Toronto’s Yonge Street Subway bisects Toronto from Union Station at Front Street to 15.7 kilometres north at Bishop Avenue, just above Finch Avenue. It is at this northern terminus that the Enbridge Line 9B crosses Yonge Street. This is the 30-inch crude oil pipeline that used to carry crude oil
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Babel-on-the-Bay: The silence of Stephen Harper.
You do not necessarily think of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a quiet person. When you see television news clips of him in the House of Commons or addressing a Conservative crowd, he is talking. That is your image of him. But that public image is wrong. We were presented
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Standing by in Britain and South Africa.
Watching a network promotion on Global Television the other day, we learned the details of the network’s royal baby watch in England. The watch is orchestrated under the aegis of the network’s Entertainment Tonight program. This is the program that is constantly promoted on the network’s newscasts for those concerned
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne’s Whigs deny democracy.
It is probably the most anti-democratic news out of Queen’s Park since Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty quit and prorogued the Legislature last year. It was bad enough that Premier Kathleen Wynne chose the Thursday before a long weekend for the vote in five by-elections. The two-week period before and after
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Finding the political middle.
The political middle in Canadian politics is a ghost. Many speak of it but nobody has ever found it. Instead, we are a country that compromises in extremes. It remains easy to locate the Conservatives, Libertarians, Communists and New Democrats in the political spectrum but, to many, the Liberals remain
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The bother of bitumen.
It should be made clear: bitumen is not oil. Distilled, bitumen becomes asphalt pitch, refined it can become synthetic oil. Bitumen is not ‘heavy oil’ and it is a lengthy, highly polluting process to convert Canada’s Athabasca tar sands into synthetic oil. While we can compute the hundreds of billions
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Honouring Canadian accomplishments.
We need to do a better job of recognizing real accomplishments by Canadians. We have people in this country who commit heroic deeds, overcome seemingly impossible obstacles, show unexpected leadership, excel in the arts and sometimes commit random acts of kindness. We need to find appropriate and balanced ways to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: July 1, 2013, Canada is 410 years young.
From that first explorer’s trip against the current of the St. Lawrence River, Canada began the transition to a country. And our ancestors came to build it. We were the detritus of Europe, the scoundrels of Asia, the displaced of Africa and we created a new north for the Americas.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why is Ontario buying into by-elections?
By-elections are sometimes fun but the five coming up in Ontario will be a serious waste of time and money. Why are we doing it? What will we prove? All five electoral districts were formerly held by Liberals. They are Liberal seats to lose. If the Liberals lose just one,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Big Brother blows the bitumen bugle.
When you live in a country where most of the news media is controlled by friends of the government, do you think you should believe all the news? Do you believe that Big Brother loves you? Do you believe that the managed media are on your side? Do you believe
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Babel backs a ballot bollix.
A year ago, there was an interesting meeting with the City Clerk in Babel. A very charming and knowledgeable person, she was generous with her time and interested in the subject of the meeting. It was about the voting system used for Babel municipal elections. It was suggested to the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: And that must be the length of it.
When you are always intending to write something about blogs and finally get around to it, you wonder why. As a blogger, you should be able to say something positive about the practice. It is neither illegal nor immoral, we hope. The fact is that most bloggers are cranky egotists.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The delayed masquerade of the Tories.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been saved by the rain on the plain. With Calgary recovering from serious flood conditions, it is no time for a Conservative Convention. Stephen Harper must think that God is smiling on him. If he had his way, the convention would never happen. He does
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Does that mean he “Coyned” it?
It was National Post political columnist Andrew Coyne who used the term. He wrote that “Toryism, in its current incarnation, resembles less an ideology than a pathology.” If too many Conservatives look up those big words, Post Media Publisher Paul Godfrey will be getting demands to fire Coyne. Obviously this
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Harper’s homeboy, Hudak.
Ontario television viewers saw a new attack advertisement the other day. It looked like another attack advertisement by the Conservatives. And it was. It was just not by the federal Conservatives but by our Conservative Lights in Ontario. Even so, why does it not work the same? The Ontario Conservatives
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Some summer talking points for Justin.
There was a wonderful picture of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and resigning MP Bob Rae as they walk down a corridor in the Centre Block of Parliament the other day. The picture was of the two men from the rear. You did not need the caption to tell you who
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Babel Backward has an editor?
It came as a surprise when reading all the self-congratulatory stories in the Babel Backward (our name for the Toronto Star’s local grocery-flyer wrap, Barrie Advance). We found out that the credit for exposing the Prime Minister’s Office to the ridicule it deserved is being claimed by the publication’s editor
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A thoughtful farewell to Bob Rae.
This is not a form of eulogy. We will probably have Bob Rae to kick around for some time to come. He was never our favourite Premier of Ontario. He and his provincial treasurer were suckered by that so-and-so Tom d’Aquino from the Business Council and Bob’s administration went down
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Playtime at the PMO.
Who is running things in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)? They are acting like out-of-control children and they need an adult hand on the helm. The communications people are not only acting juvenile, careless and gullible but they do not appear to know very much about the news media. Would
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: But how was Harper’s golf score?
Hopefully, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a better golf score than German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It really does not make sense for the world leaders to meet at a golf course in Northern Ireland and not play a round. Surely they all know that all work and no play makes
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