I've been eating Vegemite for more than 65 years and I’m still healthy

Australian PM weighs in after Toronto café owner ordered to remove $8K worth of Vegemite from shelves , April 16 I’m 71, have been eating Vegemite since I was at least five years old, if not earlier. That’s more than 65 years and I’m still standing, healthy, not so wealthy, but wise. Talk of tariffs, I pay triple the price for a small jar here in Canada but buy it, I do.

Best damn spread on toast you can have with a slice or two of tomato. The medical community even encouraged new mums in the 1950s to feed it to newborns dissolved in water, juice or milk. To the best of my knowledge, no Australian (and it would be in the millions) has died or suffered any ill effects from eating vegemite in the past 100 years that we’ve been eating it.



Get a grip CFIA, there are a lot more sinister products on our shelves than the pure, wholesome, deliciously salty product known as Vegemite. Matthew Marosszeky, Aurora, ON Decade of Liberal rule achieved a lot I am tired of hearing “the lost Liberal decade” and “Canada is broken” tirades and would like to mention some of the Trudeau government’s achievements. The Liberals negotiated with U.

S. President Donald Trump and agreed to a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the CUSMA. The COVID-19 pandemic came, and we were kept safe and secure by the work of the Liberals: CERB, protective equipment and vaccines.

Canada had fewer deaths than most other countries. After COVID, came inflation: Why? Supply chains were broken because of COVID shutdowns; Canadians had large savings, largely from CERB, so that demand was up and supply was down. This drives up inflation, as any economist knows.

And we came out of inflation quicker and better than most countries. You cannot blame the Trudeau government for inflation but that is all Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre shouted about in the last two years. Other achievements include the Canada Child Benefit, the national child-care plan, dental care and pharma care.

And let’s not forget taking action on Indigenous issues. So let’s give credit where credit is due and know that Canada is not broken and we have not lost a decade with Liberal rule. Oh, and former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper was not able to build a single pipeline while Trudeau bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline and tripled its capacity.

Alberto Sarthou, Toronto Candidates who don’t debate should be punished I am very intrigued by the fact that Conservative election candidates are not turning out for debates, and there are no repercussions. Sault Ste. Marie is the latest city where the Conservative candidate did not show up for the debate.

This was also notable during the recent provincial election of Premier Doug Ford where the Conservative candidates didn’t debate. This is not true democracy when you are allowed to run for Parliament without discussing your policy opinions. Those candidates who are not interested enough to attend a debate and answer questions from voters should at least be reprimanded by their leaders, and may even be punished at the ballot box.

Elaine Faye, Guelph, ON Things to consider before you vote We will have a federal election in less than two weeks. Forgetting the political party affiliations, let us look at what the two leading candidates for prime minister are offering. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is a professional politician.

All his adult life, he has done nothing but be a politician. He has not seen the outside world besides the Parliament walls around him. His resume could read: I have been a hounding and berating opposition politician throughout my career.

And I am pretty good at it. Poilievre does not want to face the press, lest they ask questions not to his liking. He does not want to get his security clearance, leading Canadians to question what he is hiding.

. He has no humility. Liberal Leader Mark Carney is new to politics.

Carney is bound to make political mistakes. He is well educated and has a wealth of experience both in Canada and abroad. He has seen the world and experienced the financial problems facing Canada and the world.

He knows how to tackle the problems created by this stupid tariff war. Put your thinking hats on before choosing the prime minister. Aziz Rehman, Brampton, ON Carney speaks without notes Have you noticed how Liberal Leader Mark Carney usually just talks to the press, without any notes? He just wings it, because he knows what he is talking about, and doesn’t need to read it.

And he says it so succinctly. The other candidate, however, is always looking down at his notes. He needs to read it because he doesn’t know it, like Carney does.

Which one would you rather vote for? The one who knows his stuff, or the one who doesn’t? Just a telling observation, of body language. John Dawson, Scarborough, ON The mental health crisis amongst youth began smartphones Raising age for social media access urged in report on Canadian youth mental health , April 16 Child and youth studies professor, Shauna Pomereantz’s argument is flawed. She states that it is world issues that are causing the mental health crisis in today’s Western youth.

She needs to read “The Anxious Generation” by psychologist Jonathan Haidt that clearly argues that the mental health crisis amongst youth in the U.S., Canada and Britain began with the onset of smartphones in 2010 combined with the end of the play-based childhood.

His thoroughly researched and bestselling book compares children and youth in these countries with their counterparts in Nordic countries, for example, and notes that both groups have been exposed to the same world issues, but the children and youth in Nordic countries had and have different laws around smartphones and social media. The latter do not have the skyrocketing levels of mental illness. He concludes that we need much stricter laws around social media access for children and youth while also emphasizing the importance of a play-based childhood as one of the most important factors in ensuring the development of well-adjusted, resilient, happy, and socially capable adults in today’s society.

Joanne Clarke, Toronto Youth in Scarborough need more opportunities, not just promises As a 15-year-old living in Scarborough, I see firsthand how many youth in our community are full of potential but lack the real opportunities to grow, build, and succeed. Too often, the focus is on talking about problems instead of actually creating solutions. Many of us want to contribute, start businesses, build skills, and make our families proud.

But we don’t always have access to the right programs, mentorship, or support. Instead of just telling us to “stay in school” or “get a job,” we need systems that invest in our talents, not just our struggles. I’m building my own initiatives like SummitPro AI and the Future Builders Network to give teens in Scarborough a way to learn, earn, and lead — but I can’t do it alone.

We need more people in power to listen to youth and back our ideas. Don’t just talk about change — help us build it. Abdishakur Ali Gure, Toronto.