Let’s face facts, you rush things and you screw up. Mind you, I also found it funny. It makes you wonder just how many Alberta voters made the same mistake. Did you think it was Alberta’s Jason Kenny(stet) who had become a husband and father? It is unlikely that we
Continue readingTag: Federal Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: They’re giving away seats in parliament?
Conservative Hugh Segal should know better. Liberal Greg Sorbara likely never knew better. And I have no idea who the NDP’s Zanana Akande might be. It was just that the three of them want to give away seats in Canada’s parliament. They have some silly idea written up in the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Democracy Defied.
Canadians kid themselves about our democracy. It is not by any stretch a true democracy. According to official records, it is a constitutional monarchy, where the governor general represents the monarch. In our faux House of Lords, we have the party in power appointing the senators. It is certainly not
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Democracy Denied.
Canadians should stop worrying about the fascist leanings of that guy in the American White House and worry more about the death of democracy in Canada. Every day, we see the continued erosion of democracy in Canada’s political parties as another brick in the wall closing down our democracy. I
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: O’Toole’s new hue of blue.
Erin O’Toole, the new conservative party leader brought a new hue of blue to parliament on his late arrival. Delayed by covid-19, the conservative leader brought a new approach to the minority parliament. Where catcalls and rudeness have prevailed for so long, the new leader brought reason, conciliation and understanding.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Dredging Down in Green.
Congratulations to the new leader of the Green Party of Canada. The party has selected a Torontonian named Annamie Paul to be its new leader. The party leader is a 47-year old lawyer. As in the recent conservative party election, it took considerable counting to arrive at a majority choice.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: This business of news.
From an early age, I was always fascinated by this business of news. Understanding news as a commodity is an essential background for people in the business. It helps if you are a fisherman. It is best you get the value for your product before it ripens. One of my
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What if we had switched the speeches?
Justin Trudeau short changed us. It was so obvious. The speech read by the governor general should have been for the United Nations. It was dull and obvious but better suited to the world body as it lacked enthusiasm, adventure, inspiration or drive. It was boring and so much of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: But all we got was business, as usual.
It was supposed to be a reset. We were waiting for the grand scheme. Frankly, the Governor General’s speech was boring and really nothing we had not heard before. It took too long to read. It took little time to critique. And the prime minister wasted our time with his
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The ‘Right’ advice for Freeland.
It seems guaranteed that the liberals will introduce an extensive plan for child care on Wednesday. There are two factors pushing Chrystia Freeland in this direction. The first is the growing concern about a second wave of the pandemic and then the right-wing advice that she has been getting from
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Where does the Toronto Star get off?
What? The Toronto Star threw a grenade at the idea of a guaranteed basic income the other day. The paper had me choking over my morning coffee. It had to be one of their senior female writers. Toronto Star writer Heather Scoffield thinks the silver bullet needed today is more
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau’s circle does it again.
It seems as though Justin Trudeau and his circle of friends are immune to learning from past mistakes. They no sooner manage to bury one of their gaffs and they come up with another. Now it is Justin’s good buddy, David MacNaughton, who has blotted his copy book. McNaughton was
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick…”
“We understand the value of wise and prudent fiscal management,” she told the news media and bankers last week. In telling them what they wanted to hear, our new finance minister, reminded me of the old English custom of newlyweds jumping over a candlestick to see if their first year
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who listens to Canada’s bankers?
Canada’s bankers admit that there is no fixed limit to Canada’s debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio but they think everyone should follow them in their customary caution. It is probably why more and more cash-rich businesses are eyeing aspects of the banking field for future expansion. It is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The enemy of my enemy…
It came as a shock. I just found out that Toronto writer Tiffany Gooch and I agree on something. Neither of us is a fan of Mr. Trudeau’s public safety and emergency preparedness minister Bill Blair. This came as a surprise as I had written her off as a ‘black
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: This fails the smell test.
It must have been the final political straw for Bill Morneau. After taking some of the heat off the prime minister in the ‘We charity’ imbroglio, the former finance minister is still being criticized for his naiveté. Not only is he being pilloried by the opposition in parliament and ridiculed
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Doing what they do best.
It is time for the conservatives in parliament to return to what they do best: criticize. They are so good at it that they have more people lined up to criticize the liberal cabinet members than there are liberal cabinet members to criticize. It would be easy to just give
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: So, who wants an election?
Americans do it every four years. Canadians sometimes do it more often. We are talking about federal elections here. Americans have never seen one like this one: the vote seems all locked down two months before the actual election. Given that intention and the determination of the voters, Donald Trump
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The boy who called Wolf.
It is important to remember better days in politics. Like the time I had a laugh with conservative premier Bill Davis. I was able to introduce him to a large luncheon at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel as “The man on my far right, William Davis, Premier of Ontario.” His retort,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Tooling along with O’Toole.
It is ‘go easy’ time on the new leader of Canada’s conservatives. Erin O’Toole is getting the easy ride ahead of any election. The media are throwing him the soft lobs to try to give them some of the thought processes he will be using for tougher questions during a
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