Better with letters
Editor’s Note
For the first time since I’ve been with This Magazine, we have more letters than we can fit on our letters pages. This makes me happy. Ordinarily, I have to beg, borrow and steal them. Readers are less inclined to write into their favourite publications than you might expect—I know editors from magazines more established than our scrappy little one who have admitted to composing missives for their otherwise near-empty letters pages.
I love getting feedback from our readers, so I find the sudden abundance of letters immensely satisfying—even if some of them are rather nasty. In our March/April issue, we published a story about Afghanistan by Jared Ferrie, who questioned the tendency for those on the left to adopt an uncritical, troops-out stance regarding the war.
The messages we’ve received about this story have been overwhelmingly critical, taking Ferrie and This Mag to task for taking an “unprincipled” stance, or for adopting a right-wing position. I am grateful to all who took the time to write me with their thoughts. (Even those who threatened to never read the magazine again.)
This Magazine is a place where those who care about the world and its betterment can come to see their views reflected. But at the same time—and as importantly—it is a place to challenge commonly held assumptions. Seeing debate on our letters pages tells me we’re doing our job. There are many positions to be taken on this war. We respect the work of peace activists who are working to see Canada end its military involvement, and we stand behind Ferrie’s argument; it is a valid and valuable contribution to discourse on this issue—one that needs to be debated. I’m interested to hear what others think about this (or anything else), so keep those letters coming.
For those of you who haven’t given up on us, there’s lots of great stuff in this issue too. It’s got a rural theme, as we feel we’ve been hearing more than enough about cities in recent years, and not so much about the country. We love Spacing magazine (in Toronto) and municipal politics, but we’ve had enough concrete celebration. It’s time to fete soil and wide-open spaces.
Small-scale vintner and brilliant writer Geoff Heinricks makes a compelling case for why small is beautiful in regards to agriculture. And in our cover story, Kristin Nelson tells us how Canada’s doctor shortage—most acutely felt in rural regions—is being addressed by importing doctors from parts of the world that can’t afford to lose their doctors. When we think of foreign-trained physicians in Canada, we tend to think of doctors from other countries driving taxis or washing dishes. The licensing obstacles faced by professional immigrants remains a big issue, but the lesser-known problem is that of brain drain from the developing world.
In the front section, Mitch Moxley brings us the story of 25-year-old farmer Blake Hunter, who is bucking the trend of urbanization by returning to his family farm in Saskatchewan to transform it into a model of sustainable agriculture.
There is a good chance that we will have an election while this issue of This is on stands, in May and June. It’s therefore a natural time to address the unfortunately age-old question of why there aren’t more women in politics. Today’s news reports reiterate Liberal leader Stéphane Dion’s commitment to run 33 percent female candidates in the next election. Here, Egle Procuta profiles Martha Hall Findlay, exploring her initially unwanted—yet necessary—status as a role model for women, while looking at what can be done to address the gender disparity in Parliament.
Lastly, a personal note. Christine Davidson, our wonderful circulation manager of the past year, who began her work with This as an intern, has moved on to a new and exciting circulation position. We will miss her, and wish her the best of luck in all her future adventures.
Jessica Johnston editor[at]thismagazine[dot]caP.S. Don’t forget—send letters!
