadian operas, but our resources are small. We need the COC to invest production money, time and energy in the work of Canadian composers and librettists and introduce their large audience to the wealth of creative talent this country has to offer. We're missing a vital piece of the puzzle here.
Larry Beckwith, artistic director, Toronto Masque Theatre
Equalization? We need to talk
The Globe implies Alberta's interest in reforming Canada's equalization program is only about Alberta ( The Buffet Is Over - editorial, Jan. 16).
Not true: While Alberta is the single largest per-capita contributor to Confederation, Ontario contributes just as much in total, yet has fewer doctors, nurses and hospital beds, per capita, than some "have-not" provinces.
But equalization is not just an Alberta and Ontario issue. It is a pan-Canadian issue. It is a contributor to Canada not keeping pace with the productivity increases of other G8 countries. Provinces that receive equalization transfers are less inclined to reduce tax rates because the benefits of that are offset by decreases in equalization.
Higher taxes drive out investment and kill jobs. So the tax base shrinks, fiscal capacity declines, and equalization transfers increase. It's a vicious cycle.
Given that B.C., Saskatchewan and Newfoundland are also now non-receiving equalization provinces, why not put reform on the table for discussion? Why not re-examine how much Ottawa collects and the whole system of federal transfers? This isn't just about how we redistribute income; it's about economic growth and productivity.
Ted Morton, Minister of Finance and Enterprise, Alberta
Advice from the airlines?
The TTC is seeking advice on customer service from … airlines ( TTC Seeking Advice From Private Sector - Jan. 21). Airlines? Advice from an industry that, in its history, has been in the black how often? And is renowned for its … customer service?
One wonders if it will now be possible, while riding the Rocket, to be subject to pat-downs, arrive late due to delays and mysteriously lose one's briefcase during the fli…, er, trip.
All that for the low, low price of $3 and a severe case of hypertension.
I can't wait.
Tony Hoffmann, Toronto