Rating: NNNNN
Loss out of proportion
I have never felt so personally defeated after an election. To put so much mental energy behind a candidate only to have her lose is really depressing. I’ve ended up feeling like, why bother? While we claim to have democracy in this country, it is seriously flawed. So many people’s votes really mean nothing.
For the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would vote for a do-nothing backbencher like Tony Ianno over a person like Olivia Chow, who would fight for so much in the House of Commons and has already done so much for our community. I know this is our political system, but it’s very clear that it’s time for Canada to adopt proportional representation.
Gareth Bate
Toronto
Swallowing opinion as news
No one doubts that your publication supports the NDP. But do I really have to swallow a piece by Michael Hollett (NOW, June 24-30) boldly labelled as news when it is clearly an opinion? Calling your opinions news is simply irresponsible.
Kate Guay
Toronto
Anti-choice or pro-life?
I enjoyed and agreed with vote NDP. Well, mostly…. One little compound word got my blood boiling: “anti-choice.” If we can agree to call those who support a woman’s right to abortion pro-choice rather than any of the other phrases that come to mind, can’t you agree to refer to those opposed to abortion as pro-life?
Shannon Clarke
Toronto
Martin’s fear-mongering
As a long-time small-“L” Liberal, I am dismayed that Paul Martin’s recent campaigning is asking NDP supporters to vote Liberal so the Conservatives don’t achieve a minority government. I find it ironic, considering we’ve had a federal government that casually strolled through the past decade without accountability, counting only on the decimation of the Conservatives and the split of the right-wing vote with the Reform party.
Greg LeBelle
Toronto
Thanks for political advice
I’d like to thank everyone at NOW for telling me who to vote for. I was originally going to vote Liberal because I felt they were the lesser of two evils. But, thankfully, you guys stepped in and told me that the Liberals were a bunch of corrupt scumbags. I never intended to vote for Stephen Harper, but after you guys pointed out that he was equivalent to the devil, it really put the nail in that coffin.
Then I thought about voting Green. Their candidate actually popped by to chit-chat. But then you told me Green wants to decrease income tax. Can’t do that. Hell, no. I have to vote NDP.
Doesn’t matter that the NDP candidate in my riding never returned my calls or sent a window sign as I asked. Thanks, NOW. I was about to make a big mistake by thinking on my own and voting for the guy I thought was the best candidate.
Sandra Polifroni
Toronto
Harper no laughing matter
Drew Hayden Taylor’s Harper’s Red Face (NOW, June 17-23) offered a refreshingly astute perspective on Stephen Harper and the neo-Conservative party’s blundering on native issues. At first glance, I wondered if perhaps the author was a tad too subtle. Indeed, from what I’ve observed of Harper and his cohorts, it appears that the new Conservatives’ hidden intent is to assimilate the aboriginal population and strip virtually every marginalized person in this country of the last scrap of dignity.
Harper’s behaviour prompted memories of General George Custer’s words: “Indians? What Indians?” Thanks to Hayden Taylor for delivering this reminder with wit and grace. I never imagined I’d read an article about Stephen Harper and think, “Now, that was funny!”
Clare Sheedy
Mississauga
Disabled ignored yet again
People with disabilities, who make up about 15 per cent of Canada’s population, continue to face some of the highest rates of unemployment, poverty, social isolation and political marginalization, and we want to ask why our issues have been largely ignored again during the current federal election campaign? We represent a significant block of votes, yet no party seems interested in giving our issues the time and attention we believe they deserve. And, again, we ask why?
John Rae
National Federation of the Blind: Advocates for Equality
Toronto
Savage’s sorry shtick
I’m not clear why NOW deems Dan Savage worthy of a cover story during Pride Week (NOW, June 24-30). Savage’s shtick is to come on like a dominatrix. Without any qualifications whatsoever, he believes he knows what’s best for everybody. He’s not even straight, so what does he really know about it? Savage lacks humility and compassion for human frailties. To me, he’s a sad comment on our times.
Louis Solnicki
Toronto
This gay no progressive
Alice Klein quotes Dan Savage’s “fervour for progressive politics” with tongue in cheek, I think. This is, after all, the same Savage who supported the invasion of Iraq and attacks Ralph Nader for running for president. Being “clever and obnoxious” (and gay) is not synonymous with being progressive, Alice.
