Christmas Day letters (ONLINE ONLY): ‘Liberal plastics ban plan in simply ridiculous’

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PLASTIC BRAINS
I see we’re back discussing Ottawa’s vacuous single-use plastics ban. Typical of the Liberals, there’s the public virtue signalling up front and then the devil in the details. If you read the last draft of the legislation, you’d think this was a script from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. For example, any straw or plastic cutlery that can withstand being dunked in water between 82-86C for more than 15 minutes without degrading is exempt. So are plastic bags that can withstand being washed in a laundry cycle designed for cottons. Then there’s the ‘black-market exemption.’ A retailer can still sell plastic straws, but they have to be hidden from view and the customer has to ask for them, just like buying cigarettes. Even if I need only one, the retailer can only sell a 20-pack, so there’s no waste there. The strangest exemption might be the ‘heavy bag test.’ This is where a plastic bag is exempt from the ban if it can carry a 10-kg weight over a distance of 53 m at least 100 times. Can you imagine going to work in the government’s testing department? Rubber gloves, running shoes and a rubber chicken.
PAUL BAUMBERG
(Simply idiotic.)

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HOLD IT RIGHT THERE
Re: ‘IT WASN’T THE NDP’, letter, Dec. 17. Oh really? If the NDP were to be in power in Alberta at the time when we accumulated our Heritage Fund, we would have never had one to begin with. The spending frenzies of NDP governments are legendary, not only in Alberta, but all across our country, whenever and wherever they were in charge. Your so-called attack ads by the UCP on the NDP, were fact-based criticism, since the NDP made so many really poor economic decisions between 2015 and 2019. The political shellacking the NDP received on April 16, 2019, was unanimous consent of how bad a destructive government they were for Alberta. “The failed investment for the pipeline which cost Albertans billions of dollars”. That was nobody’s fault in Alberta. Anyone with a functioning half-brain knows that the failure of the Keystone XL pipeline was caused by two American presidents. Barack Hussein Obama II, who had first signed off on the project, only to reverse his intention later in his presidency. President Donald J. Trump tried save the day and OK’d the Keystone XL again. But U.S. President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. cancelled this project on his very first day in office. Needless to say that this fiasco cost Alberta a ginormous amount of money. As to the present vicious attack ads by the NDP on the UCP, they are hate speech of a very personal nature, as the NDP cannot run on their dreary record, during their incumbency. I do wish you could have been more specific and factual, Robert Kim Greyson, with your accusations, as just putting them out there without evidence or proof, just does not really cut it. Unfortunately, many people on the left of the political spectrum resort to it all the time.
CASPAR PFENNINGER
(Who wants a government run by amateur social workers and activists?)

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CALL FOR PEACE
Ex-American diplomat Henry Kissinger has called for negotiated peace talks with Russia and Ukraine. That has never worked throughout the world’s war history, especially when one party is a terrorist thug. Leaders like Putin, Hitler, Stalin, Arafat, the Ayatollah Khomeini to name a few, don’t ever negotiate in good faith. They lull you into a sense of accomplishment and then stab you in the back when you’re not looking. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is wise not to be fooled by an evil despot like Putin and should continue to refuse any form of negotiated peace settlement with this untrustworthy, iniquitous dictator. The global community deserves widespread condemnation for their lack of real action in this senseless war.
MOLLY KENS
(While we all want the war to end, no one wants to see Putin save face.)

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POLLS, SCHMOLLS
Former prime minister John Diefenbaker said it best … that polls are best used by dogs. We keep witnessing polls constantly widely missing the mark, both in Canada and the U.S. Let’s also bear in mind that if the Jagmeet Singh-Justin Trudeau bromance continues until 2025, a poll at this early stage is meaningless! When Pierre Poilievre stated during his leadership campaign if he becomes prime minister, the Liberals’ primary propaganda machine, the CBC, will be defunded, along with Postmedia, he inadvertently put a target directly on his own back. So while most of the MSM remains mainly as Trudeau’s cheerleaders, they consistently attack Poilievre. He is especially being criticized for his support for peaceful protesters involved in the Freedom Convoy! Singh’s popularity may likely wane the longer he props up the most divisive and fiscally irresponsible PM since Pierre Trudeau. Hypocritically, Singh is now criticizing Trudeau’s lack of assistance for the current health-care crises on the one hand, while continuing his bromance on the other!
LARRY COMEAU
(Are you actually comparing us to CBC? Bite your tongue.)

