Dear Editor,
I think your decision to publish Mr. Hepple and Mr. MacDougall’s excellent letters back-to-back (January 9 issue) perfectly illustrates a problem within our society that grows worse with every passing year.
Although neither of those gentlemen said so explicitly, they both raise concerns springing from some of us holding beliefs that can only be characterized as “I don’t care who gets hurt as long as I get what I want.”
MP Alex Ruff’s latest mistake is just one more example of that from him.
Rather than simply acknowledging (as Mr. MacDougall did) that weapons of war do not belong in the hands of civilians, Mr. Ruff quibbles about what an assault style rifle is while wondering why you can’t have those ones?
Why oppose sensible gun control? Because public safety be damned if the Conservatives can get more votes by calling Liberals the Gun Grabbers.
MPs are expected to put preventing all Canadians from getting hurt ahead of what they think they personally need to get re-elected. So are Conservative Leaders.
And this on top of Mr. Ruff’s laughable position on Climate Change. He supports Pierre Poilievre’s goal to make it much worse – by cancelling the Carbon Tax. Those two both know that worse Climate Change means more innocent people dying. From The Guardian:
“Climate breakdown drove the annual global temperature above the internationally agreed 1.5C target for the first time last year, supercharging extreme weather and causing ‘misery to millions of people’.”
The LA wildfires are the most expensive fire in U.S. history and caused at least 11 deaths already. Why are they so bad? So deadly? From the BBC:
“Climate change has made the grasses and shrubs that are fuelling the Los Angeles fires more vulnerable to burning, scientists say. Rapid swings between dry and wet conditions in the region in recent years have created a massive amount of tinder-dry vegetation that is ready to ignite. Decades of drought in California were followed by extremely heavy rainfall for two years in 2022 and 2023, but that then flipped again to very dry conditions in the autumn and winter of 2024. Scientists say in a new study that climate change has boosted what they call these ‘whiplash’ conditions globally by 31-66% since the middle of the 20th Century.”
More CO2 polluting the atmosphere worsens Climate Change. Preliminary data says that Canadian CO2 emissions DECREASED in 2023. Primarily because of the Carbon Tax implementation. Success! Finally, we’re starting to deal with our problems.
We know that consumer prices in Canada increased 19.3% from 2019-2024. But the Carbon Tax was responsible for just 0.5% of those increases. Putting a price on carbon pollution has not harmed Canadian consumers. It is not causing “nuclear winter for Canadians” as Mr. Poilievre is fond of publicly fantasizing.
That’s just one reason that 300 top Canadian economists have signed off on Canada’s Carbon Tax implementation as the most efficient way to fight climate change. The least damaging to our economy. And to our wallets.
Canada’s Carbon Taxes work. As promised. With very little harm to the people that they protect.
For the sake of the discussion, if Mr. Poilievre and Mr. Ruff have discovered a better way to fix climate change? Something that has so far eluded millions of scientists, engineers, and politicians across the entire globe? They, and only they, know better?
Then isn’t the best idea, the only intelligent solution, the blatantly obvious to anyone capable of serious thought, to do BOTH?
Why would they think replacing what works great now, with their (currently fictional) ideas, would be clever? How could that possibly be MORE effective?
How could MP Alex Ruff possibly want to “Axe the Tax”?
The answer is obvious. Certain people in Canada want the Carbon Tax killed. Regardless of how well it’s working. They don’t care that it is working! And Mr. Ruff wants their votes. Needs their votes. So, we’re deep into “I don’t care who gets hurt as long as I get what I want.” territory here now too. There is no other explanation that holds water.
When a group of criminal insurrectionists terrorized innocent people and almost put local businesses under in Ottawa, Pierre Poilievre brought them coffee and doughnuts. Took selfies.
“Thirteen families with children fighting cancer had their chemotherapy appointments either delayed or rescheduled as a direct result of the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests in Ottawa.” (Global News)
Pierre Poilievre sewed up the criminal insurrectionists’ (and their supporters) votes. Tough for those kids having to miss their cancer treatments though. Surely “I don’t care who gets hurt as long as I get what I want” applies here too?
Mr. Hepple didn’t name names. He didn’t have to. I don’t think it’s a mystery to anyone here what group in Meaford doesn’t care who gets hurt as long as they don’t have to live by a large construction site. Despite all the evidence they’ve been handed – for years now – that they are flat out wrong.
That sad circus has been in “I don’t care who gets hurt as long as I get what I want” territory for years now.
Climate Change is real. Pumped storage helps fight Climate Change. Plenty of weapons only belong in military hands.
And it is crystal clear why people who claim otherwise are doing so.
Bruce Mason, Meaford
