There is confusion across the country. The Hair is sending Foreign Minister John Baird to the Ukraine. Canadians know that if there is an important trip to anywhere, the first people allocated space aboard that big Airbus A310 are the Hair and the hairdresser. But on this trip, the Hair
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: An apology as requested by Mr. Kinsella.
You do not often get shouted at in an e-mail. Mr. Kinsella has requested an apology. He may certainly have it. Please understand the confusion. A column appeared in the Toronto Sun last Sunday in which Mr. Kinsella was declared to be the author and identified him as with QMI
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It is not about you Mr. Kinsella.
If it were not for the egos involved, political campaigns would be far more fun. Most political apparatchiks get their comeuppance early in the game and learn the hard way that the candidate is always the star, not the hangers-on. It is like the old ventriloquist Edgar Bergen was always
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Toronto’s Phoney War begins.
The endurance contest in Ontario that has replaced municipal election races has its own challenges and strategies. The Toronto mayoralty race can be considered launched Monday with the official entry of Councillor Karen Stintz and former provincial Conservative Leader John Tory. And like the period from September 1939 to April
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne’s policy picks are puzzlers.
Maybe some of us are a bit slow on the up tick. An e-mail arrived the other day saying that Premier Wynne now had a way forward. It came from a policy input program on the provincial Liberal web site called Common Ground. If this is the best that the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin Trudeau: Not his father’s son.
It is Justin Trudeau’s political instincts that never cease to amaze the older apparatchiks in the Liberal Party. It is remembering a long argument with the late Senator Keith Davey some 30 years ago over Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau just mentioning his family in a speech. If you had sweated
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Tory’s Timmy tempers trades tampering.
The Conservative caucus at Queen’s Park must have got to their Leader Tim Hudak. They made him promise to cool his jets on right-to-work laws. With a broad wink, he is promising not to mention the idea again until after Ontario’s expected spring election. After all there is more than
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The tale of the Hair and the whore.
As you recall the Supreme Court decided that the Conservatives need sex education. Long overdue, you might add. The only problem was that nobody could agree on who should teach sex education to the Conservative caucus. We are not sure but we think it was Peter Mackay who solved it
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Second: Ponder positive policies.
One of the very first lessons of politics is to understand that the average voter does not relate to discussions involving millions of dollars. What people relate to is coffee money. If Torontonians, for example, could just think of the billions their city needs for an upgraded transit system in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: First: Think like liberals.
It should be the first order of business at the Liberal Party Convention February 20 to 23. How else can we be having a policy convention if we do not know what it really means to be a liberal? We need to define who we are and where we want
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: There is a fourth option for Premier Wynne.
Yesterday, we discussed the branding problems of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. In the discussion, the fourth option for her was deliberately left off the table. The fourth option, under current political conditions in Ontario, requires its own discussion. The premier is fully capable of ignoring those who are telling her
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The branding of Premier Wynne: Loser.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has a problem with Ontario voters. They have taken her measure. She has been found wanting. It is not her politics. It is not her demeanour. It is not her sexual orientation. She simply fails to lead. And she has put the voters in a hell
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Quebec Premier Marois bobbles bigotry.
Quebec Premier Pauline Marois appears to want to have a provincial election based on the bigotry of her charter of values. She sees it as creating conditions for separatism from the rest of Canada. That is an illusion. There might be as many as three or four strategies that could
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Tory immigration minister threatens Canadians.
If Conservative Immigration Minister Chris Alexander does not like this blog, why does he not say so? Here we always thought it was just fair political comment. Given time though, Alexander hopes he can strip people such as the writer of their Canadian citizenship. Despite being born here, sworn allegiance
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A tale of the Hair and the hog.
The Hair and hairdresser are heading for Mexico next. It will be a meeting of the three heads of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Prime Minister Stephen Harper will hardly feel the love that he did in Israel. President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico has every reason to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: And the best of luck in Thornhill.
Today, February 13 is hard lesson day for Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. Despite the reasonably good turnout at advance polls, there is no rationale for neophyte Premier Wynne to anticipate anything good from her ill-timed, ill-considered by-elections. She can probably write off the previously Liberal electoral district of Niagara Falls.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A mean and meaningless federal budget.
The arrogance of the Harper Conservatives knows no bounds. Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivered a budget with such a thin veneer of civility yesterday that he could do nothing more afterwards but say wait until next year. This 2014 budget was cynical, shallow, untruthful and an insult to the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who does Canada Revenue Agency work for?
It is law that you cannot be a registered charity and indulge in strictly political activities. Back when that law was passed by a Liberal government, it was met with laughter in some quarters and the charities just carried on as before. With most health charities, it was easy to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: John Tory, ready to rumble in Toronto.
It is now obvious that broadcaster John Tory is going to jump into the Toronto mayoralty. He gave up the news on Global Television’s Focus Ontario over the weekend. And he had no need to answer host Alan Carter’s snide introduction as “Soon to announce for the Toronto mayoralty, John
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Let the games begin. Please.
What do ballet, the opening ceremonies at the Sochi Winter Games and Russian winters have in common? They are too long, too dreary and too boring. You almost expected to see a camera shot of President for Life Putin fast asleep. And the silliest expectation was the Russians giving the
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