Back in the 1800s when Oliver Mowat was Premier of Ontario, he had his best fights not with his provincial opponents but with the federal government. His skill as a politician and his knowledge of how to pick his fights kept him in the premier’s office for 24 years. It
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: Measuring the generation factor.
Pollsters must pull their hair about it. They cannot get reliable readings on the under 30s. They are not sure they understand the mindset. These young people are not easy to survey. The pollsters know that this age group will be a major factor in the next federal election but
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: By-elections that matter to the news media.
It is all part of the game with the news media. It is their opportunity to interfere in events. When it comes to reporting on politics, the news media and their pals, the pollsters, are combatants, not spectators. And they relish the role. Consider their positions in the current provincial
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It is all in the flag you carry.
It was wonderful to hear that Hayley Wickenheiser will be carrying the Canadian flag at the Sochi Winter Games. The four-time medal winner in women’s hockey will be tall and proud with the pride of carrying our flag. But there seems to be a flag missing in the planning for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The hollow triumph of Jean Chrétien.
They lionized former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien the other evening. Many Conservatives were there to honour him. Not all liberals attended. Some could not afford the $400 per plate tab. Some even disagreed with him being a great prime minister. It did not always seem that he was doing the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What does the Hair know about anti-Semitism?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was born too late. There was little left of the anti-Semitism of the 1930’s and 40s in Toronto when he was born in 1959. He lacked the opportunity to learn first hand what it means. He had no understanding of the images he was using when
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A not quite raging argument on royalty?
Always looking for material pro or con the royals, there was a web site discovered the other day that looked like a goldmine of liberal thought on Canada’s relationship with the monarchy. The immediate disappointment was that the last posting was over a year ago. Regrettably the search was in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Québéc’s PQ feeds on bigotry.
The Québéc government’s Charter of Values proposal is earning the province ridicule. Premier Pauline Marois and her Parti Québécois government think it will make francophones in the province hunker down and blame everything on the rest of Canada. But it is their own supporters who are making out the péquistes
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair takes a full Airbus to Israel.
We hear that Prime Minister Harper filled his A310 Airbus for his historic trip to Israel. This marks a new trend in tourism for the Prime Minister. Until the trip to Nelson Mandela’s funeral, he was content to take his hairdresser and a few lackeys to help carry his luggage.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario needs a dose of reality.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has committed. She has called for pointless by-elections in the electoral districts of Thornhill and Niagara Falls in February. It is a waste of time, money and political capital. She could have done the right thing as a politician by calling a provincial election. But, frankly,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who can afford what tar sands offer?
It was a headline in the Toronto Star Business Section: “Now or never for oilsands, executives say.” The answer that came immediately to mind was “How about never.” The Toronto Star story was quoting Brian Ferguson, chief executive of Cenovus Energy and Russ Girling, chief executive of TransCanada, the pipeline
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Better a random act of kindness.
In a rushed lead written in Twitter yesterday, there was some unnecessary meanness. It was not intended. It just appeared in the Twitter space and was carelessly left there because there were other things needing attention. What started as humour became something else. It is a very human fault. The
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Causing Conservative Controversy.
Is a Conservative Party uprising in the offing? No. Is there dissension in the ranks? Yes. The importance of this for their opponents is that we have to pay attention and help keep the scabs from forming over these tears in the fabric of Canadian Conservatism. Nobody wants to smooth
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Tory’s Hudak is now an illusionist.
Ontario Opposition Leader Timmy Hudak has a new career in mind. He wants to be a carnival illusionist. In an op-ed opinion page article yesterday in the Toronto Star, he was proposing a Million Jobs Act. This act, as he describes it, would be a masterful illusion in the category
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In this star-struck age?
It was back in the 1970s in an advertising agency boardroom in New York, the president of the Canadian Multiple Sclerosis Society was being given a preview of that year’s proposed advertising campaign for the U.S. Multiple Sclerosis Society. The ads, headlined by Frank Sinatra and similar luminaries, were slick
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Choose early, repent longer.
It really is foolish. There was a commentary the other day by Bob Hepburn of the Toronto Star that Toronto liberals are in a quandary about this year’s mayoralty race in their city. Bob is a bit early in suggesting that liberals need to make any decision. The problem for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: If you believe in true, can you sell bitumen?
A news story yesterday told us that an international public relations firm has won the first stage of what will be a $22 million contract to promote the output of Canada’s tar sands. Natural Resources Canada has announced that the Ottawa office of Fleishman-Hilliard has been awarded an initial contract
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Fixing The Best Laid Plans.
Reading Terry Fallis’ book, The Best Laid Plans in 2008 was a chore. Not writing the requested review was diplomacy. It seems to be an ideal book for people who like their humour about three metres wide and a centimetre deep. We can hardly advise it for people who seriously
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Looking for Mr. Mayor for Toronto.
In the 1977 Richard Brooks movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar, the character played by Diane Keaton might as well have been looking for a mayoralty candidate as for someone to share her bed. Either way, it seems to be a self-destructive quest. In looking for a mayor for the city
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why are Lac-Mégantic murderers at large?
Is Canada some third world country where people can break the law and nobody seems to notice? Can a business knowingly break the law and kill Canadian citizens? When a train rolled free into Lac-Mégantic last year and killed some 47 residents of that picturesque Québéc town, it seems the
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