Ontario education minister Stephen Lecce is no mystery. Politics is full of people like him. Their ability as a con artist is far more important than any particular experience or training. They are chameleons. Lecce was actually prime minister Stephen Harper’s discovery. He gave the handsome young man a job
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Politics of Oligarchs.
In an interesting opinion piece, recently, the Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt said that both Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau had to reinvent their respective parties to win election. Neither liked the parties they were taking over in their search for power. Similar to Donald Trump in the United States, they
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Redefining conservatism: A zero sum game.
Our conservative friends are all in a tizzy. They think they are going to get to redefine their party. Fat chance, is the only answer for them. In a party that was defined by conservative Stephen Harper, 20 years ago, there are few progressives. Conservatism in Canada is where you
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: From small creeks do mighty rivers flow.
From the Manchester Guardian to the Toronto Globe and Mail, there have been reports of our federal government scientists testing spills of diluted bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands. As one source pointed out to me, this was the government laboratory that former prime minister Stephen Harper forgot to shut down.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau does a Harper.
There was a strong sense of déjà vu as our prime minister headed to the far north to kick off his election campaign. It was just four years ago when prime minister Stephen Harper headed for Iqaluit, Nunavut, to kick off conservative Leona Aglukkaq’s bid for re-election. This is despite
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The failure of Justin Trudeau’s Senate.
It had to become obvious to Canadians eventually that Justin Trudeau’s version of a Senate is a disaster. Justin seems to think that an elite group of senators, picked by an elite committee will produce hard working senators. Well, it doesn’t and it won’t. This was the equivalent of Justin
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Okay, Liberals – The "All You Can Eat Buffet" is Open
It’s not that often Liberals get to say nice things about The Tyee but there’s a lot of good stuff in it, sometimes even for Grits. A very popular entree at the moment is a 2015 Tyee article, “Harper, Serial Abuser of Power: the Evidence Compiled.” The article lists a handsome
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Once Again, Ottawa Fails the Coast
British Columbia’s salt water fishery is controlled out of Ottawa by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. That’s the same bunch that bungled the east coast fishery leading to the severe collapse of the once bountiful cod stocks. Now DFO is screwing up the west coast, starting with our herring
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Jean Chrétien tells it like it is.
One of the advantages of being a former prime minister, Jean Chrétien can now tell people how he sees things. Or, in the case of former prime minister Stephen Harper, he can tell it as he would like to see it. Both former prime ministers have new books out to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Harper’s henchmen halted.
The earth is still shaking in Alberta from the Federal Court of Appeal finally corralling the Calgary-based National Energy Board (NEB). The court was asking the logical questions about the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project. The industry is angry and the politicians all a-twitter. It was high time that someone
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Funny Thing Is – It’s Here and What Have We Done to Adapt to It?
You might not have seen video of the dramatic flash flooding that swept the historic town centre of Elliott City, Maryland, but that doesn’t matter. Perhaps you didn’t see the devastation of New York City and the Jersey Shore by Hurricane Sandy. Maybe you’ve been in a coma for the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Confounding a confluence of conservatives.
It is all happening Monday at Toronto’s stuffy old Albany Club. As I told my host last time I was invited to the club, this is no place for a left-wing liberal. The 125-year old building on King Street East has been the spiritual home for Canada’s conservatives since the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Question Worth Asking – Has Canada Been Captured?
As analysis and reports stack up laying bare how much we know and everything we don’t know about dilbit and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, it is looking like this has nothing to do with the “national interest” as claimed by prime minister Trudeau. Instead it looks as though Trudeau
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Chuckles brings home a report card.
Andrew ‘Chuckles’ Scheer has spent the better part of a year in Ottawa as leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. A report card is due. Will we like the report on that purportedly placid Prairie politician? Will he reprise the docile and easy-going speaker of the house role he played
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: I’ve Got an Idea to Rescue Justin From His Slump
Unfair or not, Justin Trudeau has taken a hit in the public’s mind over his pretty clumsy trip to India. With JT et famille sporting an elaborate wardrobe of Bollywood’s best fashions, the Indian press took the piss out of him pretty relentlessly. The local scribblers piled on. Now Trudeau’s
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau plays to the home crowd.
Surprise, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau played it safe the other day. He appointed Quebec’s Richard Wagner as chief justice of the Supreme Court. We Canadians have had little chance to hear from Wagner prior to this appointment. We have had no real chance to assess what his leadership might mean.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Longingly looking for liberalism.
A correspondent from British Columbia recently asked “What is a Liberal party bereft of liberalism?” He was, of course, describing the situation today where the Conservative parties are moving farther and farther to the harshest right, Liberals are the new Conservative-Light and the New Democrats are lost in a confused
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Chuckles’ Canned Conservatism.
In discussing the ebbing strength of the democracy of Canada’s Conservative parties yesterday, we never got to the major problem faced by the federal Conservatives. Their problem is one of leadership. If there ever was a good example of the mediocrity produced by preferential voting, the Conservative party faces that
Continue readingKen Chapman: The Closed Nature of the UCP Kenney Party
I’ve been doing some reading about values and mindsets and applying some of these learnings to political organizations and trends. In the previous post I spoke about Arrested, Closed and Open mindsets and related them to the Alberta NDP, UCP and Alberta Party respectively. I want to delve a bit
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Diminished democracy of Canada’s Conservatives.
In looking at the major political parties in Canada in their headlong dash for irrelevancy, we might as well start with the Conservatives. Since the end of the 90s and the machinations of Stephen Harper to finally achieve the promise to ‘unite the right’ across Canada, the separated federal and
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