Back when sex education was first taught in Ontario schools there was always a lot of giggling and barely suppressed laughter from the back of the room. The kids up front had to try to keep straight faces. Since we were divided by sex for the classes, we boys had
Continue readingTag: Provincial Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: Selling Ontario services to the world’s wealthy.
It started with education. For many years community colleges and universities in Ontario and across Canada have been selling education to the children of wealthy parents in foreign countries. This was something that was happening anyway and the argument has always been that the substantial fees paid were helping fund
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The baffling Beer Store battle.
Maybe Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne does not like beer. Sometimes when you get together over a bottle or so of beer, you can solve this type of problem. It simply does not work when a major participant in the problem does not drink beer. Or maybe it is her partner
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is Ontario Doug Ford’s next campaign?
Former Toronto mayoralty candidate Doug Ford says he might want to go on to fame as leader of the Ontario Conservatives. This is serious folks. Doug Ford is the guy who said that what the Ontario Conservatives really need is an enema. We would all have a good laugh and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne wins in Toronto shoot-out.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne pulled it off. She got her candidate into the mayor’s chair in Toronto. Despite disturbing early tabulations, John Tory emerged as the peoples’ choice for mayor. And if you did not know that John Tory was Wynne’s choice, what do you think her aide Tom Allison
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Liberals are progressives Ms. Wynne.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne needs to check her dictionary. She needs to understand the definition of the word ‘liberal.’ Oxford says it best. In politics it means “favourable to democratic reform and individual liberty.” Could it be any easier to understand? You can expand on that but it gives you
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Meaningless measuring for meaningless media.
When you take a poll to help sell newspapers, how serious can you be? Does the poll even matter if it restates the obvious? It is giving the entire business of polls a bad name. Take the Toronto Star. The Star hires Forum Research to take a poll. Last week
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: This is war Ms. Wynne.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and her so-called Liberal Party are having a love in down in Windsor today. They had better enjoy that group hug inside because the town of Windsor is not feeling all that loving. And neither are a lot of liberals in Ontario. It is a banker
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Going-out-of-business sale at Queen’s Park.
There is a furniture store north of Toronto that has been holding going-out-of-business sales for at least the past two years. The store buys heavy flights of radio advertising on weekends that force you to find another station to listen to. It seems that the Ontario government is also having
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Mediocrity is a step backward for democracy.
Now the Toronto Star is also trumpeting ranked ballots for municipal elections in Ontario. When Premier Wynne pulled the idea out of her hat the other day, the first reaction was to note that the ranked ballot, as she envisages the system, allows losers to decide the election results. And
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Democracy is not hurried for Premier Wynne.
In sending what she calls ‘mandate letters’ to her cabinet, Premier Kathleen Wynne has even sent one to herself as minister of intergovernmental affairs. It seems that she has finally noted the major population shifts in Ontario. She must have been told that the federal election next year will be
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Letting losers elect is no answer Ms. Wynne.
You have to love it when a politician decides to wing it and comes out with another really dumb idea. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne thinks that municipal voters can have their concerns for democracy resolved by instituting ranked voting in municipal elections (wherein you vote indicating your first, second and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: PKP will be TNT for the PQ.
Pierre-Karl, known as PKP, scion of the Péladeau family wants to be leader of Quebec’s Parti Québécois. That is an absolutely excellent idea. It is an idea that will help ensure the destruction of the failing Parti Québécois and grind it into the dust of history in Quebec. In contemplating
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Barrie’s Brown hedges his bets.
While we have been known to refer to Barrie MP Patrick Brown as ‘that nebbish,’ his latest political ploy is the height of hypocrisy. He has good reason to worry about being elected in his new federal riding next year so he can at least get some publicity by going
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario sucks and blows on gaming.
When it comes to gaming, the Wynne government in Ontario definitely sucks! According to a confusing op-ed in the Toronto Star Monday by former McGuinty cabinet member Michael Bryant, he reports that the Liberals are sucking and blowing at the same time. Yet when you get to the end of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Quebec is not Scotland.
A week from now we will have the results of a close referendum in Scotland. And the ‘No’ side is worried. Sorry guys, it is too late now to recognize the problems. While we still expect a narrow margin for the ‘No’ side, it is emotions that seem to be
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our democracy is bent, not broken.
It is like a whack-a-mole game. Every time you think you have settled the ignorance of one person proposing proportional representation, another pops up like an unwelcome termite in your house. You would think that more of us would want to protect our democracy. It sometimes feels like apathy is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Publicity 101: Make each announcement different.
Ontario Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid must have missed the class on publicity that said change the story line when you make the same announcement for the third time. He got a roasting from the media the other day who had heard it all before. He was trying to make more
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: But when does the PC contest begin?
We are missing some fun here. Sure MPP Christine Elliott is going to run for the Ontario Conservative leadership. That is not a race, it is a leisurely walk. We need some contestants. Let’s deal some excitement. Obviously Christine Elliott is a tough opponent. Why do you think Stephen Harper
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Torstar: The ugly face of today’s capitalism.
A classified advertisement in The Toronto Star caught the eye the other day. It was offering $13.50 per hour for ‘production operators’ at the newspaper and publishing company’s printing facility in Vaughan north of Toronto. It is only when you read the entire ad that you realize they are not
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