‘Against the people’
Dear Editor:
Public health care done correctly works for the people of Ontario – Premier Doug Ford is working against the people of Ontario. Everyone needs to be able to afford good health, not just the wealthy.
Every year it becomes more impossible to purchase a home or even afford rent. Everyone needs a home.
Grocery store prices are increasing every couple of months. Eating to live is unaffordable.
Public health care gave us a little financial security and now the PC government is taking that away.
A lot of people who were independent and making their own way are being shoved into vulnerable status by this PC government.
We must remember how important it is to take care of each other, our neighbors, friends and families.
Jeannie Monaghan,
Guelph
Integrity important
Dear Editor:
From the information I’ve read recently, it looks like most Ontarians do not support PC legislation that reduces our “Greenbelt” and further “privatizes” our health care system.
These are important issues that will negatively affect our province for years to come. During our next provincial election please remember Doug Ford’s agenda would not have been possible without the willing support of each Conservative member of parliament.
And yes, I do know how the “party” system works. However, on issues such as these, integrity, and doing what is right, must come before party loyalty, and supporting Doug Ford’s personal agenda.
Before you vote for local candidates like Ted Arnott (Wellington–Halton Hills), Mike Harris (Kitchener/Conestoga), Matthew Rae (Perth–Wellington), Brian Riddell (Cambridge), Jess Dixon (Kitchener/South Hespeler) or Todd McCarthy (Durham), I ask you to consider the integrity of each candidate.
Gary Scapinello,
Guelph
Long-term damage
Dear Editor:
During the last provincial election only 43% of Ontarians voted. It may be that people are becoming discouraged by politics and no longer want to bother showing up at the polls. The result of this is that democratic, just and thoughtful government is slipping away from us under Doug Ford.
He is attempting dangerous changes to legislation and is setting threatening precedents.
This writer has not forgotten Ford’s passing Bill 124, which limited salary increases for nurses to one per cent over three years, even though we all knew how desperately these workers needed to be supported and upheld. That bill was deemed to be unconstitutional by the Ontario courts.
More recently, he was at it again. With Bill 28 he used the “notwithstanding” clause to limit salary increases for low paid educational workers so that they would not get a decent pay raise. He failed at this attempt because workers threatened a province-wide strike.
Bill 23 was created to allow developers (using former Greenbelt land) to be exempted from paying development fees to the municipalities where they are building. The power of self government for municipalities is already threatened by Ministerial Zoning Orders which are being used by the Ford government to prevent these municipalities from having the right to make their own decisions when it comes to future development. This action has not been stopped. Conservation authorities have also had their powers decimated.
He has tampered with the size of city councils and the powers that mayors have. He wanted to pick his friend Ron Taverner to be chief of police even though he was clearly not qualified for the job. That was stopped due to public outcry. Now he would like to have control of the selection of the next chief of the Ontario Court of Justice. It seems he would like the courts to reflect his own personal values.
So our premier would like to have complete control over workers’ wages, our conservation authorities and green spaces, mayoral powers, municipalities, the police and even judges to name a few.
This is an alarming state of affairs. It is long past time for this province to wake up and stop the seizure of rights and powers by this man.
A premier who is only “Open for Business” but closed to the people of Ontario is not working for us and he will do our province long-term damage.
Jennifer Trott,
Braeside
Business over ethics?
Dear Editor:
Conservative MPP Vincent Ke recently resigned after his ties to China were revealed.
His connection to China was printed in the National Post in 2019. As this has been known for four years, why was he admitted to the party in the first place?
I guess business overrules ethics and loyalty to Canada.
Chris Woode,
Fergus
‘Twisted view’
Dear Editor:
RE: ‘Due diligence,’ March 16.
Some information for Scott Rae: I am a U.S. citizen and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps (infantry) in the 1960s. In addition I am a legal resident of Canada; I file U.S. and Canadian tax returns and pay both. I worked for the CBC as an investigative journalist, where information was checked by lawyers to make sure it was correct.
Want to know fake news? Watch Fox News with Tucker Carlson, and his gang. Owner Rupert Murdoch has admitted under oath they lie and do it every night.
I state facts and the truth, whereas Fox News admits it lies – and those that watch their shows believe the lies. For some the truth cannot be accepted as it destroys their twisted view of the world.
Jim Trautman,
Simi Valley, California
‘Stand up to big oil’
Dear Editor:
Canada is being sued by the biggest oil producers in the country, Nova Chemicals, Dow Chemicals and Imperial Oil, to prevent regulations that would reduce our plastic pollution.
They insist that plastic is necessary while blaming us and municipal waste systems for the harm their products cause! Since we pay taxes, those companies are suing us. Money that could be used for roads, building projects, public programs will be used to pay the very people who are destroying our waters, land and air. Yes, we are paying them to do it!
Half of all plastic produced is for single use. It is shocking that big oil can lie about this issue without an iota of conscience.
We seldom stop to think about single-use plastics, but it takes so much energy to extract the oil from the ground, move it to a refinery overseas, move it back to the plastic production plant, produce our take-out containers, food wrap, containers and wrap at the grocery store, etc., then ship them to companies that make those containers and shipped to us. They are filled or used once, only to become garbage after a few moments or days of use. I don’t know about you, but trying to reuse those containers becomes a problem of storage, first, then guilt for not using them fast enough and finally, after accumulating stacks of them, having to throw them in the recycling bins, which is not the solution!
Big companies like Nestle have encouraged recycling to keep us from seeing that they are the producers of plastic bottles, and their responsibility ends there. We foot the bill to recycle them. Plastics fill up recycling depots and create mountains of pollution, mostly without being used again. It is time to stand up to big oil! We shouldn’t foot the bill for their greed.
Gerry Walsh,
Erin