Your letters for Dec. 9

"The monarchy costs each Canadians pennies and as head of state, the monarch has no influence on what parliament passes."

Scheer earns no brownie points with Trump

Why is chatter in a private circle a diplomatic disaster? Ironically Donald Trump — the sorry excuse for a president who freely insults people left and right and called Trudeau two-faced — was offended. Now Andrew Scheer steps up to the plate and supports Trump. Well, even if Scheer is elected prime minister of Canada, he still will not have earned himself brownie points with Trump for sticking a knife in the back of his and my prime minister. I like to mention that I didn’t vote for either.

Herman R. Bininda, Calgary

Sports hucksters take public dollars — again

Re: City signs deal for new $550M Flames arena, Dec. 6

As per the usual sports franchise programme, the Flames’ hucksters take the local hayseed politicians for hundreds of millions for a publicly funded playpen for their business operations. Pity that they weren’t just selling band uniforms and getting the without hope hoi poloi to sing-a-long with them. That would have saved enough to lower municipal taxes on the more important and numerous small business in the city.

Clay Atcheson, North Vancouver

Low taxes aren’t bringing businesses

Alberta politicians often brag about this province having the lowest taxes in the country. That’s all very well but it appears that the low taxes that we have are not motivating businesses to locate to Alberta or to expand existing operations. More tax relief for corporations is driven by the ideology of the UCP but has not demonstrated success in operation.

Albertans get the same tired strategies from the same tired set of politicians. The UCP will drive Alberta into being a rustbelt province.

Randy Harris, Calgary

Far more important issues than the monarchy

Re: Time to cut ties with monarchy, letter, Dec. 6

Canada can’t just say, “Dear Queen, you’re fired.” As The Constitution Act of 1982 stipulates, this would require the approval of all provinces and a majority vote of all citizens. Opening up the constitution to one thing would mean opening it up to everything. No one is going to touch that pandora’s box.

Prince Andrew is far enough down the line of succession that he will not be king. As to Charles, he has been a loyal and devoted member of the Royal Family – especially with the support he gets from Camilla. After Charles, the throne passes to William, who, with Catherine, will be a wonderful king. The monarchy costs each Canadians pennies and as head of state, the monarch has no influence on what parliament passes. So, no, getting rid of the monarchy is not doable. There are far more important issues to attend to.

Nancy Marley-Clarke, Calgary

Parking is too expensive downtown

Want to get people downtown? How about making the cost of parking more affordable? Calgary is one if the most expensive places in North America to park your car. These high parking costs were fine when Alberta was booming, but that’s no longer the case. Who wants to pay $25-plus to venture downtown to shop or have a lunch or dinner when there are so many other options in the city? Keep the parking prices high and watch Stephen Avenue die.

John Rooney, Okotoks

Partisan pot shots ignore Alberta’s strengths

Re: Liberals have sabotaged Alberta’s historic rights; Meanwhile, investors are fleeing the province, Opinion, Nov. 30

Ted Morton’s column is nothing more than partisan hackery and does a disservice to both Peter Lougheed’s legacy and Alberta in its current situation.

I believe the late premier’s finest achievement was establishing the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, which will likely be used to support my generation in the future. I find it illuminating that Morton neglects to mention it at all.

If Morton constructed an actual balance sheet of the province, it would read like this: highest per-capita incomes in Canada, top-quality French-immersion programs and robust health-care services, near-bottom rates of personal and corporate tax, and more space, beauty and quality of life than pretty much anywhere else in the world.

It is far more convenient to blame the Liberals, denigrate experts at the court and the professional civil service, and bash the Charter, the Trudeaus, equalization and official bilingualism.

Graham Gerein, Calgarian studying in U.K.