Blame Chantal Hébert. The other day she described the voting reform question as a whack-a-mole game. It just keeps popping up and needs to get a whack. The only reason Chantal noted it was because neophyte premier François Legault of the CAQ in Quebec made the same rash promise to
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Kudos to Vancouver’s Kennedy Stewart.
It took guts. That was no walk in the park for a new democrat to give up his seat in parliament and challenge for the Vancouver mayoralty, as an independent. It was a tough fight with no guarantees. And the remaining problem is that there is now a progressive in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Follow the money to Brampton Brown.
He used to be Barrie Brown. His best friend, Toronto lawyer Walied Soliman describes him in the Toronto Star as the “hardest working person, I have ever met.” Those of us who have watched Brown manipulate his way through politics over the years are less complimentary. This is not the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Voting for the future?
It has always been my observation that there are fewer ‘Come line’ bettors in municipal voting than ‘No line’ bettors. If you are not a craps player, I should explain that there are fewer civic voters voting positively for the future than there are people expressing themselves with a negative
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: My Vancouver Election Endorsements
Still wondering how to vote in next weekend’s Vancouver municipal elections? Wonder no more … Mayor: SYLVESTER, Shauna City Council: BOYLE, Christine (OneCity) FRY, Pete (GREEN) ROBERTS, Anne (COPE) SWANSON, Jean (COPE) BHANDAL, Taqdir Kaur O’KEEFE, Derrick (COPE) WONG, David HT (GREEN) YAN, Brandon 甄念本 (OneCity) CARR, Adriane (GREEN) WIEBE,
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: My Vancouver Election Endorsements
Still wondering how to vote in next weekend’s Vancouver municipal elections? Wonder no more … Mayor: SYLVESTER, Shauna City Council: BOYLE, Christine (OneCity) FRY, Pete (GREEN) ROBERTS, Anne (COPE) SWANSON, Jean (COPE) BHANDAL, Taqdir Kaur O’KEEFE, Derrick (COPE) WONG, David HT (GREEN) YAN, Brandon 甄念本 (OneCity) CARR, Adriane (GREEN) WIEBE,
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Political and Rhetorical Privilege
“It’s perfectly possible for a man to lead a comfortable, indeed enviable life by any objective standard, yet be consumed with bitterness driven by status anxiety.” Dr. Paul Krugman in a NY Times article He goes on: “This sort of high-end resentment, the anger of highly privileged people who nonetheless
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Dumb ideas for publicity.
The toughest challenge for municipal candidates is the problem of getting some decent publicity during the campaign. You sometimes get the feeling that all reporters hate you and you are just wasting your time. It always seemed that it was only the really dumb ideas that can break down barriers.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In John Tory’s Toronto…
It was fascinating to read the Toronto Star municipal reporter’s opinion on the current mayoralty race in Toronto. It was as though he wanted to go backwards to gain ground forward. He damned Tory for stepping down into the mayor’s role and not growing in the job. What the reporter
Continue readingScripturient: Are facts inflammatory?
Inflammatory is the word I was told the Connection used this week in rejecting an ad by mayoral candidate John Trude*. That ad challenged some of the claims of one of his opponents by stating what actually happened at council this term in four areas: open and accountable government, the
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Municipal Government Vulnerability
Lost among the back-and-forth political battles between Ford and Toronto city council is that municipalities are not constitutionally protected as sovereign levels of government in Canada. As a federal state, Canada is a confederation of two co-equal levels of sovereign government: provincial and federal. But municipalities fall under the jurisdictions
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Getting elected in Toronto.
The ‘Hey Rube’ at Toronto city hall is over, for now. Candidates for the 25 wards are busy candidating. The next big event will be municipal election day on October 22. Similar to Halloween, it will be a scary time. And they have the nerve to call it democracy. It
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: …Now, where were we?
It seems to me that we left off when premier Ford of Ontario pulled a rabbit out of his hat and told Toronto council hopefuls to stop running for 47 council wards in Toronto and just run for 25. Since people had been campaigning for weeks for the 47 wards,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Carpetbagger Brown.
In politics, the carpetbagger is a figure of derision. The person is considered an unscrupulous opportunist who is seeking to exploit some real or imagined opportunity among local voters. No politician in Ontario better fits this description than Barrie’s Patrick Brown. Or should we now call him: Brampton Brown? In
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The politician as huckster.
It is hard to estimate the times a politician has said to me: “What do you think of this great idea? In most cases—if part of the campaign team—I will listen to the idea and then say: “That’s nice, now go to that wall, hit your head against it ten
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Restoring democracy in Toronto.
If you are not being sued by the Ford government in Ontario, you might already be suing it or hoping to sue. What is of particular concern at the moment, are the various lawyers getting together to sue the government for reducing the new 47-ward council in Toronto to just
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wise politicos choose their battles carefully.
Toronto council has made a bad move. They are, in effect, fighting ‘city hall.’ Because city hall for cities in Canada are the provincial and territorial governments. I am not saying the Toronto councillors definitely will not win against Queen’s Park reducing the number of councillors but they are not
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who says Dougie’s done?
Looking at the upcoming Toronto municipal election in October, you can end up with more questions than answers. The problem is premier Ford. This guy is not finished with his home town. And they are not finished with him. And they are wasting the taxpayers’ money fighting him. We seem
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Copenhagen Syndrome.
You have probably heard of the Stockholm Syndrome. The Copenhagen Syndrome is only different in that it is for people to learn to love bicycles–instead of the people keeping them captive. The Copenhagen Syndrome is prevalent in Toronto these days because nobody seems to understand the difference in climate and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “All politics is local.”
The adage about all politics being local is usually credited to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Tip O’Neill many years ago. All he was saying was that if you do not know what your voters have stuck in their craw, there is little you can do for them. You always
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