What a vote is worth
As a resident of Nova Scotia, one of the overrepresented provinces in terms of seats in the House of Commons, not a day goes by when I am not struck by the extent to which the issues and concerns of Atlantic Canada dominate the national agenda ( Unequal Votes Threatening Canadian Democracy - March 23).
Having lived for some of my life in the underrepresented provinces - Ontario, Alberta, and B.C. - I remember clearly the frustrations of being ignored by the federal government. The case of Alberta, where I grew up, is especially egregious: With proper representation, it would have 31 seats in the Commons, whereas it only has 28. Is it any wonder no one pays any attention to its affairs?
Ken Dewar, Halifax
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The solution to the problem raised by the Mowat Centre report lies in rigorously applying the basic principles of democratic federalism. True representation by population in the Lower House (the Commons), equal and effective representation by region or province in the Upper House (the Senate), and bills only becoming law after they have been passed by both Houses. This is the classic approach to balancing the interests of geography and population in a large nation with an unevenly distributed populace.
Canada should try it some time.
Preston Manning, president, Manning Centre for Building Democracy
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While seats in the U.S. House of Representatives may be more equally distributed than in Canada, it is not true of other branches of U.S. government.
Senators from California represent about 18.5 million people each, while Wyoming senators serve a mere 280,000 each. When it comes to the electoral college, which elects the president, Wyoming has one electoral vote for every 174,000 citizens, compared to California's 665,000. Since most of the small states are "red states," this explains why Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000 but lost the presidential election.
And considering that Supreme Court justices are confirmed by the Senate, one could argue small states also have a disproportionate influence on the judicial branch.
With this in mind, the Canadian system doesn't seem so bad. But then again, the President can't prorogue either of his legislative houses.
Donna Huffman, Antigonish, N.S.
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To achieve voter equality, we also need a proportional voting system that gives equal weight to all votes.
Larry Gordon, Toronto
Under the wire
Perhaps I'm naive to be shocked a member of government, Peter Kent, would fly in the face of the spirit of the Commons by sending a free, nasty, partisan mailing to a targeted group far from his Thornhill riding ( Fresh Batch Of Taxpayer-Funded Flyers In The Mail - March 23). The Board of Internal Economy (who's heard of that?) had not yet acted on the Commons' vote to ban ten-per-centers. This makes it all right to slip a mailing under the wire?
A.H. Moir, Toronto
Don't feed the trolls
Re Coulter Enraged After School's Warning Ahead Of Talks (March 23): I thought "enraged" was her basic default setting anyway.
J.P. Morrison, Ancaster, Ont.
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Ann Coulter, unhappy with the stern admonition from a University of Ottawa provost that she behave herself when she speaks on campus, was quoted as saying "I think I'm the victim of a hate crime here. Either what [the provost]did was a hate crime, or the whole [Human Rights]Commission is BS."
Ms. Coulter is not someone whom I would refer to as an authority on many things, but she sure has the Human Rights Commission nailed.
Nelson Smith, Toronto
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When entertainers such as Ann Coulter masquerade as thoughtful commentators and speak outrageous provocations, I'm reminded of the wisdom of Internet forums: Don't feed the trolls.
Adam Dooley, Winnipeg
Say ah: Canadian health care
What's devouring government budgets isn't a health-care system ( Two Countries, Two Challenges - March 23), it's a sick-care system that exists primarily to treat people after they become ill. We're still spending peanuts on programs to encourage the kind of healthy, active lifestyles and behaviours that help prevent sickness and disease in the first place.
Wallace Beaton, Ottawa
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I disagree with John Ibbitson that there are only four ways to curb our health-care costs (diverting funding from other programs, raising taxes, cutting services and permitting parallel private care). For example, wages for health professionals aren't usually linked to performance; we know best practices achieve better outcomes, often more cheaply, but we do not generally reward the performance that achieves them.
Much of the money spent on an individual's health care occurs in the last months of life: Are there better ways to provide care then, while expending fewer resources? Hospitals have become dangerous, infectious places, where costs of care escalate to manage preventable complications - can we not implement known strategies to provide better care at less cost? Increasing resources are being consumed by drug costs, but is there evidence this makes a difference?
Since we have imperfect measuring tools and archaic systems of managing and analyzing information, we often don't know exactly what we are doing, to what effect. This makes measuring the effectiveness of change impossible. The glacial pace of moving from a paper-based health system to an electronic one is responsible for enormous waste and inefficiencies and denies us the opportunity to make informed, intelligent and effective change.
D.M.C. Walker, dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, Queen's University
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Systems of parallel private care (such as that in the U.K.), where individuals can choose to receive services either in the public or private sector, have had no greater success in controlling health-care expenditure than Canada has had.
There are other ways of addressing the expansion of health care costs. One is mandatory co-payment for all health-care services (which France uses). Another is the development of internal markets (which many European states have employed). Still another is the development and application of comparative effectiveness research (which most Western states do in some desultory fashion).
There is also all-payer regulation, which all OECD countries except the U.S. utilize to different degrees (although Maryland also employs this mechanism). There are other strategies as well. None is without its own set of drawbacks. None is, by itself, a silver bullet. But to state that the only solutions to health-care expenditure are four severe options is to polarize opinion and exacerbate fear, neither of which is useful is thinking clearly about what can, and ought, to be done about rising health-care costs.
Katherine Fierlbeck, Halifax
Say ah: American health-care
The U.S. is going further and faster into debt than could be imagined, and fighting two wars. Social security, medicare and other entitlement programs will only grow in funding requirements with the aging baby boomer cohort and, to top it all, there's the new health-care bill. All that Barack Obama has done is ensure that the sun sets even sooner on the U.S. empire, drowned in debt.
Clay Atcheson, Richmond, B.C.
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House minority leader John Boehner said that if the House passed health-reform legislation, we would be facing Armageddon. So this is what Armageddon looks like: It's really not that bad.
Manuel Matas, Winnipeg
That sound
Did you hear it? That "shush" sound, right after the CRTC announcement ( CRTC Favours Broadcasters In TV Shakeup - March 23)? It was the collective sigh of relief from Canadian couch manufacturers.
John Grimley, Toronto
This apology obfuscates
As a former Roman Catholic monk, I am appalled but not surprised by the intransigence of the church and its curia in dealing decisively and effectively with the long-standing sexual abuse by some of its religious members ( Critics Slam Pope's Apology For Glaring Omissions - March 22). The Pope's apology is inadequate and only serves to obfuscate the issue. The church needs to accept responsibility for the horror of what happened and to deal harshly with the convicted perpetrators in its midst. If a religious person has been accused of sexual abuse, then the church's authorities should recognize its responsibility to the victim and report the incident to the police.
If convicted of sexual abuse by the criminal courts, the abuser should also be immediately, permanently defrocked of their religious privileges. Anything less is a shirking of the church's sacred mission and undermines the pain of the victims, as well as casts further aspersion on the wonderful work by the vast majority of the religious community.
Michael Kirby, Orleans, Ont.
With this pirith noola, I thee ...
The pirith noola Tiger Woods now sports, and the powers he hopes it will bring him, strike me as being very much in the mould of a wedding ring ( Stringing Himself Along - Life, March 23). Here's hoping that pirith noola thread will provide greater strength than the metal wedding band that is also "some kind of pledge or commitment."
Greg Schmidt, Calgary