You hate to tell this to our optimistic Prime Minister but occasionally it rains. We were thinking of that when we noted that in the past week, few people really appreciated the government’s feeble, last-minute attempt to manage assisted dying and the Senate was having trouble making the PM’s silly Senate solution functional. The combination […]
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: Toronto’s organized hypocrisy.
Would someone please explain to Professor Patrice Dutil at Toronto’s Ryerson University that the city already has party politics at City Hall. Of course—wink, wink, nudge, nudge—it is all kept quiet because we never want anyone to be held accountable. And if the Ryerson prof wants confirmation, he should ask our old friend from Ryerson, […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It looks good on the NDP.
It is the way an Aussie friend says, “It looks good on them.” It is not said in a mean way but it implies that they deserve their quandary. And the current condition of the New Democrats is not only well deserved but about time. There are no more political virgins for them to sacrifice. […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Third-Party ads: Democracy or Interference.
It reminds us of the 1957 Grey Cup game in Toronto. ‘Bibbles’ Bawel had intercepted the ball for the Hamilton Tiger Cats and was heading down the sidelines for another touchdown. At least he was until a Toronto lawyer stuck out his foot and Bibbles went flying out of bounds. Well folks that is exactly […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne: Master of all she surveys.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne seems to have a God complex. Instead of spending a pleasant weekend at home watching the Blue Jays on TV, she hunkered down and penned a plan to reform the province’s rules for political fundraising. She came down to Queen’s Park on Monday and delivered her ten tablets. Wynne even called […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Knives are out for Notley.
After the shoot-out at the Edmonton Corral last weekend, one of the participants was left bleeding in the dust. After the NDP delegates left town, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is in critical condition and the wolves of the province’s right and further right wing parties are baying for her corpse. But that seems so unfair! […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The NDP Gunfight at the Edmonton Corral.
Who knew? Premier Rachel Notley in her Annie Oakley role had no choice but play to the home town crowd. Now former New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair probably wished he was anywhere else. But the gunfight at the Edmonton Corral was a three-way fight and you had to be careful not to turn your back […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Baby Bonus is not a Basic-Income guarantee.
You wonder where Canada’s Families Minister Jean-Yves Duclos is at when he tells the news media that the Canada Child Benefit can be considered a step toward a guaranteed annual income plan. The new Liberal baby bonus program is just a political bribe that panders to a serious societal need. But programs such as the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Don’t forget Canada’s Minister of Pot.
Canada is certainly a slow-moving country. It takes six years to get the right just to have your day in court. How long it will take to actually get a class-action case to court is another matter. The only thing is that as time marches on, we should never forget the role played in the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Liberal Party is not a movement.
The difference between a political party and a political movement is that a political party has a past, some structure and a future. A political movement follows the person with the best batteries in their megaphone. And it is too bad Justin Trudeau does not understand the difference. Our Liberal prime minister has once again […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Premier Wynne is learning to listen.
This is good news. Frankly it is a bit embarrassing how we are often critical of the Ontario premier. We are therefore quite pleased to have an opportunity to express our pleasure at something she and her cabinet have done. You might recall in the recent provincial budget that the government was going to increase […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The manipulation of preferential voting.
Back in the 1970s, we elected two aldermen (now called councillors) in each Toronto ward. The person with the most votes was known as the senior alderman and was given more perks and opportunities. The toughest part of campaigning for an aldermanic post at that time was convincing your supporters to not vote for a […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: There is more than one way to pay your dues.
There was an event years ago when the Liberal Party president and this writer were taking a rest after helping set up chairs for a large party meeting. And yes, it was part of our jobs. Because authority in the party comes with responsibility. You do whatever needs to be done. Justin Trudeau needs to […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: America’s Trump: Buffoon or Fascist?
When we handicapped Donald Trump’s campaign for the American presidency last month we were generous with the 25 to 1 longshot. We later remarked on some of his oratory that smacks of the confused and simplistic Adolf Hitler diatribes in Munich in the 1920s and his corporatism that smacks of Benito Mussolini in the same […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Since Ontario Premier Wynne asked…
Never having been reluctant to give Premier Wynne advice before, we can hardly resist the opportunity to give her and her Liberal Party of Ontario advice on fund-raising. The first advice we will give her is to get her and her fellow members of the provincial parliament out of the fund-raising trough. They should not […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: So gas up. They lie, cheat and steal anyway.
You would think that Canadians would be tired of it. Every time you buy gas at your local gas station you are being ripped off. And yet the other day one of Canada’s major refinery executives compounded the abuse we are taking. Mark Sherman, chief operating officer for Irving Oil told Global News that the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Don’t get between the Photogs and Politicos.
Years ago at a dinner three of us were chatting at the head table reception. There was the Ontario party leader, a prominent member of the federal cabinet and this writer. The three of us were discussing nothing important and we studiously ignored the photographers and TV camera people recording our innocuous three-part tête-a-tête. It […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Correcting corruption in Ontario.
It appears that the news media has detected a bad smell in the general area of Ontario’s seat of government at Queen’s Park. It is the smell of political corruption. We are told not to worry though as our Premier promises to fix it later this year. Is that when she will have enough in […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The snob appeal of Brexit.
Babel-on-the-Bay has decided not to do any Morning Line handicapping on the question of Great Briton voting to leave the European Union in the June 23 referendum (commonly referred to as Brexit). Unlike the Scottish referendum a couple years ago, we have no emotional ties to this argument. While there is no reason to think […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bernie Sanders occupies the Occupy revolt.
The good news for the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011 is that the revolution lives on. Watching the Occupy movement at the time was painful as the young and inexperienced organizers took their ideas nowhere. It was an ill-timed revolution without a plan. Only the now established anger at the one per cent for […]
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