A LETTER TO TOM MULCAIR. Dear Thomas; You don’t need my advice; and I am not going to give you one. I don’t know if I represent the average Canadian; if there is such a bird; but I do have some personal comments, for whatever its worth. First, about me: I do have a huge NDP sign on my front lawn; and also on my rental house here in Mississauga. Michelle Bilek is your candidate in my riding. I am NOT a NDP member; nor was I ever. The reason I have contributed (minimally) to your campaign is two-fold: I hate Harper (personally; going back to the Income Trust debacle and his blatant lies; which cost me a huge amount of retirement money; and less about the Conservative platform) and distrusted the Liberals; who, after two candidate mistakes in a row chose a name-brand in desperation. Justin Trudeau made some strange comments and made some very stupid candidate choices; so the NDP became my default position (yet, it seems that Justin Trudeau is growing up). Furthermore; I was and I am very impressed by you personally; by your professionalism and mature demanour; though that cannot be said about some of your candidates. Your Quebec contingent is rather shallow; as is many of your Ontario candidates. In particular, I attended a meeting with Michelle Bilek and some of her followers. I did not vote for you last time, because I was not impressed by her then, and I’m even less so now; having met her in person. She is an incredibly shallow and strange personality. In my brief conversation with her, she had absolutely nothing intelligent or informative to say. Some of her followers were also rather peculiar. It made me uneasy and somewhat concerned. For example; one hugely fat woman sat and munched on some food and occasionally grunted out some incoherent comment. Be that as it may; I am going to leave the two signs on my lawns (even though my renters didn’t like it); though I think my vote is wasted here; and that’s all right; because I would not want Ms. Bilek to represent me in Parliament. I have a couple of bones to pick with your platform though: 1. The “no deficit” stance; in the face of costly promises. I think you are walking on a tightrope there –definitely not on water. 2. Your niqab stance is most troubling, and I think you have unnecessarily alienated a large part of your Quebec base; which you need to win. I am also concerned about your general immigration position; and I say that as a onetime immigrant myself. These are, no doubt, wedge issues and somewhat trivial; but you have let Harper use it as a cudgel; playing to the vacillating voter who, like me, despise the niqab and what it stands for. I will take the liberty of attaching my letter to The Toronto Star on this subject. 3. Your statement about cancelling the TPP before even having read it borders on the absurd; and is going to hurt you. I find it hard to believe that an intelligent person like you could agree to take this position. It must be heavy elbowing from your union support that caused you to take such a stance. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2015/10/07/can-stephen-harper-stoop-any-lower-on-the-niqab-editorial.html The Star spares no effort in attacking the Conservatives; having brought back the Islamist Haroon Siddiqui expressly to sling his arrows; even a cameo performance by your publisher John Cruickshank; backed up by today’s “editorial” (with which, of course, he had no involvement). I am not a Conservative, nor a “Harper-fan”; but your totally one-sided anti-Harper diatribes irk my sense of fair play. While The Star occasionally let a critical letter pass muster; when it comes to a direct criticism of your editorial policy –forget it. Nevertheless; I will vent my frustration with your singularly one-sided leftist political stance. Today; you have plastered he niqab-wearing woman across your front page and atop Mr. Cruickshank’s missive. While I agree that this has become a ridiculous election issue and a wedge item for the Conservatives (and a huge Quebec setback for the NDP); I do think you are missing a major point here –even partially acknowledged in your editorial; viz.: “Let’s be clear: A lot of Canadians are uncomfortable with the veil. Some see it as oppressive to women. Others see it as a sign of alienation from the wider culture. Some even take it as a positive rejection of our society”. Yes; indeed, and I am one of those scoundrels. Let me make one thing clear: I have absolutely no problem with Sikh turbans; Jewish skullcaps; or any other head coverings, including the hijab. What I object to is the blatant temerity of women who hide their faces behind a veil, and do so amongst non-Muslims in the public sphere. To do so is an insult to our society and individuals. It is an inherited instinct to recoil from covered faces; harking back to our human beginnings, when reading facial expressions could define friend or foe and life or death. You cannot wipe out thousands of years of evolution in one swipe. I also agree we should prohibit the niqab in the public service and allow the prohibition of it in business, for the same reason. I feel sorry for store check-out clerks who have to deal with a walking, talking sack from which only two eyes are peering out. The niqab is, at its worst, inimical; at least, a distraction; even potentially a danger to the public safety and peace. How would you like to sit across from a person with the head covered; peering at you from under a black cloth? If you want a civil uproar; you might just get it. You are not allowed to prance naked down the street or work in the nude; but you are free to do so in the privacy of your home. Ditto for wearing the niqab. I don’t expect The Star to have the courage or fairness to print this. But I do think you will read it. Perhaps some of it will sink in –for John Cruickshank. ---Sigmund Roseth I wish you well in the campaign; and I am somewhat comforted by the thought that whether you come first of second; Harper will be third; and you and Trudeau can work out a reasonable and sensible cooperative arrangement to put this country on the road to recovery from the Harper years. Yours truly, Sigmund Roseth