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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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They were warned

Your editorial, Unhappy Canadians In The Caribbean (Sept. 14), was spot on. As a former Canadian International Development Agency assistant deputy minister responsible for humanitarian response, I applaud your emphasis on the priority of responding to the absolute devastation on these small, island states.

Canadians abroad have unrealistic expectations of their government's ability (with the best of intentions) to respond overnight to a disaster far away, especially one which you rightly point out was being predicted on a day-to-day basis, allowing tourists time to leave the danger zones.

How many of those who complain will vote against tax increases for government services? This is certainly a case where we get what we pay for. But the truly sad part is that we are no longer paying for decent development co-operation and humanitarian programs. This year the defence budget was promised billions more. Aid budget? No increase.

Carolyn McAskie, Wakefield, Que.

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Having 41 people at my daughter's wedding when Hurricane Wilma struck our Mexican resort in 2005, I know the feeling people have about being stranded. That didn't make it the government's responsibility to get us out. If you travel during hurricane season, it is your decision and responsibility, not the government's. The people left behind in these devastated areas have far greater needs.

Scott Allison, Collingwood, Ont.

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As a taxpayer, I support the government's so-called sluggishness in responding to this rescue of tourists who demonstrated colossally poor judgment in travelling to an area they were advised was expecting a calamity.

The privilege and self-entitlement of these people gives the tourism industry as a whole a bad name. That they were rescued at all requires gratitude, not complaints.

Myrna Markovich, Toronto

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Equal vs. fair

Finance Minister Bill Morneau's ongoing message that taxation for those Canadians using incorporation (CCPCs, Canadian Controlled Private Corporations) needs to be "fair" reminds me of an old Prairie adage farmers often used when splitting up the family farm among family members: Fair is not always equal, and equal is not always fair.

Canada has often chosen to use the power and influence of fiscal policy (of which tax policy is simply a subset) to redistribute or incentivize certain sectors or regions of our country. While the rational for these policies is often economic, it is also often simply political. Routinely, these policies are met with frequent, sometimes heated, outcries of "unfair" for those of us who did not receive these benefits, perceived or real.

Tax policy has allowed many of us running smaller businesses to play on a level playing field in terms of the risk and return of running a business – forgone opportunity of benefits and pensions etc. – when compared with those employed in the public sector or working for larger corporations. One could argue that once again in Canada, being equal may necessitate not being "fair."

Peter Henderson, Victoria

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Chaos, balanced

While the media bombard us with reports of floods, hurricanes, fires, earthquakes and maniacal world leaders, two Facts & Arguments essays this week spoke to the strength and commitment individuals share toward one another. The first was a daughter's heartfelt testament to her mother's role as a single parent; the second, a gentle, honest account of a couple navigating romantic love after traumatic cancer surgery (Single Mom, Super Mom, Sept. 12; The Journey Back To Myself, Sept. 14).

Kudos to these authors for sharing their very personal stories and kudos to The Globe and Mail for balancing the chaos of the front page with loving humanity.

Linda Waverley, West Vancouver

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Two birds, one deal?

Re Canada Pushing To Revamp NAFTA Lawsuit Provision (Sept. 14): Canadians recall American firms suing the Canadian government under the North American free-trade agreement for business losses, such as the infamous Ethyl Corporation's suit because Canada blocked its gasoline additive MMT from sale here.

In addition to revamping the lawsuit provisions, a new provision should be added to NAFTA that eliminates lawsuits over an industrial product or process, if that same item is restricted within the country from which the lawsuit arises. MMT was banned in California at the time of the Ethyl suit, and under this proposed provision, U.S. interests could not have sued Canada over restrictions on MMT because it was restricted within the U.S.

Such a new provision could have the huge added benefit of fostering free trade within Canada. For example, the U.S. could block Canadian beer from crossing the border, as long as there remained restrictions within Canada on the movement of beer between provinces. Interprovincial trade barriers could come under intense pressure.

One stone, two birds?

Ian MacKay, Ottawa

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Good riddance

Re Montreal Bids Adieu To Amherst (Sept. 14): I commend Mayor Denis Coderre for removing the "execrable" name of Jeffrey Amherst from the streets of Montreal. Is there any chance he could, as a former MP and cabinet minister, speak to his Liberal cousins in Ottawa and ask them to remove Amherst's name from a national park in Prince Edward Island? Given Amherst's involvement in germ warfare, and his desire to "extirpate" the aboriginal race, he is nothing but a painful and disrespectful reminder to the Mi'kmaq of PEI that they are unimportant and nearly invisible.

In a period of serious reconciliation with our First Peoples, this needs to change. We can start by replacing Fort Amherst with a proper Mi'kmaq name worthy of commemoration. It is past time that our Indigenous peoples took their rightful place in this land.

Peter McKenna, chair, political science department, University of PEI

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Score one for music

Re How Schools Are Stifling Students' Creativity (Sept. 8): If his school was like mine, also a northern England grammar school, it wouldn't surprise me that Paul McCartney's music teacher didn't recognize his musical ability.

At my school, music was considered a fringe subject. Every student had just one lesson per week. The music room housed one instrument – a piano – and no student was allowed to play it.

The lesson consisted purely of the one music teacher talking about music. We may have done some choral singing from time to time, but mostly we just listened.

When Bill Haley & His Comets were in town, a fellow student jokingly asked the music teacher if he would attend the performance. He became apoplectic and banished the boy from the room!

Christopher Kelk, Toronto

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