It seems strange to have a provincial budget that spends close to $200 billion in the coming year and ignores the most vulnerable among us. It is a budget that will increase the provincial debt by about $33 billion and raises no taxes. You have to remember that this is
Continue readingTag: Ontario
Babel-on-the-Bay: The upcoming battle for the GTA.
Some pundits are under the impression that the key battle in the coming federal election is in the greater Toronto area (GTA). They might be able to give logical support for their assumptions but I would not suggest that it is all a done deal. Some things have changed and
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: Moe & Ford, Worst Of Both Worlds
First of all, Doug Ford is a racist, incompetent, buffoon. Ontario NDP calls on Ford to apologize after wrongly accusing Indigenous MPP of vaccine queue-jumping https://t.co/vFyIUC6LeW — CBC Indigenous (@CBCIndigenous) March 11, 2021 CTV: “Premier Doug Ford has apologized after accusing a First Nations MPP who got a vaccine in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Do we give Del Duca a chance?
Having never met Ontario liberal leader Steven Del Duca, I have not had much on which to base an opinion. All I know is that he never impressed me much in Kathleen Wynne’s cabinet. As transportation minister, he stuck his foot in it when he appeared to be pushing Metrolinx
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Feeling the sting of Ford.
It reminds me of the story of the dog and the scorpion. “It’s my nature,” explains the scorpion before they both drown. In Ontario, we are seeing the nature of premier Doug Ford that is taking Ontario into a corrupt past. In the same way as Donald Trump found to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When is Day One of this plan?
It is sad to admit that I am not overly enthusiastic about the Ontario NDP’s environmental plans for 2035. Most people tend to be skeptical of plans for when they are in their 90s. Those of us who realize we are getting older every day, tend to be more interested
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: ‘Dougie did it!’
Mother did not like those words. The youngest of my brothers was Douglas. Of the six kids, he was mother’s pride and joy. She hated to hear the words, ‘Dougie did it’ from everything such as a raid on the cookies to blood splatter. I think she stopped blaming the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The silence of Doug Ford’s lambs.
Sometime in the next couple months, the province of Ontario is expected to offer me the opportunity to get one or two jabs with a needle. This knowledge alone is helping to lift me out of some of my covid-19 doldrums. As I am considered to be among the more
Continue readingThings Are Good: Highways Make Traffic Worse, Transit Improves Traffic
Regular readers of this site already know that highways are amongst the worst ways to move people effectively and also a way to ensure urban development is built to cater to cars instead of human beings. Yet, in Ontario the government wants to build a $6 billion highway to promote
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our failing democracy.
We are all responsible. We are failing to support democracy. We are making bad choices in leaders, bad choices in who represents us and failing to demand that they protect our democratic institutions and customs. And we can only blame ourselves. We need to face the facts: our political parties
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – George Monbiot writes about the COVID disinformation which is so dangerous as to need to be suppressed. Maggie Keresteci, Nili Kaplan-Myrth and Naheed Dosani highlight the need for equity to figure into our plans and messaging about vaccine distribution. And Dakshana Bascaramurty discusses
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ford unlocks his lockdown.
It is not just Ontario residents who are confused. They are in a “lockdown” that nobody understands. The wife and I very much wanted to see an old friend this weekend. We finally figured out that under premier Ford’s lockdown rules, the two of us could not go and visit
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: Good News, Bad News
First, the bad news. The Conservatives in power in Alberta and Ontario are just the worst hypocrites. They told people not to travel, which was the correct advice, but then Ministers and top political staffers are travelling to warm vacations. Would like to see Alberta Premier order his foreign travelling
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Are any conservatives listening?
It is something of a wonder that Jason Kenney, premier of Alberta, Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, and Erin O’Toole, federal conservative leader, are members of the same political party. The only similarity between the three gentlemen is that they all blame Justin Trudeau for their problems, provincially and across
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Homelessness planning during covid
The Calgary Homeless Foundation has just released a 12-city scan of homelessness planning during COVID. It’s a national study (which I authored). My ‘top 10’ overview of the study can be found here.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The auditor versus the label salesman.
It might not be a fair fight but Ontario voters are enjoying it. The ups and downs and the tantrums of former label salesman and now premier Doug Ford are generally entertaining but when he and the province’s auditor general cross swords, the province can see the problems with better
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Back to the Bully Pulpit.
It might have been a term coined by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt but our prime minister Justin Trudeau did the bully pulpit one better. It was living in Rideau Cottage while the official residence at 21 Sussex was under repair. Trudeau did a cuckoo clock single out the front door
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Doug Ford buys Ontario.
Listening to premier Doug Ford blow on about his Buy Ontario pitch brings back memories. After all I go back to the days when the province used to promote doing home renovation jobs in winter “When men and materials are available.” But Doug’s objective is to compete with president-elect Joe
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Colour coding Doug Ford.
A month ago, Ontario premier Doug Ford turned thumbs down on colour coding the severity of the pandemic. Now he tells us the doctors have talked him into doing it. In among the much more interesting American election news the other evening there was an item about the new color
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The kid who couldn’t.
Sam Oosterhoff MPP, is the youngest person, at 19, to be elected to the Ontario legislature. He might also be the MPP with the most to learn. The member for Niagara West received a more dubious first when he was made parliamentary assistant to the minister of education. It must
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