The Seagram who founded Seagram

Re: Creating the ‘ World’s Best’ Whisky, Peter Kuitenbrouwer, December 14. Mr. Kuitenbrouwer wrote a nice article but one fact is wrong. Sam Bronfman did not found Seagram. Joseph E. Seagram did, my Great Grandfather. Sam bought Seagrams from the Distillers Corporation in 1929 after my Grandfather, Edward Frowde Seagram, sold the company to Distillers Corporation of England in 1928. Ed Seagram, Vice President, Broker, CBRE Limited, Toronto

China’s fossil fuel smog

Re “Solomon’s uncanny scorecard,” by Lawrence Solomon, Dec. 18. Lawrence Solomon might have missed the real picture by listening to Lawrence Solomon. While visiting China in 2011, I was immediately shocked by life- threatening pollution in its cities. With millions of gasoline- powered cars and hundreds of coal- fired power plants spewing toxic particles, the air in Shanghai and Beijing is simply unbreathable. I had to use a surgical mask every time I went out. Things seem to have deteriorated since I visited China. Now the Chinese government is declaring pollution emergency almost every day, closing down schools and factories. With so much workplace breakdowns, the loss to the Chinese economy must have been enormous. And health care cost to China must be stupendous.

Former U. S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Jr., who visited China in the same year, describes Beijing’s life- threatening pollution caused by fossil fuels in the chapter: Darkness at Noon, in his book Dealing With China: “During a break for lunch, I left our hotel to do a photo- op with Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, one of our featured speakers for an all-electric car that combined a Chinese- made battery and body with proprietary drivetrain installed in L. A. I had been indoors all morning, and, boy, was I shocked to step outside. It was just after noon, but it was so dark and gloomy it might as well have been dusk. Office towers just across the street were as dim as shadows.”

The same is happening on a larger scale in India where the air in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai is equally unbreathable with coal- fired plants and gasoline- powered cars spewing deadly fumes and toxic particles.

Both China and India are also known for massive corruption by government offcials and politicians who tend to ignore their own laws aimed at reducing pollution. But in advanced democracies, fossil fuel consumption have slumped. Most of these countries have shut down their coal- fired power plants. The use of renewable sources of energy like solar and wind have multiplied.

Mahmood Elahi, Ottawa

Butter importers

Re: Big Dairy Resorts to Butter Imports, Peter Kuitenbrouwer, Dec. 18 Since my wife bakes a lot and we buy a fair bit of butter ( and other dairy products), I will share our perspective on something that hasn’t yet been mentioned.

The fact is that when the Canadian dollar was relatively strong relative to the U. S. dollar, cross border shopping for dairy products was a lot more popular with people like us. Every few months we would “stock up” on butter, putting several pounds into the freezer following a trip to Bellingham, Washington, given it was considerably cheaper in the U. S.

Now t hat t he exchange rate has worsened, we are not going out of our way to grocery shop in the U. S., and are buying pretty well all our butter in Canada. I wonder if the Dairy Commission has considered this.

Perhaps it isn’t so much that consumption patterns have changed, but rather the sourcing by consumers has. The reality is that individuals have had the power to “import” butter for their own use without tariffs ( generally CBSA lets a couple with a few hundred in grocery items through without charging duties, even if out of Canada for l ess than 24 hours), but the exchange rate now makes this far less worthwhile.

John Bryant, Delta, B. C.