Federal conservative leader Andrew ‘Chuckles’ Scheer knows that a bunch of whales is a ‘pod,’ and a group of geese a ‘gaggle.’ We are guessing that he has also found out that a collection of conservatives might be a ‘confusion.’ He was at a celebration with an Ontario confusion of
Continue readingAuthor: Peter Lowry
Babel-on-the-Bay: President Trump’s Achilles Heel.
It does in all pretenders eventually. U.S. President Donald Trump has no clue as to how a competent person would handle the vicissitudes of the job that he found himself in by accident. The world is watching as he gradually slows in his responses to the slights he might have
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The anger of Alberta.
Canadians saw something of the growing anger and distrust of the people of Calgary the other day. There is no reason to expect more from the rest of the province. The non-binding plebiscite in Calgary was a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on a bid for the 2026 winter Olympics. The
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Doug Ford’s mean streak.
It seems that Douglas Ford Jr.’s mother never told him that what goes around comes around. That is not just a homily. It is a warning. The Ontario premier is asking for trouble with his ham-fisted nastiness. This guy thinks he can use the premier’s office to get even for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Get your social media on.
Despite the sage advice from aging sages, social media will continue to be a useful addition to political campaigning. It is not going to go away. And do not think of it as cheap coverage. It needs careful attention and scarce resources. You do not want to miss out and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bernier’s bonus: “No more political correctness.”
As MP Maxime Bernier continues to build his new party of the far right, he is finding easy hunting in Alberta. The MP from Beauce claims some 30,000 memberships sold to-date and Bernier remains quite confident. The former conservative’s People’s Party of Canada (PPC) is reported to be up and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Underlining the ignorance of Trump.
U.S. President Donald Trump is but an immature child playing at being the leader of the most powerful nation on earth. The point was so perfectly positioned the other day for all to understand by French President Emmanuel Macron. Vive la France! It is when as a tourist you stand
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Economists vs Environmentalists.
Welcome to ringside folks. Tonight’s card is a new version of Albert Einstein’s E=MC². Tonight’s main bout is between Canada’s federal liberal economists and its liberal environmentalists. The prize is prime minister Justin Trudeau’s pipeline. Justin paid $7 billion of our money for that pipeline over the Rockies and for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “Wasn’t That a Party?”
The Rovers got it wrong when they wrote a song about the party. It was certainly not the whiskey or the gin that is doing in the liberal party. It was the desperation for leadership. And Trudeau is a magic name to Canadian liberals. At a time when people are
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In the grip of the political vortex.
Friends, foes and the pubic ask: “What the fuck is going on?” The answer is that nobody really knows. Did you see the polls before the American mid-term elections? You got a lot of words but no answers. The pollsters knew that they had no answers. For years this politico
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Clement’s calamity?
It is so easy when you never liked someone to get a little lift from their downfall. It is always best to leave subjects such as this without comment, as the person is gone and will soon be forgotten. But that used to be the supposition BBB (Before Brampton Brown).
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is it the HOW or the WHO?
If the citizens of British Columbia are formally debating their referendum on voting systems, there is one resolution that needs to be debated. The question is “Be it resolved that it is more important to ensure you have the right people to elect than to worry about the mechanics for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hoards are in the House.
Donald Trump can stop worrying about the hoards heading north in Mexico. They served their purpose during the run-up to the mid-terms. They gave him a target for his bigotry. And it worked for him. It brought out a streak of meanness and uncaring in Americans. But the mid-term elections
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why should I apologize to Justin Trudeau?
It was disconcerting the other day to have some readers complain about my insulting prime minister Trudeau. I casually ended a commentary by saying that nobody complains about our prime minister being too smart. Hell, neither one of us is riding that high on the IQ bell curve. And I
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The poisonous potential of populism.
There is little new about populism in North America. Whether on the left, right or centre of the political spectrum is not the concern but whether society can constrain it is the critical question. Canada only came into its own after the Second World War and the first major populists
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our friends in B.C have been ‘RUP’ted.
Not being from the Wet coast as our friends there sometimes call their beautiful province, we had to get our information about the current British Columbia voting referendum from the Internet. It made sense until we found out that one of the possible voting systems was called RUP. This was
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It started with Kennedy and Nixon.
As a Canadian, I had no dog chasing a rabbit in the race but it has impacted my attitude about politics for the rest of my life. Being there in 1960 to watch the first ever television debate between presidential candidates John Kennedy and Richard Nixon was not just a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The confidence of Jason Kenney.
Alberta’s leader of the consolidated conservatives, Jason Kenney, is a strange man. I have never envisioned him as a person who brings people together. He has always seemed more interested in creating divisions. Since Stephen Harper first assigned him to the job of building bridges to Canada’s immigrant population, I
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Singh sings a sorrowful song.
New democrat leader Jagmeet Singh is not getting too much respect these days. And when he is not getting much respect from his own party; there is no reason for him to expect more from Justin Trudeau. The liberal prime minister had to call a by-election in Ontario the other
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Gods are busy; you fix it.
No doubt you have been reading many of these opinion pieces on how to fix this or that at Toronto city hall. We already know that those nincompoops at Queen’s Park think cutting city council in half will solve the problems. Others are lending their low view of things by
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