Letters to The Vancouver Sun: Federal Conservatives want to put all our eggs in a basket that gets rewoven every four years

Re: Canadians supportive of closer ties to Europe amid U.S. tension 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is strongly criticizing the proposed Canada-EU partnership before formal negotiations begin, warning against hypothetical rules that Prime Minister Mark Carney hasn’t proposed. Poilievre is raising alarms over terms that don’t exist yet.

So the CPC strategy is to put all our eggs in a basket that gets rewoven every four years depending on who wins Pennsylvania? Bold move. Because if the last few years of U.S. trade politics taught us anything, it’s that America is famously predictable, never protectionist, and loves nothing more than giving Canada a free pass.

Truly a master class in geopolitical diversification.

Demonizing the EU while bet-hedging our entire economy on the absolute stability of Washington, D.C., politics is certainly … a choice. Nothing says “strong, sovereign nation” quite like putting your entire trade portfolio into a single, high-stakes game of American roulette.

William Perry, Victoria 

I’m totally against Canada seeking associate EU membership. I voted for Mark Carney to get us a trade deal with our neighbour and biggest trade partner, the U.S. So far that hasn’t happened. Instead, Carney is jetting all over the world and now in Strasbourg. I really would like Carney to get back to business and get us a trade deal with the U.S.

Heidi Skene, Vancouver

Today, all B.C. citizens regret the failure of the 2005 referendum on electoral reform. And so close, too. Just 39,262 votes short of attaining the required 60 per cent approval. Had that referendum passed there would be no cynical, unnecessary, wasteful provincial election today.

The Oct. 24 election isn’t about serving the common good, it’s for partisan political gain, exclusively. And that by a premier who doesn’t deserve to remain in office.

The behaviour of politicians is dictated by the constraints and opportunities of the voting system. In 2005 our province had the rare opportunity to replace a voting system designed by politicians, for politicians by one designed by people, for people. Remember the citizens assembly? That was our province’s finest moment of democracy. Sadly, we squandered it.

Today we pay the price.

Nick Loenen, Richmond 

The premier’s election call is so wrong on so many counts: baldly opportunistic, without merit, conflicting with the municipal elections. No one is going to be rewarding a premier and his party for this uncalled for election.

Michael Cox, Vancouver

If President Trump is such a threat to B.C., then why didn’t Premier Eby wait six weeks to see the outcome of the U.S. midterm elections? Many pundits south of the border are predicting that the Democrats will win control of both the House and the Senate. Such a scenario would do much to emasculate the power of Trump and perhaps bring some semblance of rational thought to American foreign and domestic policies.