Media too soft on Liberals

Re One year on and still in honeymoon mode, Oct. 16 The Liberal government may be going in the right direction, but the media are being too easy on them.

Here are two examples: The Liberals tell us what a great job they are doing by admitting 35,000 Syrian refugees, but given the crisis situation in Greece, Turkey, Germany and Lebanon, Canada should be accepting at least five times that number.

Secondly, the Liberal government is failing with its lack of a housing strategy to address homelessness. I was at St. John’s Mission in Riverdale last week and I heard stories about the hundreds of “night walkers” in our downtown — people who have no place to sleep and are lined up at the door of the mission for breakfast at 5 a.m. each morning.

Scores of studies have outlined the high costs of homelessness in terms of mental illness, hospital stays, court costs, etc. We know that the answer is housing, and the capital cost of social housing should be a federal responsibility. Local governments only collect 12 cents of every tax dollar paid in Canada.

The media need to do more toward helping us to hold this Liberal government accountable. David Walsh, Toronto

Re Why Trudeau gets an A- after Year 1, Opinion Oct. 13 I disagree strongly with Bob Hepburn. Global warming is here and now. A prime minister who has behaved until the last few weeks as if there is no such thing does not deserve an A. His recent imposition of a carbon tax is much too little, much too late. Ken Ranney, Peterborough,