Last Friday (September 22) there was a large picture above the fold of the front page of the Toronto Star. It was captioned: ‘It was a mistake’. It was a picture of a steely-eyed, stony-faced Ontario premier Doug Ford. This was not a picture of a contrite and apologetic premier.
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay : Reforming Voting II.
The following item was missed by a large number of our readers who access BabelontheBay.com through Progressive Bloggers. It is a subject on which I would really appreciate some comments. Please have at it. It seems that too often we are looking at voting methods instead of examining the entire
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Looney Tunes Is Alberta.
Is it ever thus? Premier Danielle Smith is off on her tangent to save Alberta from the rapacious government in Ottawa. It must be that they cannot teach Canadian history or mathematics in that province. It is also very important in mathematics that you count the oranges as oranges and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Criticizing Bonnie Crombie.
Having missed the liberal leadership debate at the old Ryerson campus last week, it seemed, according to the news articles, I did not miss much. The mayor of Mississauga is handling her four opponents as an older woman would handle adolescent boys. They have foolishly declared her the one to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : To Live in Interesting Times.
Returning home from a visit to Toronto this past week was like returning to a peaceful oasis. Not that Barrie does not have more than its share of construction going on with homes as well as the rebuilding of the Highway 400 bridges through the city. Yet Toronto felt like
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Reforming Voting.
It seems that too often we are looking at voting methods instead of examining the entire electoral process. There is much more involved in Canadian politics that the voter should be concerned about. We could go a long way to improving our democracy. Start with our candidates for political office.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Requiem for Truth.
When politicians fail to tell the truth, when the Internet is littered with individual versions of truth, and print media is failing to survive, where do you look for truth? And where do you turn when your daily routine for most of your life that has started with a cup
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Come Blow Your Horn.
You have to admit, Little Boy Blue got a lot of attention from the media with his speech to the conservative convention recently. It was neither modesty nor myopia, nor missing his glasses that caused his eyes to appear to be squinting. It was the placement of the teleprompter screens.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Liberals Cannot Count.
It looks as though the Ontario liberals have almost doubled their membership. And they are busy arguing about it. I would be more impressed and might even care if people had paid something for those memberships. The possibly 80,000 members in Ontario is a bit higher than the 74,000 members
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : No Ties That Bind.
We note that the majority of Canadians have realized that there is no reason for Canada to continue to have a monarch. Charley definitely does not cut it. His wife is an embarrassment. His kids by Princess Diana have their own quarrels. Yet they have entitlements to which Canadians cannot
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Ford’s Smoke Screen.
Somebody must have told premier Doug Ford that he could use MPP Paul Calandra as a smoke screen to cover up what he is letting happen in the Greenbelt. By making Calandra minister of municipal affairs and housing, he has the perfect cover for what is happening. He can thank
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Bad Night in Thunder Bay.
The Ontario liberals are not that inept. It was like an out-of-town try-out of a major play. The first debate in the current liberal leadership contest was allowed to have gaffs and try-out jitters. You just have to hope that not many saw it. But when you have trouble with
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : The Promise of Canada.
Did Justin Trudeau break the promise of Canada to followers of Pierre Poilievre? No. It is not true. For the promise of Canada is opportunity for all. That’s it. It is the chance for any Canadian to be prime minister, or maybe just achieve a little more than their parents
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Poilievre’s Petulant Promises.
When Pierre Poilievre—the guy I think of as Little Boy Blue—gave his speech last week to conservatives in Quebec City, he was not speaking to a broad swath of Canada’s intelligentsia. In fact, you really had to remember this was an audience of conservative party faithful and donors. These people
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Doug’s Doom.
It won’t go away Doug. The Ontario Greenbelt will live on, long after you are gone. What Ontario’s premier does not recognize is that Ontario’s Greenbelt has its roots in conservative party planning. It got its start with the Niagara Escarpment plan when Bill Davis was premier. It got its
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Leave No Cliché Unused.
Does Pierre Poilievre, our little boy blue and leader of Canada’s conservatives, now have some conservative concerns to help him do his job? He met with conservatives in Quebec City this past weekend and they were supposed to tell him of their concerns and policy wants. They even thought they
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Tell It Like It Is Paul.
Ontario premier Doug Ford thinks he has chosen well. Telling the truth has never been a strong or notable habit of Ontario’s new housing minister. I told you the other day about his crying jag in the House of Commons, when he was a member of Steven Harper’s government. It
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Poilievre’s Posturing.
Where does conservative leader Pierre Poilievre get off referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a foreign dictator? That was what Poilievre inferred in his speech to the conservative party meeting in Quebec City Friday evening. It was important enough for him to be read from a teleprompter instead of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Good News, Bad News.
There was a note on Pierre Poilievre’s desk when he reported in after his summer holiday: Sire: We have good news and bad news. It seems that the generation Zee or Zed voters prefer that you be elected Canada’s prime minister. The bad news is that this is the most
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : The ‘Truthiness’ of All.
The word ‘Truthiness” has come into heavy play. “Truthiness” applies to the relative truth of what we learn from the Internet and other questionable sources for news. ‘Truthiness’ is truth, as defined by people without facts, logic or concern for verification. There is, for example, the truthiness of the climate
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