The Hair is on a mission. The Prime Minister thinks he can pull off a miracle in October and win a second straight parliamentary majority. While his strategy makes sense, his assumptions are faulty and his tactics are far too heavy handed. Strategically it is vital that he keep his
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: “Author, Author”
Having written many political speeches over the years, it would have been a pleasant surprise to hear the shout for the author to take a bow among the applause at the end of many a speech. Having listened to MP Patrick Brown on Saturday when he accepted the leadership of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who, What and Why a Liberal?
If there needs to be one more reason to keep Justin Trudeau from interfering in local party nominations, his choices tell the story. MP Eve Adams? When that woman crossed the floor of the House of Commons, her 15 minutes of fame were already over. Police Chief Bill Blair? The
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Do Ontario Tories need a leader?
The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party will announce its new leader tomorrow. Will anyone care? Is it going to make a difference? With three years to go before an election in Ontario, will the voters notice the change? When you hear that timing is everything in politics, you get the idea
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lessons learned in Alberta
Nobody trusted the pollsters. They were the only ones who saw what would happen to the Alberta Conservative dynasty in Tuesday’s election. Babel-on-the-Bay failed to judge the extent of the anger. Everyone conceded that NDP Leader Rachel Notley was coming on strong. Who knew that Albertans were so mad at
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Thorncliffe slamming sex studies?
Thorncliffe Park in Toronto’s Don Valley area has an interesting history as a racetrack, an area of low-rise apartments and now as an area of high density living. Hidden by the high-rise buildings is Thorncliffe Market Place which started life as a rather ordinary North American shopping mall and has
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Harper endangers Canadians at home.
There was some interesting story positioning in the Toronto Star on Monday. The top story on page two was that the federal government will block any attempt to procure bail for prisoner Omar Khadr. The top story on page three was a full width picture of the prime minister being
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The mad mathematics of Ontario’s Whigs.
Maybe Ontario teachers were on strike back when little Kathleen Wynne and Charles Sousa were there to learn mathematics. It would be the only excuse for the utterly ridiculous decision of the Ontario government to sell part of Hydro One and not the Liquor Control Board stores. As children, our
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A potpourri for Sunday.
Babel-on-the-Bay has resisted the urge to do an occasional potpourri of comments. We usually try to stick to one (related at least) topic at a time. If we did a potpourri, it would probably look like this: Ignorance is bliss: In a letter to the editor of the Toronto Star
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Candidate: The importance of social media.
Part 4 of our series for Canada’s federal candidates. This is a serious subject. Handle it with laughter and you will get the laughs from your opponents. If you think social media is free, you have no idea what you are doing. If you think the candidate creates his own
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: But who will pay for his hairdresser?
Seeing the Prime Minister striding arrogantly down the Hall of Honour with King Abdullah II of Jordan the other day gave us second thoughts on Stephen Harper’s future plans. He has run out of time to flee. With just days more than five months until the statutory call for a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lessons to be learned in Alberta.
The May 5 provincial election in Alberta is unfolding as anticipated. With pundits panicking, reporters rebelling, it will only be the final poll next Tuesday that will tell the real story. And in this cautionary tale of political progress there are entrails to be read that can foretell the political
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Building a better Bill Blair?
It seems that Bill Blair hopes to be forgiven almost everything. The former Toronto police chief is now a politician. And federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has officially welcomed Blair to the Liberal fold. Trudeau was actually reported by the media as saying: “I’m not going to Monday-morning-quarterback decisions made
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bearing bad news for NDP’s Tom Mulcair.
George Lakoff is an American who thinks. The UCLA Berkeley professor was in Toronto last week. We missed a chance to meet him. He is reported to have told his audience there is no such thing as the political centre. That must have been bad news for the New Democrats
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: With Patrick Brown you get bupkis.
It seems we are supposed to do some sort of mea culpa in regards to Barrie’s MP Patrick Brown. Yes Babel-on-the-Bay originates in Barrie but we thought we had that covered by calling the place Babel. It just would not remain hidden. In writing the other day about the relative
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Two Tory budgets for the price of one.
It was Ontario’s turn this past week. How often do we get two Tory budgets at a time? On Tuesday, we had a laugh at federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver’s expense. And then, right on the heels, Thursday we had a budget redux from Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa. There
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Discovering Barrie’s Patrick Brown.
It has taken on all the elements of a farce. The Ontario news media are discovering Patrick Brown MP for Barrie. They are running lengthy, laudatory articles about him with flattering pictures. (And getting a flattering picture of Brown is no easy task.) The media think he has a lock
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Doing without the politicians.
This Ontario resident missed Treasurer Charles Sousa’s budget yesterday. Not that we shunned his budget. The day involved 12 hours at the local hospital. Given a choice we would have preferred to be strapped down and forced to listen to Charles’ budget. Do not get all excited out there: it
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Morning Line: Alberta 2015.
The May 7 provincial election in Alberta is something of a wake up call as Albertans shake themselves from the Tar Sands dream. It was probably the recent Prentice austerity budget more than anything else that told people that times are changing. There is no question but Albertans need to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Back to the Future with Joe Oliver
Finance Minister Joe Oliver brought Canadians his first budget yesterday. Instead of it being a budget for the coming fiscal year of our government, he tried to line things up for the next ten years. It was a very Conservative view of our future. And we can only hope that
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