Letters to the Editor – April 2025
Why are elections not taken seriously?
Editor, Glebe Report
It is sad that elections have such low turnout. The just-held Ontario election had 45 per cent turnout which doesn’t auger well for the looming federal election. So what’s ticking off the voters? Could it be the talking points of the party leaders who sound so predictable?
Take the New Democratic Party, who are actually not that new having been around since 1961 with much the same giveaways. You want more teachers, we’ll get them. Want more doctors, sure thing. Want more affordable houses (who doesn’t?), just show me where. And to pay for all that we will tax the deviously fat corporations. Oh, and don’t forget Christmas bonuses to all who ask for it.
Now the cagey Liberals are smarter. They’ll do most everything the NDP promises, with an escape proviso that they will take more than one term to implement them. They know full well that after four years no one will remember exactly what was promised so that their slate is clean to start anew with the same stuff, different slogans.
The most outrageous promises are put out by fringe parties like the Communists who have no hope of implementing any of them. They would abolish private wealth and make everyone fraternally equal, if somewhat poorer.
The PCs, or Tories as they are affectionately called, like to exude no nonsense efficiency, like balancing the budget in the not-too-distant future, which somehow never arrives. Not to worry, they have a plan to find efficiencies, if only the nasty opposition would cooperate and let them get on with it. Tories tend to have short fuses and will readily lob politically incorrect names at their opponents who, not to be outdone, reciprocate vigorously, resulting in an interesting name calling contest.
Then they blame the voters for getting blasé about politics and switching off.
Democracy has a funny way of making it work. Sort of.
Rafal Pomian
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More absurdity in Ottawa
Editor, Glebe Report
Re: “Absurdity and pandering to a minority” by T. Scott Murray, Glebe Report, March 2025
I certainly support Mr. Murray’s March letter, “Absurdity and pandering to a minority,” but I will take it several steps further. I don’t know where to begin when I look around at the absurdity and total lack of prioritization, but let me start with the [broken] sidewalk condition in the Glebe and the expensive new bike lane on Glebe Avenue.
I would very much like to see the business case for the expenditure of this bike lane. Was a study done on bike traffic or was this another pet project by our councillor to save the world from itself, one Glebe street at a time?
Were infrastructure improvements required on Glebe Avenue, yes. Eliminating one third of the road to accommodate cyclists; I am not so sure. It would be fair to say that Glebe Avenue at that section of the road was more than wide enough to accommodate parked vehicles and traffic including buses and cyclists.
I’ve seen better sidewalks and streets when serving in Kabul than here in Ottawa. I’ll leave this thought with readers; the rapid decline in urban centres across North America, cities like Portland, San Francisco, Vancouver and Ottawa, coincides with the overwhelming election of extreme left-wing progressives at all levels of government for the past two decades. This left-wing unfocused and careless agenda is the common denominator of the urban failures we are now experiencing.
Bike lanes are just one symptom of a growing disconnect between what the reality of the situation warrants and the wish list of special interests that have the taken over the political discourse.
Scott Healey
Former provincial PC candidate, Ottawa Centre
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Lansdowne 2.0’s smaller arena will drive Charge away
We don’t want to lose the Ottawa Charge
Editor, Glebe Report
How long will it be before Ottawa loses our beloved women’s pro hockey team, the Ottawa Charge, to another city with a large enough arena to make the team money?
It’s a question worth asking when you consider what our City Council is preparing to do.
This fall, Ottawa City Council will decide on a plan in the works to build a new arena at Lansdowne and reduce seats by 3,500 to build the two tall towers. TD Place, which the Charge routinely fill, is set to be replaced by a much smaller hockey venue with the re-do of Lansdowne 2.0. The Charge’s 8,500-seat home rink will shrink to a 5,000-seat venue.
With a future like that it would be understandable for the team to move on at the first opportunity to play somewhere that can accommodate the massive success that women’s pro hockey enjoys. Just ask the PWHL teams in Toronto and Montreal – after their first season, both moved to larger arenas the size of our current TD Place.
The PWHL arrived in Ottawa and five other Canadian and U.S. cities two years ago to great fanfare. The league and our team are doing the game differently. Our community responded to their inspiring vision. The stands are filled with families and the Charge players are heroines to young girls all over Eastern Ontario dreaming of a career in pro hockey. “Play like a girl!” signs are seen in the hands of many youngsters in the stands.
A smaller arena will mean 3,500 fewer of these girls will have access to games. Ticket prices are sure to rise. In the new design, corporate boxes are set to replace seats for families and community hockey teams. The festive and joyful atmosphere of Charge home games will change drastically as ticket prices go up and half the rink is filled with suits in corporate boxes.
The worst part is Ottawa taxpayers are paying for the proposed new rink as part of the nearly half-billion-dollar bailout City Council is poised to greenlight to realize Lansdowne 2.0, a proposal submitted by a for-profit consortium, the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group.
And it is not just Charge fans who will pay the price for the smaller design. Ottawa hosts many international sporting events like curling and hockey as well as concerts. We are bound to lose these with a smaller venue the size of those in cities like Kingston or Barrie.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Since taxpayers are footing the bill, we must have a say in a decision that could push our team away. The current rink is working for both the team and Charge fans.
Until they sign the cheque to pay for Lansdowne 2.0, Ottawa City Council holds great influence over the future of the Charge in Ottawa. We need to let our city councillors and mayor know we do not want to lose the Charge, and we want value for our tax dollars on any changes to TD Place.
Let’s put the plans for a new and smaller rink on ice until a more reasonable and responsible plan is proposed.
Fans of the Ottawa Charge: Rianne Mahon, Glebe; Margaret Buist, Alta Vista; Débora Rodriques; Penny Bertrand, Glebe; Susan Jones, Kanata; Ellen Bond, Kitchissippi; Debbie Broad, Glebe; Duane Faris, Gloucester-Southgate; Blair Rutherford, Sandy Hill; Monette Maillet, Somerset Ward; David Power, Rideau-Rockcliffe; Laura Farquharson, Sandy Hill; Holly Carswell, Rideau-Rockcliffe