Watching the news conference events last week at Toronto’s Liberty Village, you could not help but note what a modern setting it would be for a wedding. This must have been just a rehearsal though as Premier Kathleen Wynne and Finance Minister Charles Sousa delivered their promises. They even had
Continue readingTag: Premier Wynne
Babel-on-the-Bay: You can call it a ‘Wynne Win.’
Ontario’s political pundits are all running with scissors these days forecasting the resignation of Premier Kathleen Wynne. Quite properly, she is scoffing at these rumours and promising to carry on. It could be the death knell of the Liberal’s dynasty of the last 14 years. But is it? In a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Did April Fool come early this year?
We read in the Toronto Star the other day about some ‘go-bold’ re-election strategy being used by Premier Kathleen Wynne. We practically wet our pants laughing until we realized the item was written by Bob Hepburn. Bob has always been a quite astute observer of things political for the Star
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The silliness of slagging Sorbara.
This could have run Wednesday but there is really no point in running more than one commentary per day. The problem here is that it does not matter if someone has managed war rooms or washrooms there is absolutely no point to slagging former Liberal MPP Greg Sorbara for telling
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A liberal look at leadership.
Ontario Liberals are finally realizing that there is a problem at Queen’s Park. It appears to be endemic. It affects every political party on the premises. It is the serious lack of leadership. Even the Liberal Party backbenchers are drawing lots to see who will be the Cassius who drives
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Where are Ontario politics headed?
There have been some political polls in Ontario recently that have caused a buzz in the news media. If the media had just checked back to before the last provincial election, they would have seen a similar pattern in the public preferences a year before that election. It certainly supports
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: For whom the Tolls Toll.
The premier’s office at Queen’s Park in Toronto has many roles. One of those is as a woodshed wherein one disciplines recalcitrant municipal minions who fail to realize that the provincial party in power makes all the rules. There was an awkward bit on a news clip last week of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Premier Wynne: Colour her gone.
It seems more and more likely that Premier Kathleen Wynne and her Ontario Liberals are on the slippery side of the slope. Nothing says it more emphatically than the situation in which we find ourselves here in Babel. (You know Babel as Barrie, Ontario.) We are less than two years
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Not everyone hates Premier Wynne.
It is too bad that Ontario Premier Wynne has no politically smart advisors or staff. Here it is the first week of 2017 and the foolish lady is deep in the do-do of her own making. By selecting the beginning of January to launch her ill-fated cap and trade program,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The grandstanding of Patrick Brown.
People who prefer to grandstand in politics can be a pain in the ass. There are times when a politician should to take a stand on an issue but that is when you can reason and suggest alternatives to help solve the problem. Our Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Does Wynne cry for liberalism?
Did you hear that Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne got all teary at the Liberal Party gathering this past weekend? Not being there, are we to assume these were crocodile tears or tears of frustration? Or were they just a notation on her script saying ‘tears here’? You never know what
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Protecting public assets.
What government, municipal, provincial or federal, has not looked longingly to selling off public companies as a fast way to some ready cash? The government can promise to do nothing but good with the money. The only problem is that once the asset is gone, there is no more revenue
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How far Bill Davis’ party has fallen.
We can admit it now but could not when he was Premier of Ontario, Bill Davis is a decent guy. As much as he likes to pose as the bastion of the right, Bill has always liked people and is a caring, compassionate person. If he was much younger and leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: No guts, no glory, no re-election.
Ontario’s Liberals have to stop whistling past the graveyard. That American idiom means that they are ignoring sure destruction. And nothing said it better than the recent rebooting of the Legislature with a joke of a throne speech read by the Lieutenant Governor. It was no throne speech. It was a stop-gap to oblivion. It […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Winning ways for Wynne.
Ontario’s news media might be a little premature in wringing their hands and writing eulogies for Ontario’s Liberal government. With something like 30 per cent of the voters turning out for the September 1 by-election, the portent is nothing more than the local Liberals need to work a bit harder. But that also applies to […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What’s up with Wynne?
It is certainly easy to forget about Kathleen Wynne’s Ontario Liberals during such a beautiful summer. They hardly do anything worthwhile the rest of the year but then they take the summer off and do less. The only member of the Liberal cabinet who has been putting in some hours has been Health Minister Erik […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Brown tries outrage over Hydro.
It depends where you sit in the Ontario Legislature. The government benches mainly consider Ontario Hydro a golden goose. The opposition benches always consider it the government’s Achilles heel. And it seems the powers that be at all the disparate parts of Hydro think they can charge customers whatever they need to meet the government’s […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The new and few principles of Mr. Brown.
Ontario’s provincial Conservative Party leader should have a clearly lettered sign on his chest saying ‘Help send this boy to the premier’s office.’ That way people would have a clue who he is and know that he will do or say anything to get there. If he thought discarding his long pants and painting his […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Fool some people some of the time.
You sometimes wonder what ‘progressive’ means. Babel-on-the-Bay is included in a collection of blogs by progressive Canadian writers. We have come to the conclusion that is a very broad description when you read some of the blogs. With the limited political activity at this time of the year, it is often no surprise that these […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Polls and other time wasters.
A friend in Barrie called and left a message the other day about public opinion polls that said Conservative Leader Patrick Brown was more acceptable as premier than Liberal Kathleen Wynne. He was aghast that a nebbish such as Brown would even be considered as a serious candidate for the job of premier. What he […]
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