What Prime Minister Stephen Harper has never understood is that Canada’s diversity is its strength. It makes us strong. It also makes our country hard to govern. We do not fit easily into the strategies of an ideologue. Our provinces are of varying sizes, mixed topography, ethnic and language mixes
Continue readingTag: Federal Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: Electoral reform appeals to losers.
It is hardly a surprise that no Canadian government with a majority supports electoral reform. Why would they? It could make them losers. That is why losers such as the New Democratic Party are such enthusiastic supporters. It is why a Liberal Party that ended up in third place in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In a country run by a failed economist.
What is a political party to do when they find their leader has feet of clay? The mantra of the party was that having an economist running the party, it could survive economic turmoil. What they never considered was that their dear leader could be the cause. While Prime Minister
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The silence of the pipelines.
There is not too much confrontation across Canada these days about pipelines to the sea. With real crude oil prices bouncing around $40 to $50 a barrel, there is not much interest in synthetics from the tar sands. We miss the railings of people such as our favourite closet environmentalist
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Go home Paul Martin.
Nothing grates a left-leaning liberal more than Paul Martin that skinflint former finance minister and briefly prime minister. Once a friend, Paul became a non-person when Prime Minister Jean Chrétien gave him the finance portfolio. He built his reputation for balanced budgets on the backs of the poor, the unemployed,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair: Canada’s boy in the bubble.
In the Imperial Prime Minister’s Office of today, Canada’s Prime Minister is isolated and alone. Protected and guarded by the sycophants of privilege, his minions mind the doors. In this cloistered sanctuary, the Hair rules. There are neither naysayers nor critics allowed where the Hair travels. Audiences are vetted for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: As the media Silly Season draws to a close.
Labour Day is now in sight and the real election campaign can begin. Not that we have been bored with August or eager for the clamour of the combatants but it does spell the end of the foolishness of the news media and their tame pollsters. Editors have not been
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: More with a whimper than a roar.
As the Ottawa trial recesses until after the election, the description of Senator Mike Duffy as a busker is more apt than we thought. A street entertainer such as a busker can hardly save his or her best stunts for the finale. You have to use those better stunts early
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It is really about leadership Justin.
Being more of a contemporary of his father than of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, maybe we can be excused for offering him some advice. Yes Justin, you have answered those stupid attack ads on your youth from the Conservatives. You have launched an aggressive campaign against the failing regime of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Magdalen Islands do not an election make.
While always having great respect for reporter Chantal Hébert of CBC and Toronto Star fame, she cannot forecast an election based on visiting Iles-de-la-Madeline. And it is also far too early. Much has yet to happen before the votes are counted. Mind you, we can both agree that the Bloc
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Mulcair moves on law and order.
Canadian voters are still trying to get used to a New Democrat leader campaigning to the political right of the Liberals. And they hardly expected Thomas Mulcair to play the law and order card. In a direct steal of a Conservative campaign promise in 2008, Mulcair has promised to renew
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin Trudeau: Meet the GOYA Group.
During his years as Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau would often remind your writer that we were both members of an exclusive club. Its full name was the Get-Off-Your-Ass Group. It had one meeting in Peterborough, Ontario in 1967. It was a group of left-wing Liberal MPs and party people who
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The last angry Conservative.
The news media recently recorded a very angry Conservative supporter at a Stephen Harper campaign event. Since the Prime Minister was stonewalling the media anyway, they were looking for something to bring back to their news editors. The vulgar language the guy used might have indicated that he is no
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Aesop’s Fables and the Toronto Star.
On balance, the Toronto Star is a reasonably responsible newspaper. Its editors do go a little overboard though when attempting to make a point. Take the current election campaign. The Star’s editors expect that a campaign almost three times the length of normal will be dull as dishwater unless a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Candidate: “Do you have anything to say?”
Part 9 of our series for Canada’s federal candidates. The sad demise of small town and neighbourhood journalism in Canada has led to a dearth of opportunity for local candidates to be heard during election campaigns. The corollary of that is: do any of the candidates have anything to say?
Continue readingMind Bending Politics: Conservatives Agree to Censor Internet In Latest Trade Negotiations
The Conservatives seem to be tying to make the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement one of Harper’s legacy items. After the election call the Conservatives moved to change “caretaker” rules in order to continue negotiating this trade agreement. It appears now that the Conservatives are so much in a rush to get the TPP signed […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Another NDP with inflated hopes in Toronto.
There is a probably apocryphal story doing the rounds about the newly appointed New Democrat candidate in Toronto’s Eglinton-Lawrence constituency. This guy is a former member of the legislature and cabinet minister from Saskatchewan. It seems in this story the chap once visited Scotland and came back with a bolt
Continue readingMind Bending Politics: Harper’s House of Cards is Falling Down
If you haven’t tuned into the Duffy trial over the past week, than you are living under a rock, or you’re missing one of the best political dramas in Canadian history. The cross examination of Nigel Wright in Senator Mike Duffy’s trial over inappropriate expenses, is becoming quite interesting to many Canadians. Canada seems to […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In the heat of the news media.
If you have seen carrion birds gather around road kill, you might have a small taste of how people feel in a media scrum. The media in full flight can be frightening, overwhelming and demonize you with their rudeness, intrusiveness, and unreasonable demands. That is how Nigel Wright, former chief
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau’s stop-gap Senate solution.
Babel-on-the-Bay is only giving Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau a conditional pass on his proposed Senate solution. The truth is that Trudeau just does not want the constitutional problems that the Stephen Harper or Thomas Mulcair solutions will cause. He is not his father’s son in that regard. Pierre Trudeau was
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