Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 8, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba Look closer to home It is baffling to me that our provincial govern- ment is looking to Houston — additionally, trav- elling there — for answers towards people in our city who are experiencing homelessness. Cana- da’s own Medicine Hat has also all but eradicated their homeless problem. Would it not make more sense to look for answers closer to home? Surely there are more similarities between Winnipeg and Medicine Hat, than Winnipeg and Houston, Texas. DEBBIE AMMETER SIPLEY Cartier Population plays a part Re: NDP not getting to root cause of rising ER wait times (Aug. 6) If we are looking for a root cause, the elephant in the room is fact that Manitoba’s population has grown by approximately 300,000 or 26 per cent over the past 20 years (from 1.17 million in 2003 to 1.47 million in 2023). The federal government fuelled the growth through accelerated immigra- tion… not a bad thing in itself, but it happened relatively quickly, with a mixture of young and old added to the fold over the two decades. The new Canadians have brought along their own personal medical requirements, and it is obvious that this has put additional pressures on our already-challenged medical system, which was inexplicably downsized by the Pallister gov- ernment. We should have been building capacity in all service areas, not cutting it back, and now Manitobans seeking medical care are paying the price. The situation will become worse as our popula- tion grows and ages. The big question is why have our governments ignored the blatant need for additional medical supports when immigration numbers and population demographic stats were clearly pointing it out? JACK GOODMAN Winnipeg Women’s wars Re: Leadership qualities (Letters, Aug. 6); Gender gap at top of North American politics perplexing, pain-inducing (July 31) I applaud Mac Horsburgh (and Dan Lett) for their spirited support of women in leadership roles, but I question Horsburgh’s contention that all the wars throughout the centuries have been initiated by men. Has he forgotten Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher, all of whom were in pow- er when their countries were involved in wars? Perhaps both Mac Horsburgh and Dan Lett should read Why Leaders Fight by Michael C. Horowitz, Allan C. Stam and Cali M.Ellis. It is a study of wars between 1875 and 2004, and the startling fact is that 36 per cent of those wars came about when women were in charge of at least one of the combative countries. Gender has little or nothing to do with one’s abilities, or one’s proclivities. Not all men are aggressive, any more than all women are passive. Not all women are compassionate and not all men are authoritarian. Not all women are mere followers and not all men are born leaders. The only real difference between males and females is indicated by which bathroom they use at a restaurant! RENE JAMIESON Winnipeg What future awaits the young? Re: Disparity of city’s rec and culture funding dispiriting (Aug. 3) Thank you to Rebecca Chambers for the well- written and well-thought-out article. One has the sense that it came from both the heart and mind. The city has a long record of fiscal mismanage- ment and corruption. For example, the redirec- tion of water and waste taxes for purposes other than what was intended. The developers seem to have the city administration in their back pocket as we see urban sprawl go unchecked. The new recreation complex is sure to cost much more than estimated, but don’t forget that our mayor’s votes came mostly from the suburbs. Who will pay for the huge Kenaston folly? There are so few children now and what kind of a future is in store for them? GÉRALD DUFAULT Winnipeg Time to slow down Re: More bike lanes make for a better city (Aug. 4) As an avid cyclist, I am in total support of Brent Bellamy, who writes in his recent column that much more should be done to make Winni- peg’s streets safer. While putting forward the position that we need more protected bike lanes in Winnipeg, he also references the benefits of having reduced speed limits in the city. I recently came back from a brief trip to Hamilton and a couple of months ago I was in Calgary. I biked in both cities. There are numerous resi- dential areas in both cities where speed limits are either 30 or 40 kilometres an hour on a perma- nent basis. There has been well documented re- search that reduced speed limits result in fewer accidents for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. We need to get on with making Winnipeg a safer city as soon as possible. IRWIN COROBOW Winnipeg Nuclear power not a solution Re: Waste can’t stay where it is (Letters, Aug. 7) Mike Clarke is correct in his assertion that no one wants spent nuclear fuel in their backyard. I will go even further and say the problem is all aspects of nuclear energy. New reactors across the world are currently being built and not enough people are considering the complexity of dismantling plants and storing nuclear waste. Nuclear power produces wastes that pose unacceptable health hazards and eco- nomic costs for generations to come. Establishing these sites in First Nation communities with the promise of jobs and economic revitalization is taking advantage of people and clouding the bigger issues at hand. When we’re talking about nuclear waste storage, then all aspects of nuclear power need to be considered. How many times do we have to be reminded about Three Mile Island, Cher- nobyl and Fukushima, for example? Earthquake, human error and system malfunction all played a hand one way or another in these catastrophic events. Then there’s the issue of nuclear terrorism. Even a conventional bomb (or airplane crash) on a nuclear power plant could wreak tremendous havoc, contaminating a significant area with ra- dioactivity. