From the Manchester Guardian to the Toronto Globe and Mail, there have been reports of our federal government scientists testing spills of diluted bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands. As one source pointed out to me, this was the government laboratory that former prime minister Stephen Harper forgot to shut down.
Continue readingTag: Provincial Politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: It started with John D. Rockefeller.
It was John D. Rockefeller in the 1800s who put together Standard Oil of New Jersey and created ‘Big Oil.’ He created the power house that to this day is destroying our environment, launching wars and feeding much of the corruption of North American politics. And it is the same
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The gang that can’t even sell pot.
It is hard to believe that Doug Ford’s gang in Ontario cannot even get a handle on the pot business. Is there no part of government in which they have some expertise? Did the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford fail to pass on some tips in drug marketing to his
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When Premiers come out to play.
It was an interesting pack of premiers around the conference table at this year’s Canadian premiers’ meeting. They hardly had Justin Trudeau under their thumb. And they hardly bothered to try. This was a meeting to plan for October’s federal election. The odd men out were the bookends—John Horgan of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Be kind to your local NDP.
No doubt we all know a few new democratic party stalwarts. They are neither as numerous nor as annoying as they once were but they all need a hug these days. They are angry, bewildered, concerned, depressed, you name it. They are not their formerly misguided but cheerful selves. They
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Do-Gooders be Damned.
Why do these do-gooders settle for half measures? If the medical officer of health for Toronto has decided that booze is bad for you, why is she allowing any sales to the unsuspecting public? If booze is bad for us, why doesn’t she have it banned? It just seems silly
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Making millions on our eyes.
The Toronto Star is doing a tease on the billings of Ontario doctors. Like a dancer, they keep revealing more. After years of secrecy, they have finally broken the seal on the billings of the Ontario Medical Association members. The exposé the other day was on those elite ophthalmologists who
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In the confessional of Québec.
When Alfred Hitchcock directed his 1953 film I Confess in Quebec City, he had problems getting cooperation from the Archdiocese of Québec, until he had the ending of the movie rewritten. The church officials did not want it to end with the hanging of a priest. Hitchcock’s rewrite spoiled the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Star soldiers on with Regg Cohn.
The Toronto Star must have made its provincial affairs writer Martin Regg Cohn point man for the newspaper’s war against demon rum. Ontario used to have the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union to fight the good fight but the WCTU of today lacks the funds and caring. And, frankly, the Star
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Keep your enemies close.
Ontario premier Doug Ford has found out that shuffling cabinet members is more difficult than the original creation of the cabinet. He not only has to deal with broken promises and damaged egos but he has to evaluate the anger generated by demotion and the ability of those wounded to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The bothersome business of booze.
Assumptions, B.S., chicanery, deceit, the evils of demon rum and beer’s contribution to flatulence are all mixed in to the current dialogue on who can sell booze in Ontario. And politics is somewhere down the list. It is definitely not an issue that drills down party lines. The attempted modernizing
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Ontario NDP: “We the Green”?
Ontario’s lacklustre new democratic party partied in Hamilton last weekend. While most of the province was celebrating the Raptors winning the championship title of America’s National Basketball Association, Ontario’s NDP was celebrating being the official opposition in Ontario. They were also reviewing their leadership and asking where their party was
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “Once more unto the breach, dear friends…”
And once more Ontario liberals found that they were not masters of their own destiny. Ontario liberalism is a fiefdom and the serfs were told once more last weekend what will be. Whatever you might wish to call it, it is not democratic. It is not run by or for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Mixing ignorance and ideology in Ontario.
It’s a bad combination. Ignorance in itself is bad enough but in a mix with an ideology as strident as conservatism, it is simply bad government. It is a colonic that the people of Ontario do not need. It is hardly surprising that today you listen to the quiet admissions
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: No Intervention for Doug Ford.
Those people who are promoting an intervention for premier Doug Ford’s beer bonanza are missing a few clues. First of all, an intervention is normally conducted by people who give a damn about the person who has strayed. Secondly, we figure that an intervention over beer and wine is for
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s Bullshit over Beer in Ontario.
The international owners of Labatt, Molson and Sleeman breweries have to be sleeping on the job. The Ontario government is seriously planning to expand their business for them and they are talking about suing the government. If I was the judge for that case, I would laugh the idiots out
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Professionalism in Politics.
Interesting argument the other day with a reader who likes keeping up with the political scene and who supports the liberals. He was stating his objection to professional politicians. Since his major experience with a professional politician was when Patrick Brown was the MP in Barrie and then the leader
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Kenney’s Conundrum, Capturing Carbon.
It was in the business news recently. It was about the success of Shell Oil’s $1.3 billion carbon-capture plant, Quest, near Edmonton. The Quest plant is designed to capture and store carbon from the Scotford upgrader, a refinery that upgrades tar sands bitumen into synthetic crude oil. The Scotford upgrader
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Fighting the facts of the future.
In a discussion of what is currently happening in politics, the realization emerged that provincial politicians such as Alberta’s Kenney, Saskatchewan’s Moe and Ontario’s Ford are denying our progeny a future. It was not a question of a planned or malevolent denial of a future but simple ignorance. These men
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Fake news on the opioid front?
We were reading a poster telling us about a community meeting to discuss a proposed safe injection site in the neighbourhood. It invited anyone who wanted more information or had concerns to come to the meeting. We had barely finished reading when a voice behind us said, “It’s all a
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