Some observers consider it just arrogance but the problems of Kathleen Wynne’s Ontario government could be based on a subconscious desire to end the sham. And they could end it if there was any plausible replacement government to them at hand. But maybe that is why it comes across as arrogance. Take this new Energy […]
Continue readingTag: Provincial Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: Are we the happiest taxpayers?
According to the Ontario government your choices of booze, beer and wine are now at your finger tips. “We deliver” we are told. It all seems to be designed to sell more booze in a faux atmosphere of responsibility and restriction. What is annoying though is that it is all designed to add to the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Jason Kenney’s double duty summer.
Do super heroes ever rest? Not super heroes such as Calgary’s Honourable Jason Kenney MP. He is doing double duty this summer with the challenges to save Ottawa for democracy and to save Alberta for right-wing politicos. The work of a super hero is obviously never done. In Ottawa this summer the fat and 48-year […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Black Lives Matter organizers should get stuffed.
People who have worked with pop-up organizations over the years have learned to be wary. There are just too many that work the “poor-me” street and trade on Canadians’ instinctive succour of the underdog. While we have been trying to stay away from the subject of these people, it is clear that group calling itself […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Going ‘All In’ on bitumen.
There were two stories in the Toronto Star the other day from Canada’s western oil patch. The major story was the one by business writer David Olive on Suncor’s gutsiest bet yet on Athabasca bitumen. The other story never mentioned bitumen. It is a Canadian Press story out of North Battleford, Saskatchewan where the city […]
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: HOT highway lanes are hilarious.
Was that not a joke recently that Ontario is going to have a lottery to test paying for highway space on public highways? Was April Fools Day held over? That makes the Wynne cabinet the fools. High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes were just silly. HOT is stupid. And they think Ontario drivers are going to […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Jason Kenney ambles westward.
It is certainly not wedding bells that are breaking up the old Stephen Harper gang. Can you imagine Jason Kenney—Harper’s minister of everything—answering to the call of the West? It seems he is buckling on his six-guns and ambling west to have a shoot-out with Miss Rachel to decide who rules the Edmonton Legislature. To […]
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: PSST, there’s cider at a few grocers.
The Province of Ontario slipped that in when we were not looking. They are allowing the few grocery stores selling some beer to also sell apple cider. And we are talking the hard stuff here; not your baby’s apple juice. The announcement from Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office was all socially responsible, quiet and designed to […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who is reforming policing?
It seems everybody is in on the act these days. The Province of Ontario is reviewing the Police Services Act. The City of Toronto keeps appointing committees to solve its budget problems with policing. And the cops are just digging in their heels against change. But the question that has to be asked is, “Who […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Cabinet shuffle or spring cleaning?
Canada’s Inuit used to have a traditional remedy for aging that involved putting the elderly on ice flows and waving goodbye. The Ontario Cabinet showed us the modern approach the other day—some of the seniors in the cabinet were told to quit so that the premier could bring in younger talent. Not all went quietly […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: At least Ontario’s Wynne has a plan!
While many are willing to criticize Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, she does have an ‘Action Plan’ to do something about climate change. And, yes, it is easy to criticize. The plan might not be perfect. It is complex. It has many components. It involves a cap-and-trade program for carbon and new taxes. It also promises […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Coming to grips with Ontario health care.
This commentator has never been a big fan of Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins. Being a medical doctor has never been a criterion for the job. Although being ruthless helps. That we did not expect from Hoskins. His recently announced reforms could be the start of something. We are just not sure what at this […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Politicians are just like us.
Maybe it is because they are never a hero to their valets that we have never been overly impressed with politicians. As a publicist and confidante to many politicians over the years, we have found that they share the same foibles, failures and frustrations as anyone else. Nobody is perfect and the person offering to […]
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: When the wheels fell off for Wynne.
With the current slump in the fortunes of Ontario’s Liberal government, Premier Kathleen Wynne has an uphill climb for the last two years of her mandate. Her problem is that while she fancies herself as a reformer, she really out conserves the Conservatives. Her basic problem is that what she sees as progressive is perceived […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Selling Mr. Brown to Ontario.
Early in a career as a political advisor, we were on the way to a meeting about a new candidate when we bumped into another, much more experienced apparatchik, on his way to the same meeting. “Good news,” he said, “I interviewed my cab driver about the new guy. He hadn’t heard of him. That […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Politics is for the rich in Ontario.
It seems the Ontario Liberals want to keep politics in Ontario as a rich person’s game. After all, how many of us can come up with as much as $7,750 in donations each year to our party of choice? And that is on top of the more than $2 per vote subsidy to be provided […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Empathy for Alberta doesn’t include bitumen.
Having fought forest fires as a young man in our Canadian military, we well understood the serious concerns for life and property recently in northern Alberta. The rapidly shifting winds that suddenly endangered the 80,000 citizens of Fort McMurray and gave them so little time to get out of town were well understood. But the […]
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