Dear Editor:
Trevor Lauten’s dreary column of Nov. 20 was a disappointing read, seemingly aimed at a very low denominator audience.
His comments on Justin Trudeau are on the same level as the secret pleasure a homely teenager might feel when a smart, popular and good-looking kid trips and falls. The supposedly “cuckoo-land” target of welcoming 25,000 refugees (the majority of whom will become tax-paying citizens) is portrayed as a vain attempt to get noticed on the international stage.
I see it as a leader deliberately setting the bar high, and inviting us to rise above the safe-seeming mediocrity of our recent past. It has much more to do with self-respect than with bragging rights.
Lauten’s tone when describing refugees is reminiscent of the prevailing Canadian attitudes of the late 1930s (which still make me cringe 75 years later).
The Jews of Europe were “different,” “socialist,” a “threat to Canadian values,” and so we kept them out. Perhaps the thing that provokes such gall in Mr. Lautens is the sense that since Oct. 19, it just might be time for us to quit whinging and actually do something. When that happens, he’s out of a job.
Craig Johnston, NorthVancouver
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