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COSTLY PROTEST
I fully respect and support people’s right to protest. We are a democracy — however, protests should never be at the expense of other citizens. I can’t justify the enormous cost of the Ottawa protest, which is still going on. That money could have built several homes. Residents were terrorized, sleep deprived, driven nearly mad. Blockades deprived others of the right to live their lives in peace, to work and earn a living, and all that trickled down to Canadian businesses and the general public. Calling this action a protest is trivializing all that Canadian citizens went through, personally and in cost through taxes and personal loss. There must be a better way and I think running the country is what we elect politicians to do, and we thankfully have the right to not vote for them the next time if we think they are wrong. It’s ‘the tail wagging the dog’ and all it accomplished was bitterness, vast expense and loss. I hate to see Canadians becoming so bitter, moaning and hostile! I will look for these protesters to be on the ballot next election and hope they understand that in a democracy majority rules! You show me a country where everybody agrees with everything and I’ll show you a dictatorship.
TIM DEVLIN
(It is an important part of a healthy democracy to allow for peaceful protest. But when your protest makes ordinary folks miserable while the protest target casually goes about business as usual, well maybe it’s not working as intended.)

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MUSK MATTERS
Elon Musk to the rescue regarding our free speech rights. Goodness knows nobody else is really stepping up, the opposition is powerless since the NDP, the Bloc and what’s left of the Greens appear to be all on board. The Tesla man is creating major shockwaves south of the border, so why not throw his weight around up here in Kanuckistan? This proposed online bill is an all-out assault on free speech that will be incredibly draconian in nature and could in fact deprive citizens of their rights if in fact the state deems what they write or say is illegal or criminal in nature. Mr. Freeze is one very cocky individual, but he has met his match with the King of Twitter.
STEPHEN FLANAGAN
(Not sure his Twitter experiment is going so swimmingly, but we believe in free speech and free press.)

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MORE, MORE, MORE
Re: Private delivery of health care can benefit system, column, Dec. 14. All I keep hearing from the provinces are requests for increased funding from the federal government to rectify the issues with our health-care systems. Here’s an idea: Perhaps the provinces should examine best practices in other countries such as Germany. Constantly pouring more and more money into a broken system is apparently not succeeding. The fact that many people can’t even find a doctor borders on pathetic.
MIKE SHURTLIFF
(We’ve gotta try something. The system is broken.)

MACKLEM MUST GO
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem must be replaced. The signs of recession were obvious in 2020 at the start of COVID, and boosted again at the start of the invasion of Ukraine. He was “surprised” and didn’t see it coming? It was as obvious as a lava flow, and he should have slowly started raising rates in 2020. By doing so, we would not have seen the real estate bomb that took place. Now Jagmeet Singh says he’ll call out the PM if he doesn’t act “quickly” on fixing the hospital catastrophe. Again, what is the surprise? It became “obvious” three years ago. I think we should try giving provinces more powers; the current system is failing us badly.
MIKE DEFALCO
(Hindsight is 2020 …)

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NO PUNISHMENT
Re: Trade Minister Mary Ng broke ethics rules over a contract to a friend, commissioner rules, online edition, Dec. 13. So, what are the repercussions? Absolutely none. Politicians and bureaucrats can screw up endlessly, break the law or at least the spirit of the law, provide slow service or no service at all and still keep their jobs, benefits and pensions. No wonder so many under-qualified people seek such public sector employment. We, the people who pay for all this incompetence and malfeasance, would be fired instantaneously. They are not. That’s because so many of us keep re-electing the same set of self-indulgent jokers who keep bribing us with handouts of our own money that keeps boosting inflation. The joke is on us.
DYAN CROSS
(Where’s the exit? We’re starting to feel dizzy.)

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COMMON GROUND
Kris Sims wrote a very compelling column in the Sun about the issues Albertans have with Ottawa (“Five big reasons Albertans have an issue with Ottawa,” Dec. 20). I’m 61 years old and have lived in rural southern Ontario all my life. What Sims and the rest of Albertans need to know is that the vast majority of us from rural Ontario feel the exact way they do. We are as frustrated with the illogical carbon tax, blocked pipelines, tanker bans and gun grab as you. We feel totally ripped off on election night when large swaths of southern Ontario are blue but a tiny swath of red in the GTA trumps us all. Many people in Eastern Canada understand your plight and are more like you than you may think.
PAUL REIDT
St. Agatha, Ont.
(There’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying.)