Wednesday’s letters: Enthusiasm for Maple Leaf was flagging

That was disappointing. On Saturday, Canada’s National Flag Day, I bedecked my car with our Maple Leaf flag and drove around the city anticipating that my fellow Edmontonians would also be out and about embracing and celebrating being Canadian – akin to Canada Day or when the Oilers are doing well in the playoffs against a U.S. team.

Sadly, I saw no one else displaying our flag. I know it was cold, which would be an excuse anywhere else but not Edmonton in February. Frankly, this past Saturday it was important to show our support for Canada. A failure on such a simple gesture. How utterly disappointing.

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David Weir, Edmonton

DOGE cuts target middle class

I take offence at Malcolm Mayes’ tone-deaf cartoon referencing The Shining. Terrifying Donny bursting through the door with an axe labelled “DOGE cuts” and a scared damsel with a knife labelled “U.S. bureaucracy.”

As if it were so simple. The knife should read “middle-class jobs,” because that’s what is happening. Can you imagine a provincial or federal government in Canada coming into power and rounding up immigrants, firing thousands of middle-class government workers, threatening our neighbours and essentially ruining thousands of lives. And then suggest it’s just bureaucracy that’s the target? Wow, so not funny, Mayes!

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Bob Jahrig, St. Albert

Poor project planning hinders all

The planned simultaneous rehabilitation of five of Edmonton’s bridges will have a negative effect on far more than Edmonton’s downtown businesses. Traffic traversing the city core, traffic coming into and out of the city’s two major hospitals, traffic generated by the University of Alberta and simple commuter traffic will all suffer major delays.

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In combination with newly announced extended complete closures of multiple major west-end intersections, these bridge closures will place a huge burden on Edmontonians simply trying to go about their business.

And why is this happening? Simply put, this impending gridlock is the result, again, of extremely poor planning and execution on the part of city administration, aided and abetted by an impotent and unimaginative city council.

It is inconceivable that a plan to stage the bridge closures cannot be developed. Only in Edmonton.

Mitch Lavoie, Edmonton

Multiple school systems wasteful

Re. “One school system would save money,” Letters, Feb. 15

I totally agree. One public school system. I have thought for the last 50 years that these two systems are very discriminating as well as costing taxpayers more money than is necessary. If you want to send your children to a private school, that would be your choice, but you have to pay for it. In that case, one should not have to pay school taxes and the tuition fees should be, at least partly, tax-deductible.

Ghi Boissevain, Strathmore 

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