Lament for the CRTC’s Skinny Basic.
It was over three years ago that we last travelled to the nation’s capital to talk with the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). When there, we faced the enemy and…
Peter Lowry
The rocky road to electoral reform.
It seems obvious at this stage that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has still not gained any conviction on electoral reform. He hardly understood what he was promising when he said…
You told a pollster the truth?
It seems that the privacy watchdog in Ottawa is investigating the Liberal government’s survey on electoral reform. The privacy commissioner’s office is concerned that the Liberals should not have included…
Who chose who?
It is grating when we read about Ontario politics and a careless reporter refers to Patrick Brown as ‘winning’ the leadership of Ontario’s Conservatives. He hardly won it. It would…
You only know what Donald Trump is not.
You can never accuse President-Elect Donald Trump of being a politician. He is the antithesis of that. He despises politicians. You saw how he treats both Democrats and Republicans. He…
The empty chair of Tom Mulcair.
In a much condemned political schtick by actor-director Clint Eastwood at the Republican National Convention in 2012, he talked to an empty chair. The chair was supposed to represent President…
Forecasting what President Trump will do.
It was Franklin Roosevelt who showed us how a politician can get around the news media. His fireside chats on radio were his direct connection with the American voters and…
Andrea Horwath, where are you?
We were starting to think of our naughty or nice list for the holiday and realized that we had written nothing about Andrea Horwath for many months. We are talking…
The impoverishment of Sir John, eh?
There is a very old saying that people who forget the past will probably screw up the future. It has always been very annoying to us that Canadians can be…
Joe Biden: Lame duck or solution?
Before the U.S. Vice President’s visit, Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion explained Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Ottawa last week as routine. While some people might see it as a…
Spreading stupid stuff on the Internet.
You have got to be kidding! Are there that many people who actually believe what they read on the Internet? As someone who was accessing databases on remote computers before…
The worst fears of Justin Trudeau.
It is hardly the spectre of Stephen Harper that keeps Prime Minister Justin Trudeau awake nights. It is the spectre of a democratic Liberal Party of Canada. It was something…
The grandstanding of Patrick Brown.
People who prefer to grandstand in politics can be a pain in the ass. There are times when a politician should to take a stand on an issue but that…
In defence of Internet voting.
After more than five decades of working with computers, you would think the writer would know a bit about computers. The truth is that we have never programmed a line…
In the steps of the Hair or of Trump?
There could be as many as 14 contenders for the upcoming Conservative leadership contest on-stage in Moncton tonight. Which candidates will take their cue from the Hair (Stephen Harper) and…
The slippery slide to sophistry.
Not all communications from readers are complimentary. There was a reader the other day who accused us of the dastardly use of comma splices. It was only by Googling ‘comma…
A trumpeted win for Trump in Indiana?
You have never heard so much BS from so many supposedly knowledgeable writers. Why would anyone think that Donald Trump’s grandstanding in the Indianapolis Carrier plant was a win? It…
“Well here’s another nice mess, Ollie!”
Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are probably too young to remember the 1920s to 1950s Hollywood comedy team of Laurel and Hardy but they seem…
Brassard’s charges without answers.
It is interesting reading knee-jerk conservatism these days. The local Sun Media newspaper here in Barrie gets a glance when an occasional free copy comes our way. We particularly like…
The bias of Toronto Star’s Paul Wells.
What is a writer such as Paul Well’s doing at the Toronto Star? Does he provide insight you wonder? Is his writing progressive? Does he know the Ottawa scene as…