For years in the 1900s when the Ontario Liberals were out of office and during the few years they were in, they refused to consider certain moves. The first of these moves was to amalgamate the City of Toronto. Right or wrong, that was done by former Premier Mike Harris.
Continue readingTag: Provincial Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: The Péquistes are in panic mode.
Quebec Premier Pauline Marois seems to be losing her overconfident grip on things political in her province. She picked the timing. She picked the star candidate. She set the agenda. She screwed up. It started with Marois’ Charter of Values. That was the most bigoted, ill-conceived, corruption of secular values,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Making a ‘do-nothing’ look good.
This is embarrassing. The Ontario Liberal government has a cabinet minister responsible for next year’s Pan Am Games who makes the Conservative MPP from Barrie look good. The Liberal cabinet minister is the MPP for Markham-Unionville Michael Chan. English is obviously not his first language. To add the usual rudeness
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Popularity versus notoriety in Quebec.
In a news conference the other day, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois was accompanied by her star candidate Pierre Karl Péladeau. She was quoted as saying to the news media that nobody is perfect. Those are likely to be the definitive words of the current Quebec election campaign—along with the visual
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Premier Wynne aspires to be aspirational.
We are not entirely sure whether Ontario Premier Wynne is just breathing hard or seeking to achieve new heights. She told reporters the other day that the Liberals are going to have an aspirational budget. And just because Microsoft’s Canadian spell checker does not recognize the word, the Oxford dictionary
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Fighting the good fight against the Beer Store.
Martin Regg Cohn of the Toronto Star knows how it feels. He has been on the front lines for the Toronto Star long enough that he is showing the tedium of fighting the Beer Store. It is like punching your pillow. It just surrounds your fist and nothing happens. And
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Comments: We are told we still don’t get it.
The argument continues. People seem to think that federalists will help Quebec Premier Pauline Marois if they involve themselves in the provincial election. If these federalists are from outside Quebec, that might be right. Politicians love to take on bogeymen from some other place that cannot fight back. It is
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair is hands-off Quebec.
The Globe and Mail reports the Hair is urging federal opposition leaders and premiers to adopt a policy of non-interference in the Quebec provincial election. As a staffer reported, the Prime Minister is obviously trying to rise above the fray and wants the federal side to speak with one voice.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Péladeau in the steps of John Bassett?
Pierre Karl Péladeau running in Saint-Jérȏme for the Parti Québécois, brings back fond memories of John Bassett. This is the John Bassett that was famously publisher of the Toronto Telegram and the founder of CTV. And he relished having the reputation of being something of a womanizer, a sports enthusiast
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: On protecting Canada’s democracy.
The last serious attempt in Ontario at changing how people vote was brought forward by the McGuinty Liberal government in 2007. It was a foolish and ill-conceived attempt to put a foot in the door for a form of proportional voting. Ontario voters gave the idea the brush-off in the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Péladeau steps up to Quebec election.
Pierre Karl Péladeau scion of the Quebecor millions has agreed to run in Saint-Jérȏme riding for the Parti Québécois in the April election. Quebec Premier Pauline Marois has made the announcement just months after appointing Péladeau head of Hydro-Quebec. The choice of Saint-Jérȏme riding will allow the candidate to get
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Watch the Orange Wave wave goodbye.
Quebec Premier Pauline Marois has made a critical error. When she called the Quebec election, she did not realize who her enemies really are. Her separatists have not just taken on a novice provincial Liberal Leader Philippe Couilard and an inconsequential center-right Coalition Avenir Québec led by François Legault. She
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lying low at Lottery and Gaming.
Things are quiet at Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG). Too bad! The people there are fun to write about. For a government agency that contributes almost $2 billion to government revenues each year, it works at keeping a low profile. It lets its games and casinos speak for it. Not
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The poverty of Ontario’s political parties.
What we have in Ontario today are three political parties that have moved to the right of the political spectrum. They will all tell you that there is no meaning to left or right wing politics anymore. They might be correct. And if they are correct, we can assume that
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Horwath toe-tests minimum wage.
It would be great to have a real left-wing political party in Ontario. This is not a promise to support the party but it would be great for voters to just have the option. And if you think Andrea Horwath and her Ontario New Democrats are going to answer the
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Time to get serious with distracted drivers
In March, the fine for being caught texting, talking on your cell phone, or tinkering with your MP3 player while driving will jump from $155 to $280 in Ontario. That’s better, but not good enough. Distracted drivers are a growing threat to everyone sharing the road – other drivers, pedestrians,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne’s policy picks are puzzlers.
Maybe some of us are a bit slow on the up tick. An e-mail arrived the other day saying that Premier Wynne now had a way forward. It came from a policy input program on the provincial Liberal web site called Common Ground. If this is the best that the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Tory’s Timmy tempers trades tampering.
The Conservative caucus at Queen’s Park must have got to their Leader Tim Hudak. They made him promise to cool his jets on right-to-work laws. With a broad wink, he is promising not to mention the idea again until after Ontario’s expected spring election. After all there is more than
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: There is a fourth option for Premier Wynne.
Yesterday, we discussed the branding problems of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. In the discussion, the fourth option for her was deliberately left off the table. The fourth option, under current political conditions in Ontario, requires its own discussion. The premier is fully capable of ignoring those who are telling her
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Should councillors abstain from voting?
In an earlier post, I wrote that Collingwood’s Integrity Commissioner, Robert Swayze, proposed two changes to the town’s Procedural Bylaw: amending section 13.7 and deleting section 13.8. Last post I dealt with the former; here I will explain my concerns about the latter. Section 13.8 currently reads: 13.8 No vote
Continue reading