A (mortgaged) roof overhead
Your headline on mortgage rates is inflammatory and ahead of the game ( The End Is Nigh For Low-Interest-Rate Heaven - March 30). While it is very likely that our floating rates will increase, this may not start until later this year and the increments may not be all that large. When you consider our unemployment rate, trade deficit and the impact of our strong currency on manufacturing and farming, among other factors, you can make a pretty good case that rates should stay low for some time.
As to locking in a mortgage, as someone can borrow today on a floating basis at approximately 2 per cent, it's not easy to decide to lock in for five years at say 4.25 per cent. Prime has to increase by 2.25 percentage points, double the present rate, before the person is worse off. In any event, personal rate decisions reflect one's risk tolerance, not their assessment of future interest rates, admittedly - at best - a guess.
Peter D. Hambly, Hanover, Ont.
Don't close the humane society
Empty kennels, empty heads ( Toronto Humane Society Wants To Clear Its Cages And Start Over - March 30). Kate Hammer reported yesterday that the Board of the Toronto Humane Society (THS) has decided to seek court permission to "close and rebuild" the River Street shelter. As we reflect on such a proposal, let us ask:
Should this board have the right to make such a dramatic decision?
When did the board meet?
Where is the board motion?
What will happen to the animals?
Where is the money coming from to build the new THS?
Why now?
Let's give ourselves a shake and listen to the more than 800 THS members who have resoundingly called for the resignation of the incumbent board. The THS should not be closed.
Lynn MacGyver, Association for the Reform of the Toronto Humane Society; member, Toronto Humane Society
Veiled efforts
Bravo for Clifford Orwin ( No Room At The Inn For Veiled Women? Get Real, Canada - March 30). He's on the high road. It's sad to see Michael Ignatieff on the low road, applauding Quebec's bill to deny government services to people wearing veils. My Canada has room for all people who want to live by their religious dictates as long as they let the rest of us live by ours. It does not have room for people who play the xenophobia card to win votes.
Michael Moore, Toronto
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Canada is a secular society. When there is a clash, a citizen's first duty is to the state, not to God. While total concealment of one's features may be interpreted by some as pleasing to God, the state, in providing airport security and other services to us in return for our taxes, has a right to know that we are who we say we are.
Most of the time, the issue is not one of rights but of legitimate social expectations. Whereas we expect surgeons, welders, motorcyclists and fencers to cover their faces for hygienic or safety reasons while engaged in their work or sporting activities, we would rightly take offence if they were so concealed at other times in public. The only people we expect to cover their faces are those who want to escape detection - e.g. burglars.
It is not, as Prof. Orwin implies, narrowly feminist, or secularist, let alone anti-Muslim, to want to see those we are talking to or doing business with. Unlike the hijab, which like a Sikh's turban or a Shriner's fez, allows people to interact with the wearer, which we do primarily by our facial expressions, the niqab denies others that basic human expectation. For many Canadians, such total concealment comes across as a withdrawal from, and an affront to, our common humanity.
Christopher Levenson, Vancouver
Is there a doctor in the house?
Lysiane Gagnon's concern about U.S. hospitals recruiting Canadian specialists (it takes 12 years to train a top-notch medical specialist) is appreciated but misses two fundamental issues ( Obamacare May Lure Quebec MDs - March 29).Obamacare is health-insurance reform, not health-care reform. The impact of medical specialists on health-system strength and health status is much more modest and minor than most people know. The U.S. needs 30,000 primary care specialists (a.k.a. family physicians). Their recruitment is what Canada should worry about.
David G. Moores, professor of Family Medicine, University of Alberta
Mr. Mom deserves respect
My husband has been a full-time, stay-at-home dad for 10 years ( Mr. Moms Get Little Respect - Life, March 26). Our daughters, 8 and 12, have flourished as a result of his care. So has my career. We did not set out on our journey with this plan. Life's circumstances provide difficult choices and, for our family, we made this right choice.
