Toronto Sun | 24Jun2010 | Orest Slepokura
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/letters/2010/06/23/14492086.html
DADDY WARBUCKS?
Re “The G20 that ate Toronto” (Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun, June
23,2010):
Stephen Harper’s decision to host the $1.3-billion, G20 Summit in
downtown Toronto is like Daddy Warbucks lighting up a fat, juicy cigar
in a posh restaurant, despite the smoking ban and the annoyance of
secondhand smoke to other patrons and staff tasked with maintaining
hygienic standards. Sure, he could smoke elsewhere, but it would be
only half the fun.
Orest Slepokura; Strathmore, Alta.
(We agree it’s
disruptive, but Stephen Harper is hardly the first leader to host a G20
meeting in a major city)
[Note how the 1st half of my letter was published -- while the 2nd more
important half of it with the punch line (in red, in the original
below) was simply edited out.]
The Editor:
Re: "The G-20 that ate Toronto," Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun 23 June
2010.
Stephen Harper's decision to host the $1.3-billion G-20 Summit in
downtown Toronto is like Daddy Warbucks lighting up a fat, juicy cigar
in a posh restaurant, despite the smoking ban and the annoyance of
secondhand smoke to other patrons and staff tasked with maintaining
hygienic standards. Sure, he could smoke elsewhere, but it would be
only half the fun; the
other half being sourced to the I-can-do-as-I-damn-well-please
satisfaction of throwing his VIP weight around. In outlook, it's a
world away from the mid-1990s when to flag the coming frugality Prime
Minister Chretien traded in Brian Mulroney's limo for a Chevrolet and
axe-wielding Paul Martin then tabled austerity budgets to whittle away
at deficits.
Sincerely,
Orest Slepokura, Strathmore, Alta