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DAVID WARREN'S COLUMN SOUNDS LIKE the standard whine that is all too common these days from people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions ("Hardening Hearts," April 9). It's as if he's saying, "It doesn't matter what I did, it was someone else's fault." He wrote, "Innumerable other men have found themselves in the same legal traps," without giving examples. My point is not to deny the truth of Warren's comments, but to emphasize that if he wants to convince us that misandry is present in our legal system, then he had better get down to specifics. I have seen too many cases where neither side in a domestic dispute will acknowledge their part in it.

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Bob Stewart 

Lindsay, Ont.

GORDON CAMPBELL HAS MADE A strategic blunder by abandoning the Social Credit right ("What Will He Think of Next?" March 26). He has shown that beliefs come second to pandering to the electorate. With his about-face on private health clinics and embrace of the global warming cult, he has officially left no reasons for conservatives to treat him to their vote. The pandering to the centre will not attract enough voters to make up for the loss of social and fiscal conservatives.

Jason Bertucci

Victoria

THE PEOPLE OF ALBERTA SHOULD BE under no illusions. Stephen Harper is surrounded by Progressive Conservative Red Tories ("The Tory-fication of Reform," April 23). Harper believes he can write off Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. Living under Canada's screwed up political system, he can do it and still win his majority. He can win with the votes he needs in Ontario and Quebec and there is nothing Albertans can do, except take matters into their own hands; something they should have done in October 1980, when the NEP was introduced. Albertans should realize that Harper is more of a Trojan Horse than he is an Albertan. He is really a Toronto boy, not a Calgary boy.

Ernie Slump

Penticton, B.C.

I PREDICTED THIS OUTCOME YEARS AGO. I supported Reform with my vote and my wallet at its inception and through its metamorphosis culminating in the Ottawa-ification of the party we are faced with today. There is no doubting the fact Stephen Harper is a brilliant person and a gifted politician, but even he cannot find a way to reverse the generations of Liberal brainwashing that have made Canadians what they are today. If you want to get re-elected, you had better tug on your forelock and kowtow to Quebec nationalists. Maybe toss a bone to Ontario once in a while. Gone is talk of meaningful tax reform, Senate reform, sensible approaches to environmentalism, a credible presence for the West in matters of policy and measures aimed at reducing the "democratic deficit." It's business as usual in the golden horseshoe and there is not much our compromised man can do about it. When a credible western secessionist party emerges, I will support it. Until then, I am thankful there are 2,000 miles of prairie, rock and mosquitoes between the national capital and us.

Garth Klatt

Calgary

WALID PHARES ARGUES THE WAY TO WIN the war of ideas is to make sure "the public is educated and informed and thus engaged in shaping policies" ("The War of the Worlds," April 23). May I suggest another way that recognizes four layers of cultural change: behaviour, acceptance of authority, personal experience, and one's core basic beliefs and assumptions. Surface changes can happen in behaviour--dress, foods, language; the acceptance of authority can be enforced; but real change to touch the almost impregnable core requires personal experience.

Most newcomers from non-English-speaking countries need help with English and a safe place to ask culture questions. By training people in churches to offer high-quality, relational ESL classes/tutoring in the community, changes occur on both sides.

Madeline Johnson, President

Cooperative ESL Ministries Society

Calgary

KUDOS TO WALTER WILLIAMS FOR HIS sensible piece about global warming ("Global Warming Heresy," April 23). The environmentalists are foaming at the mouth now that Britain's Channel 4 production The Great Global Warming Swindle has hit the Internet. Why can't the CBC prove to us it is fair and balanced by showing it?

And pray tell: why did we need an American correspondent to bring it to our attention?

Larry Korchinski

Calgary

MARK STEYN EFFECTIVELY DESCRIBES how Canada's one-time mainstream culture has been replaced ("Reverse Assimilation," April 9). We could learn from the Australians, who have government immigration representatives on the ground in the U.K., recruiting educated and skilled Britons in an effort to fill an annual quota of 85,000, while Canada trolls North Africa for francophone immigrants to settle in areas of this country outside Quebec with no announced limits.

Indeed, Canadian politicians have taken over the asylum.

Ron Bezant

Milton, Ont.

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