We were puzzling the other day as to what training our current leaders had that prepared them for their political roles. If all you have to base your conclusion on is their set-piece biography, the answers are not all that easy to deduce. It is therefore best to do some
Continue readingTag: Trudeau
Babel-on-the-Bay: A liberal performance.
According to Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star, Justin Trudeau was invoking the ghosts of liberal past at the weekend policy conference. While I rarely disagree with Ms. Delacourt, those were not spirits to whom Justin was appealing. He needs the living, breathing liberals of past years to come back
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau building bridges in Quebec.
It is rare that prime minister Justin Trudeau would be considered best friends with Quebec premier François Legault. It is just that timing is everything in politics. If Trudeau’s liberals want to take back a majority in an election later this year, they have to maximize their seats in Quebec.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The knocking on Trudeau’s door.
Like the late-night tapping on his door, as written by Edgar Allan Poe, Justin Trudeau dares not fail to answer this summons. It is at the heart and soul of liberalism in Canada. It must be answered with fairness and justice. It is in the face of the rape and
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Conservatives Reject Reality
Sucks to be a country where the Official Opposition party rejects longstanding science that a grade school kid can understand. For ideological and economic reasons, the Conservative Party of Canada won’t accept that air pollution is bad. They won’t even accept that it’s air pollution, instead, the veg-heads erroneously call
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can I change my mind?
Recently I have been thinking October for the election that Trudeau wants. That could be wrong. The problem is that I was basing my thinking on the end of the pandemic. I realize that there will be a time when people want to go out and make love in the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Biden is ahead of Trudeau on climate.
Hey Joe, what did you think of the hypocrisy you got from Trudeau during your virtual summit on Tuesday? One of the first items of business when you became U.S. president was ending that Keystone XL pipeline that was designed to take Canadian bitumen from the Alberta tar sands to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Damaged Democracy.
It is catching on. This writer is delighted that more and more Canadians are starting to question our commitment to democracy. Many point to the United States and say, ‘Boy, isn’t that democracy a mess. The bad news is that our mess is no better than theirs. It is just
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our fearless leaders fix the gun problem.
Did you not see the sign as you drove into town that handguns are forbidden? That is part of the announcement that the government is banning assault rifles and municipalities are at liberty to ban hand guns. And does that make sense to you? Frankly, it is stupid. Yes, assault
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Going where no politico dares to go.
It always amazes me when some politicians will wade into subjects about which, they know nothing at all. It is what can get them in trouble, most of the time. Take Justin Trudeau’s supposed expertise in vaccines. It is like the other day when he was assuring parliamentarians that he
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Did you know the campaign was on?
Jagmeet Singh has been heard from. He did not exactly come down from the mountain with tablets of stone. The new democratic party leader has decided that the low-hanging fruit of for-profit, long-term care homes was as good an issue as his party needs in the looming federal election. It
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is it cruel to fool O’Toole?
Is finance minister Chrystia Freeland deliberately fooling conservative leader Erin O’Toole? It seems like she has more important tasks ahead of her. Maybe she is forging ahead with her plans and ignoring what O’Toole has to say. He accuses her of ideological and a reckless budgeting. She might be one
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Our failing democracy.
We are all responsible. We are failing to support democracy. We are making bad choices in leaders, bad choices in who represents us and failing to demand that they protect our democratic institutions and customs. And we can only blame ourselves. We need to face the facts: our political parties
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau’s chance to kill TransMountain!
It’s no secret. If U.S. president Joe Biden can cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, why cannot Justin Trudeau cancel twinning of the TransMountain pipeline? The single line can still be used to ship fully refined petroleum products to the U.S. west coast states and to Vancouver. We should face the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Payette is Trudeau’s mistake.
It was ten years ago when I made the argument with Justin Trudeau that the governor general was an anachronism that we no longer needed. It was like he brought down a wall between us. I realised too late that he was afraid of questioning the constitution. Justin saw it
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s not your father’s liberal party.
When Pierre Trudeau resigned his leadership of the liberal party in 1984, it was a robust organization with supporters across Canada. The president of the party was B.C. liberal Iona Campagnolo. She was the party president that when the new leader John Turner was caught by the media patting her
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In praise of liberalism.
Being a liberal is not just some fuzzy feeling. It is a commitment to life. It matters not the color of your skin. It matters not whether you are rich or poor. It matters not the extent of your education. It depends on your caring. It depends on your ability
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Who’s paying for the bitumen Trudeau ships?
It struck me, listening to the news from Ottawa on Friday, this whole plan for $170 a ton for carbon by 2030 is bullshit. Who is going to pay for the disgusting amount of carbon prime minister Trudeau and his friends in Alberta are hoping to ship from Burnaby, British
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Political leaders get lots of advice.
It is part of the job. Leaders of all political parties get lots of advice—most of it ignored. Maybe the Toronto Star is not aware of this phenomenon. That must be why they run advice columns for different leaders every Sunday opposite the editorials. One of these, that ran last
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Back to the Bully Pulpit.
It might have been a term coined by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt but our prime minister Justin Trudeau did the bully pulpit one better. It was living in Rideau Cottage while the official residence at 21 Sussex was under repair. Trudeau did a cuckoo clock single out the front door
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