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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Babel-on-the-Bay: The Morning Line: 43rd Canadian General Election
Welcome to Babel-on-the-Bay’s starting point in understanding the coming election. Bear in mind that these are starting odds only. There will likely be changes by election day. Be sure you get full odds on any of your wagers. And, believe me, this is not a simple calculation. It has never
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: debate? What debate?
Here’s the thing about Monday’s leader’s debate, Canada. You won’t be watching it. Well, let’s amend that. Sun readers are a scrappy, elbows-up lot, who dig politics and a good scrap. Sun readers are likelier to be watching the debate. They like debates. But most everyone else? They won’t be.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jeff Spross discusses the effectiveness of a wealth tax both in generating revenue, and in reducing inequality. David Leonhardt notes that a wealth tax will actually boost the economy by putting to use assets which are otherwise idle (if not being used for
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: why isn’t Andrew Scheer way ahead?
So, Andrew. You don’t mind if I call you Andrew, do you? It’s better than what I sometimes used to call you, which was Blandy Andy. I stopped calling you that because you figured out a way to make the bland thing work, like Brampton Bill Davis did. You embraced
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: TVA provides a forum for losers.
Making sense of the political sparring on Pierre Karl Péladeau’s French language television network, TVA, on Wednesday was easy. It was the time for Yves-François Blanchet of the Bloc Québécois and the New Democrat’s Jagmeet Singh to come on strong and hard. This was their first major chance to make
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the echoes of previous campaigns in Canada’s federal election – including the possibility that the 1972 minority government scenario might be the best outcome of all. For further reading…– The column’s discussion of public impressions of leaders is based on recent polling from Forum and Angus Reid –
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Who won and lost the French-language debate
Who won? The separatist guy, Yves-Francois Blanchet. He was calm, he was cool and he was collected. He totally dominated. Who lost? Justin Trudeau. He needed to remind everyone that that hopey-changey guy from 2015 is still around. He didn’t, because he isn’t. (And he was clobbered on one key
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Random, contextless links about #elxn43 and #cdnpoli and punk rock
So. First day of October. Here’s bits and pieces, this and that: Ipsos says the Tories are ahead, and have been ahead since the start of the election campaign. Warren says they’re not ahead by nearly enough. After blackface, after LavScam, after Aga Khan, after Griswolds Go To India, after
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Death by a thousand tax cuts.
Canadian voters are being nickel-dimed and conned by their politicians. Even Elizabeth May and her greenies have joined into the game of making promises, with funds, from where, they do not really know. It is a game that voters should not buy. Let’s face facts: Sheer is no savior, Trudeau
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Over-Analyzed Election.
It’s a circus on the hustings. It is like somebody tossed a cherry bomb into the outhouse. Everybody has an opinion to lay on you as to what is happening but not what will happen. There is more coverage every day from radio, television and daily newspapers. They tell you
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Manfred Bienefeld writes about the gap between the urgent problems we face, and the sad excuses for policies on offer from the Libs and Cons as Canadians go to the polls. And Andrew Jackson discusses how little point there is to the tax
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – George Monbiot argues that it’s time to cap the amount of wealth any person can accumulate, while highlighting the importance of accepting that there’s a point where we have enough. – Donovan Vincent writes about the rental housing crisis in Toronto, while
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: the speech Justin Trudeau should have given, but won’t
My fellow Liberals, my fellow Canadians. Last week, I spoke about the scandal that has hit my campaign. I didn’t do it right, so I’m now going to try again. First things first: over and over, I used the wrong pronoun. I talked about how “we,” as a country, need
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: in a campaign about nothing positive, don’t give them something negative
The land is strong. Sound familiar? Remember that? The old-timers do. It was an actual slogan that was deployed in the 1972 federal election campaign. Didn’t work out too well. In yesterday walks tomorrow, they say, and that is certainly true when one compares 1972 to 2019. The similarities are
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The timeless media tempest.
It seems as though this election is taking place just for the benefit of the news media. I am not sure of the right word for it but it is the most over-reported and over-analyzed campaign I have ever seen and it is only week two. I can only hope
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: So far, so what?
The dispatches from the front line of the current election strife are mostly about stupidity, compounded by incompetence. Despite the usual whining, scratching and digging up old pictures of each other, the kids are playing by the rules. Justin Trudeau and his liberals are establishing a traditional campaign ground game.
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: Justin Trudeau likens black people to apes. Don’t let him get away with that.
An ape? The video is grainy. It’s blurry, and it’s hard to make out who is in it. But we don’t have to guess. The Liberal Party of Canada has confirmed to Global News – which released the video on Thursday morning – that it depicts Justin Trudeau, the leader
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