This election campaign is built around small stuff. We even have small minded politicians to keep the arguments unimportant. Nobody seems to want to fight over the important things that could change the way of life for Canadians. It seems like a typical Canadian election. After all, why argue about
Continue readingTag: Federal Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: TVA provides a forum for losers.
Making sense of the political sparring on Pierre Karl Péladeau’s French language television network, TVA, on Wednesday was easy. It was the time for Yves-François Blanchet of the Bloc Québécois and the New Democrat’s Jagmeet Singh to come on strong and hard. This was their first major chance to make
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Doug Ford: The man who isn’t here.
We hear that premier Doug Ford is low bridging this federal election. It is at the begging of his friend Andrew Scheer. Conservative leader Scheer did not want to be upstaged by his provincial supporter. Scheer’s handlers have enough trouble convincing voters that ‘Chuckles’ is not just a tool for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The confusion of the pollsters.
It is difficult sometimes to explain why the opinion pollsters are straining themselves in this current Canadian election. If we had proportional voting, it would all be so easy. It is because we use first-past-the-post voting that we are so confused. It is because Canadians actually prefer first-past-the-post that it
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Death by a thousand tax cuts.
Canadian voters are being nickel-dimed and conned by their politicians. Even Elizabeth May and her greenies have joined into the game of making promises, with funds, from where, they do not really know. It is a game that voters should not buy. Let’s face facts: Sheer is no savior, Trudeau
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Over-Analyzed Election.
It’s a circus on the hustings. It is like somebody tossed a cherry bomb into the outhouse. Everybody has an opinion to lay on you as to what is happening but not what will happen. There is more coverage every day from radio, television and daily newspapers. They tell you
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In the Sorry State of Sorry.
You never think of Sorry as a place but the current election in Canada seems to be parked in a Sorry State. And why do I get the sad feeling that we are all going to be sorry when it is over? It is like many of our American friends
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wilson-Raybould: A woman of a certain age.
Maybe after the election. Jody Wilson-Raybould can take her own one-person show on the road. At the present, she is attempting the more difficult task of getting elected as an independent candidate in a critical election. If the prime minister’s mother can pull off a one-woman show, why not Wilson-Raybould?
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “How dare you?” Greta Thunberg.
Somebody must have explained to the 16-year old from Sweden that you have to be brash to get noticed in North America. She would be quite unlikely to say ‘How dare you?’ to her elders back home in Sweden. Yet it worked at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: They’re not your father’s conservatives.
What happened to the red Tories? Is the decency of Ontario’s once premier Bill Davis a memory of the past? Whatever happened to the conservatives with whom I could share a joke? I used to like many of these people. They worked hard for charities. They were good neighbours. They
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who builds our nation?
This is an important ask. We have already had enough of this traditional election. We have been listening to the platforms. We already know the ideologies of the various parties. We have listened to the environmentalists, jeered the libertarians, shivered at the contempt of the conservatives, scoffed at the socialists,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump tramples on our territory.
The other day something caught my eye on the opening page of Microsoft’s browser. The company was doing a survey to find out why people dislike their MSN News. I did the survey, but I was reaching for different ways to spell ‘crap.’ This is news lifted from news-gathering people.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The timeless media tempest.
It seems as though this election is taking place just for the benefit of the news media. I am not sure of the right word for it but it is the most over-reported and over-analyzed campaign I have ever seen and it is only week two. I can only hope
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Oh, the drama of it all.
It is too bad the media cannot find more important news. The best answer to the current media tempest came to us the other day from New Brunswick. This reader said, “You do know that Justin Trudeau also taught drama, don’t you? “And did anyone who saw his costume and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: So far, so what?
The dispatches from the front line of the current election strife are mostly about stupidity, compounded by incompetence. Despite the usual whining, scratching and digging up old pictures of each other, the kids are playing by the rules. Justin Trudeau and his liberals are establishing a traditional campaign ground game.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: We can do that ourselves, thank you.
This ongoing concern for foreign countries interfering with our federal election is more of a joke than a threat. It is not that it could not happen, but why bother? What would be the mythical country’s objective? Why would they, for example, prefer one of our leaders over another? This
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Singh seeks separatist support.
The NDP’s leader Jagmeet Singh must be desperate. In a province that discriminates against people such as him because of his turban, he is pandering to the péquiste to try to keep a few of the Quebec seats won by the NDP in the 2015 election. The party had fallen
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s Tory Tax Tuck Time.
We hardly got through the first week of the federal election before the conservatives brought out their usual election chestnut. It is time to promise lower taxes. It would hardly be a Canadian election without it. And, as usual, this bribe will not even pay for your drive-though Tim’s on
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ms. May has the bit in her teeth.
Elizabeth May must have promised her bathroom mirror that come hell or high water, she was going to improve her green party’s position in parliament. And she has the chance in this election. It is based on a mix of factors. Nobody thinks it will be easy but it is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Andrew Scheer woos the 905.
Meet Andrew Scheer, leader of the conservatives and ambassador to the 905 ridings of Ontario from the more peaceful, less frantic reaches of Prairie conservatism. The 905 region is also known as the Golden Horseshoe that wraps around the City of Toronto. It is also home to much of the
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