July 9: Trade? Nervous. Plus other letters to the editor

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Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

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Trade? Nervous

I don’t share Lawrence Martin’s lack of concern re the “trade ruckus” (Relax, Nervous Nellies – The Trade Ruckus Will Pass – July 4). While he quotes Canada’s opposition to free trade with the U.S. in 1911 and 1948, he doesn’t tackle the damage done by the U.S. Fordney McCumber Tariff of the early 1920s, and destruction of the Canadian economy by the Smoot Hawley Tariff of 1930, which was a major factor in the devastation of the Great Depression. No other country in the developed world suffered so much as Canada.

In Canada, GDP per capita declined by 35 per cent, in Saskatchewan by 70 per cent. This is the danger threatened by Donald Trump. In 1930, Herbert Hoover only signed the bill initiated by Congress, in 2018 it is the President himself initiating this idiotic, self-destructive legislation.

While I concur with Mr. Martin on interprovincial trade barriers and supply management, Mr. Trump’s actions must concern us all. We must do everything we can to make sure this trade war does not escalate, but rather returns to the path of progress first established by FDR’s secretary of state, Cordell Hull, in the 1930s. Since then, trade relations improved under every U.S. administration until the Obama/Trump eras.

Barack Obama’s actions – opposing Keystone, refusing to help build the Gordie Howe bridge, appointing investment bankers who were fundraisers – also harmed our trade relations. We tend to blame everything on Mr. Trump. In many ways, he is continuing Mr. Obama’s policies of American withdrawal from a world leadership position.

Joe Martin, Director, Canadian Business History, Rotman School of Management

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I read Lawrence Martin’s column with a great sigh of relief. Donald Trump won’t put Canada out of business: We are a resilient nation and we will overcome these tariffs. We have other trade agreements; the Pacific Rim has huge potential for trade.

Mr. Martin wrote about inter-provincial trade barriers, which have always baffled me. Let’s buy from each other, for example, B.C. wines instead of California wines. Let’s use this as an opportunity to show how creative and innovative we are as a nation.

Sheila Smith, Ancaster, Ont.

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Economies and trade are so interconnected now, one rogue actor, if powerful enough, can affect the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. Even Donald Trump doesn’t know what he is going to do next – which is more than enough reason to be nervous.

Tamarya Jones Huang, Edmonton

Canada, refugees

Re Ontario, Ottawa Battle Over Resettling Migrants (July 6): Justin Trudeau says Ontario Premier Doug Ford may not understand Canada’s obligations to refugees. As an immigrant becoming a Canadian the proper way, may I suggest that it is the Prime Minister who is pushing his refugee vision on Canadians? Have we ever been asked our feelings on the mess he has created?

Harold Asikyan, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.

She said, he said

Re PM Acknowledges He Apologized To Woman After Music Festival Interaction In 2000 (July 6): The loud beep, beep, beep sound of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau backing up over #MeToo gains is being heard across Canada.

The unequivocal commitment he strongly voiced that “women should be believed” when they report sexual misconduct, now that it involves the alleged actions of a more youthful Trudeau, has suddenly morphed into the old “she said, he said,” mantra of the pre-Harvey Weinstein era.

High-profile situations of this nature always have a profound effect on the willingness of victims to come forward. Now that Mr. Trudeau’s promise has been shown to be selective in its application, there is a danger that women will be even more reluctant to take a stand.

Turning the alleged incident involving a young reporter into a that’s-her-opinion defence puts the workplace right back where it was when Mr. Weinstein was cavorting around in his bathrobe.

Kathleen Finlay, Founder, ZeroNow Campaign

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“Often a man experiences an interaction as benign or not inappropriate, and a woman, particularly in a professional context, can experience it differently,” says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “and we have to respect that and reflect on it.”

So are we women overly sensitive about groping?

Denise Dalphy, Victoria

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The Canadian translation from the American “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” is “I remember that day in Creston well … I had a good day that day. I don’t remember any negative interactions that day at all.” The self-entitled lilt to the #itsnotmetoo melody remains the same.

Clay Atcheson, North Vancouver

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Is this the best the Conservatives can do in their efforts to wage a smear campaign against a Prime Minister who has been outstanding in his efforts to advance the cause of women and feminism? I almost always vote Tory, consider myself a feminist and am raising my six-year-old to be one, too, but this criticism of Justin Trudeau holds no traction with me.

Tara Simpson, Regina

Ban MD drug payments

Re Purdue Halts Opioid Marketing In Canada (July 5): Purdue’s stopping its opioid marketing won’t cure physicians’ addiction to prescribing opiates.

For more than 20 years, Purdue boosted its sales by paying physician pain-specialists to lecture on the “benefits” of opioids to their fellow physicians, even paying the specialists to attend seminars on how to make the lectures more effective. Unfortunately, you cannot change a 20-year prescribing habit in physicians exposed to such relentless marketing any more easily than changing the resulting addiction in a generation of young Canadians.

Only by banning the unethical practice of allowing Canadian physicians to receive money from pharmaceutical companies for lecturing other doctors will we escape from this and future overprescribing disasters.

Paul Cary, MD, Cambridge, Ont.

Girl Vs. Barbecue

Re Man Vs. Sense (letters, July 5): Since the Man Vs. Fire barbecue letters continue, here’s my quick Girl Vs. Barbecue story. Some 20 years ago, at age 17, my summer job before heading off to university for the fall was working at a small co-operative grocery and hardware store. The store manager was offering a prize draw for a barbecue, so the task fell on me to assemble it for the display.

Just like Ian Brown, I laid out the parts, reviewed the pictures and set to work. As I progressed through my task, I began to attract attention. Shoppers wandering into the store stopped to chat – and some (all older men) offered to help. I was only making $5.25 an hour, and people wanted to do my job for me.

I finished about three hours later, and it was one of the best work days of the summer. Oh, and four years later, I completed my engineering degree.

A.L. Corey, Toronto