:format(webp)/https://www.thespec.com/content/dam/thespec/opinion/letters-to-the-editors/2022/12/16/dec-16-fans-of-ford-a-fan-of-stevens-no-fan-of-goldberg-and-other-letters/william_osler_1881.jpg)
[ad_1]
Species at risk
I just finished reading the Wild Species 2020, The General Status of Species in Canada report. Brilliant in-depth piece of work. This indicates that 20 percent of our species in this country are facing extinction. Main reason? Homelessness. I wonder if Doug Ford, his side kick Steve Clark and all their developer friends read the report too. Skeptical, the only green they see is the mighty dollar.
Insider information
Didn’t Martha Stewart go to jail for acting on insider information for financial gain? What about Doug’s developer friends who bought Greenbelt?
Too much protest
A protest can be organized to protect the Greenbelt or stop the highways but there is simple arithmetic as to why more land is needed for housing.
Our federal government has decided that Canada will accept 500,000 immigrants each year, of which half historically go to Ontario, 80 percent of whom go to the GTHA. That’s an additional 200,000 people per year.
Brownfield sites cannot accommodate anywhere near the new homes needed. Where are you going to put hundreds of thousands of new homes every five years without using any of the existing cropland? This is now Ontario’s problem to solve. It is time to offer constructive solutions instead of protest.
More puzzles
I sympathize with the letter writer. Easy to fix. Spec should publish two puzzles per day, Level 1 and Level 2.
Tax deduction
Jay Goldberg could have saved us some time by shortening his opinion piece to “cut public sector wages so we can cut taxes on rich Ontarians.” I know he will reply that his 13 per cent tax cut is for all Ontario taxpayers. But he doesn’t explain it this way:
A taxpayer who pays $1,000 in taxes saves $130; a taxpayer paying $100,000 in taxes saves $13,000; a taxpayer paying $1,000,000 in taxes saves $130,000. Who gets more?
Mr. suggested Goldberg to build more hospitals with some of the wages saved. But how are you going to work in those new hospitals if you reduce nurses’ wages (adjusted for inflation)?
I wonder why he doesn’t propose raising the tax rate on wealthy Ontarians, raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour, forcing companies to pay benefits to part time workers, providing relief to low income earners ? You assume that Mr. Goldberg for wealthy Ontario.
Osler’s views
Sir William Osler’s racist views of more than 100 years ago should not overshadow his enormous contribution to modern medicine. It was a different time then.
Shame McMaster University is probably using this as an excuse to cover up their buyers remorse.
Schreiner’s choice
I am always grateful for the opinions of Geoffrey Stevens. In his December 12 piece, he suggests in passing on the idea of Mike Schreiner as a viable candidate for the Ontario Liberal leadership, that “the rest of the Green platform is compatible with the agendas of the parties (Liberal and NDP) that that.”
However, there is one glaring omission. And hopefully Mike Schreiner will bring it as Liberal leader or a potential Liberal/NDP coalition. That is the policy of eliminating public funding for Catholic education and moving Ontario to a single publicly funded regime. There is one policy that many Ontarians will be caught under by whatever government Mike Schreiner may one day lead.
Ford fans
Hands up to all of you who voted Conservative. You are all responsible for Doug Ford now. Good — sit down now and think about what you’ve done. And take your medicine like the rest of us who tried to get rid of him.
Swearing
If Ms. felt Horwath that his swearing at the expense of the ceremony was “on point” and the “right thing to do,” be it. However, it would have been more on point if her guests had been encouraged to donate a bag of groceries for a local food bank or a new unwrapped toy. Celebration is fine, but we need to remember that there is a great need in our community.
[ad_2]
Source link