Naseer Ahmad
Toronto
Lame Cameron stab
Hey, wiseguys, thanks for noting the Stevie Cameron benefit last week (NOW, June 24-30), but did you have to go and make fools of yourselves with that crack: “That few journalists are on the guest list is no surprise. They hate the idea of playing footsies with the cops more than anything – even more than they hate Muldoon.” More than 200 people plunked down $100 each to help defray Cameron’s legal costs, including folks from the Globe, Star, Post and CBC Radio and television.
The smear against Cameron (that she was a confidential informant for the RCMP) was designed to distract from the real issues of corrupt government officials accepting payoffs from businesses – and with you it obviously worked.
Leave lame stabs at humour to Frank mag, why don’t you?
Bill Dunphy
Toronto
Lollapaloozer
Greed and stupidity killed Lollapalooza (NOW, June 24-30). The major factor for low ticket sales was the fact that the lineup was spread over two days. Not only does that force people to pay $60 twice in order to see the acts that matter, but here in Toronto, where it was scheduled on a Thursday and Friday, fans would have missed two days of work. The lineup (Morrissey/Sonic Youth/Wilco) appealed to a 25-plus crowd, and we have careers now. We can’t justify skipping work for two days just to see some bands, great as they may be.
And also, if you’re gonna take Thursday and Friday as vacation days at the height of summer, you combine them with the rest of the weekend and get out of town for four days. You don’t stay in the city in the heat and crowds of Lollapalooza.
Aaron Boles
Toronto
Pushing mediocre jazz
RE Joseph Wilson’s picks for the Jazz Festival (NOW, June 24-30). In his roundup of the jazz fest, Wilson neglected to mention reedmeister Chris Potter & company at Top o’ the Senator and the insanely talented Vandermark 5 at the National Film Board offices! But he mentioned the New Deal? What the fuck! Why should I listen to your political polemics if your paper consistently pushes such mediocre music?
Greg Smith
Toronto
Straight goods on MMT
RE Toxic Tyranny (June 24-30, 2004). It’s extremely unfortunate that despite numerous attempts to clarify what has happened in regard to MMT in Canada, there is still a great deal of work to be done. This has become painfully obvious based on the statements in your article. The simple fact of that matter is that there would not have been a NAFTA issue if the legislation that attempted to ban the importation and inter-provincial trade of MMT in Canada had been based on scientific evidence.
The legislation did not ban MMT it banned its trade. It has been proven in test after test that MMT does not harm the environment and does not constitute a health risk to Canadians.
Bill C-29, the legislation in question, was a trade bill – it was not an environmental bill. And the fact that it was a trade bill without scientific proof led to the NAFTA action. To its credit, the federal government admitted that in settling the matter before it went to a hearing.
C.S. Warren Huang
Ethyl Corporation
Richmond, Virginia
Untold 9/11 scenarios
Having examined the intriguing work of many researchers skeptical of the official 9/11 story, I was disappointed to read my dear friend Stephen Humphrey’s (albeit equivocal) dismissal of the International Citizens’ Inquiry into 9/11 (NOW, June 10-17). It is perhaps not surprising that Humphrey was overwhelmed by the “Byzantine web of details (and) factoids.” But the analytical mind will inevitably be struck by the anomalies and outright impossibilities of the official story, the “Bush-Cheney scenario.”
Steve Venright
Toronto
Robot not overly long
RE Robot power (NOW, June 3-9). For Glenn Sumi to imply that our show actually ran far longer than two hours is simply untrue. The show is almost exactly two hours in length, not overly long when you consider there is no opening act.
Neil Jones
Co-writer/co-producer, The Yellow Robot
Toronto
Dault a dolt
Gary Michael Dault an artist? (NOW, June 3-9). I’m still struggling to accept the fact that he’s managed a career for himself as an art critic , since he’s mired in an almost hysterically irrelevant obsession with Modernist painting and refuses to travel to see shows that require transferring buses. His reluctance to become one thing or another is emblematic of all that is half-hearted and backfiring in the Canadian art world. Mr. Dault, pick a vocation and start practising. Otherwise, you do a disservice to both painting and criticism, things that in the hands of more skilled practitioners actually manage to be important.
Brad Phillips
Vancouver, BC
Rent check
You mentioned in T.O. Music Notes (NOW, June 17-23) that the rent at NIA@C’est What? was going up to $60,000 per year. It is actually increasing by $60,000 per year. We have offered $60,000 per year to Mr. Tippin’s realtor and have been rejected.
George Milbrandt
Toronto
