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 readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-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
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why Chow should run for Toronto mayor.
It is the perfect scenario. Olivia Chow steps down from her job as MP next year. She runs for Toronto mayor. Chow loses. Toronto wins. Chow retires from politics. Toronto wins. Could you think of a better win-win situation? It might disappoint some New Democrats and leave a few pundits
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How can a liberal be a monarchist?
If it had just stayed on Twitter, nobody would have cared. Since only twits tweet, there is little point in reading them. Yet there is one particular writer of large ego who repeats his tweets on his so-called blog. Why, we do not know. He wrote the other day that
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Casting runes in the heat of summer.
Political polling has never been an exact science. It has always required an overview of common sense, mathematical probability, historical data, statistical smoothing and wishful thinking. Then, and only then, could you report the result you wanted in the first place. In the past 50 years, little has changed. Looking
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Parsing Noblesse Oblige.
Travelling around the world building linkages and creating cooperation in the world-wide research effort to cure multiple sclerosis was an eye-opener in terms of understanding charity. In North America, we have built our own model of noblesse oblige. It is quite different from the European version. Europe built from antiquity.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When economic action plan advertising fails.
Somebody should get a bill for this. Babel-on-the-Bay has been telling people for free that the Conservative government’s well advertised economic action plan is a crock. Do they listen to us? No. They have to do studies to prove it. Now that it has been proved, where does that leave
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Long to reign over us?
You have to admit, there is always that stoic admiration for the old Queen. Nobody wants to say anything nasty about her. And then there are those God-awful hats. You would swear the old dear brings along a porta-potty in them so she never gets caught short. But there is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Heaven knows: the NEB doesn’t.
When a friend called from Calgary earlier this year to tell us she had been evacuated from her beautiful home on the Bow River, she complained about the water covering her front lawn. Torontonians could understand how she felt when they saw the Don River cover the southern reaches of
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