Mail bag: 04/30/26
Hypocritical reaction?
Dear Editor:
It seems that how the leader of a political party feels about MPs crossing the floor to join the ranks of another party really depends on who is doing the crossing.
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre has been calling the floor-crossing of Conservative members to the Liberals the result of “dirty backroom deals.”
And yet, in 2006 when Liberal David Emerson crossed the floor to join the Conservatives, Stephen Harper welcomed him and said, “Mr. Emerson will make a great contribution.” He even made Emerson a cabinet minister. In 2018, when Liberal Leona Alleslev crossed the floor to join the Conservatives, Andrew Scheer not only welcomed her, he also encouraged other Liberals to follow her example.
“You are both wanted and needed in the Conservative Party of Canada,” he said.
Weren’t those dirty backroom deals, too? Several years ago, when there was a motion in Parliament to have a by-election any time an MP crossed the floor, Poilievre voted against it.
Ed Butts,
Guelph
Leaders don’t care
Dear Editor:
RE: ‘Twenty-year sentence,’ April 23.
Thank you Karen for the letter you sent to the editor about Erin council’s approval of a 20-year gravel pit rehabilitation. I couldn’t agree more.
Our leaders in Erin don’t give a you-know-what about people’s safety and the environment. It’s all about the money and yet they over-spent their 2025 budget by over $1 million.
So let’s truck in 150 dump trucks for 20 years. I emailed the mayor three or four weeks ago and guess what the response was? Delete (I assume). If our leaders lived anywhere near this pit this project would not happen.
Bert Sinkgraven,
Erin
‘With us, not for us’
Dear Editor:
“Transparency” is a word we hear often from our local leaders. It’s meant to reassure – a promise that decisions will be made openly, with the community informed and involved. But that promise only matters if residents actually experience it.
In a community like Erin, transparency should mean more than meeting minimum notice requirements. It should mean clearly informing residents – especially those directly affected – and giving them a meaningful opportunity to understand and weigh in before decisions are made.
The recent approval of a large commercial fill operation highlights the gap between that expectation and reality. For a project with significant long-term impacts on traffic, the environment and daily life, many residents only learned about it after key decisions were already in place.
This isn’t just about one outcome – it’s about the process. When people are left out of decisions that directly affect them, confidence in local leadership erodes.
Transparency was a central campaign promise of the current mayor. It is reasonable for taxpayers to expect more than procedure; they expect openness, communication and a willingness to listen to their concerns. In an election year, that commitment should matter even more.
As voters, we also have a role to play. This year, we should look beyond familiar buzzwords and ask whether those promises have been matched by actions.
Our community deserves decisions made with us, not for us.
Jacqueline Guagliardi,
Erin
‘Mischaracterizing’
Dear Editor:
RE: ‘Impartial justice,’ April 23.
A recent letter in this paper, published under a name I share, raised concerns about Justice Skarica’s sentencing remarks in the Boss Omeire case. I am not the author of that letter and I write to correct a factual error it contains.
Justice Skarica’s concern that courts sometimes reduce sentences for non-citizens to prevent deportation, at the expense of victims is legitimate and shared by other sitting judges. I have no quarrel with that part of the letter.
What I do take issue with is the letter’s treatment of section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code. That provision is not a general “discount” for people with disadvantaged backgrounds. It is a specific Parliamentary remedy enacted in 1996 and upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada for the severe over-incarceration of Indigenous peoples, who at the time made up 18% of Canada’s prison population while representing only 3% of its general population. It applies to Indigenous Canadians, not to foreign nationals or undocumented persons.
Supporting victim-centred sentencing and re-evaluating deportation-avoidance leniency is fair game. Mischaracterizing a remedy for anti-Indigenous systemic racism as the same problem is not.
I did not write that conflation, and I do not agree with it.
Mike Lee,
Elora
‘Harebrained ideas’
Dear Editor:
A $30-million jet is equivalent to approximately 2,000 charter flights for Premier Doug Ford and his entourage, from Toronto to Thunder Bay, not including the cost of airport fees, storage, maintenance, pilots/support staff wages, and jet fuel expenses.
The leather filled jet he selected is too big to land on 90% of Ontario’s runways and is useless for evacuating people or delivering supplies from remote areas. No other provincial premiers have private jets. They all fly commercial economy and charter flights when logistically necessary or financially prudent.
