Patrick Brown MPP needs to decide whether he is his provincial party’s leader or its chief apparatchik. In politics, an apparatchik is a person who usually toils in the background of a party coming up with and implementing strategies and tactics with which to win power. Watching Mr. Brown at work in politics over the […]
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Babel-on-the-Bay: In the doldrums of a Canadian winter.
Not even Bonhomme Carnaval can cure the January-February blahs this year. Eating and drinking too much in Quebec City might be a popular pastime at this time of year but you also used to have the option of heading south soon afterward. Sure you can. If you can find a warm spot where our 70-cent […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin: On electoral versus constitutional reform.
In a sit-down conversation with Justin Trudeau about six years ago, it was immediately obvious that he is an emotional person and as easy to read as an open book. Other than being eager to get him into a poker game, it was interesting to test his reaction to some basic political propositions. While he […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How far can electoral reform go?
Because it is 2016, the question should be asked: Will we have thorough discussion on the question of electoral reform? Or will the questions be decided just by votes in parliamentary committee and parliament? And the question is important as the Trudeau Liberals are hoping they can find a solution that can be supported by […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: You don’t get much for $300 million!
Inflation is an unfeeling brute. By the time the Trudeau government brings our six aging F-18s back from the Middle East, Canadians will have spent close to $300 million on the exercise. Obviously it is not cheap to maintain modern jet fighters half way around the world from home. The question is will they have […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justice denied: The Yatim trial.
At one time the Toronto police force was among the most respected in Canada. It had the overwhelming support and trust of the citizens it served. That is no longer true. The trial of Constable James Forcillo for murdering Sammy Yatim has told Toronto citizens that the police consider themselves above the law. The lesson […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is that Alberta bitumen still flowing?
It will never have the panache of “Bombs bursting in air” but someone in Alberta needs to write a patriotic song about the products of Alberta’s tar sands. The current battle between Alberta politicians and Montreal area mayors is on that grand a scale. In a battle between Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre and TransCanada Pipelines […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin’s chorus demonizes first-past-the-post.
Nowhere in the Canadian voting handbook does it say that we are committed to voting for all the promises of the party we choose in an election. Even as a card-carrying Liberal, we have the right to tell the Prime Minister that one of his promises is foolish and should not happen. Specifically, his promise […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: You betcha it’s the Trump team!
The leaders of America’s Republican Party have already picked the team that will take on the world when it wins the November election. They are betting on billionaire Donald Trump and the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. And here you thought that the Republicans would want to temper Trump’s tirades with a more politically acceptable […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Will nobody come to Canada’s party?
Canada will be 150-years old next year. Even the Harper Conservatives were going to celebrate that. As it looks now, there might not be much of a party. “Hard times” we are told. The private sector wants to save its money. The public sector does not want to be seen spending money. So cake and […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Babel-on-the-Bay gets its share of comments.
Readers must have thought we were asking for comments the other day when we wrote about a “Path for New Democrat Mulcair.” The discussion of a merger of the Liberals and NDP is certainly a lightening rod subject. Mind you the first reader to contact us wanted to know the meaning of the term “promiscuous […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Postmedia should axe Paul Godfrey.
Watching Postmedia bleed red ink is a Canadian pastime on the scale of the vanishing tar sands and those perennial losers, Toronto’s hockey team. The difference is that the tar sands were done in by the Saudis and the Maple Leaf team owners do not care because the fans pay anyway. It is Paul Godfrey’s […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A path for New Democrat Mulcair.
This might generate more sour e-mails from annoyed socialists but it needs to be said: New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair does have a role to play in Canadian politics. While Babel-on-the-Bay knew his mission to keep the NDP in second place in parliament was doomed throughout 2015, we hold to our suggestion of the time. […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Rosie jumps in where soldiers fear to tread.
The Toronto Star’s Rosie DiManno has all the answers about the war against the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Her advice to the new Trudeau government ran Monday in the Star. Keep our F-18s in the Mid-East she advises. She has little understanding of what that costs and the small amount […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In defence of our nation’s capital.
Ottawa is a wonderful city. No it is not Paris. Paris is a city in its own right. France needs Paris because that is where the action is. It creates the culture. To most Parisians the location of France’s seat of government is irrelevant to their daily lives. And in some ways, you could say […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Sub-Continent votes won’t help Brown.
He must be joking. Toronto Star writer Martin Regg Cohn tells us that there is some sort of contest going on for the votes of the Sub-Continent Diaspora in Ontario. If Opposition Leader Patrick Brown and Premier Kathleen Wynn are really in this contest, it seems like a foolish expense for a larger portion of […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: O’Leary is out of his league.
If there was any redemption for the Dragons’ Den show on CBC television it was not financier Kevin O’Leary. He represented what we have always seen as the weakness of Canadian venture capitalists. He always seemed to represent the type of venture fund that demands to put their own face on the ideas of others. […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The charmed life of Justin Trudeau.
It started over morning coffee. The wife was lamenting the price of cauliflower. Frankly, she was the only one at the table who gave a damn about cauliflower. We had to listen anyway. And somehow the conversation got around to Prime Minister Trudeau. There was a front-page picture of him at Toronto City Hall. The […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What? Ontario politics corrupt?
The reason this writer has retained a membership in the Ontario Liberal Party for many years has nothing to do with approving what is going on. It is the belief that the change that is so desperately needed has to come from within the party. Nobody can effect the reforms needed from outside. Any long-term […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Time for Republicans to act grown-up.
Sitting here in Canada and looking south gives us an overview of American politics. It is only recently that there has been a lot of cringing from what we are seeing. Republican candidate Donald Trump brings an entirely new depth of despair to the race for the U.S. Presidency. He seems to have too few […]
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