A for sale sign is displayed outside a home in Toronto in December, 2021.CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters
Pain points
Re “Bank of Canada stuck wondering why interest rate hikes have not been enough to tame inflation” (Report on Business, Aug. 17): I have to question the conventional wisdom that high interest rates alone will eradicate inflation.
The current pressure points are mortgage costs (directly related to rate increases), rents (immigration at record levels and huge taxation on new housing supply), food (mostly produced outside Canada) and energy (prices set by international markets and production decreases).
How will higher rates improve these primary contributors?
Greg Nevison Toronto
Because post-pandemic inflation was mostly caused by factors outside the labour market – supply chain disruptions, the Ukraine invasion, aggressive corporate profit-taking – the Bank of Canada should not be surprised that rate hikes and an engineered increase in unemployment have had no visible impact on price increases.
Rapid rate hikes can create financial instability, increase inequality and slow the economy, leading to even higher rates of unemployment. Higher credit costs and job loss inflict the most pain on those at the bottom of the economic ladder, who are struggling to pay bills and who are first to be fired.
If inflation is a disease, then I find our central bankers are dispensing quack remedies that damage the most vulnerable.
Larry Kazdan Vancouver
Pay it forward
Re “Canada’s costly housing market needs a reality check” (Editorial, Aug. 17): One wonders if something more fundamental is at play than a traditional imbalance of supply and demand.
Owning real estate, we are reminded on an almost daily basis, is one of the best investments a person can make. Having a roof over one’s head is an added bonus.
I am in the fortunate position that my house is fully paid. The best thing I can do to provide for my children in the distant future is to buy real estate and rent it out. Hopefully the rental income is sufficient to cover mortgage costs.
With urban housing prices rising at a pace exceeding interest rates, I cannot help but win out. Urban properties will more likely than not assist my children’s future ability to find employment within commuting distance, and also has growing scarcity value.
So, what is the problem?
Boudewyn van Oort Victoria
Union forever
Re “Hot labour summer? Not exactly. But a union revival could bode well for workers” (Editorial, Aug. 14): As a lifelong union man on the West Coast – International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Teamsters, Telecommunications Workers Union, United Steelworkers – I am encouraged by the interest in trades by the youth of Canada and their desire to unionize.
If employers were less greedy in their pursuit of ever-greater six- and seven-figure bonuses, while those who do the work make five figures, they might realize that there’s plenty to go around.
My United Steelworkers Local 1944, Unit 60, has asked for mediation to settle for a new contract with the employer, which was Shaw but is now Rogers. I am preparing for a lockout.
Find me on the picket line. I’ve been there before. In solidarity.
James Molesworth New Westminster, B.C.
Read to me
Re “Could lawsuits spur school boards to improve their literacy programs?” (Aug. 15): Talk about shirking parental responsibilities. If we’re talking litigation here, then we’re probably talking about affluent parents and not those working three part-time jobs at minimum wage.
I learned to read before I went to school because my parents read to me, to each other and to themselves. They set an example, and the stories they read stimulated my appetite for more. Early reading of well-written and beautifully illustrated books hones the ear and eye.
Perhaps these litigious parents should be going after the tech guys for the current addiction to screens.
Pamela Cornell Kingston
J’ai mon voyage
Re “Why the Québécois accent is a joy to behold” (Opinion, Aug. 12): While vocal cords vibrate to produce speech, speech patterns and phonemes are mostly produced in the upper vocal tract via articulation at the teeth, soft palate, etc. While some phonemes are rare cross-linguistically and therefore hard to imitate, I find this is not the case here.
Perhaps French actors can’t get past their own bias against the Québécois accent. “The opposite is not true” – Québécois artists have no problem producing the (standard) French-from-France accent. This makes sense, since they would view the accent positively.
Social perception of dialect affects speech production, and comprehension.
Veena Dwivedi Director, Dwivedi Brain and Language Lab, Brock University; St. Catharines, Ont.
Pardon me
Re “May I interject? Interruptions can have positive effects on our conversations” (Opinion, Aug. 12): As a chronic interrupter who habitually claims the defences of signalling engagement, enthusiasm and rapport, I heartily agree.
An early work-life lesson taught me the benefits of spontaneous and direct interruption. In client presentations on a large project, one colleague often interjected with comments like, “Why would you do that?” or, “That doesn’t make sense.” Meanwhile, I took copious notes and waited for a pause to list detailed (and often lengthy) concerns.
Clients termed my behaviour “calculating.” I learned that sincere reaction, even if negative, can encourage open conversation that builds trust, unlike surface politeness that barely conceals closed judgments.
With the rise of machine learning and machine interaction, along with increased remote work, “creative overlapping” may encourage what a seminal and prescient 1999 Harvard Business Review article termed “the human moment at work” – an activity vital to workplace social fabric and worker mental health.
Chester Fedoruk Toronto
The subtlest wisdom
Re “The commonplace book, where early modern thinkers collected ideas, was the internet of its time” (Opinion, Aug. 12): I am reminded of the critic F.L. Lucas’s observation about the pervasiveness of imitation and borrowing in the dramatic works of the Elizabethan playwright John Webster, who “soared on borrowed plumes and was sublime by the aid of a commonplace book.”
But writing daily in a commonplace book was a labour-intensive activity. Webster worked arduously to soar on borrowed plumes, and it took genius for him to synthesize his imitations and borrowings into sublime plays like The Duchess of Malfi.
For us, it takes seconds to soar on borrowed words with the aid of the internet and other technical devices. However, technology such as ChatGPT is incapable of achieving, let alone maintaining, the sublime in the old sense.
No bot shall resuscitate the dead art of poetry.
Greig Henderson Toronto
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