It reminds us that even a stopped clock can be right twice a day. Ontario Conservative Leader Patrick Brown has no policies but we know what he is against. He tells us that he will cancel the Liberal Cap and Trade environmental protection plan. He has no idea what he
Continue readingTag: Provincial Politics
Babel-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: Hyperloop hardly halts high-speed trains.
Do you want to be sent by pipeline down the Montreal-Toronto corridor? They are suggesting that the city to city trip will be in as little as 39 minutes. It sounds like a great idea but I am not sure that 39 minutes of claustrophobia, g-forces and sheer terror would
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In search of leadership.
This is not as simple as Diogenes with his lamp, searching for an honest man. There are many possibilities in life for leadership and many who believe they can fill the need. In Canada, we tend to assume that when the need arises, a leader will step forward. We could
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Does Wynne win with weed?
Everyone seems to be a bit nonplused by the possibility of Premier Kathleen Wynne promoting the sales of marijuana in Ontario. It might not be the best idea to come down the turnpike recently but it is certainly creating consternation. If Wynne and her Liberal sheep continue in their usual
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The water of life.
A handful of snow melting on a peak in the Rockies can become part of a torrent by the time it reaches the ocean. It is the water of life for the creatures of both land and sea. It is a place for salmon to spawn, the creatures of the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Money has its privileges.
They named the provincial Conservative candidate for York-Simcoe the other day. There will be no sweaty contested nomination meeting for former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s kid. Caroline Mulroney got a free pass. And just to drive the point home, at the announcement, she harangued the provincial Liberals for wanting to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The reluctant reformers!
It must have confused Justin Trudeau’s campaign team in the 2015 federal election when they realized that Thomas Mulcair and his New Democratic Party were running to the political right of them. Their first problem in that overly long election campaign was how to stretch out their planned promises. And
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: What is the price of one child?
Children are returning to school at this time of year. In our wisdom, we Canadians have two types of school boards. (This is where our wannabe politicians hang out.) We have a Catholic Board and a public board. The Catholic board must be the junior kindergarten of politics. It is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Fear of Ford.
Is he, or isn’t he? Is Doug Ford running for the mayoralty in Toronto next year or for the Progressive Conservatives in the provincial election? And who cares anyway? Oddly enough that is a matter that is mainly of concern to provincial politicians. Incumbent Mayor John Tory, who wants another
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: For love of country.
Travel in Europe, Asia and throughout North America has helped strengthen my love for Canada. When people in other countries tell me how much they admire our country, I rarely try to explain that we are still a work in progress. There is no need to tell them that we
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Tories’ Brown can’t get traction.
You would think that Ontario Conservative Leader Patrick Brown would be sitting pretty these days. We have Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne clinging to power and the New Democrat’s Andrea Horwath disappearing from the radar. It spells nothing but opportunity for an eager leader nobody knows. But one of our readers
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In the Fascist Fashion.
We should be worried about what happened in Quebec City the other day. It was not just unseemly. It certainly was not funny. They came for a fight, to create and to foster mayhem. For an insular society, these Quebecers brought dishonour to their country and their province. The fascists,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The trial of Kathleen Wynne.
The trial is set to begin in Sudbury, Ontario on September 7. We would ignore the trial and its political implications if it did not involve the present Premier of Ontario. Mind you Kathleen Wynne will spend most of the trial on the sidelines. She is not charged with a
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: Better Living with Bitumen.
Reading an apologist for Alberta’s tar sands exploiters the other day, we learned that the little town of Hardisty, Alberta is the hub of a North American maze of pipelines. This town of 550 people can store up to 25 million barrels of diluted bitumen before sending it east, south
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: She could use her married name.
The question was: What would help Brian Mulroney’s daughter win a seat in the Legislature in the next Ontario provincial election? The obvious answer is to use a different name. It might be a quarter century since Canadian voters turfed Brian Mulroney’s Conservatives (then led by Kim Campbell) and left
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Murray dumps Wynne.
“Don’t let the door handle hit you in the ass on the way out, Glen!” The good news is that Ontario Environment Minister Glen Murray is leaving the Wynne cabinet in Ontario. The bad news is that his new job is as executive director of Alberta’s namby-pamby Pembina Institute. It
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s the wrong argument on minimum wage.
Arguing about how many in Ontario work for a minimum wage is silly. Governments always seem to be trailing the curve on this problem. It is the people who are falling behind who need to get ahead of the poverty line. Can you imagine a serious writer suggesting that a
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