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
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The 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
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair harasses NAFTA hopefuls.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is still on life support. The end of his first year in office and President Donald Trump has not yet ended the more than US$ one trillion in trade between the three countries. Maybe he was waiting for some help from critics of
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Book review: Social policy in Canada (second edition)
Oxford University Press has recently released the second edition of Social Policy in Canada, co-authored by the father-daughter duo of Ernie Lightman and Naomi Lightman. I recommend this book as an excellent resource for students of social policy. It will be useful for classroom instruction, while also being a handy
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Hébert hails the Hair.
It is unlikely that many of political commentator Chantal Hébert’s fans read her Toronto Star columns for the humour. It is only occasionally that she writes with her tongue firmly in cheek. If you missed her most recent column, you missed a gem. She actually wrote of how the Hair
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lottsa’ Luck Senator Duffy!
Senator Mike Duffy already has his payoff. He is still being paid as a member of Canada’s parliament. The report that he wants to sue the Senate and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is an insult to both bodies. And the suggestion that Duffy’s case is anything like that of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Diminishing Democracy.
Around the world, from Venezuela to Poland, from Turkey to America, we are watching the destruction of democracy. Those who believe in democracy are routinely arrested, beaten, detained or killed on the streets of once-safe cities. It is a challenge everywhere. There is no safe haven. And Canada is no
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How would Harper have handled Trump?
When listening to Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland give her very important speech on the new world order, there was one disturbing thought. It was a silly question as to how would our previous prime minister have handled the situation? The one thing for sure was that Stephen Harper
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