There are entirely too many media people who think that the Ontario liberals have been shut down. What they do not seem to understand is that a political party is like a very large animal when it has lost a fight. It does not surrender. It might go into a
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Objectives other than winning.
Some people scratch their head and ask why someone will enter a political leadership race when there is little chance of winning? The truth is that there are different reasons and we have seen many of them over the years. Just the positioning of the person within the particular party
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Liberals think they won?
There seems to be a new definition of winning. There was a lengthy Insight article in the Toronto Star last weekend on how the liberals think they won the last election. Signed by the Star’s Susan Delacourt, it must have been dictated by the liberal campaign head Jeremy Broadhurst. Even
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: And now for some slow news?
It is now revealed. The Toronto Star tells us that what we write as instant commentary on a news event is called a ‘Hot Take.’ This was the same day as there had been something catastrophic at the Star’s out-of-town printing plant. The news about Hot Takes and Slow News
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: But who’ll fix the marijuana mess?
Swearing in the new cabinet at Rideau Hall was a painful process. Maybe it would have worked better if all the retreads with the same portfolios got sworn in together. It was only the cabinet changes that the media and public wanted to examine. And I, for one, think a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Let’s get this show on the road?
As an Ontario liberal (a paid-up member), I am aware that there is a contest afoot to select a new Ontario party leader. And I hear that only those paid up by December 2, 2019 will be eligible to be elected to go to that easily corrupted delegated-convention in Toronto
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin Trudeau lacks the political smarts.
An old friend is mounting an e-mail campaign to get prime minister Justin Trudeau to add some key members to his new cabinet. I have argued with him that it is not going to happen and frankly the problem is not so much the idea but the fact that the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Now do the decent thing.
Green leader Elizabeth May did the right thing. The other major party leaders, Scheer, Singh and Trudeau should follow. None completed the recent election with honour. Scheer won the popular vote and lost the election. Singh lost ground for the new democrats. Trudeau lost the West but won Ontario and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A failure in leadership.
If conservative leader Andrew Scheer is looking for compassion, he is looking in the wrong places. There is no succor for losers in Toronto’s Albany club. Long the King Street hangout of the rich and famous of Canadian conservatism, there is no compassion there for someone rejected by the voters
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Democracy costs $500?
For the past 60 years, we have watched Canadian politics spiral into a quagmire of failed ideologies and failed leadership. We continue the pattern by choosing leaders by old methods that are easily corrupted, that fail the voting public and fail our political parties. The planned contest for the leadership
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin Trudeau doesn’t do humble.
The media seemed to see Justin Trudeau’s speech on Wednesday as contrition. It was not. Not in the minds of many liberals who worked to give him this second chance. And that is what it was on Monday night. It is a second chance to get it right. It is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Really, Ms. May?
There was a last shot fired in the federal election on Sunday that really disappointed me. I thought more highly of Elizabeth May of the green party. After all, where have you heard this line before? “Elect (this party) and this will be the last federal government in Canada chosen
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Federal Election 2019 Reflections
The big surprise of the election has to be the Bloc Québécois resurgence, although I am sure they probably saw it coming even if the rest of us didn’t. This certainly makes leader Yves-François Blanchet’s position secure. The other surprise was the late campaign resurgence of the New Democratic Party
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Go angry into the night.
Canada went to bed angry last night; a failed decision behind us. We had bought into distrust and grievance and discord. We set aside our normal fairness and caring. Greed seemed to be the only compromise. It was a failure in leadership and trust. The next election is not in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “Mommy, It’s over!”
The sign-off for the Just for Laughs television show seems quite appropriate for this election. Though it was hardly just for laughs. There are still a lot of tears to be shed over this 43rd Canadian General Election. Having a green monster wailing to his mommy seems the right tone
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Banking on the Bigotry of the Bloc?
When does la laïcité (the separation of church and state) become the political war cry in Quebec during a federal election? And why does it front as a cover-up for the institutionalized bigotry that exists in la belle province? Since the time of the ‘Padlock Law’ of the Maurice Duplessis
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Watch out for the mathematics!
It was mentioned the other day that it is impossible to selectively elect a minority government. Before you think you are voting for a minority, you need to check your mathematics and your logic. I would suggest to you that if most people across Canada voted for a second-tier party
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: On the home straight.
We are in the final week and nobody really knows how this election will play out. We tend to confuse what we hope will happen with what is really happening. The pollsters seemed locked in secondary races and are ignoring the real one. Maybe green leader Elizabeth May is the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Voting and Thanksgiving.
I am voting in Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte this weekend. And I am voting for the liberal candidate. My sense of this riding is that the green candidate is taking some votes from both the liberals and new democrats. That combination will give the riding to another do-nothing conservative. I expect that situation
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Another bad night for Canadian democracy.
When will we treat these election debates as what they are? When they told us that there would be six leadership hopefuls and five moderators for the one English-language debate, we knew trouble was coming. It would have been much better to drop some of the moderators and pay a
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