An old friend down in Windsor has posited in a blog that Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa is running a covert campaign for Kathleen Wynne’s job. While it is a mildly amusing hypothesis, you have to remember that the Windsor area of Ontario thrives on putative political putsches. And the
Continue readingTag: Provincial Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: Do you expect a humbled Hudak?
The Ontario Conservatives’ hapless leader Timmy Hudak is a continuing problem for his caucus and party. Ontario pundits have continued to have their say about him and nobody knows anything they did not previously know and worried about. And if Timmy and his political handlers have no idea what to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Marois bares Quebec bigotry.
Bigotry in Quebec has deep roots. In the past week, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois has been testing those roots. Her planned ‘Charter of Quebec Values’ is nothing but a bigot’s demand to ‘speak white.’ It hardly matters if her phony charter wins the approval of the Quebec National Assembly or
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Will Wynne win with Waitzer?
The confirmation process of Ontario’s provincial government was shown up for how artificial and shallow it is the other day. A lawyer named Ed Waitzer appeared before the Standing Committee on Government Agencies because he has been chosen to head the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). Yet Waitzer appeared
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario’s Sousa is searching for solutions.
It’s a daunting task and we can only hope that Finance Minister Charles Sousa is up to it. He is travelling Ontario searching for solutions to Ontario’s economic malaise. Needless to say, our unemployment is higher and our economy is shrinking and only the ignorant among us think the answer
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our Tories are troubled tra-la!
When writing about the ‘Dump the Dummy’ campaign among Ontario Conservatives a couple days ago, we could hardly imagine the Tories having any choice. It gives you serious pause though when you find out who are the people leading the charge to get rid of Ontario Leader Timmy Hudak. If
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who speaks for Babel?
The question was posed the other day as to whom Ontario Premier Kathleen listens. She is very obviously getting very bad advice. From her first moves in cabinet building to calling the recent five by-elections, the novice premier has obviously been following the most conservative advice. The poor woman has
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario needs a Dalton Camp.
When Dalton Camp died in 2002, Canada lost an intellectual giant and a giant killer. Dalton was always our favourite Conservative. He was fun as a person with whom to fight. He was the man who took on and defeated Conservative Leader John George Diefenbaker in 1966. He was also
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ford wins one for the PCs.
If you look at the positions of the three principal parties in the Ontario Legislature as an interminable game of Go, you would recognize that only New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath improved in Thursday’s by-elections. While her position is not tenable in the long term, she has manoeuvred into a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is it Hudak-Ford or Ford-Hudak?
The Ontario Legislature feeds on the politics of Ontario municipalities. You have to get under the skin of a number of key municipal politicians before you can fathom the directions of the Legislature. It is both the strength and the weakness of Ontario politics. Since the days of Premier Oliver
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne whistles for by-election wins.
Wishing for it might not do the trick for Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. She desperately needs to win at least three of the five by-elections in Ontario this Thursday. That would leave one each for Hudak’s Conservatives and Horwath’s New Democrats. That assures that their jobs are safe and Wynne
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Helping hold on to Hudak.
You realize of course that any win for the Conservatives in these five current by-elections in Ontario is just going to encourage Conservative leader Tiny Tim Hudak. Is that fair? Does Ontario really deserve Hudak? Did anyone in the Liberal brain trust know what they were doing when they put
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Casting runes in the heat of summer.
Political polling has never been an exact science. It has always required an overview of common sense, mathematical probability, historical data, statistical smoothing and wishful thinking. Then, and only then, could you report the result you wanted in the first place. In the past 50 years, little has changed. Looking
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Political donations do ads for Whigs.
An e-mail came from the Ontario Liberal Party the other day. It was from Deb Matthews and Tim Murphy, campaign co-chairs for Wynne’s Whigs. This e-mail explained that since becoming Premier “Kathleen Wynne has worked hard to create jobs—jobs for youth just entering the workforce, career-building jobs for families trying
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Casinos redux
First let’s clarify the terms. A “casino” was never really in the discussion, although just about everyone used that term. What the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) offered was a “gaming facility” as they euphemistically called it. A gambling … Continue reading →
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Giambrone rises for Scarborough by-election.
It was good for a bit of a belly laugh the other day watching the television news. It was about one of the upcoming provincial by-elections in Toronto. Lo and behold but there was former Toronto Councillor Adam Giambrone rising Lazarus-like from the political graveyard. He took the New Democrat
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Troilus and Cressida
I’ve always found Troilus and Cressida a difficult play. The characters all seem jaded, cynical, opportunistic, stuffily sanctimonious, lecherous or simply underhanded. Some are merely unpleasant, others are despicable, reprehensible. All seem self-serving, more concerned with their own gains and … Continue reading →
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Wynne’s Whigs deny democracy.
It is probably the most anti-democratic news out of Queen’s Park since Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty quit and prorogued the Legislature last year. It was bad enough that Premier Kathleen Wynne chose the Thursday before a long weekend for the vote in five by-elections. The two-week period before and after
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The bother of bitumen.
It should be made clear: bitumen is not oil. Distilled, bitumen becomes asphalt pitch, refined it can become synthetic oil. Bitumen is not ‘heavy oil’ and it is a lengthy, highly polluting process to convert Canada’s Athabasca tar sands into synthetic oil. While we can compute the hundreds of billions
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Why is Ontario buying into by-elections?
By-elections are sometimes fun but the five coming up in Ontario will be a serious waste of time and money. Why are we doing it? What will we prove? All five electoral districts were formerly held by Liberals. They are Liberal seats to lose. If the Liberals lose just one,
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