BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following is in response to 'LETTER: Addiction and poverty abound in Ford's Ontario,' published Dec. 14.
After reading this letter, I am surprised that such an uninformed and biased letter was published. As such would like to reply to the comments made by the writer.
Firstly, the part about beer and wine in the grocery stores. Retail works on the rules of supply and demand. If consumers didn’t want it, it would not have happened. These products are not replacing “real food” again because retailers supply what consumers ask for.
If this person is concerned then they have the option of local farmers markets as well as the multiple other places groceries are sold.
The revenue generated for the government from sources like alcohol and gaming is used to help fund social programs that the writer seems to value so much.
Now the issue about the homeless camps. This is a complicated problem involving multiple levels of government. It is unfair to blame Doug Ford for the problem. We are lucky to live in a province with great social programs.
Doug Ford said in one of his speeches about the topic that “if you are unable to work, we would look after you. But if you are healthy and able to work, get a job.”
I get up every morning and go to work so I can have a roof over my head. Sometimes you just have to help yourself. If there wasn’t so many people getting a “free ride” there would be more money for those who really need it.
Doug Ford is trying to build a better province for everyone, but the reality is that it takes money. By building a strong economy and creating jobs, we all benefit.
Tony Galvao
Palmerston, Ont.
