There is a tendency among political leaders to have someone very much like themselves to serve as their chief of staff. It gives them confidence that the person will react as they do and carry out solutions much the same as their principal. It is a lazy person’s solution. And
Continue readingTag: Liberal leadership
Babel-on-the-Bay: “Wasn’t That a Party?”
The Rovers got it wrong when they wrote a song about the party. It was certainly not the whiskey or the gin that is doing in the liberal party. It was the desperation for leadership. And Trudeau is a magic name to Canadian liberals. At a time when people are
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why should I apologize to Justin Trudeau?
It was disconcerting the other day to have some readers complain about my insulting prime minister Trudeau. I casually ended a commentary by saying that nobody complains about our prime minister being too smart. Hell, neither one of us is riding that high on the IQ bell curve. And I
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can Canadians live with this?
It is more important than we knew. We are talking about the environment. Our environmental poster boy Justin Trudeau has made too many promises that he has no way of keeping. Our Pollyanna environment minister Catherine McKenna makes promises she cannot keep and quotes government policy that will never happen.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Musing on Maxime’s Maxims.
Maxime Bernier MP does not endear himself. It is not so much his conservatism as his libertarianism. I have met some pretty far right Quebec politicians before but Bernier likes to use his ideas for shock and awe. It gets him lots of media coverage—not all good. Bernier rides the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Shoring up Alberta’s Energy Exploiters.
For a while there, we were under the impression that the prime minister was the only one allowed to speak for Alberta’s tar sands. It was all on behalf of the almighty buck. Maybe he thought finance minister Bill Morneau would contribute but that guy is weak when trying to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Where’s Justin?
Oh, we know where on this earth Prime Minister Trudeau might be located. We just wonder where his mind might be at? This country is going downhill morally and politically and our leader was recently down in New York giving a trite commencement address to graduates at New York University.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Which half will vote?
There is a supposition that following the low turnouts of voters in Ontario elections in 2011 and 2014, there will be a similar low turnout in June of 2018. The question that confounds politicians and pollsters is which half of the voters will come to the polls. And if you
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Dark days descending on Ontario.
It is frightening. We have been studying the mood of voters across Ontario and we do not like what we are seeing and hearing. We are not even into the writ period of the coming election. We are hardly ready to prepare our Morning Line this far ahead but some
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Different directions for divided liberals.
Prime minister Justin Trudeau needs to check the direction in which his mob is headed. It is very hard to get out front to lead them when you are headed in opposite directions. Seeing the directions and concerns of the Liberal Party of Canada at the Halifax gathering last weekend,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Stapling, spindling and folding Ford.
Millennials might not be as familiar with the admonition we used to read on our household bills. Before the Internet, our bills were often delivered to us as data processing punch cards. We dutifully mailed these cards back to the supplier, along with our cheques. It was considered a no-no
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Premier Wynne’s nemesis.
If Premier Wynne really wants to keep her job in Ontario, I would suggest that she should make amends by first firing Ed Clarke as chair of the Liquor Control Board and of the Ontario Cannabis stores. Even at the price of one dollar per year, he is not worth
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau has to dump Morneau.
We have been waiting. We have been patient but it has not happened. Prime minister Justin Trudeau still has that millstone Bill Morneau dragging him down to the depths of neoliberalism. It is not 2018 for this government until finance minister Bill Morneau is gone. It is the story of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ageism and Justin Trudeau.
There was an opinion piece in the paper the other day by a favourite commentator. She was writing about the Liberal government not trusting anyone older than the prime minister. That leaves a very large number of Canadians to be disposed of on the ice floes by this uncaring government.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Elitism bites Trudeau’s ass.
It is hard to say what embarrasses Canadians more. Seeing pictures of Trudeau and his family dressing up Bollywood-style to the amusement of the Indian Sub-continent is bad enough. As often as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been warned though about his elitist approach, those chickens have come home to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin in the pipeline pretzel position.
It is new to yoga. Among the latest postures for the ancient health and fitness practice is the pipeline pretzel position. It is for those who believe they can make money from the tar sands while reducing the carbon we are spewing into our environment. While we might all look
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Political parties are not private.
There was an interesting question raised last week by Toronto Star columnist Susan Delacourt about political parties. She was questioning whether political parties are public or private entities. Before we get legal minds involved in determining this, it is important to stress that a political party is created by and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Democracy destroyed.
The years of Pierre Trudeau’s leadership seem to be backing into the mists of time. It was the strength of a democratic Liberal Party in Canada that back stopped him in those years. He thought of the party at first as similar to the top-down managed situation in Quebec. He
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: There’s a great job opening here.
This is not your standard help wanted situation. Into every life there is an opportunity that comes knocking. This is an opportunity beyond your wildest dreams. It is fame and fortune. There are no limits. You just have to seize the opportunity. It is not for the faint of heart.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Diminished democracy of Justin’s Liberals.
In George Orwell’s 1984, new history was written and old history incinerated. The old think and the new think were not allowed to co-exist. Nowhere is that thinking more obvious today than in Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party of Canada. It is not his father’s Liberal Party. After his overwhelming victory
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