Letters: Carney must stop poking the Trump bear

Re: “PM softening us up for failure on U.S. trade talks” (Tasha Kheiriddin, April 23)

In the run-up to the last federal election, Mark Carney was touted by supporters as the right person to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump. How is that working out?

It has been months since we have had any direct trade negotiations with  American officials, and with the CUSMA free trade pact up for review shortly, Canada is not yet at the table.

The Mexican government has been in bilateral talks with the Americans for months and may well fare better than Canada in the CUSMA negotiations.

Carney is indeed right that Canada needs to expand its trade relationships with other countries, but the current U.S. administration is just a blip in the long and storied friendship between our two countries. Come the next U.S. election, a more Canada friendly government in Washington may mend the fences, so to  speak, and we may start resuming better trade relations with our neighbour.

By continually poking the bear, Carney risks placing all Canadians in the unenviable position of being left out and ignored by our largest trading partner.

Clever words, speeches in Davos and well-written press releases, as brilliant as they sound, will not put bread on the table of the Canadian worker.

Allen Rubin, Westmount

High bar to clear for Santé Québec

Re: “Santé Québec says it will reinstate ER indicator on medical dashboard” (The Gazette, April 8)

The fact Santé Québec set a goal of zero for how many patients are on ER stretchers for more than 24 hours tells me they don’t know the realities of emergency rooms.

Many factors contribute to this problem — such as available beds on hospital wards, the number of patients waiting for beds to open in CHSLDs, and the percentage of hospitalized patients that do not need to be there. 

Until those factors are addressed, Santé Québec will never achieve this impossible goal.

Nathan Friedland, Roxboro

Turning tragedy into a triumph

Re: “Polytechnique scholarship inspires student to become an ambassador for women” (Allison Hanes, April 16)

Many Montrealers painfully remember the École Polytechnique tragedy of Dec. 6, 1989, when a monstrous gunman picked his victims because they were women.

It is heartwarming and inspiring that, 36 years later, Ruby Sinclair became the recipient of the Claudette MacKay-Lassonde Excellence Scholarship for undergraduate women in engineering.

Today, Sinclair’s goal is to make a difference and influence future female students in the field. She is indeed a perfect example of how a tragedy can one day be turned into triumph.

Vivianne M. Silver, Côte-St-Luc

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