Reading Andrew MacDougall’s farewell to the turnstile at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) yesterday, you have to be puzzled. You wonder that, after the experience of serving Prime Minister Harper as his communications chief, MacDougall is not only leaving Ottawa but leaving the country. How bad can that job be?
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: Helping health units that hate gambling.
“For some individuals, gambling is a devastating problem,” says the Ottawa health unit. From this you can deduce that the unit is somewhat negative about the siren lure of casinos. This is in response to a recent question about casinos from the city council. With this level of response to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario’s Sousa is searching for solutions.
It’s a daunting task and we can only hope that Finance Minister Charles Sousa is up to it. He is travelling Ontario searching for solutions to Ontario’s economic malaise. Needless to say, our unemployment is higher and our economy is shrinking and only the ignorant among us think the answer
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Toronto’s ‘good-ole boy’ mayor.
You sometimes wonder where Toronto voters parked their brains when they elected Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto. What was understandable throughout that mayoralty campaign was that they wanted to vote against what was happening. The voters were searching for somewhere to park their votes. In this weird Monopoly Game
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In the dog days of summer.
It must be the dog days of summer. That is when all the politicos, politicians, pundits and prevaricators take time out to refresh and recharge for the political wars. Because Babel-on-the-Bay has views on municipal and provincial happenings as well as federal, we use the time to advantage. Instead of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Big Brother becomes capricious.
You have seen the full page advertisements in the newspapers. You have wondered just who the big telecoms—Bell, Rogers and Telus—are trying to reach. And you also wonder why they are spending so much money in the process. It seems to all boil down to their not wanting to allow
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our Tories are troubled tra-la!
When writing about the ‘Dump the Dummy’ campaign among Ontario Conservatives a couple days ago, we could hardly imagine the Tories having any choice. It gives you serious pause though when you find out who are the people leading the charge to get rid of Ontario Leader Timmy Hudak. If
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who speaks for Babel?
The question was posed the other day as to whom Ontario Premier Kathleen listens. She is very obviously getting very bad advice. From her first moves in cabinet building to calling the recent five by-elections, the novice premier has obviously been following the most conservative advice. The poor woman has
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario needs a Dalton Camp.
When Dalton Camp died in 2002, Canada lost an intellectual giant and a giant killer. Dalton was always our favourite Conservative. He was fun as a person with whom to fight. He was the man who took on and defeated Conservative Leader John George Diefenbaker in 1966. He was also
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What ‘open nomination’ means.
Justin Trudeau is not only turning into a very exciting leader of the Liberal Party but he is also keeping his word. He has his reputation on the line in the upcoming Toronto Centre by-election as well as a test of the type of general election campaign he wants in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who wants to fight an election on pot?
The Harper Conservatives must be chortling as they think of the coming federal election campaign being fought over legalizing marijuana. There are far more important issues but this issue makes a clear statement on the difference between the Harper Conservatives and the Trudeau Liberals. This can become the litmus test
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Using the Lac Mégantic disaster.
The ultimate indignity in death is to be used to profit others. It was only when hearing Prime Minister Harper say it in Quebec City the other day that you could believe what we have been hearing. It is the claim that the Lac Mégantic disaster proves that pipelines are
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ford wins one for the PCs.
If you look at the positions of the three principal parties in the Ontario Legislature as an interminable game of Go, you would recognize that only New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath improved in Thursday’s by-elections. While her position is not tenable in the long term, she has manoeuvred into a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: At $12 billion, it’s no small lie.
TransCanada Pipelines announced its Energy East Pipeline yesterday. It has been in the plans for a while. For a $12 billion scheme, they gave it a few extra trumpet riffs. Yet, you would think that for so much money, they would come up with a few new lies about the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is it Hudak-Ford or Ford-Hudak?
The Ontario Legislature feeds on the politics of Ontario municipalities. You have to get under the skin of a number of key municipal politicians before you can fathom the directions of the Legislature. It is both the strength and the weakness of Ontario politics. Since the days of Premier Oliver
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A submission to the National Energy Board.
Submission A51494: Commenting on Enbridge Pipelines Inc. Line 9B Reversal and Line 9 Capacity Expansion Project. According to the National Energy Board’s stated purpose, it is to promote safety and security, environmental protection and efficient energy infrastructure and markets in the Canadian public interest… And on this basis alone, the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne whistles for by-election wins.
Wishing for it might not do the trick for Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. She desperately needs to win at least three of the five by-elections in Ontario this Thursday. That would leave one each for Hudak’s Conservatives and Horwath’s New Democrats. That assures that their jobs are safe and Wynne
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The summer skater surfaces.
Babel heard from its boy MP the other day. Hockey Night is coming up. This is when the Member of Parliament’s staff and friends throw a fund-raiser for the local hospital and we all pay for it. We probably pay far more than is raised for the hospital but we
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Knee-jerks to Trudeau on pot.
Having listened to Liberals argue over legalizing marijuana for the past 50 years, it is important to understand exactly what Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said last week in Vancouver. He was hardly calling for wide availability of pot. What he says is that it should be treated the same as
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Helping hold on to Hudak.
You realize of course that any win for the Conservatives in these five current by-elections in Ontario is just going to encourage Conservative leader Tiny Tim Hudak. Is that fair? Does Ontario really deserve Hudak? Did anyone in the Liberal brain trust know what they were doing when they put
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