Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star hit the nail on the head recently when she ran a commentary saying that “Trudeau doesn’t want advice from his dad’s friends. She ‘s right. When the wife and I first met the adult Justin Trudeau ten years ago, we both agreed that he
Continue readingTag: Federal Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: When you can’t press the flesh.
Thinking about political leadership campaigns, it occurs to me that the constraints on the candidates today are not only catastrophic for the candidates but impossible for the party faithful to judge. How can you expect the party members to make a reasoned choice? When meetings cannot take place, you have
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: English is a living language.
Recently, former Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe appeared on Global Television’s West Block program with interviewer Mercedes Stephenson. While I rarely agree with the Bloc or any of its leaders, Duceppe has always amused me with his sly use of the English language. English might not be his first language
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: O’Toole should cool it.
It is a pity to waste good political advice on conservatives but MP Erin O’Toole’s current hissy fit with Peter MacKay’s leadership organization could cause irreparable harm in Canadian politics. And rather than being amused by the lack of political smarts of the Erin O’Toole leadership organization, most knowledgeable politicos
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Morneau: the angst of things to come.
Are you ready for the flip side of the pandemic coin? Finance Minister Bill Morneau has promised Canadians a financial snapshot of what the pandemic has cost. The bad news is to be presented on July 8. I wonder though if he will recognize the value we have been getting
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A future built on nostalgia.
The measure of another person’s intelligence is often measured on his or her ability to agree with you. That was why I was delighted the other day to receive a proposal from a regular reader for electric high-speed passenger rail service across Canada. I have always felt confident that I
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: American Lemmings.
American supporters of Donald Trump only act like lemmings. Lemmings are rodents that live in northern tundra areas, are very stupid and have about a 12-month life cycle—even if they survive their natural predators. They are not necessarily suicidal creatures but have been known to fall off cliffs and into
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: CERB opens the door to a new Canada.
For all the weaknesses, errors and misunderstanding of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the program is the solution to Canada’s future economy. And when the government extended the program the other day, it put the country on the road to build that new economy. What the government has done
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Grocers exploit the ugliness of capitalism.
Nova Scotia-based Empire Company is better known to Canadians as grocery stores under the Sobeys, Safeway, IGA and FreshCo labels. You might have missed the business news the other day about the company’s highly profitable fourth quarter and past year. Not many companies in the food business get to announce
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lessons in Leadership.
New democrat leader Jagmeet Singh got himself thrown out of our socially separated house of commons the other day. He called a fellow parliamentarian a racist. That is not leadership. That is desperation. Jagmeet’s explanation of his obduracy on the subject was also wrong. How can he insist on saying
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A pandemic is no time to be Tory.
You need to be considerate of your conservative friends in these troubled times. You might even think kindly of inviting some conservatives into your circle. Share the lottery of covid-19 with them. They are suffering the conviction of their politics. Their American hero Donald Trump is scraping the nether regions
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The embarrassment of Justin Trudeau.
You do know, do you not, that in a time of pandemic, prime minister Justin Trudeau is quietly building an abomination of a pipeline across our magnificent Rocky Mountains. There is no excuse for this. It can hardly be to please those climate change-deniers in Alberta. They will hate the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Please Justin, get a haircut.
We hear through the grapevine that Justin Trudeau and his liberals are thinking election. Since I am supposed to have an opinion on this proposal, I will need to reach deep into my conscience to see if I could support such foolishness at this time. The one thing that is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “The good is oft interred with their bones.”
So, let it be with Sir John A. Macdonald. How often must we decry the stupidity, the ignorance of those who want to destroy the records, the mementos, the reminders of the heroes of our past? Why can we not just recognize their accomplishments? Is there no forgiveness for the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump’s Terror.
We were spell-bound Monday evening watching the television coverage of events around the American white house. We had heard recordings of what he had said to many of the U.S. state governors earlier in the day and dreaded how it might play out through the evening. This was the belligerent
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can Chuckles make a comeback?
The conservative party and the news media have written off acting conservative party leader Andrew Scheer much too soon. When he resigned late last year, the unwritten proviso was that the party thought they could get someone better. There might be four or five people vying for the honour of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Panic in the pandemic.
The problem is that these so-called experts keep changing their minds. They tell us to wear a mask and then they say, ‘Don’t bother.’ Now they want us to wear a mask again. Maybe they should draw us pictures. It is not that we are slow or just plain dumb.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Debt walls and other delusions.
Having always admired the work of Toronto author Linda McQuaig, I enjoyed her opinion piece in the Toronto Star the other day. She was suggesting that we should not listen to the deficit hawks. It must be a measure of my admiration that we tend to agree on the subject.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Pirates of the Pandemic.
The gloom and doom writers have it all wrong. You do realize, do you not, that there are business bandits who are making a killing because of the pandemic. These are the ones shedding crocodile tears as they make another billion. Who says we are all in this together? It
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Planes, Trains and Trucks.
If you listen to some analysts, it would seem that Canada’s economy is based on airlines. That was a mistake that came down to us because of the Second World War. In putting Canada on a war footing, the ubiquitous DC-3 aircraft took responsibility for high-speed travel while railways became
Continue reading