When driving back with the wife from a trip to Washington several years ago, we took a lazy route north through the Appalachians. It was early summer and it was a stunningly beautiful vista in those ancient mountains. It was a great trip until we crossed into New York State
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: Pot is coming. Pot is coming.
How come the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation gets the best media leaks? We have been informed by the People’s Network that we will be able to celebrate Canada Day 2018 with legal marijuana from sea to sea to sea. Wow! The plans—skillfully guided for the federal Liberals by former Toronto police
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Budgets and other eulogies.
Seeing finance minister Bill Morneau finally get to his budget last week produced a measure of disappointment and nostalgia. He brought back distant memories of the clean-cut young Anglican priest who came to our grade six class at Rosedale Public School in Toronto to try to entice us wayward kids
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Coddling the Cyberphobic.
Why are we doing this? Why are we catering to the cyberphobes among us? Why should they dictate progress? Or lack thereof? After a career in computers with a side interest in politics, it should be easy to convince the politicians and their retainers of the ease of computer voting.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lies. And Trudeau-Trump lies.
You have come to expect it in the daily reports from the American White House. You know that the man in the White House tells lies. You just do not expect it from the guy in charge in Ottawa. And you already knew that the guy in charge at the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The silliness of slagging Sorbara.
This could have run Wednesday but there is really no point in running more than one commentary per day. The problem here is that it does not matter if someone has managed war rooms or washrooms there is absolutely no point to slagging former Liberal MPP Greg Sorbara for telling
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: You want Trump to go? And then what?
There seems to be a growing consensus among mental health professionals that Donald Trump might be crazy. After all, he thinks he is President of the United States. How crazy can that be? And the man does seem delusional. We all saw it early in his campaign. He would preen
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Kenney is running on ‘Empty.’
The new and unsurprising leader of the Alberta Conservatives is taking a trip to nowhere. He tells Albertans he is there to unite the right but there are two rights and those two rights do not necessarily make a new right or even a better right. And neither of the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Branding the PC’s Patrick Brown.
The Ontario Progressive Conservatives are trying to sell Patrick Brown. Since few Ontario voters know the Conservative Leader, they think it is important to introduce him. They call a recent series of YouTube ads, ‘Brand Brown.’ Mind you they want to paint him as something other than we know him
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Kevin O’Leary meets a real reality.
Welcome to Canadian politics, Kevin O’Leary. You have brought a few laughs to an otherwise dismal contest for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. Though you would think someone from reality television would know what to expect? Did you really think leadership races are run within some foolish rules?
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Shell bites the bitumen bullet.
This story takes us back to the 1970s and a lengthy discussion with a board member of Royal Dutch Shell. He was a “works committee” member of the board and our discussion was enlightening. He represented the employees of Shell on its board and was a highly-respected university professor. He
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What will an Ontario pilot prove?
The possible acceptance of a pilot project in Ontario of the idea of government providing a basic guaranteed income to its citizens is long overdue. There have been previous pilots—opened with great ballyhoo and then quietly dropped when the political will failed us. But like all such pilots, they are
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Could Chantal Hébert be so diabolical?
Is it whimsy or a diabolical intent? Is Toronto Star political guru Chantal Hébert really that devious? She recently proposed that Rona Ambrose, the federal interim leader for the Conservatives as the ideal person to step in and take over the reins of the combined provincial Conservatives in Alberta. That
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is Trudeau fighting out of his weight class?
The reason why boxing promoters will not allow a lightweight boxer to take on a heavyweight is that the lightweight might not last two minutes. The lightweight might be fast on his feet but the heavyweight only needs to land one punch. That is why Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Airing the rants of the Right.
Canadians are too politically correct to accept a politician such as right-wing Geert Wilders who has been running in the Netherlands for that country’s parliamentary elections yesterday. At one point the pollsters were suggesting that the right-wing anti-Islam, anti-EU politician’s Freedom Party could get as much as 20 per cent
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Revisiting the hopes of Dr. Zamboni.
As past president of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, we have known for a long time that the Liberation treatment for Multiple Sclerosis patients does not work. It never had credibility to begin with. It was over seven years ago that Dr. Paulo Zamboni of Ferrara, Italy excitedly announced
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What happened in Saint-Laurent?
All rebellions have to start somewhere. And it looks like Justin Trudeau miscalculated and let one start in the Quebec electoral district of Saint-Laurent. The riding had been held by Stéphane Dion until Trudeau bounced him from the cabinet and sent him to be ambassador to the European Union and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is this Toronto’s coming of age?
In a scholarly work this past week from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, we learned that the City of Toronto is ready to cut the parental apron strings of the Province of Ontario. If you have never been involved in Toronto politics, you might even
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Morning Line: Canada’s Conservatives (2).
Now you get the possible winners from among the 14 contenders for the Tory leadership. We have checked their blood lines, their daily workouts and their past performances and all we can tell you is that the following is possible. THE POSSIBLES: Kevin O’Leary, 20 to 1. Our only advice
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Morning Line: Canada’s Conservatives (1).
You can hardly deal with 14 contenders for the Tory leadership in just one commentary. We will divide our Morning Line into two parts: The Losers and the Possibles. THE LOSERS: Rick Peterson, 100 to 1. There seems to be no justification for this gentleman to be leader of the
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