Sometime in the next couple months, the province of Ontario is expected to offer me the opportunity to get one or two jabs with a needle. This knowledge alone is helping to lift me out of some of my covid-19 doldrums. As I am considered to be among the more
Continue readingTag: Conservative
Babel-on-the-Bay: Never upstage your leader.
Pierre Poilievre MP appears to have been demoted in the conservative ranks in parliament as it heads toward a possible spring election. Little boy blue might have made the political mistake of upstaging his leader. The member for Carleton, in the Ottawa area, has been having much too much fun
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: An apology to Gillian Steward.
Fair is fair. For years I have thought that Gillian Steward, a freelance journalist in Calgary who frequently writes for the Toronto Star, was an apologist for the oil interests. Her scathing indictment of the Kenney government’s public enquiry into anti-Alberta energy campaigns the other day helped correct my opinion.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Did you know the campaign was on?
Jagmeet Singh has been heard from. He did not exactly come down from the mountain with tablets of stone. The new democratic party leader has decided that the low-hanging fruit of for-profit, long-term care homes was as good an issue as his party needs in the looming federal election. It
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Don’t believe it can’t happen here.
There seems to be some arguments these days about whether Canadians have to suffer through the same political mistakes made by Americans. We hardly seem to have to wait long to have our own version of Donald Trump. It is a toss-up whether Doug Ford of Ontario or Jason Kenney
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Canadians are on to O’Toole.
Every time I look at conservative leader Erin O’Toole, he reminds me of cartoons of the bloated English capitalist. What makes me laugh though are his on-going attempts to create a conservative party more acceptable to the mainstream of Canadian voters. And I hardly think tossing Derek Sloan out of
Continue readingScripturient: Saunderson’s Role in Blocking the Hospital Redevelopment
During the previous council’s four years (2014-18), I documented the aggressive efforts to stall the local hospital’s desperately-needed redevelopment by a group of those on council (aka The Block*). Every other municipality in the region enthusiastically supported the hospital’s plan; only this group on Collingwood council put up roadblocks. And
Continue readingScripturient: An Honourable Mayor?
Mayor Brian Saunderson has announced he is running for nomination to the provincial Progressive Conservative party in our riding to be able to stand as the candidate for MPP. According to a story in Collingwood Today, he is not stepping down from his role as mayor, and will not do
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The solidarity of the right.
Is Erin O’Toole a fool? The conservative leader would not be so stupid as to reject the support of the extreme right of the conservative party? Yet we read that he does not think he needs them. It was that kind of thinking that enabled Preston Manning to create the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Are any conservatives listening?
It is something of a wonder that Jason Kenney, premier of Alberta, Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, and Erin O’Toole, federal conservative leader, are members of the same political party. The only similarity between the three gentlemen is that they all blame Justin Trudeau for their problems, provincially and across
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Looking mean and meaning it.
That was dumb. Watching finance minister Chrystia Freeland deliver her financial update was more of a tribute to my interest in politics than any immediate need to hear her deliver it. What left me annoyed though was the rank stupidity of our opposition parties’ responses. While the speech itself was
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Political leaders get lots of advice.
It is part of the job. Leaders of all political parties get lots of advice—most of it ignored. Maybe the Toronto Star is not aware of this phenomenon. That must be why they run advice columns for different leaders every Sunday opposite the editorials. One of these, that ran last
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The auditor versus the label salesman.
It might not be a fair fight but Ontario voters are enjoying it. The ups and downs and the tantrums of former label salesman and now premier Doug Ford are generally entertaining but when he and the province’s auditor general cross swords, the province can see the problems with better
Continue readingNorthern Currents – : Public health over profit: Covid-19 is surging under Jason Kenny
Share this article: “The cure cannot be worse than the [virus] itself,” said Trump back in March. It seems that Alberta premier Jason Kenny and Health Minister Tyler Shandro have taken Trump’s words to heart. The dynamic between the two and Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s Chief Medical Health Officer, echoes the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Parsing Pierre Poilievre.
Pierre Poilievre, conservative member of parliament for Carleton electoral district in the Ottawa area of Ontario, has described himself as a political junkie. He was born and educated in Alberta, worked for politicians such as Jason Kenney and Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day. He came east to find a riding
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Back to the Bully Pulpit.
It might have been a term coined by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt but our prime minister Justin Trudeau did the bully pulpit one better. It was living in Rideau Cottage while the official residence at 21 Sussex was under repair. Trudeau did a cuckoo clock single out the front door
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Doug Ford buys Ontario.
Listening to premier Doug Ford blow on about his Buy Ontario pitch brings back memories. After all I go back to the days when the province used to promote doing home renovation jobs in winter “When men and materials are available.” But Doug’s objective is to compete with president-elect Joe
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Turkey or turmoil for Christmas.
Do you ever get a feeling that something is off and you are not entirely sure what it is? It has been bothering me for a while. There is a feeling coming out of Ottawa that does not bode well. Conservative leader Erin O’Toole is salivating for an election. Federal
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: O’Toole’s Big Tent Dreams.
Federal conservative leader Erin O’Toole is making his intentions clear and prime minister Justin Trudeau can ignore the intent and lose everything. O’Toole is attempting to mix the Harper base, the Jason Kenney ethnic strategy, the liberal union strategy and the frustrations of Donald Trump’s base. There is no question
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: To listen and to learn in Ottawa.
Yesterday it was noted how quiet the Ottawa scene has been while history is made in America. But we ignore Ottawa at our peril. You have to listen to buzz in the quiet. There is the testiness of the conservative caucus—planning for the partisan attacks to come. There is the
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