The first time I met Barrie, Ontario politician Patrick Brown, I wondered what this miserable person was doing in politics? He has no personality. He has little grasp of election issues. What I soon learned was that he is a gamer. And his game is politics. He plays the game
Continue readingTag: Provincial Election
Babel-on-the-Bay: Denzil decides to do his duty.
Toronto Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong seems to have heard the clarion call of distant trumpets. He tells people that he is challenging for the Progressive Conservative candidacy in York East electoral district. Knowing the voters in that part of Toronto as I do, this is not really exciting news. While Denzil
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The withering world of Premier Wynne.
Most successful politicians feed on their egos. It is what carries them through the tough times, the questionable times and eases their doubts and concerns. It also blinds then to the disasters of their own creation. For Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, it is her ego that prevents her from realizing
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bad bodings for Brown.
A large piece of the Ontario provincial Conservative’s election campaign went bye-bye the other day. Brown and his buddies must have been sitting around the party headquarters war room contemplating what might have been. The directed verdict of a Sudbury, Ontario judge cut the campaign off at the knees. The
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s like a long race on turf.
The next Ontario general election is scheduled to be held June 7, 2018. This race will be like a mile and a half on the turf track and requires horses with great endurance and energy. That makes it the time for the old and tired to retire. And that is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Brown: No more Mr. Nice Guy.
Ontario Conservative Leader Patrick Brown does not have a problem. He is the problem. His handlers are not sure how to present him to provincial voters. They are concerned that the more people they introduce him to, the fewer people like him. It is not supposed to work that way.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: ‘Corrupt Kathleen’ campaign comes to Canada.
It hardly took long. Sleaze spreads. The Ontario Conservatives had to think of something to overcome their lack of leadership, ethics, ideas and policies. When your party leader is a nobody, you attack the person people know. It makes you feel superior. It worked for Donald Trump did it not?
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Conservative knives are out for Brown.
Have you figured out why Ontario Premier Wynne is looking so smug lately? It has finally occurred to her that she not only has a chance to hold on to power in next year’s election but she is even getting help from Conservatives. Rather than support some of the extreme
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Barrie’s Bad Boy Brown.
There is no reason to worry. The next provincial election is not scheduled until June 7 next year. By then, we should expect that far more Ontario voters are going to realize what a screw-up Brown would be as premier. It is not that he is dishonest, devious and dumb,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: On being nice to Premier Wynne.
It could be hard to get used to doing this. The problem basically is that as a liberal all my life, it is very difficult to accept Kathleen Wynne as a liberal. She is not a liberal and I do not like the way she has been running Ontario. But…(life
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Did he say ‘Premier’ Brown?
It was the kind of chill that our granny used to say was caused by someone walking on her grave. It is the combination of cold and a sad premonition. It was the feeling left the other day when noting Bob Hepburn’s column in the Toronto Star about getting cosy
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: 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: The losers are lurking.
It must be Halloween in the air. Losers from the last federal election are gathering. There will be a provincial election in 2018 and the Conservative losers from the last federal election are jockeying for nominations in provincial electoral districts. The first of these Conservative nominations was for the upcoming
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: Lessons to be learned in Alberta.
The May 5 provincial election in Alberta is unfolding as anticipated. With pundits panicking, reporters rebelling, it will only be the final poll next Tuesday that will tell the real story. And in this cautionary tale of political progress there are entrails to be read that can foretell the political
Continue readingIn This Corner: Stuff Happens, week 15: Oilers clean house, Notley cleans up
The Edmonton Oilers, the widely-despised local hockey squadron, continue to make a lot of news for a team that missed the playoffs. After lucking into the No. 1 draft pick, on Friday the Oilers named former Boston Bruin GM Peter Chiarelli as their major domo of hockey operations. With Bob
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Morning Line: Alberta 2015.
The May 7 provincial election in Alberta is something of a wake up call as Albertans shake themselves from the Tar Sands dream. It was probably the recent Prentice austerity budget more than anything else that told people that times are changing. There is no question but Albertans need to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Alberta stumbles as the Hair’s empire crumbles.
There are at least a couple ridings in Alberta that could attract some smart Liberals for the federal election. Voters in that province are not stupid you know. They might also like to send a message to the Prime Minister after what he has helped to do to the province’s
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: BC NDP candidate resigns over racist comments against First Nations
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Dayleen Van Ryswyk, the BC NDP candidate for Kelowna-Mission, has resigned after the racist comments she made online against Canada’s First Nations surfaced earlier today. She also denigrated French Canadians. Called them bigots. This sad episode will not slow down the New Democrats‘ march to a
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