Federal Politics ← Progressive Bloggers // Blogues progressistes ← Page 2

Babel-on-the-Bay: The saccharine sweetness of Andrew Scheer.

Apr

19

2017

After watching Conservative Party leadership contender Andrew Scheer M.P. on Global’s West Block program last Sunday, it felt like you were coming down from a sugar high. You wonder if that guy can ever rid himself of that grin. The wife liked him at first but after a full six minutes of it, she had ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: An equal and opposite reaction.

Apr

17

2017

Maybe we are talking about different sciences here but you would think that politics and energy would have some similar characteristics. What we are thinking of here is the tendency of the politics of the left to react to the actions of the politics of the right. For example, if Canada’s right-wing parties split would ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: The Conservative schism becomes a chasm.

Apr

14

2017

And you used to wonder why Prime Minister Stephen Harper was always flying off with his hairdresser to other parts of the world? It was obvious to many that he was under the constant pressure of keeping his disparate party under some semblance of control. It was during his third term–his first majority—that some of ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Conservatives in the back stretch.

Apr

11

2017

At most race tracks today, the race fans are offered television views of the back stretch. It helps them follow the race, recognizing that most of the positioning moves in the back stretch develop the story of the race. It is the same in a political race such as the current Conservative Party of Canada ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Resuscitating Canada’s New Democrats.

Apr

10

2017

You really have to laugh at Ed Broadbent’s attempts at resuscitating the moribund federal New Democratic Party. He seems to be the only person who believes you can do mouth-to-mouth life saving through a microphone. Ed’s modestly named Broadbent Institute had a conference for Canada’s leftists last week in Ottawa. All we learned was that ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: And you want their names spelled right too?

Apr

8

2017

Henceforth it is resolved that we will post our commentaries after our second cup of coffee. Despite how much we try to ignore the Conservative M.P. for our neighbouring electoral district of Simcoe-Grey, we really should spell her name right. And you would think one of our loyal readers would point out the gaff to ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Teaching Trump ‘The Art of the Deal.’

Apr

7

2017

The first thing Canadians should do is stop sweating over renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It has never been a really fair deal and it became overly complicated when Mexico joined. Given the opportunity to renegotiate, Canada could improve its position. The only problem is that we would never get to negotiate ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: They are by-elections for goodness sake!

Apr

6

2017

You just love it when the government has to call some by-elections for seats in parliament that have become vacant and people want to analyze the results. Why? We knew the likely results when the by-elections were called. If you want to see hotly contested by-elections, come back when there is something to contest. The ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Elizabeth May: The last liberal.

Apr

5

2017

Elizabeth May M.P. is the leader of a party that never was. She is the only Green Party member in parliament and therefore is deprived of real recognition of that leadership status. She also appears to be the only real liberal in the House of Commons. That must be the secret of Elizabeth May’s success. ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Alibiing elitism 150 years later.

Apr

4

2017

If there was just one institution in Canada that could be changed this year, many Canadians would choose the Senate. They are tired of the elitism shown by the prime minister and his elitist friends in choosing Canadians to serve in this anachronistic reminder of Canada’s British beginnings. The Senate of Canada is this country’s ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: When in doubt do nothing.

Apr

3

2017

Is this the new political mantra? At all levels of government, we are seeing variations of stalactites and stalagmites frozen in their political positions as the world revolves around their caves. From their superior position hanging down from above, the stalactites in Ottawa are the most obvious. With the government digging into a ‘wait and ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: The constipated Conservative contest.

Apr

2

2017

Back on March 11 and 12, Babel-on-the-Bay published its morning line for the current Conservative Party of Canada leadership. We are somewhat surprised that nothing has changed. With two more months to go at the time, candidates’ teams needed to assess their strategy and make their changes for the home stretch. April is the home ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Pot is coming. Pot is coming.

