‘Prioritize what’s right’
Dear Editor:
I am writing to express my concern and disappointment regarding the recent voting decision made by Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong.
While Mr. Chong has commendably advocated against authoritarianism and championed democracy in his capacity as shadow minister of foreign affairs, his decision to vote along party lines with his Conservative caucus and vote against the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement raises questions.
Contrary to the anticipated support for a policy aimed at fostering increased trade between Canada and Ukraine, Mr. Chong’s vote appears to deviate from his established stance against authoritarian regimes.
It is perplexing why he would vehemently oppose China but not extend support to Ukraine during a critical period of conflict with Russia.
In the past, conservatives prided themselves on Canada standing up to totalitarian dictatorships. The recent shift in stance, exemplified by Mr. Chong’s vote, raises concerns about the consistency of guiding principles within this political faction.
In the realm of foreign affairs, we require representatives who exhibit leadership, unwavering commitment to democracy, and adherence to principled decision-making.
It is essential that our leaders prioritize what is right over partisan considerations.
John Mifsud,
Fergus
Who is Poilievre?
Dear Editor:
Who is the real Pierre Poilievre?
Is he the filtered-lens vision of a family man who will bravely go in search of “it” and bring it safely “home”?
Or is he the attack-dog parliamentarian who twists real facts into excuses for blaming the Canadian government for a plethora of dire events, including terrorism?
Oh, and is he the scary guy who “chewed up and spit out” a journalist who asked him if he would take responsibility for calling a car crash near the U.S. border “terrorism” without fact-checking? (Turns out he took no responsibility, but blamed the news media for their integrity).
I keep trying to visualize this man as prime minister. But I seem to have mislaid my rose-coloured glasses.
Arlene Callaghan,
Fergus
‘Heartbreaking’
Dear Editor:
My son Gregory Blagdon has attended the Harriston Day Program full time (five days a week) for 20 years; he is 43 years old.
Now with this closure coming next month, has anyone thought where are we going, we weren’t offered options or alternatives? The answer is, nowhere and we as parents are left with being creative.
Some will stay at home, parents will resign from their employment, while others leave their communities to private day programs and at a cost. Is no one wondering or even caring what is in their future days and weeks ahead ?
From productive days at the day program with friends and co-workers, it stops here, and no place to go but possibly sitting at home.
Stopping day programs are hiding our children, and that’s a shame; no one wants to be a recluse.
Multiple concerns of money from CLGW, but what about future costs for the parents?
Where is the money coming from for our children to attend Day Programs outside of our communities ?
Averaging $88 to $118 per day, sure enough there is ODSP and Passport funds but for my son to attend three days a week in a year it will cost a total of $17,000, with no money left for parent relief, extra program funding or day-to-day items. No one has been prepared for these costs, especially the aging parent who has retired.
Why should our children have less and be without their friends, to have a productive day, the feeling of self-worth, and being happy ?
We are families advocating for the rights of a place to go, not to have our children shut in our homes, to be invisible.
We are like refugees, now without a place to go, displaced, with no choices or options given. We didn’t ask for this conflict of monies and politics.
While our country helps others it is forgetting about the innocence of these individuals, and this is heartbreaking.
Greg Blagdon and Victoria Waltham-Kingsley,
Harriston
‘Say no to capitalism’
Dear Editor:
Regarding the latest push by a certain county councillor and a resident to open a cannabis store in Centre Wellington using the “flies into the face of capitalism” theory not to allow one to open.
They must be trolling the gutters somewhere to get their “great response in favour” numbers.
There is absolutely no real financial benefit to be gained by Centre Wellington and if you factor in negatives – like petty crime, vandalism and begging – that have occurred around other stores we should seriously question the motive behind this latest push.
Most people have witnessed “capitalism” at work lately, as they can barely afford their mortgages and grocery costs and the last thing they need is their youth getting high on this product and possibly moving on to other drugs, which typically happens.
In this case, it’s time to say no to capitalism.
Malcolm McCulloch,
Fergus
‘Long-term interest’
Dear Editor:
As a mother and grandmother with a long-term interest in the environment I am concerned that our governments aren’t doing enough to curtail emissions.
