Tuesday’s letters: Not enough cars for Dreeshen’s liking?

Re. “Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen calls on Edmonton to cancel bike lane project,” April 17

The Town of Innisfail’s lead-off objective in the 2019 document “Trails and Pedestrian Master Plan” was to increase the quantity and quality of active transportation opportunities (walking, cycling, non-mechanized wheelchairs, and skateboarding) “because active transportation can support social relations, improve neighborhood livability, increase tourism and attract new business.” Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, Devin Dreeshen, the MLA for the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake constituency, feels that the resident urbanites of north Edmonton shouldn’t be afforded the same luxuries as his constituency’s taxpayers.

Article content

Apparently, there aren’t enough cars on Alberta’s roads for the minister’s liking. After having mandated that Alberta’s drivers should be free to choose their vehicle’s travelling speed best suited to them (by killing off the cash cow of photo radar), he now seems bent on adding a few bicyclists to his trophy wall.

Article content

When the one of the highest-volume orthopedic surgical centres in the province is shuttered by an agency that reports to Alberta Health and the Health minister, for three months starting last July, has yet to have an overnight in-patient arthroplasty admission in its roughly 40 beds, but the only sound from the minister and her ministry of activity-based funding is crickets, one has to wonder which lobbyist entity has prompted Minister Dreeshen to opine about Edmonton’s bike lanes?

Gerard Bolduc, Sherwood Park

Why join a failing democracy?

Alberta, please give your head a shake. The idea that we would explore the possibility of becoming the 51st state at a time when that country, the U.S.A., is in the process of abandoning its democracy, is lunacy. Individual and institutional freedoms are openly under attack south of the border. That country is absolutely in the control of one man, a convicted felon. How could aligning ourselves with all of this make sense? Please let all of us turn our collective efforts towards finding co-operative compromises within our own country.

Article content

Article content

Deanna Nemirsky, Edmonton

132 Ave. project makes no sense

Common sense: something most city councillors lack. Why is a rapidly growing city reducing a perfectly good four-lane avenue into a two-lane road with little parking, and two bike lanes? Must be a reaction to the few bike lane fanatics.

Duane P. Eberly, Edmonton

A guide to election lawn signs

l like to see lawn signs for the different candidates. Let’s start with the NDP: They haven’t a chance of forming a federal government as they don’t have enough support. Singh, at best, would hope to form a coalition with the Liberals should they get in. So, really, a vote for the NDP is a vote for the Liberals. After a decade of running the country into the ground, the Libs, with the same crew that supported Trudeau, want to subject us to another four years of mismanagement.

So, when you put out a lawn sign, it tells me a lot about that house owner. The NDP ones tell me, “l am really a closet Liberal.” The Liberal ones tell me that l don’t mind being shafted, have no idea of fiscal responsibility and would probably buy some swamp land in Florida from you because l am so gullible. The Conservative ones tell me, “enough is enough. Let’s get a party in that will get us out of the mess that the Liberals have gotten us into.

Article content

Charles Williams, Sherwood Park

MAGA threat will outlast Trump

I thought all the candidates at the federal leaders’ English debate on Thursday, made valid points providing their solutions for many of the important issues
affecting Canadians today. One point made by the leader of the Bloc Quebecois, however, is misguided. Mr. Blanchet shared that President Trump will be “gone,” out of office, in three-and-a-half years, and so, he surmised, any threat to Canada’s sovereignty and an escalating economic war, would be non-issues. It would once again be life as usual in Canada.

Naively, Mr. Blanchet failed to realize that the MAGA movement will not disappear. Even if and when Trump retires as president, he will still strongly influence MAGA thinking. Trump has already indicated that he may seek an additional four-year term, possibly precipitating a constitutional crisis. Trump and MAGA, have changed the course of Canada-U.S. relations forever and are not going away. Long after Trump is gone, MAGA will remain a continual threat to Canada’s economy and sovereignty for decades to come.

Article content

Ray Darwent, Edmonton

Have Liberals made life better?

The upcoming election is the most important election for our younger generation. We need to think about what our country will look like into the future for our kids and grandchildren. A federal government of any colour needs to work for all the citizens, not only in the present, but long into the future. So, people need to remember that the government works for us and the job of the government is to make our life easier.

When going to vote, you need to ask yourself one question: “Has the Liberal government made my life, in the last decade, easier and more affordable or am I struggling?” Ask that question and then vote, remembering we are voting for the future of our children and grandchildren. The answer should be easy to understand. Please get out and vote.

Craig Beieler, Edmonton

No problem with Easter voting

Re. “Election conflicts with Easter,” Letters, April 19

Voting during a religious observance annoys some, but I see it differently. Is any Christian action more faithful and courageous than attending the potently political Good Friday observance and going from there to cast a ballot for a member of Parliament? Can we really gather with friends late in the night to ask “Who will roll away the stone?” and not learn that we are called to act, though we don’t have to do everything ourselves?

Article content

What could be a more powerful example of Christian witness than gathering together to drag a cross to a polling place, leaving it at a respectable distance while going in together to vote, and then dragging the cross on to the next station? Finally, even a child standing with a parent will notice how the act of taking a folded ballot from the scrutineer is like the act of taking a wafer in the Eucharist or Communion.

It probably will never happen again, but there was nothing about casting a ballot on Good Friday that conflicted with my Christian faith.

Rev. Lloyd Lovatt (retired), Edmonton

No say on bike lanes, zoning

Shouldn’t the mayor and city councillors be hopping on a bus, taking the LRT, walking or riding a bicycle to work? As I understand, this is the design, plan and purpose of 15-minute districts, bike lanes, the new zoning bylaw and parking bylaw that allows the developer to decide how much on-site parking to have on their properties.

Do Edmontonians really need the challenge of getting from point A to B with a 10-minute frostbite warning, dodging windrows, heavy slush and slippery sidewalks? By all accounts, we the residents of Edmonton do not have a voice in these matters.

Article content

D. Boccabella, Edmonton

Carney failed after ‘bounty’ remark

During Thursday’s debate, Mr. Carney stated that China is the greatest threat to Canada. Yet, Mr. Carney recently supported a Liberal candidate who suggested that somebody should take a named Canadian citizen, on whom China had put a bounty, and deliver him to the Chinese consulate to collect the reward. I cannot vote for a party and a leader who thought this was OK.

Glenn Walmsley, St. Albert

Letters welcome

Article content