Mar

29

2017

How come the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation gets the best media leaks? We have been informed by the People’s Network that we will be able to celebrate Canada Day 2018 with legal marijuana from sea to sea to sea. Wow! The plans—skillfully guided for the federal Liberals by former Toronto police chief Bill Blair—are to split ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Budgets and other eulogies.

Mar

28

2017

Seeing finance minister Bill Morneau finally get to his budget last week produced a measure of disappointment and nostalgia. He brought back distant memories of the clean-cut young Anglican priest who came to our grade six class at Rosedale Public School in Toronto to try to entice us wayward kids back to Sunday School. The ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Lies. And Trudeau-Trump lies.

Mar

26

2017

You have come to expect it in the daily reports from the American White House. You know that the man in the White House tells lies. You just do not expect it from the guy in charge in Ottawa. And you already knew that the guy in charge at the White House does not give ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Kevin O’Leary meets a real reality.

Mar

21

2017

Welcome to Canadian politics, Kevin O’Leary. You have brought a few laughs to an otherwise dismal contest for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. Though you would think someone from reality television would know what to expect? Did you really think leadership races are run within some foolish rules? And that anybody pays for ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Shell bites the bitumen bullet.

Mar

20

2017

This story takes us back to the 1970s and a lengthy discussion with a board member of Royal Dutch Shell. He was a “works committee” member of the board and our discussion was enlightening. He represented the employees of Shell on its board and was a highly-respected university professor. He was in Toronto visiting his ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Is Trudeau fighting out of his weight class?

Mar

17

2017

The reason why boxing promoters will not allow a lightweight boxer to take on a heavyweight is that the lightweight might not last two minutes. The lightweight might be fast on his feet but the heavyweight only needs to land one punch. That is why Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs all the help he ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: What happened in Saint-Laurent?

Mar

14

2017

All rebellions have to start somewhere. And it looks like Justin Trudeau miscalculated and let one start in the Quebec electoral district of Saint-Laurent. The riding had been held by Stéphane Dion until Trudeau bounced him from the cabinet and sent him to be ambassador to the European Union and Germany. It looks like the ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: The Morning Line: Canada’s Conservatives (2).

Mar

12

2017

Now you get the possible winners from among the 14 contenders for the Tory leadership. We have checked their blood lines, their daily workouts and their past performances and all we can tell you is that the following is possible. THE POSSIBLES: Kevin O’Leary, 20 to 1. Our only advice to Kevin O’Leary (if he ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: The Morning Line: Canada’s Conservatives (1).

Mar

11

2017

You can hardly deal with 14 contenders for the Tory leadership in just one commentary. We will divide our Morning Line into two parts: The Losers and the Possibles. THE LOSERS: Rick Peterson, 100 to 1. There seems to be no justification for this gentleman to be leader of the Conservative party of Canada. While ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: Where our New Democrats are headed?

Mar

9

2017

Now that Canada’s New Democratic Party has some thinking and articulate players running for the national leadership, we better pay some attention. The hope is that Canadians will find out where the former Co-operative Commonwealth Federation—the party of Tommy Douglas—is headed in the 21st Century. The not so subtle nudging we are seeing today is ...

Babel-on-the-Bay: And we thought Harper was an autocrat?

Mar

5

2017

It was Pierre Trudeau in 1970 who said “Just watch me,” and showed us the real power of the Prime Minister’s Office. Later it was Stephen Harper who showed us how a Prime Minister can abuse that power to use it to his own ends to keep his sheep-like party in power. And yet there ...

Calgary Grit: Phoning to check in

Mar

4

2017

For those curious about what I’m up to these days, I chatted with Susan Delacourt about correspondence in the PMO this week. Also contains some fun stories about what happens when the Prime Minister starts cold calling Canadians who wrote in to him.

Babel-on-the-Bay: Asking the right people.

Mar

4

2017

The report from Ottawa is that the Liberal government wants Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) to advise politicians and Elections Canada on computer security. Just why these should be the people to ask is the important question? And since the listening agency is no longer so secret, one can now ask that question. It was ...