Readers have their say on the Randy Boissonnault debacle, Mayor Carolyn Parrish's 'odious' remark, postal dinosaurs, and more

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Re: So long, Randy (Strong Eagle Man) Boissonnault, you won’t be missed — Michael Higgins, Nov. 20

Unable to bring himself to fire Randy Boissonnault, despite the employment minister’s repeated failings to address his heritage and his business dealings with any sort of clarity, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instead agreed with Boissonnault’s decision to “step away” from cabinet so he could “focus on clearing the allegations made against him.”

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Instead of admitting that he is responsible for the situation in which he finds himself, Boissonnault, with Trudeau’s complicity, wants Canadians to believe that he is somehow a victim of others making allegations against him. Boissonnault has made a laughingstock of the Liberal government. And Trudeau’s lack of action to remove him from cabinet until now has once again demonstrated his own lack of moral compass. Yet for all this, Trudeau wants Canadians to give him yet another term as prime minister. We’re not laughing.

Paul Clarry, Aurora, Ont.

The aphorism: “it’s not the crime, but the coverup” from the Watergate days of 50 years ago applies neatly to the only two Liberal MPs from Alberta.

George Chahal (Calgary Skyview) was “outed” for his surreptitious switching of an election flyer from a constituent’s mailbox to his own advantage. Randy Boissonnault (Edmonton Centre) has been “outed” as a “Pretendian” in tracing his evolving claims of Indigenous ancestry.

Chahal’s schadenfreude at Boissonnault’s predicament must be somewhat satisfying in that the latter was promoted to Cabinet, whereas Chahal was not, as Boissonnault’s indiscretion had not yet become evident. To president Richard Nixon’s dismay, “it’s not the crime, but the coverup” has become cemented in today’s vernacular.

Morton Doran, Fairmont, B.C.

Re: Canada Post versus the union — Is this the last strike? — Terence Corcoran, Nov. 21; B.C. port union challenges constitutionality of back-to-work order — Nov. 20; and Labour minister moves to end port lockouts in Montreal and British Columbia — Nov. 12

Here we are again on the carousel of unions holding the Canadian economy hostage, and demanding an ever increasing (“fair?”) share of a diminishing pie.

Far from being a reliable partner in expanding the economy, unions seem intent on bringing it to its knees through strike action. The path to sustainable higher wages is through increased productivity per worker, but moves in that direction through automation and more competitive practices are vigorously opposed by unions. You would think that wage negotiations would be more easily settled around productivity per worker, where there would be a better alignment on successful outcomes and actually growing the economy per capita.

If only the dinosaurs had had the foresight to unionize.

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Richard Sheppard,........

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