Federal New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair has taken a shine to tar sands economics. He has joined with Stephen Harper’s Conservatives who seem titillated with the sexual suggestiveness of having big pipelines lacing our country. Tommy thinks that there is a compromise if we just refine all this potential oil
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: Wynne and her woeful wannabes.
It is a waste of time to worry about public opinion polls months before an election. Watching Premier Kathleen Wynne working her political wiles last week also seemed like a waste of time. It was her reaction to an opposition question about a $1.89 cup of tea that worries us.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Energy East ads for nought?
This takes some analysis. TransCanada Pipelines is delaying the application for its Energy East Pipeline until next year. This is a major delay for the company. Even if TransCanada does nothing pro-active on the file for the year, it means costs are accumulating. And we are talking many millions. The
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Soul searching for solace.
For the first time in over a year, Babel-on-the-Bay skipped posting for one day last week. Readership plummeted. There was a technical problem. It was solved with the purchase of a new monitor. It seems those things die after eight or nine years. A computer nerd was also enticed (with
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Harrying the Hair on his holiday.
Is this fair? Here is the Hair having a relaxed prorogation vacation and he is being harried by his supposedly tame news media. Damn it all, you give the television network owners everything they ask for and they still do not control those pesky news people who work for them.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Gun lobby takes aim at Baird.
Do you remember the old children’s song If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise? If you are expecting a teddy bear’s picnic, you will be wrong. Today, you are more liable to be shot. We live in a country where the government thinks
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Energy East: the unrelenting sales pitch.
Are you as weary as everyone else with the heavy-handed TransCanada Pipelines television commercials? All the company wants to do is convert its main gas pipeline to a heated, high pressure line for bitumen slurry and extend it across Canada to Saint John, New Brunswick. And if you think the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Explaining Canadian liberalism
It is the risk of appearing academic or pedantic (book-smart) that usually precludes any discussion of what liberalism is all about. It reminds us of an old friend—a law professor who was an authority on torts law—who wanted to entitle his most recent work: Fuck Torts. He thought it might
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: First you need principles, Ms. Wynne.
If you do not like the mess when racoons get into your garbage, you can tell Premier Kathleen Wynne about it. If you want to kill or at least discourage those pesky animals, the Premier will listen. She needs policies for the coming provincial election. She has even had the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Babel’s backward burghers blunder on.
Babel-on-the-Bay knows that our readers are not very interested in parochial items about our modest little city here on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay. We are only telling you this tale as fair warning. The jewel of Babel has always been our beautiful beaches and the joys of bikini watching
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne’s Whigs sell us short.
What did we say the other day about half measures by governments that have no idea where they are going? Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne seems to have fallen into that trap. Obviously somebody got to her and told her she needed to be seen doing something about how we sell
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Harper’s friends form formidable phalanx.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has interesting friends. As the Prime Minister said in New York the other day, neither he nor his friends take ‘No’ for an answer. It was bad enough when we were ridiculing him and Jim Flaherty for lionizing Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. It is less than
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Tilting at Toronto transit troubles.
Who won what? How do you compare $660 million from the federal government to $1.4 billion from the province and say Toronto Mayor Ford won? What did he win? And for someone to win, you have to assume somebody lost. Who lost here? And as a former Scarborough resident, you
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The challenge in Toronto-Centre.
It is something of a dry run. If Justin Trudeau is going to make a difference as Liberal Party leader in the federal election expected in 2015, the Liberals have to win the yet to be called Toronto-Centre by-election. It is the electoral district made vacant by the resignation of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair helps His Honour.
You could tell from the news clips of yesterday’s event that the Hair is enjoying his holiday. With Parliament prorogued until late October, the hair has time to visit with friends and cronies such as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Of course, the Hair tries to stay out of Toronto so
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Putting the LCBO out of its misery.
Limp half measures by people who have no idea where they are going seem to be the action plan for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). What else would you expect from an organization run by a bunch of lawyers and has-been politicians? Who else would you expect to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Burying Blackberry before the buyers.
Thursday nights on CBC’s National News there is an excellent panel of pundits, usually monitored by news reader Peter Mansbridge. The panellists are Chantal Hébert of the Toronto Star, Andrew Coyne of the National Post and Bruce Anderson of his own consulting firm, Anderson Insight. Their topic last Thursday evening
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What it takes to turn out the Tories.
Toronto Star columnist Martin Reg Cohn advises us that there will be no regicide (the act of murdering the king or leader) at the Conservative convention in London, Ontario this weekend. Darn it. He is spoiling all our fun. We were counting on Opposition Leader Timmy Hudak at least sweating
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Chow for mayor? Don’t bet on it.
The pollsters are telling us that Olivia Chow can be mayor of Toronto after the next municipal election—more than a year from now. The only problem is that the polls are meaningless. They are based on too many suppositions. There are just too many ‘ifs.’ And who is surprised to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Policy pillars for the 2015 election.
Nobody wants to reveal their plan too early. The key is to take ownership of the key issue(s) at a time when your opponents are already committed and can only respond. At this time, there are probably three issues from which to choose and use with different emphasis. They are
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