Over the course of his time at home, he continually hears his life-long friends ask when he will get a real job. Everyone from medical experts to close relatives suggests that his life lacks meaning and direction because he has chosen to dedicate himself to creating a loving home rather than building a mutual fund. He ensures we eat together well-balanced, home-cooked meals. He is there to pick up the girls from school and listen to them chatter about that day's drama. He is our homework hero. He is chauffeur and chief cheerleader for swimming, gymnastics, yearbook and piano. To suggest he gets "little respect" is an extraordinary understatement. Society has always undervalued the women who choose this path; in our experience, they undervalue the men even more.
Maryann Kerr, Toronto
Scholarships and troops
As a beneficiary of a similar program for children of Second World War servicemen killed in action, I support the idea of a scholarship for children of troops killed in action (Heroes, Students, Scholarships - letters, March 29). My father was killed when I was a baby, my mother died when I was 17. The War Orphans pension I received in Britain, as long as I was in school full-time, let me get my degree, something I never would have been able to do otherwise. It is hard growing up without a parent, even one designated as a hero. We should be helping these children.
Margaret Thompson, Southampton, Ont.
The goal: die healthy
Michael Bliss's image of the melting snowman is consistent, at least in analogy, to UBC health economist Bob Evans's evocative image that population aging is more like a glacier than avalanche ( The Problem Of Saying No To The Sick - March 29). Prof. Bliss's analogy fails, however, in that with rectangularization of mortality - the demographic concept that we all live longer in a healthy state and then die quickly - we may less often need intensive health care in our dying. The snowman then is knocked over, rather than slowly melting (with apologies to snowmen), and there's merit in keeping us healthy into old age.
Susan A. McDaniel, Lethbridge, Alta.
Safety issue isn't age-driven
A glance at the graph with your editorial makes the answer to improving road safety seem obvious: We need to remove the two segments of the driving population with the worst records, i.e. the 15-19 and 20-24-year-olds (The Quest To Balance Safety And Independence - March 29). There are three groups worse than the seniors in terms of driver fatalities and three better, so why pick on the seniors?
No one would dare target the youngsters, as "society" would make a fuss, but seniors are somehow considered fair game. Shame on you.
Rose McIntyre, Whitby, Ont.
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Why should age be the criterion for retesting? A history of accidents and driving infractions, no matter the driver's age, should require retesting.
Dennis Forcese, Ottawa
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The statistics you quoted reflect age-differentiation among groups on the basis of 5 and 10 years (e.g. 15-19; 20-24; 25-34), except when one reaches 65. Then, it's 65 plus. There are significant differences from 65-75 to 75-85, to 85+. Categorizing 65+ the way you have is hardly helpful.
Michael F. Scheinert, Toronto
Breaking up is less hard to do
Sarah Hampson's cautionary article, The Divorce That Keeps On Giving (Life, March 26), is really a good news story in disguise. As she notes, only 10 per cent of cases go to court, and only 5 per cent go to trial. The vast majority of couples opt for non-combative approaches, including mediation, the collaborative process or lawyer to lawyer negotiations.
Separation often brings pain, anger and frustration. With the assistance of a non-adversarial process, however, most people can reach durable agreements out of court, with less emotional and financial damage to themselves and their children.
Sharyn Langdon, Jill McLeod, co-chairs, Collaborative Practice Toronto
Dumbing down, smartening up
While the idea of having students choose books for reading is awesome ( Get Kids Reading - Anything, Life, March 29), it doesn't go far enough.
If students in English classes get to pick their faves why not extend this to other disciplines? Students who would otherwise be bored out of their skulls in history, studying such snoozers as the Family Compact or the Repeal of the Corn Laws, might instead choose to study the untimely deaths of Jim Morrison or Tupac Shakur, landmarks in recent history.
In geography, lessons using Google Earth could help students find their way to the nearest pizza outlet, while in math, instruction in comprehending cellphone bills would be immensely helpful. Who said there's a "dumbing down" in education?
Lorne Hicks, Keswick, Ont.