APPLES TO ORANGES
I usually enjoy reading articles from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, but I do take some exception to Jay Goldberg’s column from July 26 (“New Brunswickers get tax cut commitment while Ontarians face mountain of debt.”) Trying to compare the economics of New Brunswick to Ontario is like trying to compare Luxemburg to the United States. If Goldberg’s piece is to have any significance, he needs to provide the optics of difference between these two provinces. The population of N.B. is 850,900, Ontario is 16 million. Ontario has more people on social assistance than the population of N.B. and the debt-to-population ratio is lower in N.B., 27% to Ontario’s 39%. Doug Ford inherited a much larger deficit than Blane Higgs (16 times higher), Ontario has a much larger infrastructure to fix than N.B., along with fighting with much more powerful unions, so Ford has a much larger battle in trying to reduce the budget and deficit. I don’t take anything away from Higgs, he has done a great job, but do not compare the hill Higgs is climbing to the mountain that Ford is climbing on social issues and economics. Although Ford is spending more than I would like, he is trying to repair an Ontario that was broken by 15 years of useless Liberal pandering to unions, followed by waste and spending on a silly ideology of green energy.
Dan Veneruzzo
Brampton
(As long as they are climbing the hill toward economic stability and not rolling downhill again.)
SURF AND TURF
While thousands of Canadians fled for their lives from wildfires in Jasper National Park, which is totally under federal jurisdiction, it is comforting to know our prime minister is safely surfing in Tofino, B.C. That’s what I call “leadership to remember” the next time you vote in a federal election.
Chris Robertson
Stony Plain, Alta.
(Justin Trudeau is riding a wave toward defeat.)