YOU SAID IT: Federal budget puzzlers

FEDERAL BUDGET PUZZLERS

Some takeaways from the federal budget announcement:

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There are some good points no doubt, but how they can keep the industrial carbon tax and axe the two billion trees agenda is beyond comprehension. Trees eat up a lot of carbon, and considering how many were lost to forest fires this year alone, it should be a no-brainer to fulfil that mandate.

Secondly is the useless gun buyback program where no criminal loses their guns, only the law-abiding gun owners who have followed all of the rules. They have budgeted $742 million for this, and that the cost will balloon to well over a billion, I’m sure . Substantial savings there if this was scrapped.

An additional $150 million for the CBC? Enough said there.

BRIAN CLARK
BARRHAVEN

REMEMBER THE ANIMALS, TOO

In Confederation Park at the corner of Laurier and Elgin streets in downtown Ottawa is the Animals in War Dedication Memorial inaugurated in 2012. It pays tribute to animals that served and died alongside their human comrades in war. They are remembered by the purple poppy.

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Three bronze plaques depict horses, mules, dogs and carrier pigeons. Their footprints are stamped into the surrounding concrete, representing their marks on the battlefield. A bronze, life-sized statue of a medical service dog, wearing a replica First World War medical backpack stands guard over the Dedication.

Local resident Lloyd Swick (1922 -2017), a veteran of the Second World War and the Korean War, was the driving force behind the memorial with local artist/sculptor David Clendining.

After the ceremony at the National War Memorial, walk down Elgin Street to the Animals in War Dedication. Wear purple.

DYAN CROSS
OTTAWA

CAN DRIVE LIKE ADULTS AGAIN

As Nov. 14 approaches and the end of photo radar in Ontario, I have a perverse sense of joy. We can drive like adults again. Drive to the conditions on the road, the weather, those around us (within reason).

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What do we call Nov. 14? Liberation Day? The Ottawa Indy? F1 Ottawa Race Day? All to the tune of Happy Days Are Here Again.

PETER SHARP
OTTAWA

SLAP IN FACE TO VOTERS

I have always found it interesting when a member of Parliament crosses the floor, joining another party. Whatever the reason the member crosses, it dismisses the voters’ democratic vote to represent them in Parliament. When the voters voted for Chris d’Entremont, he represented the Conservatives, and that’s what they wanted. Not the Liberals. To cross the floor is a slap in the face to the voters who voted him in. Their vote has been thrown away until the next election.

If a member wishes to cross the floor, his intentions are told. A byelection should be held. In this case, d’Entremont would run as a Liberal against a Conservative candidate and the voters would be able to once again exercise their democratic right to decide who represents them. No doubt results of these byelections would prove interesting. Would they remain the same or follow the members who crossed?

BRUCE MAY
MONCTON, N.B.

HAVE YOUR SAY

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