Life outside Ottawa

Re: The dangers of shaming on Canada Day, Christie Blatchford, July 4

Ms. Blatchford eloquently captured how I was feeling this past Canada Day ... in fact, I refused to turn on the CBC for fear my head would explode from the volume of references to the fashionable topics of the day. At times like this, this baby boomer reflects on the sacrifices our teenaged ( and not much older) soldiers made in the two World Wars. They loved their country and were fighting to protect it and the freedom that it stood for. I bet they weren’t moaning about identity politics or what the government owed them. Jeff Barker, Mississauga, Ont

Missing from Christie Blatchford’s usually comprehensive column — wherein she noted that the Trudeau government’s Canada Day 150 was indistinguishable from the CBC’s — was any mention of the substantial incentive handed to Canada’s national broadcaster. A $ 150- million boost in funding is typically enough to make any media recipient a submissive lapdog of the governing party.

As my dental hygienist commented while the national news played in the background, “I haven’t heard such blatant government propaganda on state television since leaving Russia.”

Spit please. Arthur Ellis, Winnipeg

Christie Blatchford’s piece about Canada Day celebrations on CBC was brilliant. But I feel sorry for her. I am not a journalist so I did not have to watch hours of Pablum fed to Canadians. She had to watch for professional reasons. I changed the channel after a few, too long minutes. And then I went to downtown Calgary where I treated my CBC postpartum depression by watching young and old Calgarians in red and white. Particularly uplifting were young people dressed in their best Canada Day outfits, with red- coloured hair. There is life outside Ottawa and CBC. And there is Canada in Alberta, despite what the prime minister says. Alec Bialski, Calgary