海角社区官网

Matt Drozd, Pittsburgh, PA

Blown leads are a part of our heritage

Many Canadian generative AI projects are doomed to fail. Here鈥檚 why, Sept. 13

We had and lost our early lead in artificial intelligence, just as we had and lost our lead in smartphones (BlackBerry), high-performance aircraft (Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow) and telecommunications (Nortel). We鈥檝e lost our place as the world鈥檚 foremost peacekeeping 鈥渕iddle power鈥�; we lost our place in biotechnology and vaccines via the sale of Connaught Laboratories.

Canada has also failed to establish a controlling presence in the Arctic, to properly protect its borders with the U.S. and to maintain its complete independence from our now-erratic neighbour. What鈥檚 wrong with this country? Is it short-sighted politicians? Let-Americans-do-all-the-work laziness? Overdependence on natural resources? Overreliance on trade with a single country? These are just some of the challenges that Prime Minister Mark Carney can expect to face in restoring our security and economic well-being.

Mike Priaro, Calgary

Why Lee’s is the bee’s knees

As iconic 海角社区官网music venue Lee鈥檚 Palace turns 40, artists and industry bigs share their favourite memories, Sept. 13

I just have to say how much I enjoyed reading about the 40th anniversary of Lee’s Palace in the Star last week. The venue was fantastic to play. I know because I played there on May 20, 1996, with my band Owen. We opened on an indie night for Princess Black Tart and The Ludes. Where else could you play 10 of your band’s original songs on a big stage with a great sound system? I remember that night well: there were probably only 50 people in the audience, but we played as if we had a packed house. We had three major songs, “Chainsaw,” “Smalltown” and the campus-radio hit “Slacker Anthem.” Our bass player broke one of his strings about three-quarters of the way through the show, but we adapted and kept the music going. Of all the places we played over the course of two years, Lee鈥檚 Palace was the best. There’s nothing like playing your own live music in the heart of Toronto. Thank you, Lee鈥檚!聽

Thomas A. Ryerson, Woodstock, ON

Crombie’s election loss was years in the making

Bonnie Crombie resigns as Ontario Liberal leader, Sept. 14

The Liberals lost the election because of their record with voters over 15 years during which the party was in power. It started during the provincial election in 2003, when the Liberals, behind in the polls, took a page from the NDP’s platform and promised to scrap former premier Mike Harris’s hydro deregulation and return to public power. They later won the election in a landslide, partly owing to that promise, and then continued right on with hydro deregulation. Premier Dalton McGuinty brought in smart meters for everyone at a cost of $2 billion, making the same promise as Harris: that smart meters would save Ontarians money. In 2009, the Liberals brought in the Green Energy Act, which was a complete failure, nothing more than a licence for private green-energy producers to print money.

Years later, then-premier Kathleen Wynne dropped the corporate tax rate from 14 per cent to 11 per cent, then made huge cuts to health care in order to pay for it. The Liberals laid off more than 1,600 nurses, froze hospital budgets and slashed physician services. Under Wynne, they also closed 600 schools 鈥� more than any other government in Ontario history. Then there was the gas-plant fiasco, which cost taxpayers more than $1 billion. But it was the sale of Hydro One that really angered voters, given the province had repeatedly promised never to sell it. Voters don鈥檛 like being lied to, and they remember.

Paul Kahnert, Markham, ON

For Bonnie Crombie to suggest that Nate Erskine-Smith, her fellow Liberal, is gunning for the leadership is pretty rich. During the leadership debates, Erskine-Smith discussed issues and policies, as well as the hard work that rebuilding the party will require (as did the other two candidates). Meanwhile, Crombie’s dominant message was that she was the party saviour, the only one who could come right out of the gate and beat Premier Doug Ford. Funny that she couldn’t even beat her opponent in her own riding.

Patricia Wilmot, Toronto

Someone should tell Ford about bollards

Ontario proposes ban on parking near child-care centres in wake of deadly Richmond Hill daycare crash, Sept. 12

Ontario’s minister of education, Paul Calandra, is pondering legislation to better protect daycare centres, but immediate protection is already easily available, and there’s no need to remove parking spots. Jersey barriers, those ubiquitous concrete traffic-lane dividers, can be found almost anywhere there’s a highway. Just place a few in the parking lots in vulnerable areas. That would keep kids safe while reducing the size of the existing parking spot only by however thick the barrier is. Minimum cost, minimum disruption 鈥� and it could be be done today.

Michael Gilmor, Ajax, ON

It’s been reported that the Ontario government plans to ban parking near daycare centres as a result of the Richmond Hill crash. That won’t solve the problem, however, because cars would still be able to crash through entrances and windows. A much better solution would be to place sturdy bollards in front of those vulnerable places.

Anthony Martins, Elora, ON

A guy crashes into a child-care facility, killing one child and injuring several others. The province says it wants to prevent such tragedies. But if the crash in Richmond Hill was unintentional, as has been reported, then surely the driver might as easily have crashed into a bakery, or a bus shelter, or your house. Can we really protect everything? Should we place bollards and steel barriers around every structure? Or are accidents just part of life?聽

Edward A. Collis, Burlington, ON