If there was a God, would He not be looking down on us today in dismay. Would He be pleased with the state we are in? Would He be pleased with the way we are destroying this beautiful world? Can He be pleased with how casually we kill ourselves and each other? Is it a […]
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: Cabinet shuffle or spring cleaning?
Canada’s Inuit used to have a traditional remedy for aging that involved putting the elderly on ice flows and waving goodbye. The Ontario Cabinet showed us the modern approach the other day—some of the seniors in the cabinet were told to quit so that the premier could bring in younger talent. Not all went quietly […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: At least Ontario’s Wynne has a plan!
While many are willing to criticize Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, she does have an ‘Action Plan’ to do something about climate change. And, yes, it is easy to criticize. The plan might not be perfect. It is complex. It has many components. It involves a cap-and-trade program for carbon and new taxes. It also promises […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The braggadocio of the blogger!
That is one way to describe it. There is a hollowness in the endeavour. It is not just a hobby or an interesting way to waste away a few hours in your day. A daily commentary develops a life of its own. It is not like a Facebook page that you tend like a garden […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Vote Reform Primer: Preferential.
The following is a new primer as we did not consider preferential voting a factor in the Democracy Papers of 2007. This is the third of the updated series. Preferential voting is a system that is also known as alternative voting, instant run-off, ranked voting, transferable voting and other variables that have been considered and […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: He wanted an independent Senate; he got it.
We told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that this independent Senate of his would bite him on the ass. And it happened sooner than anyone expected. But to make the point on the assisted dying bill was pure justice. The Senate has challenged Justin on a key provision of this ill-considered bill. It is the very […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump: Fascist or Populist?
Mia culpa. It must be the arrogance of a commentator that afflicted us. We wrote a casual commentary about populist politicians and thought nothing of it. At least until we read a commentary by a professor the other day that inferred that a populist was a fascist. It got us thinking. Obviously we are going […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What’s with bicycles in Toronto?
We always agreed with the healthy aspects of cycling and never thought much about bike lanes on city streets. That was until city council’s passion for cycling got carried away. They are spending millions of taxpayers’ money on restricted bike lanes and further tying up traffic. Are these people nuts? You really have to wonder […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Coming to grips with Ontario health care.
This commentator has never been a big fan of Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins. Being a medical doctor has never been a criterion for the job. Although being ruthless helps. That we did not expect from Hoskins. His recently announced reforms could be the start of something. We are just not sure what at this […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Vote Reform Primer: Proportional.
The following is an up-dated version of the discussion on proportional voting in the Democracy Papers of 2007. This is the second of the series. There is no denying that proportional voting in its many variations is the most common voting system in the world. This works very well in countries with many languages or […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Politicians are just like us.
Maybe it is because they are never a hero to their valets that we have never been overly impressed with politicians. As a publicist and confidante to many politicians over the years, we have found that they share the same foibles, failures and frustrations as anyone else. Nobody is perfect and the person offering to […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Fool some people some of the time.
You sometimes wonder what ‘progressive’ means. Babel-on-the-Bay is included in a collection of blogs by progressive Canadian writers. We have come to the conclusion that is a very broad description when you read some of the blogs. With the limited political activity at this time of the year, it is often no surprise that these […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Vote Reform Primer: Back to Basics.
The following is an up-dated version of the discussion on first-past-the-post voting in the Democracy Papers of 2007. We will be running a series of these primers over the next few weeks. We welcome any questions or arguments you might have. We are always pleased to respond to serious questions. When we wrote the Democracy […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When the wheels fell off for Wynne.
With the current slump in the fortunes of Ontario’s Liberal government, Premier Kathleen Wynne has an uphill climb for the last two years of her mandate. Her problem is that while she fancies herself as a reformer, she really out conserves the Conservatives. Her basic problem is that what she sees as progressive is perceived […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Minister Monsef, hurrying to do nothing.
It looks like someone in the Trudeau cabinet came to the aid of the party and exerted some influence on the vote reform file. It is not that the Minister of Democratic Institutions was causing anything to happen. Ms. Monsef has been looking like a deer caught in the headlights. It is about time someone […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bill Blair, won’t you please come home?
We never have been able to find Bill Blair when we needed him. Back when Bill was Toronto Police Chief in 2010, he was nowhere to be found when his police officers were busy kettling innocent citizens out for an summer’s evening walk. Now as Justin Trudeau’s Minister of Pot, he is nowhere to be […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “This is Justin Trudeau’s Party.”
Those were the wrap-up words from Toronto Star reporter Susan Delacourt from the Winnipeg Liberal convention to Global reporter Tom Clark whose weekly show was originating in Vancouver at the Conservative convention. Delacourt had told viewers that Justin had arrived from the G-7 in Japan during the convention and seemed to be everywhere dominating his […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Liberal Party is not computer competent yet.
Before you think the writer is a computer Luddite, it should be mentioned that we spent a lengthy business career explaining computers and computer software through the media. Our last company was a pioneer in database development that helped usher in the excesses of the Internet era. It was only when Katie Telford told the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Selling Mr. Brown to Ontario.
Early in a career as a political advisor, we were on the way to a meeting about a new candidate when we bumped into another, much more experienced apparatchik, on his way to the same meeting. “Good news,” he said, “I interviewed my cab driver about the new guy. He hadn’t heard of him. That […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau misspending his capital.
In Winnipeg this weekend, Justin Trudeau is misspending his capital with liberals and the Liberal Party. Mind you, he fully deserves the plaudits for his remarkable determination that took his party from third place to a majority last October. It is his follow through by trying to change the nature of the Liberal Party that […]
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