MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a column about gas prices, published June 14.
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Dear Editor,
Mr. Bursztyn appears to be quite ill-informed for someone we are told “carried out research at universities in Africa, Britain and Canada.”
First of all, he makes the comment that Kenya is the same size as Ontario. Au contraire, mon ami, a quick Google search reveals that Kenya has an area of 580,400 square kilometres, whereas Ontario has an area of 1.076 million square km, more than a small difference in size.
Mr. Bursztyn then states, “Few Europeans would buy a home far from their workplace unless it was well served by public transport.” Using the U.K. as an example, Mr. Bursztyn seems to forget that many European nations are quite small, compared to Canada, yet have larger populations. The entire U.K. has an area of 242,500 square km and a population of 68,587,667 (present) versus Canada with an area of 9,984,671 square km and a population of 36.99 million (2021).
It would seem apparent that the residents of the U.K. and other European cities have little choice but to have their homes closer to their workplace than many Ontarians and Canadians possibly can. Everything is compact in the U.K. and driving just about anywhere there is relatively quick and easy. If Mr. Bursztyn has not already driven from Windsor to the ‘top’ of Ontario, he had better pack his pyjamas.
Mr. Bursztyn must have had a short deadline for his column because he really seemed to be off the mark. The rather obvious observations that he missed seriously detract from his column.
Patrick Kelly
Penetanguishene
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