Cheques seem to be safest option
I am amused that beside the article on page 1 of the Feb. 8 issue urging me to stop using cheques to pay bills is an extensive list of how thieves may be trying to steal my electronic security secrets.
A few months ago, I discovered a substantial sum had disappeared from my bank account — all electronically. I do minimal online banking. My computer consultant could find no weakness in my system. The funds were replaced. Were they ever retrieved, I cannot say — only the bank knows.
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I deliver cheques in person where convenient. Others, I place into a Canada Post box, not my roadside mailbox. The rare cases where a cheque has not arrived at its destination has cost me only a few dollars of late payment charges. None was ever cashed. Those must be in post office storage somewhere.
Mysterious phone calls and texts seem to be the norm. My social insurance number has been in some trouble. Amazon accounts must have quite a balance given the many charges allegedly placed against it. I nearly did not answer a call from a Saskatchewan number the other day. Glad I did as the caller said, “I did not change my number after moving back to Ontario.” I was expecting a call at that time of day.
I have cheques for a new account after the recent experience. I will reduce my online banking even more. These cheques will still be my standard payment method.
E. Pridham,
Stayner, Ont.
Spectre of Trumpism moves north of border
The Western Producer surprised some farmers when it published Robert Arnason’s op ed in its Feb. 1, 2024, issue justifying Donald Trump’s popularity.
Stewart Wells’ response on Feb. 15 points much more accurately to the real factors driving the long-term economic decline experienced by many Canadians over the last 40 years.
Unfortunately, Canadians are now seeing the importation of Trumpism into our country and our politics. This point is obvious to anyone who realizes that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s chant of “axe the tax” works in exactly the same way with an audience as Trump’s calls to “lock her up” did at his rallies back in 2016.
It short circuits critical thought and gives people a bogus sense of belonging. This is fine at a football game but is a dangerous and destructive tool in the hands of manipulative politicians.
Canada’s version of Trumpism recently got a huge boost from Tucker Carlson’s visit to Alberta, where the grievance politics of premier Danielle Smith have taken root. As we all know, Mr. Carlson’s next stop was in Moscow, where he conducted a long and adoring interview with president Vladimir Putin. Tucker Carlson was so gentle in that interview that even Putin chuckled about his easy questions.
Not long after this interview, Alexi Navalny, Putin’s most influential critic and political leader, died in a Siberian gulag. A global consensus that Putin was responsible for Navalny’s death emerged within hours.
However, Pierre Poilievre’s response to that murder was very muted, though not quite as muted as Trump’s. How are Canadians with deep roots in Ukraine feeling about this? Why is Smith using someone like Carlson to rally support in Alberta?
The appeal of Trumpism, and we can extend this to Poilievre and Smith tactics, is that it focuses hostility among some Canadians toward their neighbours who are different or want different things in life. These leaders don’t even try to build Canada’s unity.
Trump, Poilievre and Smith all seem prepared to abuse the law to widen social division and ultimately force others to behave as they would like them to. In this they join a long line of extremists who have no hesitation about anything when seeking power at the expense of the common good, something that never ends well.
Anders Bruun,
Winnipeg
