It was a common event the other day as I sat in the barber’s chair, the barber wielding scissors and comb. The barber knew of my interest in politics and quickly turned the usually desultory conversation to the October election. Those awaiting their turn chimed in. You could quickly determine
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: Liberals won’t miss Jane or Jody.
There is an erroneous assumption that liberal voters in their B.C. and Ontario ridings would want to vote for former Trudeau cabinet members Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould. That is not too likely. What most often happens in a situation such as this is that they will pick up enough
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In defence of print media.
Starting the day with coffee and the newspaper is a formula that works for me. The coffee wakes me and the newspaper introduces the day, informs, incites and inspires me. The ageless love for print news is my only bow to conservatism. It is a model that has its origin
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: They’re At Post!
Finally. This never-ending scrabbling for political position has a finite finish line. The free-for-all has focus and Elections Canada is in charge. Like with stewards at the track, there are rules to be observed. It is an election like no other in Canadian history. It is not the politicians who
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our MPP is heard from.
It seems that the member of the Ontario legislature for Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte does visit Barrie occasionally, usually while on his way to or from his home up in Severn Township. Recently, Doug Downey M.P.P. even held a news conference in Barrie to discuss the problem of what he calls ‘Catch and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: From Rae Days to Ford Years.
It does seem odd to think of current conservative premier of Ontario Doug Ford and former NDP premier Bob Rae at the same time. The other day Bob Hepburn of the Toronto Star tried to compare the two in an opinion piece. He failed. The reasons that Bob Rae failed
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Some of us have fun with politics.
It was sad the other day to read both Susan Delacourt and Chantal Hébert of the Toronto Star and their dour take on the upcoming federal election. The ladies are two of Canada’s most astute reporters on things political and here they were being pessimistic this early. I was particularly
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Substitute.
It happens. You have all your nominations completed and one of your candidates drops out. That happens for any of hundreds of reasons. It could be anything from illness, bankruptcy or just cold feet. Your party needs a substitute candidate and there is no time left to be democratic about
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Mother of all Parliaments.
This mother certainly has her problems. And if you believed Theresa May was incompetent as prime minister, you probably should not have gotten your hopes up for Boris Johnson. The U.K. parliament at the Palace of Westminster has not seen so many comings and goings since the British civil war
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Slipping in the Slogan.
It might surprise regular readers but this blogger does not believe in slogans. Oh yes, I use them, but more in sarcasm than in concurrence. It is just that I see an election as a sequence of events that can only become a slogan close to the end point: the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can Kenney, Curly (Ford) and Moe pull it off?
Conservative leader ‘Chuckles’ Scheer might not offer much of a challenge to Justin Trudeau but when you consider the three stooges running in the back field, it makes you think. Canadians, outside of parliament and his Regina riding, have little reason to have an opinion of Chuckles. Very few of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Good Ship Singh is Sinking.
Today’s comments were supposed to be a scholarly discussion about understanding political speeches. Maybe we can leave that for another time. Instead, we can have fun critiquing the new democratic party’s present-day prat falls. Good grief folks! This election isn’t even ‘At Post’ yet and the NDP is falling apart.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The secret lists of our political parties.
They are like the lists Santa Claus is supposed to keep at the North Pole as to which children are naughty or nice. With millions of listings for the voters of Canada, the raw data of name and address is provided to registered political parties by Elections Canada. It soon
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Left, Right and In-Between.
Labelling people is always a mistake. Even in psychiatry, people show tendencies down different pathologies. You hesitate to label them. In politics people are often confused by the parties in an election making promises outside their usual right or left-wing stance. During an election is no time to be doctrinaire.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Change in Chuckles.
Did you notice the change in conservative leader Andrew Scheer? I was watching a Blue Jays game the other day and they had a political commercial between innings featuring him. It was not smoke and mirrors but make up. His prominent cheek bones had seemingly disappeared. I walked over to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Senator Peter Harder tries harder.
Former civil servant, Peter Harder really likes his new job in the Senate of Canada. As an independent(?) appointee to this body, he is also the government representative in the senate. Whether he is really an independent seems to be something of a wink-wink-elbow-jab condition open to interpretation. And as
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our political parties fail democracy.
The party members have no one to blame but themselves. They have let the top-down party system run their parties since the Chrétien era. It was the simple change that required the party leader to sign off on the party’s candidates. It gave the party leader total control of the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: There is an App for door-knocking?
Having trained thousands over the years in the fun and accomplishments in knocking on doors for your local politician, I still know a bit about the art of identifying your vote. And that is what you are doing at all those doors on which you bruise your knuckles. You are
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: To be in Biarritz in August.
It is like making the scene in Gstaad in February, you really should do Biarritz in August. It is reserved for the world of the rich and famous and now the world leaders. While the Boris Johnson’s and Donald Trump’s might have lowered the bar somewhat, Emmanuel Macron knows how
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: On running a national campaign.
My late friend Senator Keith Davey used to start every day at his office with a ruled pad on which he would make all his notes for the day in amazingly small scribbles. Whether checking on perceptions of a current proposal by Pierre Trudeau’s government or reviewing a day’s progress
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