Today’s letters: Buying Canadian fashion is one answer to Trump

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Demand is there for Canadian goods

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Re: Ottawa’s guide to shopping local amid a potential U.S.-Canada trade war, Feb. 6.

Donald Trump has put “buying Canadian” on everyone’s mind and our politicians are finally promoting it. No one has missed Doug Ford’s slogan cap (“Canada is not for sale”), which gets an A+ for being designed here. But if we want the full economic benefit, then we need manufacturing to be homegrown as well. At Ottawa’s Victoire Boutique, it has been our raison-d’etre since 2006 — to be a hub for Canadian-made as well as Canadian-designed fashion.

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It’s been reported that “the demand isn’t there” for goods manufactured in Canada. The continued success of our shop, and many others like ours across the country, offers a counter-argument to this narrative. Fashion is an esthetic expression but for many who buy Canadian-made there is value also in their underlying choices.

Customers are driven to participate in the Canadian fashion industry because of the known ripple effects of shopping this way: local prosperity, dynamic neighbourhoods, sustainable growth, fair wages, supportive workplaces, community collaboration, economic diversity and — of course — as an act of patriotism. An act of resistance to the Trump bullying tactics can be gladly added to the long list of reasons to shop local.

Buying Canadian-made is to be celebrated as often as possible when making financial decisions. Will it cost you more? Sometimes. Will it have much more worthwhile and admirable downstream effects? Always. And won’t it be fun to be sticking it to the Trump administration in an item of clothing that allows you to showcase your ideas, values and beauty?

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Régine Paquette and Katherine Frappier, co-owners, Victoire Boutique, Ottawa

Trump’s threats are everyone’s fight

While I cannot, at age 81, do some things I used to do, I can still fly the flag, wear a flag pin, shop Canadian and make known my opinion about this injustice being threatened against our country. You can too. This is everyone’s fight.

Sharon Cochrane, Ottawa

Canadian snowbirds should come home

Snowbirds travelling to the United States for holidays can be one of our greatest influences on Donald Trump. Ask them to come home now and spend their dollars in Canada. Impose a travel tax on Canadians going for a holiday in the U.S. Make it large.

Hit the U.S. where it hurts. Bring back Canadian snowbirds and keep them here.

Arnold Bullock, Brockville

Other ways we can keep Canada strong

Each day, I think of new choices I can make in my contribution to the fight. For example, I’ll choose frozen vegetables grown and processed here, mandarins from Morrocco instead of oranges from Florida, more prairie-grown pulses, and Ontario wine. I certainly will not choose a Tesla.

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In terms of services, I’m using Skip instead of Doordash, watching CBC and Britbox over anything Fox network produces, and will take a local taxi instead of an Uber.

I’m sure that other readers will have thought of  ways we can each contribute to keeping Canada strong and free.

Kathleen Alboim, Ottawa

Beware of Doug Ford’s LRT promise

Re: Ford, Crombie promise to take OC Transpo’s financial burden provincial, Feb. 4.

https://ottawacitizen.com/business/local-business/opinionThe recent election promise by Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford to take over responsibility for Ottawa’s LRT must sound like manna from heaven, but is it?

There is a cost. Citizens of Ottawa will lose control over an asset they invested more than $1 billion in. Decisions on fares to access the LRT, schedules and expansions to Kanata and Barrhaven will be made in Toronto by Metrolinx, not by an Ottawa city council accountable to its residents.

Metrolinx runs Ontario’s GO system reasonably well but its management of the Eglington LRT project has been controversial, with enormous cost over-runs, delays and lack of transparency. This record is not reassuring.

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While provincial support for our floundering transit system would be welcome, lets make sure that local accountability remains. Surely we can do both.

Alex Cullen, Ottawa

Metrolinx doesn’t have a strong record

Think carefully before handing things over to Metrolinx. Its record in Toronto has not been stellar. It has been way over budget and parts of Toronto’s system have been delayed years.

This may help the city’s coffers but it wont help the state of Ottawa’s transit system. Please check out Metrolinx’s track record before accepting this questionable offer.

Judy Bernstein, Ottawa

Yes, let’s build Ottawa’s Music Hall of Fame

Re: Build a Music Hall of Fame in the ByWard Market, Feb. 4.

I enjoyed Jean-Pierre Allard’s article on a potential music hall of fame in the Market. It can be anywhere — but it should be somewhere!

Bordy Semchyshyn, Ottawa

Heed the warning about Lansdowne 2.0

Re: Latest Lansdowne plan repeats the errors of the past, Feb. 3.

Repeating the mistakes of the past is what our city council appears set to do, unless residents heed Neil Saravanamuttoo’s warning.

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Despite an abundance of due diligence, words of caution and skepticism from the community and some councillors, the Lansdowne 2.0 proposal continues to go forward with no alternatives. Alarmingly, council has never directed city staff to cost the maintenance of the facility as a possible tax-saving alternative instead of demolition. In fact, it was confirmed at this week’s finance and corporate services committee that a motion to direct staff to explore a Plan B had come up at a much earlier council meeting and was defeated. It lost by one vote.

Is it not time for your councillor to hear form you?

Richard Moon, Ottawa

Thanks, Forest Hill, for my husband’s care

Re: Long-term care — Will 2025 be the year we fix it? Jan. 27.

We have several years’ experience of family members living in long-term care.

Recently, my husband, who was in long-term care, took a turn for the worse and was ambulanced to the Civic hospital campus. Once we discussed all options for his end-of-life care, we learned a valuable lesson from the doctor. We were thinking of May Court or Ruddy-Shankman hospice care but were advised it could take a while to get in. My husband’s end of life was imminent.

