This is about as close as Babel-on-the-Bay can come to an apology. For the life of this blog, we have tended to disparage a faction of the local Liberals in Barrie. Calling them Whigs was not a compliment. (Whigs are Liberals about 100 years out of date.) This change of heart needs an explanation. It […]
Continue readingTag: Federal Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: New Democrats search for substance.
They have tried it provincially in Ontario and then they did it again federally. It does not work. Our New Democratic Party cannot change its spots just at election time. If they are going to become a more middle-ground social democratic party, they need to establish some bona fides long before an election. The recent […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Surely the media can do better!
We know the news media are desperate to find something to complain about with our new prime minister. They are just missing by a mile with their silly ‘nanny-gate’ huffing and puffing. This is no Gotcha. The simple question is do you want our prime minister to have appropriate household staff or not? Are we […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can you recant an oath you haven’t given?
This does not sound fair. This is concerning a guy who recanted his oath to the queen after becoming a Canadian citizen. What some people might suggest is that he should not take the oath in the first place. But that does not work. This guy really wants to be a Canadian citizen. He feels […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The death of the news.
On February 2, 2011, a brief speech was posted in this space instead of our usual commentary. It was a speech to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). It was an intervention against the acquisition of CTV Television by Bell Canada. The intervention was a futile but feel-good fling. The intervention was also backed […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: They want the show and substance too.
“My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends – it gives a lovely light!” Edna St. Vincent Millay – 1892 to 1950 Listen up boys and girls, what you see, is what you get. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not his father. Justin […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A tale of two finance ministers.
It was the best of times–for the provincial government. It was the worst of times–for the federal government. A blogger ahead of his time from the 19th Century, Charles Dickens understood that conundrum. Dickens wrote best sellers as pamphlets and fed his readers a chapter at a time. Today, anything more complex than 140 characters […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Pay yourself first.
It is a rule that the rich have to follow. They are taught that you always pay yourself first. It is how they stay rich. Take the situation of Chief Executive Officer Paul Godfrey at Postmedia. The company loses hundreds of millions of dollars every year and the stock is in the toilet. If the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “Justin, Justin, Where have you been?”
“I’ve been to London to see the Queen.” And that was it. Our fealty assured, Prime Minister Trudeau went on to Downing Street to meet the guy who really runs things in England. These meetings were scheduled ahead of the Malta meeting of the heads of the British Commonwealth of Nations. There is little time […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: No apology was necessary.
Immigration Minister John McCallum sounded a bit testy with the news media the other day. They had probably forced him to give the same answer to the same question more than five times. McCallum has shown that weakness before. He is not long on patience. This media approach gives the news editor for the television […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Would they also kill the first-born?
It seems many liberals were outraged when somebody suggested that we only accept Syrian women with children as refugees. Now we find out that fathers are included. Maybe we should be concerned about the Pharaoh’s troops going out to kill the first-born? That is the kind of fear that has been exhibited across North America […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can the provinces keep the money?
It seems that the point has been made about climate change: Industry can destroy the environment if they pay a tax on it. And that is why the provinces are so eager to cooperate with the Trudeau government. It is all determined by who gets the money. It makes you wonder how the federal government […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is the media the measure?
Commentator Chantal Hébert worries that Justin Trudeau lacks the gravitas of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Thomas Walkom fears Trudeau is out of touch with the world leaders who have decided Russia’s Putin is a good guy after all. And we discussed Rosie DiManno yesterday who thinks Justin is juvenile. And those people write for […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Don’t have a cow DiManno.
Toronto Star writer Rosie DiManno is the reason better publications have the best editors. And the reason many people do not waste their time on her stuff is that the writing is excessive and pedantic. She must be one of the last newspaper writers around who thinks the one who writes the most words wins. […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Canada’s new PM is entitled to a victory lap.
When the victor in a gruelling race gets up from the finish line and gamely trots around the track one more time, nobody begrudges them their victory lap. It is the honour of the victor. It is the same with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He did what only some of realized he could do. He […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Marc Garneau blots his copy book.
Why is it the people you like who can really screw things up? And what could be a safer job for MP Marc Garneau than Minister of Transport? You would think the former astronaut and head of Canada’s space agency would have more smarts than to pander to the juvenile
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: No pirouettes for Justin.
There will be no pirouettes to mock the Queen when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stops over in London to meet the Queen on his way to the Malta meeting of the G-20. Justin Trudeau might be as ambivalent towards the Royals as his father was before him but he has
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Advice for new (and old) politicians.
Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose made her first mistake last weekend. It was in a reply to something Tom Clark asked her on his West Block show for Global Television. She started her answer with “Well look.” That was former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s favourite phrase throughout his overly long
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Pick your preferred pollster.
They say that if you cannot beat them, you might as well join them. Obviously nobody has learned their lesson about pollsters. Through most of this past year, we had to put up with polling reports that seemed to have every federal politician except Elizabeth May in the Prime Minister’s
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “You can’t get to Heaven on the Yonge Streetcar”
While the song might have had its origin in the U.S. Bible Belt, the guys in our Canadian Air Force barrack seemed to know at least a dozen verses, including the scatological. Mind you there were advantages for a kid who had been hauled by his mother through four-foot snow
Continue reading