Not only should there be a cap on emissions from oil and gas companies, there should be much better mass transit so that the public wouldn’t be buying from oil and gas companies.
At the upcoming COP28 UN climate Conference starting Nov. 30 our government representatives must show a real interest in supporting mass transit and conservation of energy and resources.
Helen Hansen,
Guelph
Traffic ‘travesty’
Dear Editor:
The public budget meeting for Mapleton on Nov. 6 was certainly informative. It also allowed me an opportunity to discuss the nightmare traffic problems in Alma with councillors Michael Martin and Marlene Ottens.
I gave Martin a letter from Don Kudo, county engineer, addressed to me stating he is examining all avenues (pun intended) and I told him of MPP Matthew Rae’s letter to me that he will forward concerns to the appropriate planners.
Martin will examine the desperate, ill-conceived truck route and Ottens suggested that I come up with a solution. I am the Senior Citizen of the Year, not the senior planner of the year.
The crucible of publicly confused representatives is their lack of action to resolve this travesty.
The Christmas season’s focus is on a child. Is it the responsibility of this child, at the intersection of Elora Road and Wellington Road 17, to ask for your help? Planning and praying isn’t working.
Jacobus de Bock,
Alma
Children need love
Dear Editor:
RE: Students with ‘babies’, Sept. 28.
I think it’s a great idea that schools prepare students to be successful parents when they grow older. Many parents today are not adequately prepared for having children and many parents are very young.
CWDHS is offering a course where students can learn the basics of parenting, including hands-on experience. One might argue that students are only taking this course for an easy credit, but it’s not an easy credit and it’s much more than a credit. It prepares one for the future: once you have one child, you will always be a parent, barring tragedies.
It is really a good thing to see that CWDHS is offering this course. It is also a sad thing, however, to see that this course may be necessary. Shouldn’t good parenting be taught in our homes? Are our homes failing us? Do schools need to take over this fundamental responsibility of parenting? These are all questions that are difficult to answer in today’s day and age and yet they are necessary questions.
Children are fragile and need love. That ability to love does not always come naturally to us, so that’s why it needs to be taught. Whether that be in school or in the home, that knowledge is necessary and useful.
Evan VanWoudenberg,
Guelph
Sustainable
Dear Editor:
Do you know what SDGs are? SDGs are sustainable development goals. These goals were made in 2012 by the United Nations in order to make the world a better place. SDG 14, “Life Below Water, aims to reduce marine pollution, protect and restore the oceans ecosystem.
The United Nations plans to do this by reducing ocean acidification, encouraging sustainable fishing, conserving coastal and marine areas, and ending subsidies contributing to overfishing and illegal fishing. Those are some of the development goals for SDG 14, and they are aimed to be finished by 2020 or 2030.
As is obvious, 2020 is over and that is a problem. Our government promised that they would finish the protect and restore ecosystems, sustainable fishing,conserve coastal and marine areas and subsidies contributing to overfishing goals by 2020. The majority of them have not been achieved. That means that we, the general public, have to step up and solve some of these problems. Only 7.65% of the world’s coastal areas have been protected, but the goal was to save 10% by 2020.
So please, step up and save our oceans. They take up 70% of the planet. Without them we don’t stand a chance at survival. Help us with our goal to support SDG 14 and donate to the cause or spread awareness. Contact the newspaper and write a letter like I am doing now to let people know what’s going on.
By buying local and certified fish, you can support small-scale producers by shopping in local markets and shops. Stay informed, follow your local news and stay in touch with the Global Goals online or on social media at @TheGlobalGoals. Find out more at globalgoals.org/goals/14-life-below-water.
Grace Hons,
Grade 8, John Black PS, Fergus
A good move
Dear Editor:
RE: Pharmacists can now prescribe for six more minor conditions, Nov. 9, 2023
I fully support the provincial government’s decision to give pharmacists more prescribing power. I think it’s a major step in building an efficient health care system, and I’m sure that it’ll take away a lot of the stress around these minor, but quickly progressing ailments.
