Today’s Letters: Don’t diminish the Canadian Tulip Festival

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Restore Tulip Festival’s funding

Re: City should focus on saving events we already have, Apr. 26

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I applaud Bruce Deachman’s point that the City of Ottawa should continue contributing to the Canadian Tulip Festival at its customary level.

Public funding and support have made the festival an outstanding success over the years and it would be a shame to diminish it now. The historic bond between Canada and the Netherlands is worth preserving. The Tulip Festival plays an important part in this. Keep it growing.

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John Kruithof, Ottawa

Pundit could be a politician

Re: Passover a time to seek freedom from folly, fear, Apr. 24:

Kudos to Andrew Cohen for his wonderful, readable column last week. I wouldn’t wish for him a life in politics, but wouldn’t it be great to have someone so wise and compassionate in public office?

P. O’Reilly, Ottawa

Polls don’t represent all of us

Re: Do people want more or less government spending? Depends on the poll, Apr. 26:

The article by Mohammed Adam states 63 per cent of Canadians want less government spending. Who are these people whose views seem to be tallied in these polls? Certainly not me. I never answer calls, texts, emails and surveys.

The fact is it is not 63 per cent of Canadians. It is 63 per cent of those surveyed.

How many people were surveyed in each of these polls? We have a population of about 39 million.

Joanne Ewart, Perth

Love affair with cars threatens environment

Recently there have been reports of city buses not being used to their full capacity.

I recalled this as I was viewing cars in Centretown at 3 p.m., bumper to bumper, crawling along as far as one could see on Hwy. 417 and on all the adjacent streets in any direction.

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It brought to mind what the same view would have been when I was a youngster. First, the 417 was railway racks from east to west. There were also tracks going north and south along the east side of the canal, through Union Station, north beside the Chateau Laurier, across the Alexandria Bridge, through Hull, back across the river to Ottawa West and onward to Kingston and Toronto.

As well, there were street cars running through all the major routes in the city. I remember well riding one along what is now Byron Avenue to go swimming at Britannia Beach with my mom. Finally, dairy was delivered to our home, in reusable glass bottles by vehicles whose carbon emissions could be reused as fertilizer. Baked goods came the same way.

As a result, our family of five had one car. Now, many Centretown laneways sport two or three cars per family. So, increases in carbon emissions have more to do with our love affair with the car than with increases in population.

Sadly, they are one of the causes of extreme weather and climate change we hear about in the world now on a daily basis.

Jill Courtemanche, Ottawa

Make way for Carney

Thank you Mr. Trudeau for your services. Now, how about freeing up a constituency seat as soon as possible for Mark Carney to run? As an MP, he can prepare to replace you in the next federal election.

Raymond Laflamme, Ottawa

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