Politics of fear
Although I believe the universe is utterly indifferent to what happens here on Earth, I am now praying for Canada — for the dream that brought me and my family to these shores 65 years ago.
That dream is crumbling before our very eyes as a capitalistic predator with a psychopathic love of money, power and attention starts to wreak havoc and revenge on our beloved nation, one that represents everything he despises: a (semi-functional) democracy; freedom of speech; rules to protect health, worker rights and the environment; and social programs to share at least some of the wealth.
There is every possibility the current trade war is but the opening salvo in a wider strategy to bring Canada to its knees and make us more amenable to the idea of becoming the 51st state. Will the MAGA regime be able to take over Canada without firing a shot? Think what will happen when bankruptcies and unemployment become rampant, the cost of groceries goes ballistic, and inequality is so extreme violence breaks out in the streets.
Trump is clearly following the dictator’s playbook: destroy free elections, take control of the judicial system, install oligarchs in key positions of power, purge the government of opponents, and use a multitude of threats to silence dissenters. The idea is to make everyone’s lives even more precarious and induce a general state of fear. Elections really do have consequences.
I do not want to live in fear. In fact, I will fight to my dying breath not to do so. To survive what lies ahead, we, as Canadians, must remember there is much more at play than pure economics, and we must be prepared to share. Freedom from tyranny comes with a cost.
FRANTS ATTORP,
Salt Spring
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Asleep at the switch
I agree strongly with the Green Party of Canada. Too many of us, politicians and public, you and me, are far too meek and mild in our general response to Trump taking over Canada by economic force.
We, the public, need to raise the issue and the bar on this. Denmark, for e.g., has already informed Trump the E.U. will fight with force if necessary to defend Greenland’s autonomy.
Send your views to Canadian politicians, (MPs and party leaders) and friends in your loop. Canada is asleep at the switch, or the public not sophisticated enough to realize Trump’s real danger to democracy.
RON HAWKINS,
Salt Spring
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Let’s buy Canadian
After the unprovoked economic aggression initiated by the Trump administration just weeks after Canada sent water bombers to help extinguish the L.A. wildfires, many islanders are rightfully going out of their way to avoid buying American goods.
Currently, evaluating where a product is made often means tracking down a fine print label and squinting to read it. Buying Canadian would be easier if Canada required highly visible country of origin labels on all food products. I created a petition calling for this requirement available at change.org/madeincanada.
RILEY DONOVAN,
Salt Spring
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Long-term solution
It’s a tariff war! The game that nobody wins!
Many of our neighbours to the south have been led to believe that a tariff is money paid by the country exporting goods that goes straight into the bank account of the importing nation. Sorry boys and girls, tain’t so. The tariff is paid by the IMPORTER to the government before the goods can be released from customs. Not many are willing or able to absorb this expense, so it is passed on to the consumer who buys it.
But why a tariff in the first place? The line of B.S. we are being fed is that it’s to make us stop the flow of drugs and other nasty stuff from Canada to the Excited States of Hysteria. But isn’t that the task of the American border security? Canada’s job is to control what comes into OUR country. I’m sure our border security officers are doing all they can to catch the bad guys bringing illegal stuff here that could make its way to the states.
It would appear that the issue is the inability of the U.S.A. to curb the flow of contraband and they need us to do it for them. I can’t see that as a long-term solution, so I guess they will need to build a wall from sea to shining sea, following the longest undefended border in the world. Our end will run straight into the Peace Arch directly below the words “Children of a Common Mother” on their side and “Brethren Living in Unity Together” on ours.
MIKE STACEY,
Salt Spring
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More solar info
I found last week’s short letter “Solar numbers in” from the Salt Spring Community Energy group interesting but insufficient.
It would be good to see the Driftwood do a longer article about this community-funded project and its outcome. The letter gave figures of electrical energy output over the past 10 years, but that total seemed fairly modest, but also hard to judge without more context such as: the cost of the initial equipment and installation; the value of the power generated over the same 10 years; how productive the panels are today versus when they were first installed; how many more years will this system be productive; are there upgrades available to improve the current output and how much would that cost; how many square feet of roof space does such a 21-kW system require; etc. This type of longer-term performance data for a system right in our neighbourhood would be helpful in considering a solar energy installation.
DARYL LOGAN,
Salt Spring