Guelph Mercury,
8-14 Macdonell Street,
Guelph, Ontario N1H 6P7
CANADA
I read Jean Jackson’s letter “Just who paid for those medical appointments?” I think she needs a bigger sense of humour. It is telling that she goes straight to the money issue like a terrier chasing vermin. Good for her. Or bad. I am not vermin. Or, maybe I am. But to put her mind at rest I can assure her that as an Ontario property owner, income tax, property tax and expatriate withholding tax payer I pay for my medical appointments. In fact, because of the collective nature of socialized health insurance I pay for her medical appointments, too. Or, at least, I subsidise them. As an expatriate I continue to support the Guelph community, Ontario society, plus I subsidize the salaries of all public employees there including politicians who are my employees but in whose election I am barred from participating. If Jackson imagines that I am a parasitical burden to OHIP or on her I would argue that she is mistaken. If she imagines any laws are being broken she is wrong.
And, the second most common grammatical mistake in English, even among native speakers, is the split infinitive. I would say the dangling preposition comes in third.
Published on Wednesday, August 26, 2015 as “Canada’s expatriates do pap their way.”
Just who paid for those medical appointments?
Re: Information flyer crashes and burns grammatically — Aug. 10
My goodness, what a rant by letter writer Grant Piper about an incorrect verb.
The most likely reason for the singular verb is that the writer of the flyer wrote "How your privacy is protected," then decided to add "information" and forgot to alter the verb.
Subject-verb agreement is not the most common grammatical mistake. That honour goes jointly to the misuse of "I" instead of "me," and dangling participles.
I am far more interested in the medical appointments of Mr. Piper, who says he has "lived outside Guelph and Canada for a long time" — i.e., he has lived outside Canada for a long time.
Who exactly paid for these medical appointments? The illiterate people of Ontario, or Mr. Piper?
Jean Jackson
Guelph
Guelph Mercury
Tuesday, August 18, 2015.
She sounds angry. But my letter of August 6th came from a sense of sadness, frustration and exasperation, not at all from a feeling of animosity. So if Jean Jackson thinks I am attacking her and calling her an illiterate Ontarian, I am not. But …