You almost hate to ask the question. What is wrong with the way Canadians vote? There seems to be an assumption by some people that first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting is a failure. Does that mean you have to dump FPTP and take a flier on some other theoretically improved voting system? And why is it better? […]
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: Justin marks a hundred days.
The wife wanted to send our prime minister a Valentine card. She is a fan. Maybe we both are in our different ways. She only wants him to lose the rock-star role and start to look more prime ministerial. She is right in that. It is time he got down to the real job and […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Incremental inclinations of the incompetents.
The banker has been heard from. The other day we noted that Ontario wine drinkers were waiting to hear about liberalizing wine sales in Ontario. We have been waiting for a long time for this and it seems that we will be waiting even longer. It is turning into a bravura performance of incrementalism. The […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Sometimes you do not want to be right.
So, do you feel better after the Whitby-Oshawa provincial by-election? What do you expect when only 25 per cent of the voters would brave the cold to vote? Frankly, the results might have been the same on a warm spring day. Nothing changed. The only good news for the day is that auto repair places […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The perils of political predictions in by-elections
A friend called the other evening. He wanted to know who would win tonight’s provincial by-election in Christine Elliott’s former electoral district of Whitby-Oshawa. Once again we had to patiently explain that it is impossible to predict. The opinion polls that say the Conservatives have the best chance are useless. The big rally the other […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A road without remorse for Rona.
It was obligatory on Monday for the news media to check with Opposition Leader Rona Ambrose on Prime Minister Trudeau’s announcement of the change in Canada’s role in the partnership against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Rona gave them the obligatory Conservative position. “Shameful,” she said. The news media knew what […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Should everyone have to vote?
Many years ago a senior public relations guy gave a tongue-in-cheek speech to a service club about the people we elect to parliament. The theory he presented was that we should also have stupid Members of Parliament because stupid people should be entitled to representation. As politically incorrect as the message might have been, it […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: WHERE’S THE BEER?
Do you have beer in your grocery store? Are you one of the favoured few in Ontario? Here in Barrie we are being discriminated against. We are being denied a proper university here in central Ontario and we cannot even drown our sorrows in grocery-store beer. It is not as though our Liberal MPP can […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can Trudeau open the sepulchres of government?
Can Canadians have an open government? Do we want one? Can Trudeau deliver it? They are all good questions. The problem inherent in the questions is Justin Trudeau’s understanding of how Ottawa really works. He might be biting off far more than his limited experience can handle. Of note is the fact that Justin’s father […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Minister Monsef ‘s measure.
How would you like to have a job based on proving your boss is right? It seems the same as Canada’s Fraser Institute that is always commissioning studies designed to prove the Institute’s right-wing theories. Now we have a cabinet minister trying to implement her leader’s campaign promise that Canadians will never again use first-past-the-post […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s not the pipelines, it’s the bitumen.
Thank goodness for mayors who can call a spade a spade. Not every city enjoys that luxury. The only problem is that mayors and their municipalities have no jurisdiction over pipelines. What they do is posture for their voters and then conveniently remember it is not their bailiwick when the going gets tough. Toronto Mayor […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What if nobody voted in the by-election?
We had a by-election for council in a Barrie ward the other day. Admittedly it was the middle of winter but you would think that more people would have voted. Out of almost 10,000 potential voters, only 17.5 per cent bothered to vote. It makes you wonder what the heck the city would have done […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario Premier Wynne wins India.
Patrick Brown MPP eat your heart out. You are no longer India’s darling. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has won the media wars in the world’s largest democracy. In homophobic India, a lesbian politician from Canada was a big hit. It never occurred to us Canadians that Kathleen Wynne taking her husband Jane with her was […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How fast can the Trudeau team pedal backwards?
It was all the fault of the Global team that had parliamentary reporter Vassy Kapelos filling in for Tom Clark on his West Block program on Sunday. She was a distraction. It started with Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion saying that we would soon know what the Trudeau government will do about bringing the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Patrick Brown where are you?
Patrick Brown MPP needs to decide whether he is his provincial party’s leader or its chief apparatchik. In politics, an apparatchik is a person who usually toils in the background of a party coming up with and implementing strategies and tactics with which to win power. Watching Mr. Brown at work in politics over the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In the doldrums of a Canadian winter.
Not even Bonhomme Carnaval can cure the January-February blahs this year. Eating and drinking too much in Quebec City might be a popular pastime at this time of year but you also used to have the option of heading south soon afterward. Sure you can. If you can find a warm spot where our 70-cent […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin: On electoral versus constitutional reform.
In a sit-down conversation with Justin Trudeau about six years ago, it was immediately obvious that he is an emotional person and as easy to read as an open book. Other than being eager to get him into a poker game, it was interesting to test his reaction to some basic political propositions. While he […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How far can electoral reform go?
Because it is 2016, the question should be asked: Will we have thorough discussion on the question of electoral reform? Or will the questions be decided just by votes in parliamentary committee and parliament? And the question is important as the Trudeau Liberals are hoping they can find a solution that can be supported by […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: You don’t get much for $300 million!
Inflation is an unfeeling brute. By the time the Trudeau government brings our six aging F-18s back from the Middle East, Canadians will have spent close to $300 million on the exercise. Obviously it is not cheap to maintain modern jet fighters half way around the world from home. The question is will they have […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justice denied: The Yatim trial.
At one time the Toronto police force was among the most respected in Canada. It had the overwhelming support and trust of the citizens it served. That is no longer true. The trial of Constable James Forcillo for murdering Sammy Yatim has told Toronto citizens that the police consider themselves above the law. The lesson […]
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