We have seen it many times over the years. It is government funded attempts at trying to take quantum leaps in technology with computer equipment. It is usually just a disaster in the making. Technology moves too fast. Computer equipment will often be out-of-date when delivered. And it can also be used as an excuse […]
Continue readingTag: Provincial Politics
Scripturient: Two conferences and a show
I had the honour and the enjoyment of attending two municipal conferences last week. While no longer directly involved in politics, I am able to keep my finger in some of the political pies through my current work for an NGO. Plus, I like to remain inf…
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Carbon Tax or Cap-and-Trade?
It looks like the carbon tax concept has been getting a bad rap. At a time when most people are unaware of the difference between cap-and-trade programs and carbon taxes, these two approaches to trying to control carbon emissions need to be better understood. The most important thing to remember is that the consumer pays […]
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 […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Au revoir Pierre Karl.
We finally found out the difference between millionaire Pierre Karl Pèladeau and billionaire Donald Trump. As leader of the separatist Parti Quèbècois, Pierre Karl realized he was a square peg in a round hole. There was nowhere he could take the Quebec separatist party but downhill skiing. Conversely Donald Trump still thinks he is God’s […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Not by half Premier Wynne.
Once again Ontario Premier Kathleen has taken small steps when big steps were needed. She has failed us. She promises much and delivers little. She said she would release the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) report on the Andrew Loku death. What her government has released is just going to cause more distrust of our police […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Happiness at Queen’s Park is…
…is whatever makes the press gallery happy. The other day they had pictures of three opposing party leaders in Ontario all taking shots at their nemesis Premier Kathleen Wynne. No need for separate interviews. They wanted to show solidarity. Mind you there was a lot of hypocrisy in that threesome but it is hard to […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Kathleen Wynne’s plan: An Incompetent Cabinet.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne seems to have figured it out. The more incompetent her cabinet, the better she looks. Take Madeleine Meilleur, Ontario’s new attorney general. She was a disaster as minister of community safety and correctional services and was recently promoted to attorney general. She must have fit right in with the premier’s plan: […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Third-Party ads: Democracy or Interference.
It reminds us of the 1957 Grey Cup game in Toronto. ‘Bibbles’ Bawel had intercepted the ball for the Hamilton Tiger Cats and was heading down the sidelines for another touchdown. At least he was until a Toronto lawyer stuck out his foot and Bibbles went flying out of bounds. Well folks that is exactly […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne: Master of all she surveys.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne seems to have a God complex. Instead of spending a pleasant weekend at home watching the Blue Jays on TV, she hunkered down and penned a plan to reform the province’s rules for political fundraising. She came down to Queen’s Park on Monday and delivered her ten tablets. Wynne even called […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Knives are out for Notley.
After the shoot-out at the Edmonton Corral last weekend, one of the participants was left bleeding in the dust. After the NDP delegates left town, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is in critical condition and the wolves of the province’s right and further right wing parties are baying for her corpse. But that seems so unfair! […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Don’t forget Canada’s Minister of Pot.
Canada is certainly a slow-moving country. It takes six years to get the right just to have your day in court. How long it will take to actually get a class-action case to court is another matter. The only thing is that as time marches on, we should never forget the role played in the […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Premier Wynne is learning to listen.
This is good news. Frankly it is a bit embarrassing how we are often critical of the Ontario premier. We are therefore quite pleased to have an opportunity to express our pleasure at something she and her cabinet have done. You might recall in the recent provincial budget that the government was going to increase […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The manipulation of preferential voting.
Back in the 1970s, we elected two aldermen (now called councillors) in each Toronto ward. The person with the most votes was known as the senior alderman and was given more perks and opportunities. The toughest part of campaigning for an aldermanic post at that time was convincing your supporters to not vote for a […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Since Ontario Premier Wynne asked…
Never having been reluctant to give Premier Wynne advice before, we can hardly resist the opportunity to give her and her Liberal Party of Ontario advice on fund-raising. The first advice we will give her is to get her and her fellow members of the provincial parliament out of the fund-raising trough. They should not […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Correcting corruption in Ontario.
It appears that the news media has detected a bad smell in the general area of Ontario’s seat of government at Queen’s Park. It is the smell of political corruption. We are told not to worry though as our Premier promises to fix it later this year. Is that when she will have enough in […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In Ontario there is the Brown Way.
Last weekend Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown was in Barrie to stoke the local loyalties. He reminds us of the busker with the sticks and plates. This is the entertainer who can keep more and more plates spinning on sticks. And if he makes it look too easy, he just adds more sticks and […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Doing Ontario up Brown!
To this long-time political apparatchik, it was an interesting example of the art of remaking a politician. Ontario viewers of Global Television Sunday morning had an opportunity to see the training effort in action. It was almost a before and after—that might have been recorded hours apart. It was new Ontario Conservative Leader Patrick Brown […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s a slippery slope for Ontario Liberals.
If it was just the arrogance of the Wynne Liberals, maybe we could be more forgiving. It is the piling on of confusion and corruption that makes them so different from the Trudeau Liberals in Ottawa. The Trudeau Liberals are progressives. The Wynne Wimps are regressive. Canadians have a fairly good handle on where Trudeau […]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The meanness in means tests.
Neither Finance Minister Charles Sousa nor Premier Wynne really understood what they were doing in the recent budget. They were offering half measures. They insulted both students and seniors. They tried to buy votes with lies. They thought they could buy support with half measures. The most grievous insult was to our young. These are […]
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