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Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School gather on Thursday, a day after a 19-year-old former student killed 17 people at the school.Mark Wilson

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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Sitting ducks

There was a gun-free zone around the arena at the 2016 Republican National Convention. At the time, then-leadership candidate Donald Trump correctly noted on ABC's This Week that delegates risked "becoming sitting ducks, utterly helpless against evildoers, criminals." Firearm-free zones exist at most U.S. political conferences, even at some National Rifle Association events, and for that matter at many Trump Hotels – and that makes perfect sense.

However, making every single school in the United States a gun-free zone is surely impossible, and until U.S. politicians find the courage to set aside their collective political safety and enact proper gun laws in that country, this needless and constant killing of innocent people will continue (At Least 17 Dead After Former Student Opens Fire At Florida High School, Feb. 14). In the meantime, all those in U.S. schools are sitting ducks, utterly and truly helpless.

Sean Hayes, Calgary

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History repeating

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley may be the clear winner but everyone else loses if the Trans Mountain pipeline is expanded (Pipelines And Politics: Notley Is The Clear Winner, Feb. 14).

As the fires in British Columbia last summer showed, we can no longer put off dealing with global warming. We have to act now to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

How many disastrous weather events will it take before our politicians take climate change seriously?

They remind me of Neville Chamberlain who famously said, after signing an agreement with Adolf Hitler in September of 1938, "I believe it is peace for our time."

Winston Churchill responded to Mr. Chamberlain by saying, "You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war." Mr. Churchill was right. A year later, the Second World War started.

Sooner or later, we will need to respond to the challenge of our time, as our parents and grandparents responded to the challenge of theirs.

Claudia Cornwall, North Vancouver, B.C.

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Hooked on pop

In his commentary on soda taxes, drawing on the NZIER report, Peter Shawn Taylor relies on an old food industry tactic of diverting the focus away from a sugary drink levy by broadening the discussion to one around a sugar tax on all foods (Soda Taxes: The Fizz Goes Flat, Feb. 12). This misses the mark.

Sugary drinks are the real culprit. They are easy to overconsume, provide little to no nutritional benefits but lots of empty calories, and are a major contributor to chronic disease, obesity and other health risks.

It is also simplistic to conclude that because no one policy measure will solve a complex health issue that nothing should be done.

Taxation was a key tool in helping millions of Canadians quit smoking, as part of a multipronged strategy that included other interventions such as smoke-free spaces.

A sugary drink levy would have the dual benefit of reducing consumption of these non-essential, harmful products and at the same time provide much needed funding for healthy living programs.

Yves Savoie, chief executive officer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Toronto

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Mr. Taylor fails to consider flaws within the NZIER report, which considered the effects of food and sugary drink taxes together.

NZIER notes that taxes fail to result in a decreased population body mass index. However, body weight need not be part of the equation. A person consuming more than one sugary drink a day has a 20-per-cent higher risk of Type 2 diabetes compared to others of the same weight who do not. Moreover, any tax must be part of a comprehensive policy approach.

The direct link between sugary drinks and the development of chronic diseases requires direct action. NZIER also overlooks the role a tax plays in denormalizing sugary drinks and underestimates the tax's potential to change cultural norms and promote healthier hydration.

Let's not miss an opportunity to improve the health of Canadians by relying on incomplete analyses.

Jan Hux, MD, president, Diabetes Canada,Toronto

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Electric cars a deal

The article about electric vehicles touches on, but does not explain, the total cost of ownership (The Long Road Ahead For The Electric-Vehicle Revolution, Feb. 10).

We need to get past the sticker price, because the true cost of a car involves a lot more.

Electric fuel is much cheaper than gasoline or diesel. With that and government incentives, lesser maintenance, lower insurance cost, a smoother, quieter, cleaner ride, and for many the possibility of charging at home or at work, electric vehicles are a better option already.

Paul Rapoport, member, Electric Vehicle Society and Golden Horseshoe Electric Vehicle Association, Ancaster, Ont.

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The article very nicely summed up the international situation in general and the eastern Canada situation in particular. But it didn't get out to the West Coast, where cities such as Richmond, B.C., at sea level with a moderate climate, don't get too hot or too cold for batteries. Richmond is also flat and close to Vancouver, making it ideal for daily use of an electric vehicle.

The barrier in Richmond is convincing multifamily condo buildings to allow EV owners to install charging units in their garages, since 80 per cent of charging takes place at home.

Most EVs have timers that allow charging to take place overnight when electric grid demand is low. The average monthly EV electricity cost in Richmond is in the $25 to $30 range. Condos can avoid the cost of tracking individual electrical consumption by adding $35 to the monthly condo fee. Power management systems allow up to four EVs to charge overnight sharing one 220V 40A circuit.

Richmond recently passed a bylaw requiring 220V charging capability in new construction of multifamily buildings. A committee is working on requirements for retrofitting existing multifamily buildings using circuit sharing.

Anxiety about the distance vehicles can go without recharging creeps in for overnight trips farther afield, especially when it often involves climbing mountains.

Plug-in Richmond, the local EV owner group, publishes on its website the range required for typical destinations corrected for the extra energy involved in climbing mountains and the energy regained descending the far side through regenerative braking.

This allows EV purchasers to know whether the range capability of a particular EV is sufficient for their lifestyle.

John Roston, co-ordinator, Plug-in Richmond, Richmond, B.C.

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