You have to love it when a politician decides to wing it and comes out with another really dumb idea. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne thinks that municipal voters can have their concerns for democracy resolved by instituting ranked voting in municipal elections (wherein you vote indicating your first, second and
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: PKP will be TNT for the PQ.
Pierre-Karl, known as PKP, scion of the Péladeau family wants to be leader of Quebec’s Parti Québécois. That is an absolutely excellent idea. It is an idea that will help ensure the destruction of the failing Parti Québécois and grind it into the dust of history in Quebec. In contemplating
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: As the horses are in the final turn.
This is stupid. The law has got to let us run a totalizator on the Toronto election. We could put it on the tote out at Woodbine when there are no ponies running. Punters could check the action on the 24-hour news channels. Here it is October 1 and the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Looking for war in all the wrong places.
In Orwell’s novel 1984, Big Brother’s regime uses never ending far away wars to control the population. He makes war a critical component in sustaining the totalitarian regime. War is to blame for the regime’s economic failures, the shortages, and the beggaring of the proletariat. Big Brother has victories. The
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Barrie’s Brown hedges his bets.
While we have been known to refer to Barrie MP Patrick Brown as ‘that nebbish,’ his latest political ploy is the height of hypocrisy. He has good reason to worry about being elected in his new federal riding next year so he can at least get some publicity by going
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why Babel-on-the-Bay is cutting off the Greens.
It is supposed to be flattering that Babel-on-the-Bay receives so many news releases from so many sources every day. Some of them are interesting, a few are funny, some are useful, and most get a quick check and delete. It is with deep regret though that we have had to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: But the Hair only came for dinner.
The last thing the Hair needed this week was another state dinner. The guy is going to finish up his imperial prime ministership next year weighing close to 300 pounds (136 kilograms). People are beginning to notice the way he is packing it on around the middle. And it has
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who is this Sun Media boor Levant?
We hardly live a totally sheltered life here in Babel. Sun Media owns the only daily newspaper and the odd free copy takes about three minutes to thumb through and discard. We are supposed to get Sun News on our Bell Fibe television service. We have never bothered to find
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: All you need is $1000 and Liberal Green Light.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is telling us that the party now has open nominations. You really hate to be a killjoy but the party still has a long way to go to have truly open nominations. The process is about as open as a bank vault at midnight. Becoming a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: And liberal thinkers need not apply?
This needs to be clarified. Nobody owns your body but you. A true liberal recognizes the right of men and women everywhere to the freedom of control of their bodies. It is why a liberal sees abortion, prostitution and euthanasia as moral issues but not legal issues. A liberal decries
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Good writing, bad math in the Star.
The Toronto Star editors certainly enjoy stirring the pot. They are always in the market for 800 words of controversy to support differing opinions on current subjects. This is why it has always been easy to sell them op-eds (these are guest-written think pieces usually located on the page opposite
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Harper’s CRTC dog won’t hunt.
It was like old times at the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) hearing last Friday. You could see the anger rising in the commission chairman’s face. The only problem was that it was not the previous chairman Konrad von Finckenstein who had led the commission into the digital age of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Babel-on-the-Bay’s best bets.
Babel-on-the-Bay continues to have an almost perfect record when it comes to forecasting elections. People who used to make foolish bets with us either hold us to being within a few percentage points or have given up and save their money and pride. The latest win was our forecast for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The woes of the woman wannabe.
There was an interesting complaint the other day by a reporter that women cannot get elected mayor in Toronto. The complaint was that polls tend to show that while current candidate Olivia Chow might be well supported by woman voters, she loses when you add in the male voters in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair prefers ‘presidential’ powers.
What a bother! That fussy Mr. Mulcair is making trouble for the Hair again. He wants Canada’s Prime Minister to ask parliament for permission to send troops to Iraq. It seems a lot of bother for a matter of just 69 soldiers going to the aid of Canada’s friends in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Hailing the Hair’s homecoming.
They were all in Ottawa for the opening of parliament. They were the Conservative Commons and Senate parliamentarians, the Prime Minister’s and ministerial staffs, MPs’ and Senators’ staffs, local Conservative Party members and their guests. They were all there to welcome home the Hair. But they were not in the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Blowing the whistle on the Fraser Institute.
Fair’s fair. Babel-on-the-Bay would like to file a complaint with the Canada Revenue Agency. The complaint is against the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute and its offices in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. This pseudo think-tank enterprise has been found to be biased and one-sided. It is more of an unthinking-tank as it
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario sucks and blows on gaming.
When it comes to gaming, the Wynne government in Ontario definitely sucks! According to a confusing op-ed in the Toronto Star Monday by former McGuinty cabinet member Michael Bryant, he reports that the Liberals are sucking and blowing at the same time. Yet when you get to the end of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who convinced Trudeau to look democratic?
Wow. When you read the Liberal.ca website now it looks like Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau invented party democracy. It not only says he believes in party democracy but he is working to assure Liberal Party members of open nominations. He seems to not only be recanting his heavy-handed approach in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Conservative Oliver uses gifts not incentives.
Say what you like about Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver but he is certainly proving that he is not the brightest bulb to ever hold that portfolio in Ottawa. In fact, Oliver might just embarrass the Harper government right out of office next year. It was his opening salvo in
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