We have heard from the front lines of the coming federal election. Our first of many big, full-colour brochures from our local Conservative candidate hit the door last week just ten months before the coming election. This elaborate missive told us probably more than it wanted to about our Conservative
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Selling what you don’t understand.
Only a banker could dream up this one. Former TD Bank head Ed Clark insists on the Ontario government selling electricity distribution to private sector people who could then make a profit from other people who would have no choice but to buy their electricity from them. We have it
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau’s “Free, open, transparent nominations.”
Do you want honesty or do you just want to get rid of the Harper Conservatives? That seems to be the conundrum facing members of Canada’s Liberal Party. The fact is that Justin Trudeau has lied to the party. He did not have much of a platform when he won
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Causing premature election.
We always knew that having fixed elections in Canada would cause the same problems as in the United States. You end up in an almost permanent condition of premature election. Take right now in Canada. The pundits and pollsters are already in full election mode when we are ten months
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Defining public-private partnerships.
Before damning something, we should always be careful to say what we are talking about. The recent report of the Auditor General of Ontario has brought about a spate of discussions about public-private partnerships which seem to deal with many different relationships between the public and private sector. Having been
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Arm-wrestling with police services.
Just like Toronto Mayor John Tory, this writer once thought he could make a difference on the local Police Services Board. The boards are made up of elected municipal politicians and citizen appointees. This resolve was strengthened the first time we saw the local Police Services Board chair stand up
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Time to retire Mr. Chiarelli.
Some people age faster than others. There are people in their 80s who you would swear were 20 years younger. And then there are people such as Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli. Sure he is only in his early 70s but he should know better than to act as he
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Beer Store on a slow news day.
You know it is a slow news day when the Toronto Star gives front page space to beating on Ontario’s awful Beer Store. It is one subject Babel-on-the-Bay and the Toronto Star certainly agree on. The point is that times have changed and the Beer Store has not. This smelly,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: ‘Harpernomics’ is in the dumpster.
Hold on to your hats folks. Mr. Harper’s chickens have come home to roost. We let Stephen Harper blow off our manufacturing in Ontario and Quebec. We let the Conservatives spend millions on fictional economic action plans that neither made sense nor worked. And they built this Canadian oil economy
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Did you think Gordon Gibson was a Liberal?
Life is a journey and Gordon Gibson’s travels from the Prime Minister’s Office of 1968 to 1972 to being a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute in 2014 were unusual. Not that his ideas have improved much over the years. He wrote in the Globe and Mail last week that
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Politically correct sex?
What is this sham we are presenting to younger generations of Canadians? Our federal politicians seem to have their heads in their pants as they “tut-tut” about human sexuality. With no meaningful debate, the Conservative’s twisted new prostitution laws have come into effect. Justin Trudeau has punished two Liberal MPs
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s those toxic tailing ponds.
It makes you wonder. When we first heard of the vast tailing ponds for Alberta’s bitumen production, we were concerned about what they were leaching into the rivers. We knew the ponds were loaded with a witches’ brew of toxins and heavy metals but we did not understand how much.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: These people can’t even spell ‘Rabbit.’
There is a group in Toronto promoting ranked balloting in municipal elections. They call themselves RaBIT. This means Ranked Ballot Initiative in Toronto. They seem to be also linked to the Fair Vote people—the ones who tell you your vote will not count unless your candidate wins. If it was
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The one in short pants ‘no’s’ electricity.
Our boy from Barrie is stirring up a storm on his way to the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives. At the first of the party debates in Sudbury, he did not even explain why he decided to dump on his friends at Campaign Life Coalition who have now downgraded
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Tory-Wynne Two-Step.
They might not be Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (if you are old enough to remember the era) but Toronto Mayor John Tory and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne have more than voters in common. Tory is a left-leaning Conservative and Wynne is a right-leaning Liberal. And they dance to the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair helps with bigger bribes.
We are supposed to appreciate how the Hair helped Michaëlle Jean become the new head of the la Francophonie. While not outwardly supporting Canada’s former governor general, the Hair reminded everyone at the summit of the $500 million Canada will be providing over the next five years to vaccinate children
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Tory takes over in Toronto.
The problem is that we sometimes get what we ask for. On February 10 this year Babel-on-the-Bay was pleased to note that John Tory would be running for mayor of Toronto. The tell-tale signal was that he was sporting a new toupée. That was a most worthwhile investment. It carried
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Here comes Santa Péladeau.
Have Quebec’s little péquistes been good boys and girls this year? Has Santa Claus ever got a treat for them! While you almost wet your pants laughing at Pierre-Karl Péladeau’s news conference with Pauline Marois early in 2014, what can you do when the irrepressible PKP really does decide he
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The hard heart of the Hair.
You could barely hear over the running up of the A310 engines at Ottawa Airport. The Hair and his chatelaine stood at the door of the giant aircraft waving goodbye to their adoring throng from the Prime Minister’s Office. It sounded something like: “Suck it up folks. I’m going where
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Mainly because Wall wants EnergyEast.
Ontario and Quebec Premiers Wynne and Couillard are welcoming Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall. He is making sales calls on behalf of TransCanada’s EnergyEast pipeline. He will probably be wearing one of those big white hats that most oil men like to affect. Not that Wall is really an oil man
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