Letters, May 18

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/05/2022 (856 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Scandals deserve scrutiny

Re: A decade of dubious deals, disquieting dollars (May 14)

Reporter Ryan Thorpe has done a tremendous job of chronologically listing all the dealings of the Sam Katz (and his cronies) era at city hall that have cost taxpayers needless millions of dollars. I want to thank Mayor Brian Bowman for pursuing this matter when others have opted to let sleeping dogs lie. Whatever opinion you may have of Bowman, at the very least there is not the multitude of scandals and unethical dealings of the previous administration.

I hope that a way will be found to recover some of the millions of dollars from those individuals who were apparently in it for their own benefit, not for the citizens of Winnipeg. I hope those who had the wool pulled over their eyes and three times voted Katz for mayor are embarrassed for being deceived that he was good for Winnipeg.

To those who say he froze property taxes: look at what that has led to today. I never voted for him myself, firstly because his business background did not seem appropriate to running our city, followed by his numerous deals that seemed to favour business interests and business associates.

Gary McGimpsey

Winnipeg

Admiration no puzzle

We were out of town at the time of his passing, so we may have missed any letters to the editor that recognized the contribution that Adrian Powell’s “Big Crossword” made to getting us through the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We found that those big crosswords could last a week if approached with that intent, so they became part of our pandemic morning routine. A long walk every day, regardless of weather, followed by tea/coffee with homemade muffins, provided the physical and caffeinated stimulation to approach the puzzle. Researching the words that we were not familiar with took us to lunchtime, and made our subsequent conversations richer (sometimes confounding) with terms such as schwa and orrery, and inspired us to memorize the Greek alphabet, which, in turn, somewhat prepared us for subsequent variants of the coronavirus.

But what we appreciated most was the inclusion of Canadian references, challenging us to learn more about our country and the people who have made it what it is today.

So, a big thank you to Adrian Powell, and thank you to the Winnipeg Free Press!

Neil and Carol Trembath

Winnipeg

It was a tragic loss when Adrian Powell passed away. His puzzles were challenging and fun. Fortunate that you were able to find Derek Bowman — however, please keep looking for another crossword builder. I keep hoping that Bowman is only temporary. Surely I am not the only one who would like to see a better puzzle to solve online.

Thank you.

Marg Scott

Calgary, Alta.

Thomas columns appreciated

Re: Opposition parties play crucial roles (May 14)

I would like to congratulate both the Free Press and columnist Paul Thomas on the very informative nature of Thomas’s columns. For those of us without a higher education degree and subject to the increasingly biased and flawed nature of many articles written in print or online, it is refreshing in the extreme to be calmly and clearly advised of the background and nature of general government and political workings.

I heartily agree with him that “The legislature has come to resemble more a permanent election campaign and less a deliberative assembly.” I sincerely doubt that the kind of displays we are regularly subjected to, both provincially and nationally, actually gain the parties many voters, or sympathy.

I recall, even as a reasonably young person, that legislators such as the late Stanley Knowles, whose conduct and depth of knowledge garnered respect from all parties and enough voters to bring him back to Parliament time after time through successive governments, was the kind of representative that we need and deserve today. Our current crop of candidates and elected members would do well to read their history, or perhaps just listen to the advice of an educator such as Thomas.

Then, as my mother used to say, “Did you hear? Then heed.”

Margaret Mills

Headingley

Leaders set example

Re: Kinew says emphasis, Teitsma says offensive (May 12)

Here we are in 2022 teaching our kids that being a bully is wrong, yet we have the leader of the NDP in the legislature bullying another MLA.

When a person who suffers as a result of a speech impediment is singled out because of this condition, this is bullying and cannot, and should not, be tolerated! I wonder how many members of the NDP caucus enjoyed this childish stunt by their leader.

Though an apology was accepted by the Speaker, I was also amazed it was accepted without a reprimand. It is so easy to say, “I apologize,” and explain “I was only trying to emphasize and draw attention to the point,” but is that enough? What about the person who was bullied?

Bullied people have heard these insincere apologies many times before. These embarrassing situations cannot be easily forgotten or forgiven.

We have an election ahead and our choices are limited. Do we want a leader who is forgetful or a leader who bullies? I want neither. I want a person who is honest, has empathy, is a listener and acts.

Is anybody out there listening?

Arnie Schlippert

Winnipeg

No to $15

Raising the minimum wage to $15/hour in Manitoba or in Canada won’t solve a thing. All it will do is make it more expensive for small restaurants and businesses to keep up with the big restaurant chains like McDonald’s, or Tim Hortons and Loblaws, which can easily absorb those increases and pass them on to the consumers. The NDP and Liberals need to take an economics course. What we need in this province and country now, after the pandemic, is less government bureaucracy, spending and taxation.

Wayne Neumann

Winnipeg

Developments invite geese

Re: Fowl play in Memorial Park (May 13)

The deterrent mentioned in the article will not work. I saw a similar attempt in Midland, Ont., in the late 1990s, and the birds learned to ignore it.

Let us not forget that it is humans who have caused this problem. We build new developments, and the retention ponds for the resulting runoff that the geese find so attractive. We mow their lawns and parks for the short grass that the geese love to eat. We dump garbage and have landfills that geese will use for food. Then we complain (and try to kill them) when they take advantage of that environment.

I spend a lot of time along the Red River, where geese live and nest. When they come up from the river, they feed on the mown grass, not the long grass. For another example, when the Parker bush in Fort Garry was intact, there were no geese living there. With the bulldozing of the bush for housing development, the construction of the rapid transit corridor, and the creation of a retention pond to compensate for the runoff that those developments created, there are now numerous geese living in that pond.

Perhaps if we allowed grass to grow long (at least in city parks), encouraged tree and shrub planting in these spaces, and reduced our food waste, the goose problem would not be so great. If esthetics are so important, then we have to accept that the way we live is conducive to the flourishing of these “pests.”

Ian Toal

Winnipeg