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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Give and take, take
I'm not necessarily against public subsidies for industries that need a helping hand, if they're used judiciously (admittedly a big if). But Amazon is taking extortion to a new level in its demand for "big government handouts" from any city looking to host its new headquarters (Canadian Cities Look To Host Amazon HQ, Sept. 8).
Meanwhile, Amazon and other behemoths, such as Facebook and Google, game the system to avoid paying anywhere near a fair share of taxes. Just look at how much trouble the European Union is having getting them to pay up.
These bold disruptors, these courageous exemplars of Silicon Valley libertarianism, take great pride in their disdain for government when it tries to regulate their activities. But they sure come running when those governments start banging the slop bucket. The hypocrisy is galling.
Amazon is awfully good at taking. Not so much at giving.
Neil Macdonald, Toronto
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Kids, on their own
Re Memo To Parents: Lock Up Your Kids (editorial, Sept. 8): My sons are long grown but I remember how scary it felt when we sent them out into the world alone for the first time. I read a quote that helped me enormously with letting go: "A ship is safe in harbour but that's not what ships are for."
Evelyne Michaels, Toronto
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When we lived in Calgary, our son Eric, then 6, was denied boarding the public-transit school bus, as he had lost his pass. It was winter, and he trudged home alone, in a snow storm. We couldn't figure out what was taking him so long to arrive and were quite frantic.
What would B.C.'s Ministry of Children and Family Development think of that situation?
Connie Reynolds, Kelowna, B.C.
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Reform. Then what?
Small business tax reform seems like a done deal, so let's presume it happens. How might it impact those other than the 1 per cent?
Like anyone else, those who have lost advantages will do their very best to make up for it. Canadians should reasonably expect significant increases in professional fees (dentists, lawyers, accountants etc.), and should not delude themselves that competition will keep these costs reined in, particularly when an entire group feels targeted.
Small business owners maintain the ability to raise fees and recoup their costs from consumers. Canadians employed by these incorporated individuals may see job cuts – so a spouse can "reasonably" work in the business – as well as salary/benefit cuts.
All Canadians will pay for these taxation changes.
Bearing in mind that the option of incorporation was sold to physicians as a way to make up for the lack of fee increases, Canadians should expect a significant hardening of provincial medical associations' positions in fee negotiations with governments.
Hell hath no fury like a small business owner scorned …
Anthony Gomes, MD, Lethbridge, Alta.
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Canada's financial books for 2015–2016 show personal income taxes accounted for an eye-popping 49 per cent of total federal revenues, while corporate taxes accounted for only 14 per cent.
The Liberals' recent plans are an important but small step in rectifying some of the more egregious family and professional abuses of the tax code, but tax fairness is a far bigger issue. Canada needs a more equitable revenue balance between individuals and corporations, beginning with an increase from the existing 15-per-cent tax rate for large corporations to a more reasonable but still internationally competitive 20 per cent, phased in over the next five years,
Low corporate tax rates can seem like a good thing for Canada's economy, but too much of a good thing also carries with it unintended negative consequences.
The last round of corporate tax cuts (from 21 per cent to 15 per cent during the Harper years) has effectively removed billions every year from federal revenues. Much of the corporate tax windfall went not into job creation or investment in Canada, but rather to investments outside the country.
It's time for corporations, large and small, to begin paying their fair share of taxes.
Edward Carson, Toronto
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18 adoring minutes
When I read that the cheers for Mark McGwire lasted 11 minutes the day he broke the home run record that had been set by Roger Maris, it reminded me of the last hockey game that the Great One played in Canada in Ottawa on April 18, 1999 (Mark McGwire Surpasses Roger Maris – Moment in Time, Sept. 8, 1998).
My son and I stood along with other fans (mostly Senator fans) cheering No. 99. The standing ovation lasted a stunning 18 minutes. At the time, everyone in the arena knew it was the second-last game that Wayne Gretzky would ever play in the NHL. His amazing accomplishments would never be challenged by any talk of steroids.
David Enns, Cornwall, Ont.
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Takes, on Trump
Re American Dream, Delayed And Denied (editorial, Sept. 6): The relentless, anti-Trump cheap shots taken by The Globe and Mail are ignoble and unnecessarily degrade The Globe's quality.
What do redundant, obviously inaccurate phrases such as "to the extent that he is capable of that normal human emotion" in reference to sympathy, and "entirely responsible for manufacturing the current crisis" add to this editorial? Illegal migration has not been the only question that has dogged Washington for two decades. Donald Trump was elected because Washington, not just Congress, has been too long paralyzed by its dysfunctionality.
Half of those who voted in America voted for Mr. Trump! Perhaps The Globe would serve Canadians better if it at least tried to adopt a more balanced and realistic approach to America's current leadership. Style isn't everything. Please give Mr. Trump's content a chance to evolve.
Murray M. Fisher, Toronto
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With the American people searching for the Wizard of Oz to help resolve the DACA controversy, we witness Donald Trump giving a tremendous triple performance as the lion, the scarecrow and the tin man. No courage. No brain. No heart. Sad.
Michael Irvine, Vancouver
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Hmm …
Re Feeding The Parking Meter A Thing Of The Past (Sept. 4): Kudos to Toronto for implementing this e-pay system … about 16 years behind schedule.
In 2001, I travelled to Hungary expecting to see a backward country freshly emerging from the depths of Communist oppression. Imagine my surprise to find that virtually everyone was texting on their (dumb) cellphones and using them to pay for parking, with user fees significantly less than we enjoy here.
Nevertheless, I use the Green P app and I like it.
Now, how about integrating it across all of Ontario for starters?
Should be easier than eHealth.
Kope Inokai, Toronto