From personal experience, most doctor’s appointments that I’ve scheduled were booked for between one and four weeks after the date booked. Waiting more than a couple days to receive care for these easily diagnosed ailments is not optimal, even though optimal health care is what Canada consistently strives for.
Citizens won’t be the only ones benefiting, either. The Ontario Medical Association should recognize that good health care is achieved by teamwork.
Part of their responsibility as physicians is to give minor cases to those who are entirely capable of dealing with them, and to focus their efforts on patients who need more advanced care, especially patients with long-lasting or chronic conditions.
You would think that they’d be more interested in reducing the stress of their weighty career.
Not to mention, most pharmacists go to school for between four and eight years, which isn’t much less than a physician would. If a pharmacist couldn’t handle these minor responsibilities, I think I would be pretty disappointed in Canada’s education system.
I hope to see more prescribing power to our undervalued pharmacists in the future, and more opportunities like this for Canadians to learn how to best care for themselves.
Siera Vanleeuwen,
Mapleton
Call for peace
Dear Editor:
This year, Advent begins on Dec. 3. Advent is the four Sundays taking us to Christmas.
It is a time of getting ready to remember the birth of Jesus.
Christians believe Jesus is the Prince of Peace, whose yet-to-be-revealed kingdom will bring peace to the Earth. We look forward to that day, we anticipate that day, with eager longing.
The day when the war in Ukraine will be no more, when the war between Israel and Hamas will be no more. The day when the violence in Sudan, Yemen, Myanmar, Haiti will be no more. The day when peace will rule in our cities, our towns, throughout the countryside. The day when the peoples of the world will not learn war anymore.
That day is hard to imagine, hard to believe possible, yet it is exactly that promise the angels sang of in the skies above Bethlehem, “Peace on Earth, goodwill among humankind.”
This Advent we are invited to lean into, to hope towards, to orient our lives towards the coming reign of peace. We are called to be agents of that promised peace in our homes and neighbourhoods.
We are called to live towards that peace in our town, our province, our country and in the world.
Peter Bush,
Fergus
Ditch destruction
Dear Editor:
I would like to inform my fellow Mapleton citizens that, in spite of what it may look like, a hostile army did not bivouac in front of my house.
No, rather, the township has obviously adopted a “take-no-prisoners” approach to routine ditch maintenance. Much to my surprise, the very large piece of earth-moving equipment that I thought was merely clearing the muck out of the bottom of the ditch by the road was actually bending, stripping, pushing, breaking – simply mauling – the shrubs and trees that were growing on the top of the ditch.
The aftermath reminds me of a hurricane I lived through in my distant youth – broken branches, whole trunks of trees lying on my lawn, shredded bark littering the ground.
For a paranoid moment I thought the township had singled my residence out for exclusive treatment, but the next day the heavy equipment was back, proceeding up the road to my neighbour’s, wreaking the same havoc.
Now, for the life of me, I cannot fathom the rationale behind this exercise in destruction.
The plants were not growing in the ditch; in fact, they were barely overhanging the ditch. Any leaves they shed are washed downstream in the spring flood.
So why on earth use a cannon to kill a fly?
I hope someone from the township will take the time to explain how and why this policy was adopted, and I hope that, in the future, the township will consult the residents before it undertakes such wholesale slaughter.
Richard F. Giles
RR 1, Alma
Traffic nightmare persists
Dear Editor:
The public budget meeting for Mapleton on Nov. 6 was certainly informative. It also allowed me an opportunity to discuss the nightmare traffic problems in Alma with councillors Michael Martin and Marlene Ottens.
I gave Martin a letter from Don Kudo, county engineer, addressed to me stating he is examining all avenues (pun intended) and I told him of MPP Matthew Rae’s letter to me that he will forward concerns to the appropriate planners.
Martin will examine the desperate, ill-conceived truck route and Ottens suggested that I come up with a solution. I am the Senior Citizen of the Year, not the senior planner of the year.
The crucible of publicly confused representatives is their lack of action to resolve this travesty.
The Christmas season’s focus is on a child. Is it the responsibility of this child, at the intersection of Elora Road and Wellington Road 17, to ask for your help?
Planning and praying isn’t working.
Jacobus de Bock
Alma