Large courier companies do not service all of Canada. These largely foreign enterprises pick off the easy markets, declining to cover more remote regions, as that would be too expensive. Such places are left for Canada Post, which goes everywhere 鈥 including unprofitable markets. We should compel the large foreign companies to cover the whole country and not only the profitable places. This would make the marketplace a more even playing field. Canada Post is mostly efficient and on-time, even in rural areas. Our country contains many large, sparsely populated regions, and they deserve service, too.
Robert Townsend, Victoria
Regarding the slow demise of Canada Post, let鈥檚 focus on the fact that it’s a Crown corporation, and the extent to which it’s funded is entirely the choice of our political leaders. If it’s failing, that’s their choice, and to treat that as anything other than a political decision is to excuse wilful mismanagement. Canada Post is ours, so let鈥檚 tell our leaders that we want a functioning postal system.
Margaret Meagher, Toronto
I guess it’s time to turn Canada Post back into a federal government department, as it was prior to 1981. The business model has obviously failed. The idea that postal delivery could be a break-even proposition in such a vast country with so many low-population areas was not well considered. There is nothing inherently wrong with the government running the post office as a service to Canadians. Even the United States, that beacon of free enterprise, has run the postal service as a federal department since the country’s inception.
Alan Murray, New Dundee
How can we tackle youth unemployment?
Shockingly high rates of youth unemployment are not new in Canada; they averaged 13.8 per cent from 1976 until 2024. Young people want to earn money, gain work experience and contribute to their communities 鈥 so why do allow their talents to go unnecessarily wasted? A “Youth Job Guarantee” program, funded by the federal government but administered by local municipalities and community groups, could provide jobs in areas such as the arts, recreation, tourism and the environment. We should mobilize the energy of young Canadians through community job creation, which could provide substantial benefits not only to participants but also to the rest of Canada.
Larry Kazdan, Vancouver
This article, which analyzes the rising rate of youth unemployment in Canada, also raises interesting questions: Why are immigration levels so high? And why are there so many temporary workers in this country? Our newly elected Liberal government must do a better job than its predecessor at managing this situation. To the left of this article in today鈥檚 Star is an article about the need to create a new national service. Couldn鈥檛 such a service help alleviate the problem of youth unemployment?
Claude Gannon, Markham
Regulation needed to stop animal abuse
Any time animals are used in an activity in which there is prestige or profit to be had, their potential suffering is limited only by the capability of humans to justify it to themselves. The commercial sled-dog industry is no exception. The conditions at Windrift Adventures are hardly anomalous, and the seizure of so many animals necessarily causes a huge resource strain. This industry needs to be either regulated strictly or banned entirely to prevent more vulnerable dogs from being put at risk.
Debbie Wall, Winnipeg
Stay in Canada, buy Canadian
I was quite surprised by Katharine Lake Berz’s argument. My experience of talking to Americans over the years has led me to conclude that once a belief is established in a Republican鈥檚 mind, it rarely (if ever) changes. Some Americans have told me that I’m right about a given progressive policy only to say immediately afterwards that they would continue to vote against it (universal health care is the one most often embraced intellectually yet shunned electorally).
Many books and essays have been written on how to influence a person鈥檚 thinking and, perhaps, even change their mind. Yet this does not seem possible with MAGA devotees, no matter the situation.
For Canada, our only option is to diversify trade away from the U.S., consume Canadian-made goods and services, abstain from buying American products wherever possible and avoid unnecessary travel to the U.S. Only by causing Americans economic pain can we shift their thinking so that they will shun totalitarianism and demand the restoration of old alliances and the end of the Trump administration’s punitive economic policies.
Tom Doris, Toronto
I’m writing about two articles that published side by side in the Star. The first is by a Canadian hockey fan who showed up to a Stanley Cup playoff game in Florida聽wearing a 海角社区官网Maple Leafs jersey. He was 鈥渃onfused and hurt鈥 by rude comments from Panther fans. Seriously? Has he been to a game at Scotiabank Arena, where Leafs fans boo the U.S. national anthem and hurl insults at visiting American teams? What did he expect? Playoff hockey is uncivilized at best. Meanwhile, the author of the second article seems to think that Canadians can deter the threat of U.S. annexation by visiting the States and politely interacting with Americans. Yet 77 million of them voted for Donald Trump knowing exactly what he was (and is). Showing them our belly won’t change anything. Canadians should continue to boycott the U.S.
Maurice Sacco, Toronto
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