The summer skater surfaces.
Babel heard from its boy MP the other day. Hockey Night is coming up. This is when the Member of Parliament’s staff and friends throw a fund-raiser for the local…
Municipal politics
Why Chow should run for Toronto mayor.
It is the perfect scenario. Olivia Chow steps down from her job as MP next year. She runs for Toronto mayor. Chow loses. Toronto wins. Chow retires from politics. Toronto…
Teddy’s Words of Wisdom
I’m not a great student of American history – my tastes run to other places and people: Napoleon, Casanova, Elizabeth I, the Enlightenment, the Renaissance, the French Revolution, China…. but…
The Enemies List
Canadians barely lifted an eyebrow in surprise when it was revealed that our Prime Minister had an “enemies list” compiled as a warning to newly-minted cabinet ministers laying out who…
Which train goes to Scarborough?
The subway versus Light Rail Transit (LRT) to the far reaches of Scarborough is an argument at Toronto City Hall with little common sense to it. What we are hearing…
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…
Campaign Diary Volume 4: On dishing it out it print … and taking it
If you’ve dished it out in print, like this guy did from the look of him, you’ve got to be prepared to take it. In real life, that was Bogey…
Believing is Seeing
“He who permits himself to tell a lie once,” wrote Thomas Jefferson (in a letter to his nephew, Peter Carr, from Paris, France, 1785), “finds it much easier to do…
A Sneak Peak Inside Our New Fire Hall
Councillor Lloyd and I took a tour through the new fire hall, at the corner of High and Third Streets, today. It’s still under construction, but the main components are…
Centennial Pool Gets Finishing Touches
A sneak peak into Centennial Pool a few weeks before it re-opens. Councillor Lloyd and I took a look around today (July 9) at how it’s progressing. We were very…
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.…
Campaign Dairy Volume 3: My website arrives
Here’s a peek at the interior of DavidClimenhaga.ca – my campaign website. Below: Yours Truly, looking serious. It’s about the point in a campaign where voters start paying attention to…
The CAO Conpsiracies
Collingwood has appointed an interim CAO, John Brown, former city manager of Brantford, St. John’s and Oshawa, to help the town’s administration and governance during the interim while we search…
Campaign Diary Volume 2: Mapping St. Albert priorities while my web page dries out
A work in progress … a screenshot from my campaign website, as it emerges… ST. ALBERT, Alberta One of the small ripples and eddies from the disastrous floods that inundated…
How should a municipality deal with cigarette litter?
I was sitting on a decorative rock on the landscaping west of Loblaws, this weekend, waiting while Susan was inside and amusing myself at the bad driving habits of our…
Babel backs a ballot bollix.
A year ago, there was an interesting meeting with the City Clerk in Babel. A very charming and knowledgeable person, she was generous with her time and interested in the…
Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act and municipal politics #nlpoli
You mean the Hell’s Angels won’t be deterred by a committee of people telling Doc O’Keefe what they think he should do? -srbp-
Campaign Diary Vol. 1: The actual dark secret of democratic politics
The front page of Saturday’s St. Albert Gazette. A good first week of campaigning. ST. ALBERT, Alberta Well, I reckon the first week of my campaign for city council here…
Not All Words Are Equal, or Used Equally
There’s an economic principle known as the rule of fungibility that states a commodity is equivalent to other units of the same commodity. For example, a litre of gasoline is…
Babel Backward has an editor?
It came as a surprise when reading all the self-congratulatory stories in the Babel Backward (our name for the Toronto Star’s local grocery-flyer wrap, Barrie Advance). We found out that…