Private mining and forestry executives don’t fly to Thunder Bay, they pay staff to do that for them. Premiers and ministers don’t need to fly to Thunder Bay, they have regional directors who work there. The only reason the premier needs to fly to Thunder Bay is to show face and kiss babies, which should be at their party’s expense, not the taxpayers. The premier‘s job is in Queens Park.
Doug Ford was caught red-handed, secretly buying unnecessary luxury items for his personal purpose using taxpayers money. No FOI required. He is a narcissist and a juvenile rationalizer with harebrained ideas that attempt to impress and benefit an inner circle of private business people.
If he was actually powerful and important then he would have people travel to see him in Queen’s Park instead of chasing them around like a lost puppy. If he wants to fly around the continent in a private jet, pretending he’s a playboy rock star, then he needs to find a job in the private sector.
Doug Ford’s lame excuses about “double standards,” “excessive scrutiny” or “providing a business case” that was probably never considered or financially feasible, are pathetic and unbecoming of our provincial representative. His use of insults to deflect from his inability to answer straightforward questions in the legislature demonstrates immaturity, not leadership.
We will never know how often, where or why he flies, how much it costs the taxpayers, or even if there was a calculated business case, due to his abolishment of our “Freedom of Information.”
This issue should be the last straw for voters and lead to the undoing of his cabinet of cronies, whose only strength is disproportionate representation due to poor voter turn out.
Whether it’s for the FOI, healthcare, education, OSAP, the ballooning deficit, the Green Belt, farmland, food security, the Blue Belt, water privatization or the appointment of regional chairs to silence voters’ voices (and the list of injustices goes on) … every Ontarian has an important responsibility to support their community and the Fight Ford Protests.
Shane Lambert,
Centre Wellington
‘Overdue good sense’
Dear Editor:
RE: ‘Unfunded liability,’ April 23.
Not destroying productive farms certainly does not create an unfunded liability. Replacing productive farms with suburban developments just as certainly does. Both Ottawa and Guelph did studies to determine the long-term costs associated with building suburban housing versus building housing within their urban boundaries.
We are familiar with development charges that municipalities levy on developers to pay for the capital cost of providing municipal services to new developments. These costs must be paid by the developer or subsidized by municipal taxpayers. Discussion of development charges hides the real unfunded liability created by suburban developments.
Providing municipal services to suburban developments costs more than they contribute in municipal taxes. A 2021 study for the City of Ottawa found that low-density suburban development costs the city $465 per suburban resident annually. In contrast, high-density in-fill development provides a net benefit of $606 per resident annually. Guelph did a similar study and came to a similar conclusion.
The seriousness of the issue was brought home to those of us in Wellington County by a recent report of discussions before Erin’s council in this newspaper. Council learned that 20,000 of the municipality’s 36,000 acres of farmland had been lost to“development” between 2011 and 2021. As other letters to the editor have noted, Erin is having trouble working within its budget, which is to be expected given the replacement of productive farms with suburban developments.
The Protect Our Food Act 2025 is a collaboration between the MPP from a very Conservative rural riding and the Green Party leader, an MPP from an urban riding, and supported by farm organizations across Ontario. It provides for a reasoned, informed assessment before deciding to destroy irreplaceable productive farmland.
Imaginary unfunded liability or overdue good sense?
David Strang,
Fergus
‘Insane decisions’
Dear Editor:
This week I found myself again writing a letter, this time to both Premier Doug Ford and our local MPP Joseph Racinsky.
I didn’t write to them as a political insider or policy expert, but as an Ontarian who is paying attention and who is increasingly concerned about the direction and priorities of their government.
This week Ford, after conceding to selling his newly bought plane back once again defended the decision to purchase this $29-million private jet, calling it “embarrassing” that a province the size of Ontario does not have one. But with respect, that is not what many of us find embarrassing.
What is embarrassing is a government that appears more focused on symbolic gestures like “buck-a-beer” than on the very real and urgent issue of grocery prices that are forcing people to make impossible choices about how or whether they can afford to eat.
What is embarrassing is hearing commitments to transparency while simultaneously pursuing legislative changes that allows your government to exempt itself from that very principle. That our MPP voted for this.
What is embarrassing is watching priorities shift toward projects that benefit the few, such as spa developments and privatized ventures while Ontario’s health care system continues to struggle under strain, leaving both patients and workers to carry the burden.
What is embarrassing is the ongoing erosion of trust when decisions around protected lands, including wetlands and provincial parks, appear to prioritize development over environmental stewardship.
