They were all in Ottawa for the opening of parliament. They were the Conservative Commons and Senate parliamentarians, the Prime Minister’s and ministerial staffs, MPs’ and Senators’ staffs, local Conservative Party members and their guests. They were all there to welcome home the Hair. But they were not in the
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Blowing the whistle on the Fraser Institute.
Fair’s fair. Babel-on-the-Bay would like to file a complaint with the Canada Revenue Agency. The complaint is against the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute and its offices in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. This pseudo think-tank enterprise has been found to be biased and one-sided. It is more of an unthinking-tank as it
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who convinced Trudeau to look democratic?
Wow. When you read the Liberal.ca website now it looks like Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau invented party democracy. It not only says he believes in party democracy but he is working to assure Liberal Party members of open nominations. He seems to not only be recanting his heavy-handed approach in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Conservative Oliver uses gifts not incentives.
Say what you like about Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver but he is certainly proving that he is not the brightest bulb to ever hold that portfolio in Ottawa. In fact, Oliver might just embarrass the Harper government right out of office next year. It was his opening salvo in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Quebec is not Scotland.
A week from now we will have the results of a close referendum in Scotland. And the ‘No’ side is worried. Sorry guys, it is too late now to recognize the problems. While we still expect a narrow margin for the ‘No’ side, it is emotions that seem to be
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair hosts history.
It was like a proud father announcing triplets. It was the wife, who is nowhere to be seen who did the heavy lifting, but here is the Hair, chest busting the buttons on his perfect suit, making the announcement. Yes, Canadians have found one of the famed Franklin ships that
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bobbsey Baird’s baffling bombast.
Keeping Canadians in a constant state of embarrassment, Foreign Minister John Baird continues to rack up frequent flier miles and drag Canada’s reputation deeper into disarray. What is diplomatic about baiting the Russian bear? Why does he have to take opposition politicians into harms way in Northern Iraq? Is he
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our democracy is bent, not broken.
It is like a whack-a-mole game. Every time you think you have settled the ignorance of one person proposing proportional representation, another pops up like an unwelcome termite in your house. You would think that more of us would want to protect our democracy. It sometimes feels like apathy is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair is off to war again. Ta-ta.
How do you do a trumpet fanfare in a headline? The Hair going to war again certainly deserves a fanfare. The poor schmuck was had. He was alternately included and ignored by the big boys and girls at the NATO meeting in Wales last week. It was Brit David Cameron,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Are Hong Kong activists smarter than Canadians?
Pay attention politically smart Canadians. The activists in Hong Kong are showing you up. And what makes you think Canada is more democratic than Hong Kong? All the activists in Hong Kong want is open nominations. When was the last time Canadians were allowed open nominations? Here in Babel the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The shifting sands of Quebec federal politics.
It is important to listen when the Toronto Star’s Chantal Hébert discusses what is happening politically in Quebec. You sometimes get the impression that she is so caught up with the nuances of the Quebec angst that she fails to open her mind to possible results. Take the demise of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why would you force people to vote?
It is one of those silly ideas that surface every once in a while. Someone notices how low the turnout of voters is at elections. They get all concerned and say, “We must get more people to vote.” Why? Some even suggest that there should be fines for people who
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Considering the alternatives to Trudeau.
Will Justin Trudeau make a great prime minister? Not likely. Is he better than the alternatives? You bet. There is something of a debate in the household these days about a forthcoming event for Mr. Trudeau in September. We might just use the $300 it would cost for two of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair’s annual northern holiday.
We Canadians seem to enjoy our regular getaways but the Hair beats us all. How many times is this now that the Hair and his hairdresser and his wife have headed for the Arctic during the dog days of the Ottawa summer? Sure, it guarantees full coverage by the servile
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Michael Chong, the MP from naϊveté.
No, Naϊveté is not an electoral district in Quebec. The Hon. Michael Chong is the Member of Parliament for the Ontario riding of Wellington-Halton Hills. What Mr. Chong has not done is endear himself to his Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper. He left Mr. Harper’s cabinet over what he likely
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Premier Wynne should not toy with Quebec.
It seemed an unfortunate heading given to a story in The Toronto Star the other day. The heading was “Wynne toys with buying more Quebec electricity.” The headline editor must have been very impressed that the two lines of the headline were balanced but the connotation was unfortunate. This is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Liberals playing stupid numbers game.
It makes sense that you would not waste your good ideas a year before the election but nobody wants to play the numbers game. It is just that the last thing that voters care about is how many seats you might win a year from now. And it sounds very
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Do nothing, deny everything.
One of the less endearing qualities of Conservatives is that they are never responsible for anything. To a lesser extent, Liberals often follow suit. Luckily for New Democrats, they get few opportunities to show their incompetence. The only reason the Conservatives are best at being irresponsible is that, with them,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Finding fair and impartial Conservatives.
We have discovered why the federal government cannot find enough people to adjudicate on its Social Security Tribunal. Murielle Brazeau, Chair of the tribunal, explains on its web site that the tribunal is fair, transparent and impartial. That must be why the Conservatives cannot find more people. There must be
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The political expendables also serve.
While it is never wise to disagree with a judge, we hope the superior court justice who tried the case goes easy on the kid blamed for the Guelph Robocalls. As much as you agree with how reprehensible the act might be, letting the perpetrators of the crime pick the
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