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine is a chilling example of this threat. Every new technology is made from raw mate- rials and minerals. Wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars all require metals, some ex- tremely rare, which must be mined somewhere, creating new pollution. For example, a fully electric car uses five times more copper than a conventional gasoline car and there will be more than 20 million electric vehicle charging points by 2030, consuming over 250 per cent more cop- per than in 2019. Nuclear energy is not going to save us. Quit be- ing so gullible. There’s no easy fix. There needs to be a major shift in our tiny brains in order for society to do what needs to be done. Agriculture is a significant contributor to glob- al warming and we need to switch from animal production to plant-based production. We need to change our gluttonous consumer- ism. We need to be responsible beings on this planet and curb our population growth. We are wasting resources and destroying hab- itats that belong to future generations and other species that share this planet with us. LOIS TAYLOR Winnipeg Nuclear storage plan has merit Re: Is Manitoba willing to accept nuclear waste risks? (Think Tank, Aug. 2) Anne Lindsey has a long record of opposing the underground storage of nuclear waste, and I have no doubt this comes from a place of genuine concern. However, like all “anti” activists, Anne has the luxury of not having to say “yes” to any alternatives. Deep geological storage of nuclear waste is the gold standard being proposed worldwide. Saying no to this proposal means accepting the status quo, which currently means storing nuclear waste in pools at reactor sites. This commits the next thousand generations to maintaining these storage pools. If Anne has a better plan, I would sure like to hear it. GORDON BOYER Winnipeg LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WHAT’S YOUR TAKE? THE FREE PRESS WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU. The Free Press is committed to publishing a diverse selection of letters from a broad cross-section of our audience. The Free Press will also consider longer submissions for inclu- sion on our Think Tank page, which is a platform mandated to present a wide range of perspectives on issues of current interest. We welcome our readers’ feedback on articles and letters on these pages and in other sections of the Free Press ● Email: Letters: letters@winnipegfreepress.com Think Tank submissions: opinion@winnipegfreepress.com ● Post: Letters to the Editor, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, R2X 3B6 Please include your name, address and daytime phone number. ● Follow us on Twitter @WFPEditorials OUR VIEW YOUR SAY COMMENT EDITOR: RUSSELL WANGERSKY 204-697-7269 ● RUSSELL.WANGERSKY@WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A6 THURSDAY AUGUST 8, 2024 A VP pick who knows his neighbours I F the intent was to pick a vice-presidential running mate who’s a complete counterpoint to Republican nominee Donald Trump’s choice, JD Vance, it can fairly be argued presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris succeeded. In 60-year-old Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris has a potential VP who is an armed-forces veteran, a former high school teacher and football coach, a former U.S. congressman and two-term governor of a midwestern state with a population of less than six million. He has also been described in numerous media reports as “aggressively normal,” a label that most definitely sets him apart from both halves of the Trump/Vance ticket. In the lead-up to Harris’s announcement on Tuesday, Walz would not have been considered a front-runner in the Democratic running-mate sweepstakes. That distinction likely belonged to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a smoothly com- bative orator who represents a key battleground state, or perhaps Gov. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former astronaut from another swing state that will very much be up for grabs this November. Walz seems a strategically safe choice. There was no question Harris’s running mate was going to be a white male, given the barrier-breaking her own candidacy already represents. And within the white male demographic, Walz is plain- spoken with an aw-shucks delivery but capable of landing a verbal haymaker — he is, after all, the Democrat who in a recent TV interview described Trump and Vance as a couple of “weird” guys, launching a talking point that is now commonly used against the GOP tandem. After a whirlwind process that saw her ef- fectively secure her party’s nomination and vet a wide field of potential running mates in just a couple of weeks, Harris’s next pressing task will be to introduce her newly chosen campaign partner to the American public. A poll conducted for NPR and PBS earlier this month showed seven in 10 Americans don’t know enough about Walz to even have an opinion about him. That will change, quickly, as the newly formed team begins to tour the country in advance of the Democratic Party convention (Aug. 19-22) in Chicago. Harris’s team will tout Walz’s progres- sive record on such issues as reproductive rights, gun control, climate change and clean energy, while Republicans will use those same issues to frame the Democrat as an extremist, and will also assail Walz for what they view as a weak response as Minnesota’s governor during the 2020 riots in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. If Tuesday’s introductory rally in Philadelphia is any indication, Americans can expect a whole lot of folksy charm and no-nonsense rhetoric from Walz. While it’s true, based on past U.S. history, that the second name on either party’s ballot actually has almost no significant impact on the outcome of a presidential election, the selection of the Minnesota governor as Harris’s running mate does create an interesting possibility for Canadians. With Walz having worked actively to enhance trade relations between his state and its northern neighbour (Canada is Minnesota’s largest trading partner) and Harris having lived in Montreal briefly during her teenage years, a Democratic win in November would ensure an administration with a working familiarity of, and perhaps even a productive respect for, Canada. That’s a marked difference from what a second term for combat- ively isolationist Trump would bring. The potential for a healthy cross-border rela- tionship is just one more reason reason for Cana- dians to keep a close watch on an election whose impact on U.S. foreign relations — including with this country — will be massive. EDITORIAL Published since 1872 on Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis AP PHOTO / MATT ROURKE Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ;