Toronto always has some carefully watched ridings in every federal election. It comes from being a major centre of liberal thinking in Canada and the ongoing schism of the city with its suburbs. There is always a good fight going on somewhere. In the current campaign, people seem to have
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Tommy trudges to the wrong tune.
It is very funny reading the apologists for New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair. They claim he has Quebec in hand and now needs to win the rest of the country. That could be helpful if he could really rely on holding on to the Quebec seats won in Jack Layton’s
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump trumps rational (?) Republicans.
Politics in America is sometimes like a badly edited Hollywood movie. It is not always rational. The recent introduction of Donald Trump as a candidate for the Presidential nomination of the Republican Party is reminiscent of Ross Perot’s wild attempts at the American presidency in the late 1990s. After all,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario’s grannies mud wrestle with Brown.
If you are going to mud wrestle with a political opponent, you had better like the taste of mud. Yet even we are surprised that Ontario’s two political grannies—Premier Kathleen Wynne and her deputy MPP Deb Matthews—are wasting their time in the mud with new Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Vacuous Tory attack ads turn vicious.
Until recently the Conservative attack ads on television have been simply silly as they posed the suggestion that despite his nice hair, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau might not be ready for the job of prime minister. Oddly enough that might have been true of his father in 1968. After less
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Eglinton-Lawrence is the place to be today.
It all comes down to the wire today in what will be one of the most hotly contested Toronto ridings in the October federal election. It is widely assumed by politicos that whoever the riding Liberals pick as their candidate will become the next Member of Parliament. The dour Conservative
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Tommy tours Ontario.
Whoever convinced New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair to paste that smug smile on his face should be cashiered out of the NDP. The poor guy looks more constipated than happy. Now that Mulcair is being exposed to more Ontario voters in this pre-election run up, we are starting to understand
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Dunlop does it up Brown.
When a respected member of the Ontario Legislature resigns his seat so the new party leader can contest the by-election there, the party owes him something in return. But Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop is the real winner as he will not have to serve under Ontario Progressive Conservative Party
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Olivia Chow’s train has left the station.
New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair must be desperate for subjects the media will cover. The other day on his ill-conceived Ontario campaign tour Mulcair was even speculating about Jack Layton’s widow, Olivia Chow, returning to politics. Mulcair is hoping she will run against Adam Vaughan in the downtown Toronto Spadina-Fort
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Liberals are committed to change.
There are lots of changes being bandied about in this coming election. Only the Conservatives want to stay the course but as that appears to be straight downhill, it is not too popular a route. All this talk of change has made looking for differences between the Liberals and New
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Learning about “Caveman Voting.”
Babel-on-the-Bay received some interesting responses from readers to the commentary on the NDP plan to implement Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting if they win a majority in October. One reader supports proportional voting but he does not like the way the New Democrats and other proportional voting supporters want to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is Justin just keeping his powder dry?
You get the impression that the quiet of the federal Liberal campaign is just the wariness of a trap about to be sprung. Maybe the Liberals are waiting to see how parents respond to the Conservative bribe. It seems to be the only thing happening. At this time in the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: NDP promise to change how we vote.
Ontario voters rejected a scheme for mixed member proportional voting in a 2007 referendum because the political parties wanted to appoint party faithful to the provincial parliament so that they would have representation according to the party’s popular vote. That is the scheme that New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair promises
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Candidate: “Staying the course.”
Part 7 of our series for Canada’s federal candidates. ‘If you do not have a plan, you do not know where you are going.’ Every campaign manager should write that on their forehead so that they can study it every day as they shave or put on their makeup. The
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Poloz does because Tories don’t.
Did nobody understand the implications of the Bank of Canada governor’s actions on Monday? Governor Stephen Poloz had no choice but to make the only move he could. He cut the prime rate again. He did no good for anybody. He just made the point. Cutting the prime rate from
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can Harper tell a trade pact from an aid package?
Did you hear that Canada and Ukraine are signing their own free trade deal? The Ukraine had another US$ 5 billion trade deficit last year and Mr. Harper wants to sign a free trade pact. With a population 11 million larger than Canada, Ukraine’s most important trading partner to-date has
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Star candidate or sacrificial lamb?
If the son of late author Mordecai Richler had been offered his choice of electoral districts for the October election, the last choice should have been Toronto-St. Paul’s. This is not New Democratic territory. And while the voters are educated and literate they are not ones to be enthused about
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Do Conservatives consider Justin Trudeau dangerous?
While most Canadians simply laugh off the silly “Trudeau’s not ready” commercials playing with increasing intensity on English-language television, there is another more layered campaign underlying it. This more insidious campaign is spreading through social media and says that Trudeau is ‘dangerous.’ If you have not received the core threats
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair makes his first mistake.
In front of a bored group of children in gym clothes the other day, the Hair announced the obvious: Canada is in an economic ‘downturn.’ Neither he nor Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver has used the ‘Recession’ word. Even with our economy so obviously in the crapper, the Conservatives will
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why the enthusiasm for cap ‘n trade?
Learning about cap-and-trade carbon pricing is not as easy as you might think. If you ever get serious about our world condition, you need to look into schemes such as those proposed by our politicians. Babel-on-the-Bay went on the quest recently when California Governor Jerry Brown, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard
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