You sometimes get the impression from Canada’s Green Party candidates that they want us to keep them as pets. They are too nice and they are always trying to prove how green they are. You would think they would check to see what other parties are offering to do for our environment. Maybe they would […]
Continue readingTag: Federal Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: A line in the tar sand for Trudeau.
The ball is in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s court. A three-person panel of the Calgary-based National Energy Board has approved twinning the American-owned Kinder Morgan pipeline. The board panel has stipulated some 157 conditions related to it but the key is getting the Canadian Cabinet to sign off on the approval. That is anticipated later […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Taking the measure of Minister Monsef.
Last we heard, the former MP from Maryam Monsef’s Peterborough electoral district was still arguing over the length of his prison sentence. Former MP Dean Del Mastro, having failed to do the honourable thing by committing ritual seppuku after being found guilty of election fraud, has continued various appeals against his conviction. Maybe he likes […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Welcome to our revolution.
Canadians seem to range from raging lassitude to constrained ennui. It is hard to get them excited or motivated over more than a hockey game. It is not that they do not care, they just consider their own lives more interesting. This concern came up the other day by way of a long e-mail from […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Overwhelming ennui on democratic reform.
Democratic Reform Minister Maryam Monsef must feel like Cinderella—left behind while everyone else goes to the ball. And here she was under the impression that the Prime Minister was asking her to do something important. We could have given her a head’s up but she ignored us. Even the chattering classes have been admitting in […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau doesn’t know democracy.
One of the promises Justin Trudeau made to Canadian Liberals before becoming Liberal leader was that he would restore democracy in the party. He lied. He is now asking us to give up any of the rights we had as members of the Liberal Party of Canada. Justin Trudeau wants the Liberal Party to just […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Without it, how do you reform democracy?
Minister Maryam Monsef has been heard from. The maybe minister of democratic institutions has announced a committee of MPs will spend their summer studying changes to Canada’s election system. What the minister does not seem to understand is that changes in our democracy have to be done democratically. This is not a democratic committee. It […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Empathy for Alberta doesn’t include bitumen.
Having fought forest fires as a young man in our Canadian military, we well understood the serious concerns for life and property recently in northern Alberta. The rapidly shifting winds that suddenly endangered the 80,000 citizens of Fort McMurray and gave them so little time to get out of town were well understood. But the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: We can also vote for stagnation.
Sometimes humans argue just for the sake of a good argument. It keeps us alive and alert. A friend in Barrie, for example, loves to argue in favour of proportional voting. He knows that we consider the idea backward and a poor solution for Canadians. His answer to our objections is to refuse to read […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Tory’s terribly trying times.
It is hardly the best of times for Canada’s Conservatives. Their former leader has gone on to his reward: oblivion. Oh sure, the Hair is still around but he is now a nonentity. His temporary replacement, Rona Ambrose rode her horse out of the west to try to humanize her party but it seems like […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Dignity is needed in Death Bill.
Our parliamentarians need help with Bill C-14, the doctor assisted death bill. They should read On Death and Dying a book published in 1969. It was written by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and remains today as the principal textbook on the human reaction to death. As the times dictated, she did not dwell on doctor-assisted death. If […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Carbon Tax or Cap-and-Trade?
It looks like the carbon tax concept has been getting a bad rap. At a time when most people are unaware of the difference between cap-and-trade programs and carbon taxes, these two approaches to trying to control carbon emissions need to be better understood. The most important thing to remember is that the consumer pays […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: With only a little hypocrisy.
There are sunny days and there are also easy days. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had one of those easy days recently. All our PM had to do was go to a sledge hockey game with Prince Harry. The Queen’s favourite grandson was here to promote the Canadian Invictus Games next year before going to the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Waiting for the Left to shine.
If you are old enough to remember hearing the 1960s Les Paul and Mary Ford recording of the World is Waiting for the Sunrise, you might also be wondering when the New Democrats are going to be old enough to know when they are going to shine. And with the success of the federal Liberals […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When controlling media, look like you’re not.
The other day Lisa LaFlamme of CTV News was actually gushing when she said she was reporting from Northern Iraq. She was flattered and delighted to be reporting from just down the road from where the dreaded Daesh, or ISIL or ISIS, or pretenders at being an Islamic State are holed up in the Iraq […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Meeting ordinary Canadians at Kananaskis.
You have to hand it to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He really knows how to get out there and meet with ordinary Canadians. And when your cabinet needs to discuss further fixes in Employment Insurance, what better place than another luxury resort. Nestled in a cradle of the Canadian Rockies, Kananaskis is the jewel of […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: All the Honourable Persons.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must be looking at the Senate of Canada and wishing he had taken a different approach. There is no guarantee that the honourable persons that he appoints to the Senate will have any more restraint than the returning Senator Mike Duffy. A judge has declared that Duffy’s sense of entitlement was […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Left’s lost moment in time.
Why do so many political writers believe that groupthink is achieved by constantly rewriting history? Never a fan of Ed Broadbent or the Broadbent Institute, it was still dismaying the other day to read a puff-piece in the Toronto Star about the so-called institute. It was promoting itself for activities planned for the next year. […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Democracy begins on our street.
It is impossible to sum 50 years of membership in the Liberal Party of Canada in less than 500 words. The problem is that in today’s world if you cannot make your point in fewer words, you are not communicating. But there is little excuse for the pique we have been in lately. One thing […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: I can think for myself Justin Trudeau.
Having helped rewrite many constitutions over the years, Justin Trudeau’s proposed constitution for the Liberal Party comes as something of a surprise. Becoming a Registered Liberal—as members are to be described—will require no membership fee, no particular principles and no responsibility other than to support the leader and his Liberal candidates. No thanks. That is […]
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