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Letters to the Editor
L I N D S A Y
A D V O C A T E
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Ian McKechnie’s “Just in Time” pieces are a gift to the City of Kawartha Lakes. His well-researched work connects us to our town’s past and to many of the souls who kept this community vibrant and well-served. Ian’s “Our daily bread” article (June Advocate) spurred me to write this reflection.
In the early 1970s, my family moved to Lindsay from Sault Ste. Marie. My Dad, Jan, had secured a job at Jackson’s bakery located on Kent Street (presently it’s Charmin’s). He worked at the Olympia Restaurant for a time before opening his own shop called Jan’s Donuts at 18 Kent St. W.
Trained in Europe, Dad created delectable sweets from scratch such as mille feuilles, honey buns, pies and breads, tarts and cream puffs. There were coffee, milkshakes, ice cream and pinball machines for the teenagers to enjoy. The hours were long for my parents but, for my sister and me, the bakery was full of fun. I loved watching the rum balls being made and the dainty roses drying on the rack just waiting to be placed on a delicious cake. As “downtown kids,” we got to know the regular customers and came to call Lindsay home. Patty Apac, Lindsay
Save the Grand, a Lindsay landmark
To the new owners of the Grand, the citizens of Lindsay ask that you please work with owner Charlie McDonald and save our iconic restaurant. There are few things left that remind us of our humble beginnings. The Grand, the building, and the Grand, the bar, are two different things to most of us. The bar-restaurant has been here for 160 years and Charlie and his staff have made it a home away from home for over 10 years. To close a successful business and put more than 30 people out of work is unconscionable. To do so with 30 days’ notice is mean-spirited, even if the law is on your side.
When COVID-19 hit and we were trying to rally around our local businesses, people lined up around the block to get food from the Grand. I talked to staff and they joked they were busier now than before. The town fought to keep the restaurant afloat then and we need you to help us keep it alive now. This is not just a local pizza joint to people of Lindsay. This is where most of us had our first legal drink with our parents. It’s where we went after the Santa Claus parade for hot choco late. It’s where we ate amazing cheddar soup and drank the Virgin Grand Caesar with high school friends to feel grown-up.
If you have lived in this town long enough there are hundreds of memories that include the Grand. No one wants this to happen and we need you to reconsider. You have a choice — sit down with Charlie and figure this out. The citizens of Lindsay need this place and as a new business owner you are going to need us. Kimberly McMillan
Deal with a Canadian winter or head for U.S.?
My wife and I are citizens of Canada and the U.S. and able to spend our summers at our cottage on the lake here in the Kawarthas and our winters in the southern U.S. We feel we have been blessed to have two totally separate lifestyles. Our hearts will always be Canadian, but we have many friends in America. The only caveat is we cannot talk about U.S. politics with them. It is just like being a Protestant or Catholic; we both believe in God, but we cannot agree on how.
Being citizens of the U.S., there is no time limit on our stay there, and we also have Medicare while in the U.S., unlike most Canadians. So, as we approach the end of summer and the closure of our cottage for the winter, we must consider our health risks by travelling back to our place in America. Do we stay here in Canada with minimum risk or go to the U.S. with significant risk?
It’s unfortunate that had America handled their response to the pandemic like other countries such as Canada this situation could have been avoided. This is America’s loss. George Baillie, Pleasant Point
I love the policy proposals in your recent editorial regarding Basic Income Plus, although I think it could be even more ambitious. We must demand it be im plemented at the federal level and funded with federal dollars. Canadians should not be burdened with the costs of much-needed reforms that are long overdue — and we don’t have to be.
Unlike provinces, territories, municipalities, busi nesses and households, Canada is monetarily sovereign
and the federal government is the sole issuer of Canadian dollars, a fiat currency. Despite popular belief, the federal government is not dependent on tax dollars to stay afloat and it cannot go bankrupt, as Stephanie Kelton has written in The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy.
Unfortunately, leftists often fall prey to discussing economics in a right-wing frame. Politicians and media organizations cynically fear-monger about the federal debt and deficit to keep necessary reforms at bay — and leftists acquiesce. Your own proposal for pharmacare falls into this trap. Why should Canadians be expected to suffer co-pays on prescription drugs when we should demand free, universal pharmacare? Presumably you wanted to help offset the costs of the program while appearing fiscally responsible.
Talk of creating more money inevitably leads to fears of inflation, which can be an issue. However, the U.S., Europe, Japan and others have actually been grappling with under-inflation/deflation for more than a decade. And right here in Canada, despite record levels of federal spending during the pandemic, the country’s inflation rate went into the negative for the first time since 2009.
Instead of worrying about debt, it’s time that Cana dians were able to think big and accomplish things we thought were impossible. In this time of crisis, while we rethink society, the economy, politics and ourselves, we must slay the deficit bogeyman if anything is ever going to change. William Paterson, Lindsay
An open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Black Lives Matter
I am writing on behalf of myself, my husband and family about the recent anti-Black racism protests and the subsequent increase in awareness on this important and emotional matter. During this time of COVID-19 pandemic, we as Canadians are “suddenly aware” of white privilege, suddenly “woke” that Black Lives Matter. I am white and many of my family members are Black or mixed race (Black and white), through adoption and marriage.
We with white privilege must step back and let Black Lives Matter.
I am so lucky to know so many people with darker skin than mine. Of course, Black Lives Matter. And it is about time that many others understand this too and stand up for it. Humans as a people are attracted to people who look like themselves. I am so lucky that I have Black family with whom I am comfortable, who to me look like my family. Because of this, it may have been easier for me, a white person, to make Black friends. To me, Black folks are just folks.
That said, knowing and loving these folks does not mean I know how their lives shake out for my Black friends and family, how they feel every day of their lives, how it is to live in Black skin. For them, every day a visible physical difference is shown to the world.
Being Black in North America is not an easy thing — has never been an easy thing. Being Black while driv ing, while in a school or a store, jogging in a neighbourhood, being Black while just being alive, is a more perilous, potentially deadly phenomenon of which we with white privilege have been, and are, completely and sadly unaware.
It is not about you. It is not about me. It is about so many people whose free great-great-grandparents were stolen from their families, their villages, their tribes and country and sold for the enrichment of primarily white people. It is about people whose lives are more difficult and dangerous, largely less comfortable or richly supported by parents and grandparents who could give so much.
We are so lucky here in Canada, Ontario and Kawartha Lakes. The time to make change is now. We must strike while the iron is hot, and that time is now!
I appreciate all you do for our country and look forward to positive changes. I hope you continue the fine work. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon. Yours respectfully,
Lawrie Keillor-Faulkner, retired Fleming College GIS Professor Hamlyn Keillor-Faulkner, retired Fleming College Forestry Professor, Omemee
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