How often have we seen a single issue become the real turning point in an election? It hardly matters how tired and out-of-touch the party in power might be, you still need that one idea that makes the turn-over happen. Nobody wins if all you say is that it is
Continue readingTag: Federal Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: Sometimes, you cannot choose your friends.
A casual observation made in a commentary the other day about the difficulties of having Americans as neighbours and friends evoked some questions. It comes down to the fact that Canadians have little choice. You might think we Canadians get kicked around now but just think of what it would
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The dubious diplomacy of the Hair.
Was there a sign at the Brisbane Airport last week barring diplomacy or diplomats entry to Australia? The way Vladimir Putin was treated at the G20 conference there was a disgrace. He is the leader of the Russian people and as their representative he deserves to be treated with courtesy.
Continue readingreeves report: NDP to refuse support for Rouge National Urban Park bill
Everyone wants the 10,500 acres in the Rouge Valley to be made into a national urban park, yet few but the Harper Tories think their plan for the green space is the best path forward. Rouge Park at Sunrise. (Flickr Photo Courtesy of Snuffy.) ON A MEDIA TOUR this week of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Le Dauphin, with two speeches ready.
It is a tough job. When you have to have two speeches ready, you are likely to have to use the losing one. Writers hate them and politicians hate them. Your first one tells all about how you knew you were going to win. Your second one admits the loss
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Newspeak of Tony Clement.
Canadians now have an “Open Portal” to an “Open Government’ according to the “doublethink” of Treasury Board President Tony Clement. You get the impression that the Parry Sound-Muskoka Conservative Member of Parliament took his script directly from George Orwell’s 1949 book Nineteen eighty-four. Even a Toronto Star editorial writer referred
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair is home as Obama cooks his goose.
It was obvious that nothing good would come of the Hair rushing back to Ottawa from Beijing to be at the National War Memorial Ceremony last Tuesday. Hobnobbing with a princess was hardly worth the trip. And it was not as though he said or did anything more than lay
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Has Global’s Tom Clark sold us out?
While a mortally wounded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation defiantly fights back against the Harper government, the last of the supposedly independent news shows seems to have sold out. That last news show to capitulate was Tom Clark’s West Block Sunday morning show on Global Television. It looks as though Tom has
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Blow the bugle softly, the hairdresser is sleeping.
This is inhuman. The Hair has rushed the hairdresser to Beijing and back so that he can be at the Cenotaph in Ottawa today. Is the hairdresser getting hardship pay for this? She also needs to do an extra special job on the Hair’s make-up to hide his age lines
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What would you do with four F-35s?
The word out of the Pentagon is that the stupid Canadians actually want to buy four Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning fighters. And when the Americans stop laughing, they will probably be happy to fill the order. While our new government next year would certainly want to cancel such a silly
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: No sex please, we’re parliamentarians.
When you are part of Canada’s parliament, you are assumed to be an adult. You are expected to act like one. You hardly expect Members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers to act like children sent out for recess. It was still not surprising this past week to see Justin Trudeau
Continue readingreeves report: Ontario Invasive Species Act gets second chance
A control test site for invasive plant phragmites at Wasaga Beach on Lake Huron. LIBERAL NATURAL RESOURCE MINISTER Bill Mauro reintroduced the Invasive Species Act Wednesday, the first standalone legislation in Canada geared towards stopping the spread of invasives into the province There is currently a patchwork of more than 20 different federal
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: If there was ever a time…it is now.
If there was ever a time to save Canada from the destructive direction of the Harper Conservatives, it is now. If there was ever a time for the Liberal and New Democratic parties to merge, it is now. If there was ever a time for the right decisions, it is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Time of truth for Justin Trudeau.
It is time for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to make things happen. The challenge is in the federal riding of Whitby-Oshawa in Ontario. It is not because this is about him. It is about how the Liberals will win Ontario next year. It is the first real test of Stephen
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s not the guilt; it’s the attitude.
MP Dean Del Mastro earned his reputation as a pit bull when serving as Prime Minister Harper’s parliamentary secretary. If the Prime Minister’s Office officialdom declared black was white that day, Del Mastro would stand up in the House of Commons and tell everyone that black was white. He got
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Billions bet on bitumen battle.
It must be a time of more honesty. TransCanada Pipelines is now estimating that its Energy East pipeline proposal could cost as much as $12 billion. And the pipeline company is now being more truthful about the intent to export at least half of the 1.1 million barrels per day
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair hurries his handouts.
The Hair, in his role as benevolent prime minister, was in Vaughan, Ontario the other day. The Hair and a large group of affluent looking Conservative families were there to tell the news media of the benefits voters can get by being married, having a big income, voting Conservative and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The marching music of M’sieur Mulcair.
Leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party Thomas Mulcair faces a fascinating challenge in the coming year. He is attempting to choose the right march music for his election band to play. There are three genres from which he can choose: He could select Ragtime of the party’s beginnings as the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Your way, their way and the Brown way.
It paints a picture. Patrick. Brown, Babel’s Member of Parliament, was cowering with the Conservative caucus the other day when a confused gunman went down the hall in parliament outside the caucus room. This breach of security was an affront to Canadians and to our democracy. And what is Mr.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How the Hair hastens havoc.
We were all deeply concerned the other day. It just takes time to think it through. How awful that this sad, mentally-deranged person with a gun be enabled to attack and kill one of our soldiers standing ceremonial guard duty at Canada’s national memorial to our dead of foreign wars?
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