Letters, Aug. 31

A trade and tariff take

My take on the Canada/U.S. trade negotiation breakdown is that the Americans simply overplayed their hand. They added last-minute items and wording in an effort to jam us into a one-sided deal, expecting we would avert new tariffs at any price.

Now we see the U.S. Trade Representative, (Jamieson) Greer, pleading it was Canada that came forth with new requests. It is hard to believe, given (the Trump administration’s) propensity to stretch the truth and outright lie.

Trump needs a win on a trade deal with Canada more than we do, given U.S. mid-term elections are coming up in a couple of months. Inflation in the U.S. is already higher due to increased oil prices from Trump’s war on Iran and his tariffs create additional upward price pressures.

Most Americans vote based on their pocketbooks and Trump is looking very weak on his handling of the economy, to the detriment of the Republican party. With the strong backing of Canadians, Carney can afford to wait this tariff war out.

Bill Speers

Winnipeg

Seniors face fitness desert

I applaud the City of Winnipeg for its plans to improve the Pan Am Pool facility. Anyone who has used the locker rooms or dodged the drips and pails on the track will know that maintenance is much-needed.

At the same time, I dread the coming 16-to-18-month closure.

I am just one of many seniors who regularly attend exercise, fitness and weight classes at Pan Am. We are people in our 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s who utilize these classes to maintain/increase strength, mobility, balance, while also socializing, making friends and building community. The staff at the front desk know us by name and that creates a great sense of belonging.

In recent weeks, when it was time to register for future classes through the Leisure Guide, there was a lot of anxiety and consternation about what to do and where to go after December.

While we hear that accommodations will be made for young people and swim clubs, we hear very little about plans to ensure that there will be continued access to appropriate classes for us.

Rumour has it that additional classes may be added at other facilities but that will not meet the need for something we can easily reach on foot, via transit or by car.

We have been trying to figure out why the portable equipment (free weights, mats, balls, resistance bands, etc.) couldn’t be moved to another city-run facility in the neighbourhood, like a community centre, where we could continue to gather with an instructor who knows us and helps us to make progress. Why can’t some programs be maintained in our area of the city?

If society wants seniors to stay out of hospitals and personal care homes, to remain independent and healthy, to build strong communities, then my needs and those of so many others like me should be considered and planned for.

Frankly, at my current age, a disruption in regular exercise, with familiar people, will only have a detrimental impact on life.

I hope the city will see and hear this and use the weeks between now and December to come up with a new plan. Please!

Jo-Ann Cumming

Winnipeg

Better plans and programs

Re: Emergency rooms and health-care bottlenecks (Editorial, Aug. 26)

If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. It appears that successive provincial and federal governments went blissfully along, ignoring the predicted bulge in older (and new) Canadians who today are overwhelming our public health-care system.

As a result, today we’re desperately short of personal care homes; this translates into a desperate shortage of acute-care beds in our hospitals and long wait times in urgent and emergency care.

Could the provincial ministers of health, at their midsummer get-together in Banff in 1992, not have foreseen the post-war baby boom coming down the track when they decided to reduce medical college enrolments across the country as a cost-saving measure?

Having learned this hard lesson of history — penny wise and pound foolish — surely our elected leaders will not make the same mistakes regarding climate change.

Or will they?

Who said: “You get the kind of government you deserve?”

Robert (Bob) G. Roehle

Winnipeg

Alternative forms of community-based care have been established in over 25 countries, but not in Canada. Since the inception of Buurtzorg neighbourhood care (BNC), a nurse-managed home-based care system, in the Netherlands 2006, these countries have recognized and invested in this superior, community-based care system

Ontario trialled BNC in miniature before the pandemic and found BNC-model care superior and cost-efficient compared to traditional home care.

Our home-care system has failed Manitobans and will continue to leave Manitobans without efficient and effective community-based care.

Our minister of health, seniors and long-term care is aware how efficient BNC is and, as a nurse, they understand the value of efficient, comprehensive care to restoring and supporting those in need of community-based care, especially when bed space is unavailable.

Doing nothing is unacceptable to Manitobans. The fact that many nurses have opted for early retirement or left nursing entirely ought to concern people enough to demand action now.

Manitoba could lead the way forward in Canada before more frustrated nurses leave or retire early.

Trish Rawsthorne

Winnipeg

The joy of running free

Re: Physical activity for ‘every single child’ (Aug. 28)

As I read the Free Press each day (last) week, telling me more and more about tariffs, economic war and now the renaming of Lake Ontario, I felt an evermore existential dread building within me. So, I found it to be so delightful (Friday) morning to discover a photo of Premier Wab Kinew, racing in his socks with children to promote childhood physical activity with his signature big smile on his face.

Thank you for including that photo and bringing joy to my (and hopefully others’) day!

Teresa Enns Zehr

Winnipeg

Goalie’s choice

Re: Hellebuyck goes public with trade request, forcing Jets’ hand (Aug. 28)

Connor Hellebuyck, as we know, backstopped the U.S.A. to Olympic gold. Shortly after winning, he was invited to the Oval Office and accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from his country, a medal that has been awarded to numerous famous athletes — Babe Ruth, Billie Jean King, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, to name a few. He was the first hockey player to be recognized with the award.

Unfortunately, at the time, the media and many others chose to subject Hellebuyck to a rash of criticism for both attending the Oval Office and accepting the medal. And, of course, the online trolls got involved with attacks on his wife and family.

The common refrain is that Hellebuyck’s request for a trade is his competitive spirit desperately wanting a chance at the Stanley Cup.

“Horse hockey,” I say. Why would he have signed a seven-year contract if he wasn’t expecting it to take a while in Winnipeg?

It’s pretty obvious that he got a look at the darker side of Winnipeg fandom and he didn’t like it and wanted out. And I don’t blame him. So, I hope all these people with their bottomless well of criticism are happy. Their moment of self-indulgence may have cost the Jets the best goalie we will ever see in this town. Good luck, Connor, wherever you end up.

Rob McConnell

Winnipeg