How many times now have we seen prime minister Justin Trudeau pop out of Rideau Cottage with another package worth billions to offer succor to this group of Canadians or that? When asked about seniors, he just said, “They’re coming.” Well, he brought forward what they are doing for seniors
Continue readingTag: Federal Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: “Do as I say, not as I do.”
It is part of being of the political elite. We have no royals like the Brits. And we have little of America’s Hollywood. We have to settle for talking and speculating about our politicians. We put them on pedestals and then complain when they take advantage of their position to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: After the Pandemic, Let’s Double Down.
Canada is going to come out of this pandemic stronger, more determined and in a better position to build a stronger future. And we could come out with a national debt of more than $700 billion. And, so what? We could double that debt and nobody would sneeze. We have
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Great Canadian Gun Con.
Watching that one-time cop, now Canada’s public safety minister, Bill Blair, blather on about guns is annoying. The liberal plan to do something about the proliferation of guns in our society is nothing more than a con job. When you are grandfathering the guns that are already out there, you
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who Knew?
Politics can be full of strange happenings. Canada had an election seven months ago. The guy who was prime minister is still prime minister and doing very well, thank you. He lost 20 members of his party caucus and his party came second in popular vote. You would think he
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Same-old, same-old Tory party.
This conservative leadership contest is a disaster. What started out to be dull and boring has been made doubly dull and boring. We are now advised that we will know who has won the conservative party leadership on August 27. Surprise, surprise, Peter MacKay will likely be crowned. Boring wins
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau’s triumph.
Fess up, guys, Justin Trudeau has won. The wonder kid has changed his spots and been exactly what Canadians have needed. Santa Claus came early this year. Even Bob Hepburn of the Toronto Star says that the Trudeau haters have been proved wrong. While I pointed out a while ago
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: On this day in May.
Before we send out more distress signals, we need to take stock of our situation. We have been hiding in our homes for less than two months while essential workers carry on the battle of the pandemic. The coming battles will be to restore a battered and in-debt economy. And
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin’s magic bag of money.
Watching the daily news conference by the prime minister the other morning, I lost track of how much money he was promising. No doubt our news media people are keeping track. I was struck by the similarity to an election campaign without the opposition critics jumping on every announcement—to either
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is Chuckles shooting blanks?
The lame duck conservative leader and leader of the opposition in parliament, Andrew Scheer, has a problem. Is nobody paying him any attention? Is it that difficult for him to squeeze past all the articles about the coronavirus and covid-19? Is the pandemic more important? The answer to all three
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In a half-full Canada.
How many attractive countries are there to help alleviate the overcrowding, the poverty and the tensions of so many countries of this world? And of one of the more desirable outlets is Canada. The truth is that Canada needs at least three times its present population. In the next 60
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Learning to love your local MP.
In our time of need, do you not love the attention we are getting from our local politicians? I am thinking here of your federal member of parliament. This person is your lifeline to the decision makers in Ottawa. No matter what party they might represent, they also represent you.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The good and the ugly in tough times.
It has been more than a few years since I was traveling around Ontario lecturing business students at our universities. At the time, the subject of my lectures was the rarely discussed social responsibility of business. I got the feeling on those journeys that the professors really appreciated some one
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The validity of vision.
It is an old-fashioned view of leadership, but it is still valid. You have to have vision. Without it, where are you going? A leader understands people and shares with them views of what is to come. A leader understands detail and shares the steps to the future. A leader
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lucking into leadership laurels.
You hardly need to check with pollsters to know that prime minister Justin Trudeau has aced it. He is getting lots of positive votes for his leadership in this time of crisis. You even talk to known conservatives and some of them tell you what a good job he is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What Value Trust?
Do you trust U.S. president Donald Trump? Why would you when his actions are erratic, his decisions changeable, his sources of information questionable and his attention span so limited? In approving the revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), did the parliamentarians consider this man’s weaknesses and frequent whims? They
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Paying for Jobs?
After careful study over the past few days, listening to the ideas of others and comparing the programs, I have decided that it is all a terrible waste. The federal government’s big billion bailout for Canadian business is money down the drain. We can do much better. First of all,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What was left under the rug?
There always comes that time when we have to look under the rug. Maybe we were just sending the rug out for cleaning but we can hardly ignore the detritus of time that we have collected. It is like this covid-19 emergency. This dust from under the rug was what
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s the Tory party that is self-destructing.
Last weekend, Chantal Hébert wrote her regular opinion piece for the Toronto Star. She was ruminating on the idea that presumed front-runner Peter MacKay’s campaign for the conservative leadership might be self-destructing. Not that MacKay was heading anywhere in particular anyway. He is hardly the saviour of Canada’s conservatives. If
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Checking with the Cuckoo Clock.
We have a pattern emerging. Every day at 11 am Eastern, we are now tuning into a news channel or live streaming CPAC on the Internet. The opening shot, is of the front door of Rideau Cottage, on the grounds of Rideau Hall in Ottawa. There is often a wait
Continue reading