And the list continues but perhaps the most concerning of all is the growing perception that Ontarians are expected not to notice, to not question these insane decisions. We do notice. And we do question.
Leadership is not defined by the ability to justify decisions after the fact, but by making choices that reflect the needs, values and well being of the people you serve. Right now, many Ontarians are not seeing themselves reflected in those choices.
I urge you and your government to reconsider your priorities, to listen more closely to the concerns being raised across this province and to act in a way that restores trust and demonstrates accountability.
Because what truly matters is not whether Ontario has a private jet, but whether its people feel seen, supported and respected.
Do better. Or step down.
Kristen Reilly,
Fergus
‘Different perspectives’
Dear Editor:
RE: Israeli soldiers turn Gaza-bound doctor back at border, April 9.
I wasn’t going to respond to this article until I read Ana Maria and Graham Cummins’ letter (‘Journalisic gift,’ April 23) praising the reporter for courageous journalism.
I beg to differ. A well researched article would try to inform readers about a story from different perspectives (in this case, the Israeli perspective).
Israel did not start this conflict on Oct. 7, 2023 when they were attacked by Hamas and over 1,200 Israelis were murdered and 240 taken hostage, starved, sexually assaulted, tortured and killed in the hundreds of tunnels under Gaza, some under hospitals where the terrorists had their headquarters.
I started reading a book called While Israel Slept that documents the lengths to which Israel went to avoid hurting civilians in Gaza, but none of this ever gets reported. The Israeli communities that border Gaza have been continually attacked by Hamas over the years.
The doctor in the article talks about Israeli “control” and that is no doubt the case, but can you imagine what would happen if Israel didn’t control the border? Hamas does not want peace with Israel, and that is the end of the story. They will continue to wage war with Israel but Israel will, no doubt, be seen as the aggressor.
The same is true for what is happening in Lebanon right now. Israel did not start that war either. Put the blame on Iran, the exporter of terror.
Learn about the region that is now Israel. There are two sides to this story.
Barbara Cooper,
East Garafraxa
‘Propagandization’
Dear Editor:
RE: ‘Cleavage between us,’ April 16.
Voltaire once penned, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer boils it down to a conflict of one’s moral integrity. Gad Saad refers to it as a “mind virus.”
I personally see it as the results of a prolonged and highly effective propaganda campaign. Unlike David Courtney, I grew up with CBC as a staple in our household. I woke up on Saturday mornings to Voice of the Pioneer. Did chores at night to As it Happens with Barbara Frum, and others.
Weekday mornings included Morningside with Peter Gzowski. We consumed The Royal Canadian Air Farce and never missed a Dave and Morley episode by Stuart McLean. Starting in 2003, I started noticing a much darker form of CBC. Not long after that, I permanently turned off our national broadcaster.
Sadly, it is very easy to read the effects of our national propaganda machine on others.
Courtney’s anti-Trump rhetoric can be quoted almost word for word from any mainstream media. Has he considered that prior to Iran invasion by the U.S., Iran executed about 32,000 of its own citizens?
Like Canada, Venezuela is a resource rich country, and if managed properly, its citizens would be among the richest and with the highest standard of living in the world, yet, they were literally starving to death under the previous regime.
Has he considered the abhorrently dismal standard of living the Cuban population has had to endure since the early 1960s? Gaza’s complexities cannot be touched in the space allowed. Has he considered the authoritarian commonality between the regimes he mentioned?
Courtney used the term polarization. I think propagandization would be a more appropriate term to employ. We all want the same things, which can be summed up as “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Unfortunately, we have created legislation that allows us to do unto our future generations that which we don’t want to properly deal with now.
Wayne Baker,
Wellington North
‘Everyone welcome’
Dear Editor:
The volunteers for the Elora Festival Book Sale would like to invite book lovers to the upcoming 2026 Giant Book Sale.
On offer there will be loads of gently used adult and children’s books, puzzles, games, LPs and CDs at great prices. The sale runs May 1 from 1 to 9pm, May 2 from 9:30am to 5pm and May 3 from 9:30am to 4pm at the Elora Curling Club, at 27 David St. W. in Elora.
There will be a $5 admission charge on Friday only, with the event being free on Saturday and Sunday. Everyone is welcome.
All proceeds are in support of the Elora Festival and Singers.
Cheryl Yuill,
on behalf of the volunteers for the Elora Festival Annual Giant Book Sale