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We were told that nursing homes in Ontario are extremely capable of providing end-of-life and hospice care, so we returned to his beautiful private room at Forest Hill long-term care, filled with his family pictures, and were treated royally.

The nurses, personal support workers and management team treated us with kindness, patience and gave the utmost care to my husband. I was assured that he would be kept comfortable, and he was treated with amazing respect and dignity. I never left his bedside until his passing four days later.

We all know long-term care homes are short-staffed and deal with complex cases. I would like to complement Forest Hill for making a very sad family feel comforted through this experience.

Edna MacKenzie, Stittsville

Election promises must be specific

Re: Ontario election promises, Feb. 5.

As expected, most election “promises” are vague or only mention amounts to be spent. Any idiot can spend money. What is mostly lacking are plans for specific results.

Politicians who really want to implement change should look to Peter Drucker’s famous slogan: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” For example, in health care, what is the desired target for the number of family physicians per 100,000 population? What is the current value? What exactly needs to be done to close the gap? What will it cost? How long will it take?

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Publish targets and actuals on a regular basis. Defining and tracking the right set of metrics will focus everyone involved on a clear common goal.

Most politicians have a single focus: to get elected. This means they will make wonderful but hazy promises to get your vote, then spend their time in power hiding in the haze. Demand specifics. Hold these charlatans to account.

Keith Dawson, Ottawa     

Donate that cheque to a political party

Re: Letter, What to do with that cheque from Ford? Feb. 4.

A letter writer asked what to do with the cheques Doug Ford has been sending out. My answer: make a donation of $200 to your preferred provincial party.

You will receive a receipt for this donation from the party. In April, file the receipt when you submit your tax return. Political donations are treated very generously. You will get a refundable tax credit of $150. So, the preferred party receives $200 and the generous donor benefits by $150. Looks like a win-win to me for the politial party and the donor.

Of course, Ford’s ploy turns up on the debit side of the provincial accounts.

John Hollins, Gloucester

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Donate that cheque to a charity

Times have been tough for many and are about to get tougher. When those $200 cheques from the province arrive in this household, the money will be immediately passed on to the food bank. Think what a difference it would make if everyone who was not in absolute need of that money donated it to a charity.

And don’t forget the tax receipt for a charitable donation.

Eleanor Bennett, Ottawa

Why is city council just now waking up to tariffs?

As of today, Donald Trump has been the president of the United States for just under three weeks. And it has been more than 40 days since Trump stated that he was going to levy a 25 per cent tariff against Canada.

I was shocked when I read in the Citizen that the City of Ottawa has just now “voted to prepare a response strategy to tariffs.” And this only came after “an emergency motion asking staff to prepare an impact plan.”

The irony is that the city only started this action a day after the tariff
was postponed. Where has been the council for the past 40+ days?

About 100 years ago, a forest fire started near Almonte, 50 kilometres
west of Ottawa. It continued to burn for weeks until it got to the creek
next to what is Cabotto’s restaurant on Hazeldean Road. As an analogy, if
this happened tomorrow, the fire would be over before our council would
have come around to passing an emergency motion to prepare a strategy to
fight the fire.

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Peter Fedirchuk, Kanata

Let’s fix our internal trade barriers now

Re: It’s time to ‘tear down interprovincial trade walls,’ Feb. 6. 

Why are we still mired in interprovincial trade barriers — and the accompanying acrimonious behaviours?  Surely we can agree to free trade amongst provinces.

Gary Thubron, Smiths Falls

Start by fixing interprovincial speed limits

Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand says that interprovince exchanges will be improved in 30 days. I think this can be done in one day, if provinces really want.

One local example is the ridiculous rules for speed limits on the Macdonald-Cartier bridge and its entrance ramps. Entering Québec, the limit is 40km/h on King Edward Avenue, then 50 km/h up to the middle of the bridge, then 70 km/h into Highway 5.

Coming back, the limit is 70km/h on Highway 5 up to the middle of the bridge, down to 50km/h for about 500 metres, then 40 km/h for the next 400 metres, then 30 km/h for 300 metres, then back up to 40 km/h once on King Edward. (Yes, the 30 km/h zone is only on one side of the road.)

There is no good reason for so many speed limit changes within one kilometre: just negligence, stupidity and lack of respect for travellers. For Ottawa, it is a neat opportunity to set up speed traps. Let’s improve that, at least!

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Richard Asselin, Ottawa

‘Czar’ doesn’t sound very Canadian

Re: Canada’s new fentanyl czar will ‘absolutely’ be appointed within 30 days, says public safety minister, Feb. 6.

How can Canada have a fentanyl “czar”? Who came up with that title? It sounds so … American or Russian. There’s got to be a better official Canadian title.

OK, not “rapporteur” — but surely something other than czar.

Claude Paradis, Ottawa

Control your guns at the border, Donald

Appropriately, Canada is to appoint a “fentanyl czar” to increase border control against drug smuggling and thereby respond to President Donald Trump’s requirements for avoiding tariffs. But this is incomplete, when Canada is the recipient of illegal guns from the U.S., increasing violence here.

Trump should be pressured by the Canadian government to increase the border control of guns being smuggled in from America.

Roman Mukerjee, Ottawa

Opt for drones, not U.S. fighter jets

Re: Letter, Put fighter-jet deal with U.S. on hold, Feb. 4.

It’s a smart suggestion, however it is only a gambit. A wiser move, or a long-term objective, should be “cancel the deal.” Hundreds of billions of dollars can be saved by stopping this purchase, and instead going the route of the future.

Look at what Ukraine is doing with drones; the days of the fighter-jet are over. Canada has the expertise to build its own drones. And for the die-hards, we have fighter-jets that we have maintained for many years already. We can continue to do so until we are satisfied the drones are able to do the defensive job.

Peter Vanderburg, Ottawa

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