Julian Fantino is in trouble again. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is so bereft of talent in his Conservative Party ranks in Ottawa that he felt he had to give former Toronto and Ontario top cop Fantino the Veterans’ Affairs portfolio. That choice could haunt Harper long after he is thrown
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Harper has his hair, Trudeau has balls.
Canadians now know the definitive difference between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. And it is not just that Trudeau takes action and Harper takes your money. Harper only talks about Senate reform; Trudeau does something about Senate reform. He has kicked the Liberal Senators out of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In Ontario, if it is worth doing, do half.
Premier Kathleen Wynne and her government have a unique approach to solving Ontario problems. If and when enough of the right people have told them that something needs to be fixed, they form a committee of the right sort of people to study the situation and await the committee’s recommendations.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Welcome back, Mr. Harper and the Sweathogs.
In the late 1970s American TV sitcom, Welcome back, Kotter, the character played by comedian Gabe Kaplan returned to his old high school to teach a remedial class of misfits. Somehow, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Senate misfits seem to be replaying the series. They are not only almost as
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The might, the right and the fight.
Back in the 1800s when Oliver Mowat was Premier of Ontario, he had his best fights not with his provincial opponents but with the federal government. His skill as a politician and his knowledge of how to pick his fights kept him in the premier’s office for 24 years. It
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Measuring the generation factor.
Pollsters must pull their hair about it. They cannot get reliable readings on the under 30s. They are not sure they understand the mindset. These young people are not easy to survey. The pollsters know that this age group will be a major factor in the next federal election but
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: By-elections that matter to the news media.
It is all part of the game with the news media. It is their opportunity to interfere in events. When it comes to reporting on politics, the news media and their pals, the pollsters, are combatants, not spectators. And they relish the role. Consider their positions in the current provincial
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It is all in the flag you carry.
It was wonderful to hear that Hayley Wickenheiser will be carrying the Canadian flag at the Sochi Winter Games. The four-time medal winner in women’s hockey will be tall and proud with the pride of carrying our flag. But there seems to be a flag missing in the planning for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The hollow triumph of Jean Chrétien.
They lionized former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien the other evening. Many Conservatives were there to honour him. Not all liberals attended. Some could not afford the $400 per plate tab. Some even disagreed with him being a great prime minister. It did not always seem that he was doing the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What does the Hair know about anti-Semitism?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was born too late. There was little left of the anti-Semitism of the 1930’s and 40s in Toronto when he was born in 1959. He lacked the opportunity to learn first hand what it means. He had no understanding of the images he was using when
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A not quite raging argument on royalty?
Always looking for material pro or con the royals, there was a web site discovered the other day that looked like a goldmine of liberal thought on Canada’s relationship with the monarchy. The immediate disappointment was that the last posting was over a year ago. Regrettably the search was in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Québéc’s PQ feeds on bigotry.
The Québéc government’s Charter of Values proposal is earning the province ridicule. Premier Pauline Marois and her Parti Québécois government think it will make francophones in the province hunker down and blame everything on the rest of Canada. But it is their own supporters who are making out the péquistes
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair takes a full Airbus to Israel.
We hear that Prime Minister Harper filled his A310 Airbus for his historic trip to Israel. This marks a new trend in tourism for the Prime Minister. Until the trip to Nelson Mandela’s funeral, he was content to take his hairdresser and a few lackeys to help carry his luggage.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario needs a dose of reality.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has committed. She has called for pointless by-elections in the electoral districts of Thornhill and Niagara Falls in February. It is a waste of time, money and political capital. She could have done the right thing as a politician by calling a provincial election. But, frankly,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who can afford what tar sands offer?
It was a headline in the Toronto Star Business Section: “Now or never for oilsands, executives say.” The answer that came immediately to mind was “How about never.” The Toronto Star story was quoting Brian Ferguson, chief executive of Cenovus Energy and Russ Girling, chief executive of TransCanada, the pipeline
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Better a random act of kindness.
In a rushed lead written in Twitter yesterday, there was some unnecessary meanness. It was not intended. It just appeared in the Twitter space and was carelessly left there because there were other things needing attention. What started as humour became something else. It is a very human fault. The
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Causing Conservative Controversy.
Is a Conservative Party uprising in the offing? No. Is there dissension in the ranks? Yes. The importance of this for their opponents is that we have to pay attention and help keep the scabs from forming over these tears in the fabric of Canadian Conservatism. Nobody wants to smooth
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Tory’s Hudak is now an illusionist.
Ontario Opposition Leader Timmy Hudak has a new career in mind. He wants to be a carnival illusionist. In an op-ed opinion page article yesterday in the Toronto Star, he was proposing a Million Jobs Act. This act, as he describes it, would be a masterful illusion in the category
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In this star-struck age?
It was back in the 1970s in an advertising agency boardroom in New York, the president of the Canadian Multiple Sclerosis Society was being given a preview of that year’s proposed advertising campaign for the U.S. Multiple Sclerosis Society. The ads, headlined by Frank Sinatra and similar luminaries, were slick
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Choose early, repent longer.
It really is foolish. There was a commentary the other day by Bob Hepburn of the Toronto Star that Toronto liberals are in a quandary about this year’s mayoralty race in their city. Bob is a bit early in suggesting that liberals need to make any decision. The problem for
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