Oh, to be in Alberta when the politicos are running! Have you heard the latest about that sleaze Jason Kenney of the united conservatives? With premier Rachel Notley about to pull the plug on the provincial election, UCP leader Kenney has got his jeans in a twist. It seems people
Continue readingTag: NDP
Babel-on-the-Bay: Did they forget to tell Jagmeet?
It seems strange that the NDP apparatchiks around their leader Jagmeet Singh have forgotten to tell him something important. He certainly has enough French to understand that Québec Solidaire is a separatist party based in Quebec. It might share the orange party color and the left of centre politics of
Continue readingPolitical Potshots: Charlie And The Hypocrisy Factory
I have just about had my fill of NDP concern troll, and massive hypocrite Charlie Angus. Charlie has turned into the Appalachian carnival barker of Canadian politics. Charlie loves to bully people on Twitter. He seems to forget however, that these people who he calls trolls, are taxpayers and voters
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: ‘Take that, John Horgan.’
The Toronto Star’s Calgary apologist, Gillian Steward, thinks maybe Alberta premier Rachel Notley can frighten her former ally, B.C. premier John Horgan, into approving the Trans Mountain pipeline. It seems that the Alberta premier has committed $3.7 billion to lease 4,400 rail tanker cars to carry diluted bitumen to Burrard
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The perils of punditry.
Despite putting the idea aside a number of times, I have made the effort to stay away from comparing Pierre Trudeau in 1972 to Justin Trudeau in 2019. I was sitting in the boardroom of the principal advertising agency for the liberal party that evening in 1972 when Pierre announced
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Ellie Mae O’Hagan writes about the need for economic equality to be at the core of any push to eliminate the gender gap. And PressProgress highlights how the Trudeau Libs have gone in the wrong direction with tax handouts which favour wealthy
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The storms on the Yellow Brick Road.
As we battle our way to the Land of OZ and the looming federal election, what we are hearing across the land is becoming more and more concerning. When normally respectful and erudite people vent with expletives, they are angry. When the prime minister of our country calls a public
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Yes, I have stopped beating my wife.
We took a mid-winter break in Toronto recently and unfortunately the wife slipped on some ice at one point and she came home sporting a rather colourful black eye. After a while, you get tired of telling people the real story and you just tell them you will not do
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Crawford Kilian reviews Richard Johnston’s Canadian Party System: An Analytic History, and in the process points out how a sensible federal political system would include the NDP as one of the primary options to form government. And Jamie Maxwell discusses how Jagmeet Singh’s
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: An unscientific method.
On Global’s West Block public affairs show on Sunday, two of the Toronto Star’s remuda of political pundits voiced their opinions on the Monday by-election in Vancouver’s Burnaby South. They both picked new democrat leader Jagmeet Singh. If you were only going to guess at the outcome, that was a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Jagmeet’s winning honeymoon.
Burnaby South electoral district is not your typical first choice for honeymooners. It is no resort. The electoral district is not even middle class, includes migrants from many countries and probably more like many of the heavily ethnic areas of Toronto than of any other Canadian city. Yet it is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Saving the Scenic Salish Sea.
To nobody’s surprise the other day, Canada’s moribund National Energy Board (NEB), once again, approved the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. And once again to the barricades my friends to stop the tripling of the ocean-going tankers manoeuvring under Lions Gate Bridge, through Vancouver Harbour to the Second Narrows
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Potholes on the Yellow Brick Road.
It’s the time of year in Canada. The roller-coaster of ice and snow, melting and freezing, leaves even a yellow brick road a minefield of broken and missing bricks. Dorothy and Toto and their three friends have to watch where they step. With the Cowardly Lion (Justin Trudeau) more familiar
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Washington Post – Could the Green Party Spell Trouble for Justin Trudeau in October?
Justin Trudeau must be so pleased that he reneged on his promise to rid Canada of first-past-the-post elections and the consequent false majorities it has inflicted on the Canadian people. That broken promise, among the litany of his broken promises and outright lies, may be the one that matters most
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Iglika Ivanova discusses how British Columbia can move toward eliminating poverty in its next budget. – Patrick Maze points out the need for Saskatchewan’s education system to be able to rely on stable and sufficient funding. But Alex MacPherson notes that Scott
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Both Eric Levitz and Brian Beutler write that U.S. Democrats need to highlight and fight the class war being waged by the rich, rather than shying away from the real and justified anger it provokes among insecure workers. And Robert Benzie reports on
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The dynamics are different.
When talking about dynamics in politics, we are talking about what will influence the political outcome. And in looking at the upcoming by-elections in three federal electoral districts on February 25, we have to deal with each district as a separate entity. Reading the tea leaves for the three by-elections
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Singing Singh a sad song.
It is understandable to hear that Canadian new democrat supporters are being told to “Singh or swim.” If they have not thought about it before now, time is running out on them. And when a left-wing apologist such as Thomas Walkom writes about Singh in a despondent tone, as though
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Dennis Gruending writes about the difference between genuine populism focused on the interests of the public at large, and the discriminatory politics of the right which are often given the same label: The Oxford English Dictionary defines a populist as someone who is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “We’re off to see the Wizard”
Canadians will face many adventures as they whistle their way down the Yellow Brick Road in 2019. They can travel hand in paw with Dorothy, Toto and their companions. It will not be the predictable adventures with witches and wizards as in L Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of
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