Dear Editor,

Just days from now, we’ll have a chance to influence the leadership of our nation. In Quebec, the workings of the federal government are often subtle – not the showy functions such as bleeding our hospital services dry, or making laws about which language one must use, or allowing major highways to fall into disrepair – no, those are provincial mandates.

In this riding, we have had members from three major parties, and I’ve had favourable experiences with all of them, as a function of being with the Pontiac Historical Museum. Each year, we hire student workers for the summer, and that program is federal, so the local MP signs off the funding. Once, our federal MP was also the deputy prime minister, and a personal friend of museum founding members, but our area got no special privileges during that administration, nor should it have done. The federal government in west Quebec is kind of like the British monarch – largely a figurehead.

At this time, the leader of Canada must face down a national existential threat – a haywire wanna-be dictator, in the mold of Putin, Kim Jung, Stalin, Mussolini, and that other guy who always gets dragged into such discussions. I will vote for the representative of the person that I believe will do the best job of resisting Trumpism, in all its insidious aspects. That’s the one most important concern for our federal government, right now.

After that, we need to address the addiction to excessive single-use plastic, and unnecessary travel in gas-guzzling, pollution-streaming vehicles. But if we lose our country to the rabid bully dictator next door, the plastic and pollution won’t matter much.

Whatever your political viewpoint, vote. Democracy is not meant to be unanimous, and a minority coalition parliament is, by necessity, more co-operative.

Robert Wills, Thorne and Shawville