There will be many fine words used to describe John Lewis who died last week. He was a leader of the U.S. civil rights movement and the long-serving representative for Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District. But the words that need to be remembered are those attributed to John Lewis himself. In
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Longing for leadership.
Sometime, after August 21, the conservative party hopes to announce the winner of the party’s national leadership. The big question though is does anybody care? What possible difference would it make if Erin O’Toole beat Peter MacKay? It is the same old, same old conservative dogma. It would mean promising
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “When Giants Walked Among Us.”
That line about giants came in an e-mail from a reader the other day. It was referring to the time of Lester B. Pearson, Pierre E. Trudeau, John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. It was a heady time to be involved in politics. It was a time to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Defund Police: Then What?
It reminds me of something out of an old Zane Grey novel. These people who mostly look like they need a job themselves are telling us to take away the money budgeted for police. Are they all so stupid that they think we do not need police? Surely, they do
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Finance Minister Morneau has to go.
(Before warming to today’s topic, I would like to thank the readers who sent their comments on yesterday’s topic. I thought at least five per cent of Canadians could name our last five prime ministers. I now think it might be only two per cent who can name Kim Campbell,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Leadership and legacies.
This was prodded by a reader. He asked me to search my mind for leaders of Canada’s federal parties and determine what I would consider their legacy to the country. It was a somewhat disappointing search. While hardly a recent leader, I started with Sir John A. Macdonald. It is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ford follows mentor Trump.
From the low of being booed at the Raptors’ celebration in Toronto last year, Ontario premier Doug Ford feels it is time to hear some applause. After all the exposure he has gotten from the pandemic, he is ready to go on the road again. Like Donald Trump in the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Pick your battles better Mr. Singh.
As leader of a political party, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh needs to learn to pick his battles with more care. When he says that the person who broke through the gates to Rideau Hall with his truck early this month was treated differently because he is white, Singh is making
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How do we pay the mortgage?
It would have helped last week if finance minister Bill Morneau had paid some attention to the deficit side of our financial snapshot. The problem is that to many Canadians the figures he was discussing were unfathomable. The average citizen does not think of money in billions and trillions. Reality
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: And a sneer from Scheer.
It was difficult to assess all sides of the discussion last week to the finance minister’s snapshot of Canada’s financial position. To be fair, minister Morneau is not a dynamic speaker. You needed time as he droned on to grasp the dimension of the how far this pandemic has taken
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The naiveté of Justin Trudeau.
It is easy to criticize the prime minister. If the prime minister’s office just had a few experienced people to advise Mr. Trudeau, he might not get into some of these awkward situations that plague him. The current kerfuffle over payments to his family by a charity to which he
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bob Rae is PM’s Pick for UN.
Former Ontario NDP premier and former interim leader of the federal liberals, Bob Rae, finally got his father’s old job as ambassador to the United Nations. It is hard to say if this appointment is a slap in the face to the U.N. for not electing Canada to one of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Black thoughts on a hot day.
This pandemic is not over until I get to shoot craps at a local casino. Our backlog of celebrations of lives lost to us is daunting. And I have no idea how the air-conditioning can handle another day of over 30°C. Besides, the local liquor stores are out of my
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trump’s ‘Far-Left’ Fascism.
Donald Trump is obviously testing ideas for the November election. One of his claims in the recent Mount Rushmore speech was to complain about the “new far-left fascism” that is intent on “wiping out” American history. While it is obvious that he has never studied political science, to erroneously mix
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Jason Kenney is ‘All In’ on Keystone XL.
Alberta premier Jason Kenney just went ‘all in’ against a stacked deck. Most of us thought Jason Kenney was smarter than that. He seems to be betting that Donald Trump will win a second term as president of the U.S. in November. It would be the only way that the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The options for Mr. Trump.
Donald Trump has the media guessing. As America heads towards its November election, president Trump is watching his options narrow. As he just plays more and more golf, you cannot assume that he is not doing some thinking. In fact, with the way he plays golf, he has lots of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Del Duca Dumbs Down.
It should have been obvious. Ontario liberal leader Steven Del Duca does not know how to run a political party. So, he copies Justin Trudeau, who has no idea either. Remember back when Justin Trudeau introduced a 50 per cent female cabinet in 2015. He told the media that it
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why are they putting down our country?
We do not need to read this crap. The other day the Toronto Star ran an opinion piece headlined: As an Afro-Indigenous woman being Canadian means living in a nation built on my ancestors’ stolen lands by my ancestors’ slave labour. And why are we putting up with this silly
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ms. May must be mishegus.
Did you hear former green leader Elizabeth May’s latest? After giving up the leadership of her green party, she wants the greens to join up with other losers in the new democratic party. She tops this by then suggesting that the person to lead this gong show is former liberal
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Defunding police not on Toronto’s agenda.
No mayor seems to read his city council better than John Tory in Toronto. With a few simple proposals, Tory defanged the move by the council’s inner-city left wing to cut the police budget. It led to a long day of debate to the disappointment of the downtown councillors as
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