YOU SAID IT: Unforced Ford error

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FORD'S UNCONDITIONAL MISTAKE

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Prime Minister Mark Carney shouldn't hold his breath after his fellow tough guy Doug Ford made a huge unforced error that derailed any potential trade deal indefinitely. Why did Ford think that anti-tariff advertising, which cost Ontario taxpayers $75 million, featuring Ronald Reagan in anti-Trump media, would help delicate tariff and trade negotiations?

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As the US Supreme Court was about to rule on the legality of Trump's tariffs, Ford's timing was bound to anger Donald Trump.

Now, to add insult to injury, the Reagan Foundation is considering filing a lawsuit against the Ontario government, alleging that “selective editing of Reagan's speech” could prove even more costly to Ontario taxpayers.

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LARRY COMEAU

OTTAWA

CAMERAS EVERYWHERE

Want to put a positive spin on a decision you've made that might be wrong?

At first you include so many statistics that the reader's eyes become glazed over. You then use these statistics to indicate how many children's lives your decision saved. Finally, you get into discussions about how many children have died in car accidents. Of course, you assume, without any evidence, that they could have been saved if your actions had been followed.

The original plan for photo radar was to place it around school grounds; good idea. I think municipalities got confused when they realized how much revenue these cameras generate. Hey, let's put them everywhere!

So now we have cameras on four-lane divided roads. We have them in the rural areas of the city. We have them on already congested city streets and so on and so forth. What we don't have is a police presence on the streets of the city. After all, a camera is cheaper than a police officer.

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Of course, Premier Doug Ford was right. The city has created a cash cow and does not want to let it go.

MICHAEL PERRO

OTTAWA

TARIFF ADVERTISED EXACTLY

An Ontario ad outlining Ronald Reagan's views on tariffs is entirely factual. If President Donald Trump believes that Reagan really loved tariffs, it makes me wonder if he read newspapers or watched television news during the Reagan era. Reagan believed in fair and free trade, as well as freely negotiated trade agreements such as the Canada-US bilateral trade agreement that preceded NAFTA.

Trump's reaction is an example of how frustrated he is by historical facts that differ from his own interpretation.

BRUCE COACHMAN

TORONTO

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