Leader-Post letters: We need fewer kids running things in Ottawa

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Councillor using ill-informed ‘crutch’

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Mental health issues should never be used as a crutch for racist comments about Indigenous peoples or anyone who is BIPOC. There are many people who have attention deficit disorder and acquired brain injuries who are not racist. They would never even consider the kind of comments Terina Shaw spewed willfully in January and June of this year. She does not represent all of the citizens of Ward 7 in Regina, many of whom are Indigenous peoples.

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As a member of the disability community, I am very insulted by these excuses. A person in a place of authority needs to consider the impact of their words before uttering them and should practise intersectionality.

Terri Sleeva, Regina

Too many children running our country

The domestic and international issues facing Canadians require serious responses from serious leaders. Instead, we have kids in the House.

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Justin Trudeau can’t resist being the cool kid. He acknowledges the issues but undermines himself and his government by needing to be seen with the rich and famous.

Pierre Poilievre really wants to be the smart kid, the one with the quick retorts. This appeals to those who are tired of Trudeau or who loathe all the cool kids. Unfortunately quips and jibes are not solutions.

We have Singh, the nice kid; liked but ignored, Blanchet, the lost kid wondering why he is there, and two leaderless kids from the forest.

Carlos Lozada, of the New York Times, provides a cautionary tale. The “big joke,” practised by politicians giving up “the challenge of governing the country for the rush of triggering the enemy”, leads to the “big lie,” with truth the forgotten expectation.

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David Steele, Regina

Why the rush with arenas?

Here in Regina, the president of REAL said in a recent Leader-Post article that we need a new arena to replace the Brandt Centre. Then, halfway down in the same story he said that with some sprucing up, the Brandt Centre could be used for another 50 years.

The same could be said for Saskatchewan Place (SaskTel Centre) in Saskatoon. All levels of government are still reeling financially from the pandemic, so just what is the rush to spend money?

In Regina, we are in debt for Mosaic Stadium, and there was a full-page article in the Leader-Post about buyers’ remorse. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Just remember that this all has to be paid for.

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Gordie Gherasim, Regina

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