After ignoring the royal wedding the other day in the United Kingdom, we should give proper homage to dear Queen Victoria. As you might know, it is her birthday today and many are celebrating the occasion. Frankly I am amazed by the numbers of people from all over the world
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: Where’s Justin?
Oh, we know where on this earth Prime Minister Trudeau might be located. We just wonder where his mind might be at? This country is going downhill morally and politically and our leader was recently down in New York giving a trite commencement address to graduates at New York University.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The pollsters have peaked.
“O, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive.” Obviously, Sir Walter Scott had a better take on pollsters 200 years ago than we do today. Ontario voters have been bamboozled by the pollsters since the beginning of the current provincial campaign. As much as the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Mixing baloney and beer.
People in Ontario are starting to laugh over the desperate efforts of conservative leader Doug Ford to promise voters anything to vote for him. It took him until halfway through the campaign to come up with something I liked. Doug Ford has promised to have beer in in convenience stores.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bill Morneau’s neoliberalism.
We should make it clear that neoliberalism is something a real liberal abhors. Neoliberalism is like the corporatism of the Italian fascists of Benito Mussolini of the 1920s and 30s. It lets the corporate world manage its own affairs. It is like finance minister Bill Morneau announcing that the government
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: We are not ready to surrender.
What are we coming to? When fair weather warriors are conceding defeat, are we all supposed to lay down our arms? I have been involved in too many comebacks to go along with that. We should not get mad about the current situation. The smart get to work. What have
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In defence of local media.
It came as a surprise the other evening to learn that for the past two years, NDP activist Gerry Caplan has also been a resident of Barrie, Ontario. He had been invited to participate on a panel of mourners for the late, and frankly unlamented, Barrie Examiner newspaper. By the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Mother’s magic money.
Listening to Ontario conservative leader Doug Ford recently reminded me of my early childhood in Toronto. Doug Ford never seems to worry about where the money for his promises will come from. Neither did I—as a child. I remember during the Second World War and my mother was sole support
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Morning Line: Ontario’s dilemma.
This is probably the most difficult Morning Line Babel-on-the-Bay has produced in ten years. It might just be the one that besmirches our reputation. The question in this election are the polls following the voters or are the voters following the polls? But I am convinced that the pollsters are
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Three-ring circus versus horse race.
Whatever you want to say about the Ontario election that is going on now, it could never have been a three-ring circus production by P.T. Barnum or his partner James Bailey. The simplest explanation is that if you consider the performer who keeps multiple plates spinning atop long sticks, you
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: TV ads do not get the vote out.
There is a fascination with political advertising. It seems to be more for their entertainment value than their efficacy. I just have yet to see an ad that would get a voter off the lounger and out to the polls to vote. I think the best of the current batch
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Opera ain’t over.
First off today, we want to apologize. We have been thoroughly castigated by family and readers for being rude to Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath the other day. I sincerely apologize to her for my comments on her weight. That was inappropriate. At the same time, I stand by my
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Which half will vote?
There is a supposition that following the low turnouts of voters in Ontario elections in 2011 and 2014, there will be a similar low turnout in June of 2018. The question that confounds politicians and pollsters is which half of the voters will come to the polls. And if you
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our ‘Pollyanna’ foreign minister.
You have to be very gullible to believe the statements Canada’s foreign minister Chrystia Freeland has been making after each of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) sessions. It seems lately that only Mexico is being obdurate over those proposed clauses that will harm that country’s positions. And yet
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Prepping politicians.
Whatever happened to the time-honoured prepping of politicians for Monday’s debate in Toronto? That opening debate was a disaster for all concerned. It is CITY-TV that should be embarrassed. The candidates’ handlers failed to convince their debaters of anything. And the moment is gone, never to be recovered. It was
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Meet the Northern Mockingbird.
While the Northern Mockingbird has a smaller head and a longer tail than others of its specie, it uses the same tricks as other mockingbirds. It can fool you by using the song styling of different birds and even a dog’s bark. It is like Ontario conservative leader Doug Ford
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lesson for today: Silk purses, sows’ ears.
Listen up children; Our lesson for today is that you still cannot make silk purses out of sows’ ears. Excellent examples of this aphorism are the conservative leaders in both Ontario and Alberta. Having observed both gentlemen over their time in Canadian politics, I can assure you that the description
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Picking politicians.
We now have our main candidates here in Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte. No, nothing exciting. The local liberals had an acclamation. Only one candidate came forward. The conservatives appointed their candidate when Doug Ford got impatient. So much for democracy in the electoral district! Ford appointed a loser. He is a former Orillia
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: On the street of broken hearts.
There are questions we need to ask of candidates in the coming provincial election in Ontario. This is not to embarrass anyone. It is to challenge their thinking. It is about what they hope to do for those trapped on the margins of our society? It is a simple question.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A legislature of eunuchs.
Listening to voters and to people at Queen’s Park, there seems to be a general opinion that there should be a sign from Dante’s Inferno over the legislature entrance “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” All power and importance are vested in the premier and less and less is
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