The Prime Minister must be smiling. You can tell because his make-up is a bit askew. Someone told him that his favourite newspaper wants to get rid of Question Period in the House of Commons. As he explained to an aide, “Without Question Period, I would never have to show
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Ontario’s booze battle becomes a bar brawl.
Remember in the old western movies when the bad guy would punch the hero and everyone in the bar got into the fight. That is how it feels now that people are getting involved in the argument about beer, wine and liquor sales in Ontario. It started as a dignified
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lord Cross-the-Pond still ponders.
Finding another commentary by Lord Cross-the-Pond, Conrad Black, in this past weekend’s National Post only proves that he really needs something serious to do. And we can assure him that his friend Paul Godfrey needs no help in running the National Post and Sun Media newspapers into the ground until
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It is recess time in the Ontario PC leadership.
It is like a middle school recess time. You should not need playground monitors but it is still a good idea to periodically look outside and make sure there are no brawls. We are pleased to report that nothing very much is happening that was not expected to happen. What
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is Canada racist? No. Is there racism in Canada? Yes.
The announcements of the concern about racism the other day in Winnipeg came as no surprise. That part of this country has been trying to stuff the racism genie back in the bottle since the confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers was the site of an early trading post.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: If there is Will, he will find a way.
Not being a regular reader of the Washington Post, we might not have read many columns by George F. Will. It was only when Toronto’s National Post picked up one of his commentaries last weekend that we had the fun of trying to figure out how his mind works—or maybe
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair regrets his fixed voting dates.
The best laid schemes of mice and Hair often go for nought. (Robbie Burns said that much better.) Fixed election dates for Canada were an easy promise to keep back in 2006 but they have never really worked well for the Hair. With a looming election date of October 19
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bobbsey twin booed by Bedouins.
They are displeased with Canada in Ramallah. Palestinians threw eggs, shoes and insults at Canada’s foreign minister the other day in the acting capital of the Palestinian State in the West Bank. And this Bobbsey twin deserved every curse, epithet and derisive comment that he received. And he should get
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Oh, to be middle class again.
Are you old enough to remember when being middle class was the place to be? That was back when you had a detached house in the suburbs with a two-car garage (full of bicycles), two kids and three televisions. You lived from paycheque to paycheque but you could still go
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What a difference a day makes in a Tory budget.
Did you see Finance Minister Joe Oliver’s dance of the seven veils last week? This guy is right in his element playing Peek-a-Boo. At least it makes more sense than his budgets—if we even get one this year? When last heard from the other day, he said he might have
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin Trudeau, it’s time for statesmanship.
The handwriting on the wall is clear and unequivocal. It says “Justin Trudeau, you have been tried and found wanting.” Both the Conservatives and New Democrats are going to attack down that street. And they will give no quarter. Their claims will be that as Liberal Leader, Justin has no
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It is time for Ontario to grow up.
Visualize this: Ed Clark of TD Bank and former banker Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa are in Sousa’s Queen’s Park office. They have their $600 brogues up on Charles’ desk and each a substantial glass of single malt scotch in hand. You can smell the scent of the peat bogs
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne’s Whigs not warming to Sudbury weather.
The cold seems to bite through the thickest thermal clothing at this time of year in Sudbury. Yet the Super Stack in Copper Cliff still dominates, layering the city in its customary grey after each snowfall. The February 5 by-election just adds to the greyness of the scene. Mind you
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A friendly note to the American Congress.
Hey you jerks, please do not do that for us. We do not want the Keystone XL pipeline either. Canadians who care are firmly against any pipelines that try to pump bitumen to the sea. That tar sands stuff is three times as polluting as West Texas crude oil. Why
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can the Hair win whenever?
No matter when the Prime Minister decides to call the election (we will still give odds on October), the only important question is: Can he be beaten? We would advise all you pundits, pollsters and politicos to hold off your bets until the writ comes down. That is when Babel-on-the-Bay
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Will Chief Blair also use the Nuremburg defence?
Lawyers at the disciplinary hearing over a senior Toronto police officer’s actions during the G20 fiasco want Police Chief Bill Blair called to testify. The hearing should also hear why Chief Blair has not been charged with the same offences. Here it is almost five years later and the real
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Isn’t ‘journalistic integrity’ an oxymoron?
Did you know that Shaw Media has a book of standards for its journalists? It makes you wonder why. Did you know that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation used to have a guy whose job it was to maintain the corporation’s high standards(?). In a world of smoke and mirrors, the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Raising a glass to Sir John Eh?
Never try to compare the mausoleums and monuments of Washington to the pathetic honours of Ottawa. Today might or might not be the 200th anniversary of Sir John A. Macdonald’s birth in Scotland. (The records are confused.) He deserves our remembrance, our thanks and our criticisms. Creating our wonderful country
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s small beer from Ontario’s beer cartel.
It’s too little, too late and frankly insulting. The foreign-owned brewers who own Ontario Beer Stores have seen the writing on the wall and think they can negotiate out of the mess of their own making. The beer giants have offered to sell a position in a few beer stores
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne is destroying democracy in Ontario.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne does not seem to know much about democracy. She got her present job because of a corrupted controlled convention. She thinks she can just appoint whichever candidate she wants in by-elections. She really does not understand that her attitude is what is helping destroy democracy in
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