What is wrong with Canada’s foreign relations is more than explained by the friendship of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Patrick Brown MP. Yes, that is Patrick Brown, the most useless member of the Conservative back bench and the candidate for the leadership of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party. With
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Babel-on-the-Bay: Whining about Premier Wynne and wine.
Once again with feelings folks! We just found out from Ontario’s official newspaper the Toronto Star that the Ontario budget will not include selling good wine in grocery stores. We have been betrayed. We have been used. We have been had. This is unforgiveable. And what’s the excuse? It seems
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: No Cap ‘n Gown for Premier Wynne’s Cap ‘n Trade.
If you really want to screw something up, you just have to wait long enough for Ontario’s Premier Kathleen Wynne to get involved. When you know that your opponents will be on the attack as soon as you announce a new program, a little preplanning is a good idea. Ontario’s
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne works with the Arc of Political Change.
Political change is never a straight line. No politico ever wants to admit that they were not doing things properly nor do they ever want to make a 90 or, God forbid, 180 degree change. Change must be slow, incremental and loaded with plenty of political plaudits for the politicians
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Patrick Brown is the ‘same old, same old.’
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party is about to succumb to its worst nightmare. The party people thought they could never do worse than Timmy Hudak as their leader. They had obviously never met Barrie’s own Patrick Brown MP. Timmy Hudak made his signature promise in last year’s provincial election at the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A time and place for political deals
Election day in Ontario in 1985. On the way into a candidate’s campaign headquarters, Liberal Leader David Peterson’s executive assistant was leaving and we stopped to chat. There was no pussy-footing about the situation. “First thing tomorrow morning, you have to arrange a meeting with NDP Leader Bob Rae.” He
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Ontario’s Assault on Health Care
Earlier this month, the Ontario government took a shot at real medicine when it became the first province in Canada to regulate homeopathy. What the government should have done, if it had any real concern about our collective health or our health care system, is ban it. Instead, although it at
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Patrick Brown, we hardly knew you.
Ontario media have discovered Patrick Brown MP. Yes, that is our Patrick from Barrie. He has been our Member of Parliament for the last three parliaments. He was barely noticed. He said nothing. He did nothing. He was another mindless Conservative vote. He was your typical Conservative MP. But finally
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 readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario can have a two-day budget day.
Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa hardly needs us to tell him what to do. Premier Wynne put Ed Clark of TD Bank in charge. That way, she tells Clark and Clark tells Sousa. No comments from the cheap seats are allowed. But do they have any idea of how long
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “Rules, shmules, we the boss:” says Brother Brown.
Canadians are usually fairly good about not mixing religion and politics. It is one of the less endearing traits of American politicos. That was why it was most unusual the other day when a B.C. member of the Conservative backbench quit his caucus and said he would sit as an
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is there nothing left for the finance minister?
Finance Minister Charles Sousa must have the easiest job in Ontario. He has Premier Kathleen Wynne making all the big decisions for him and TD Bank’s Ed Clark telling him how to handle the details. Which all goes to prove that in politics three wrongs do not make anything right.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Brown and Pèladeau, a political pair.
You really have to wonder at people in Quebec thinking of Pierre-Karl Pèladeau as being the person to lead the Parti Quèbècois. That is like the prospect of Barrie MP Patrick Brown becoming leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. It is a very bad choice but for entirely different
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why Photoshop Brother Brown?
It is hardly going to work. Artfully enhancing his photographs is not going to solve the problem. Patrick Brown looks like he looks. We have always considered his appearance to be a mixture of somewhere between adenoidal and nerdy. Adenoids can be fixed but we have to assume that being
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bowing to Brother Brown’s bluff.
The only conclusion that seems to make sense is that Barrie’s own MP Patrick Brown is running a bluff. He is working far too hard at winning over long-time Ontario Progressive Conservative members to be ahead in the provincial leadership race as much as he claims. He might have acquired
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The word is “convenience” stupid!
Ontario beer drinkers are foiled again. Now the Ontario government wants to sell beer and wine in large grocery stores. It should have been easy to predict an outcome such as that. After all, everyone knows how much the Liberal’s friends, the Weston family, owners of Loblaw Companies, need the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: If this is not corruption, what is?
It seems that the foreign-owned big breweries took a pass on purchasing tables at the Liberal Party’s major fund-raiser this year. Of course, they tell us that it is not corrupt nor payment for services rendered for those breweries to always step readily up to the bar for tickets to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: An apology to Casino Rama.
This blog rarely apologizes. And nobody has prompted this apology other than our feeling of guilt the other day. We just feel that fair is fair. It came like a rising tide while sitting at a blackjack table at the Niagara Fallsview Casino. We had taken a few days off
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Meet Cardinal Kenney and Brother Brown.
Ottawa is so bereft of excitement and speculation now that former Foreign Minister John Baird has flounced out of cabinet and gone home to Nepean. It leaves Minister of National Defence and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney as the last Bobbsey Twin standing. It leaves the obvious succession line for the Conservative
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontarians really drink that stuff?
Martin Regg Cohn, provincial affairs writer at the Toronto Star seems to be on a similar track as this writer on many aspects of politics in Ontario. He just works for a family friendly newspaper and has to be more polite. He really caught us off guard the other day
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