Babel-on-the-Bay

When Canada’s Liberal Party opted for a primary-type system of choosing leaders at its recent conference, it was not thinking of the American primaries.  Nor did party members envisage a witches’ cauldron from Shakespeare’s MacBeth to which the current Republican primary has descended. Liberals were obviously thinking of a much more civilized process.

It is impossible to ignore the gruesome no-holds-barred cage fighting of the current Republican campaign in Florida. It certainly attracts more interest than the somnambulant trek our New Democrats are taking to a leadership decision in March.  The question in the U.S. is it really possible for the ultimate winner to recover a sliver of dignity with which to apply to American voters for the right to the White House? The Democrats in the U.S. can hardly ignore the ammunition they are being handed with which to demolish whomever might be the Republican presidential contender in November.

In the meantime, the New Democrats in Canada seem to be debating how nice each of their opponents might be. The only NDP candidate running a half-way intelligent campaign is the loser from British Columbia. And he still has a chance if he throws himself to the mercy of the party to help him fight Harper’s Northern Gateway pipeline across Northern B.C.

But we can expect the Liberal Party primary for its next leader will not be as dull as NDP love-ins nor should it be as brutal as the cage fighting of American Republicans.  It will certainly help that all the voting takes place at the same time. Why the Americans have never come up with that simple solution to their primary fiascos is a mystery.  The voters for the Liberal leadership will be anyone who wishes to participate and can swear that they are not a member of any other party. It not only builds your voters’ lists for election day but builds a sense of ownership in the party.

Liberals, of course, have far more scope in their arguments with each other as the political positioning of the party is of major concern to Liberal voters.  If a candidate wants to be to the right of Stephen Harper, that candidate might be better off seeking Harper’s job after he loses the next election. Should a candidate want to appear to be to the left of the NDP, there is lots of room over there.

But the candidate who will receive the most attention will be the candidate who defines the broad scope of social democracy that Liberals can offer Canadians. Liberalism in Canada has never been tied to ideology but it does carry the responsibility and commitment to the individual in our society. You cannot be a right winger and call yourself a Liberal.  They are anathema.

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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  peter@lowry.me

As children, we were always excited with the trips from Toronto to Chicago to visit mother’s family.  It was the American greenbacks—slipped to us by generous relatives—that impressed us the most.  What was of concern though was to note the American money seemed to put in trust with God while the stability of Canadian money was put in the hands of the Governor of the Bank of Canada.  Lately, the score in that regard has been Mark Carney: 1, God: 0.

As governor of the Bank of Canada, Carney has an enviable reputation.  He has even been loaned to the G20 members as chair of the Financial Stability Board by Prime Minister Harper.  It is his control of the Canadian dollar that has most impressed the member countries of the G20.

God’s currency, by comparison, seems beyond anyone’s control.  While supposedly under the stewardship of Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke, that economist finds that most days, the American buck has a mind of its own.  Bernanke’s main problem is that while he has used the money printing presses to try to shore up the American economy, he is much too right-wing in his political outlook.  It leaves the Fed Chairman in somewhat a conflicted position.

Mind you, Barack Obama had no alternative to Bernanke.  He knew it was guaranteed that he would never get a more left-wing Federal Reserve chair past a Republican-dominated Senate.  Being from Alberta did no harm to Mark Carney when Stephen Harper promoted the then Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada to the top job.

Bernanke and the American dollar are on a roller-coaster ride while he tries to find some satisfactory answers to the American economic problems.  The Canadian dollar has so-far withstood most of the pressures this causes on the smaller Canadian economy.

But the longer the world-wide economic troubles continue, both Bernanke and Carney will find they have fewer and fewer options left to them.  While Wall Street might have started all the problems with the American lack of controls and the uncivilized greed, it is Main Street in every country in the world that is paying the price.

What we must do is start to get ahead of the problems.  We must first protect our citizens from corporate gluttony.  Senior executives should not be making incomes over ten times that of the average worker.  ‘Buyer beware’ is no longer appropriate as a corporate slogan.  Corporate citizenship must go beyond the laws.  Corporate responsibility is to all countries where the company operates or sells its products or services.  Our corporate world serves people—we do not serve the corporations.

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Copyright 2011 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  peter@lowry.me

There are people who consider Toronto Star editorials as gospel.  Their numbers will be decreasing if the editorial writers do not pull up their socks and do a little more research before pontificating.  The editorial (Nov. 13, 2011) on the delay of Trans Canada’s Keystone XL pipeline is a good example of the lack of research.

The headline was that the pipeline delay was a shabby rebuff from a friend.  They could have started with a little better understanding that ‘the friend,’ by the name of Barack Obama, is fighting for his political life and Trans Canada Pipelines is not even in his vocabulary.  What President Obama saw was a concerted effort by major environmental groups to derail a plan for a pipeline to get Alberta oil-sands crude toTexas Gulf coast refineries.  Those environmentalists are Obama’s supporters and he needs them to help keep his job in the 2012 elections.

The Star editorial writer just sees this as another rebuff from Obama after the ‘Buy America’ provisions of his $447 billion American Jobs Act.

Has the Star writer even considered that Canadians might not want to ship their expensive, polluting crude from oil sands to American refineries?  Maybe Canadians think that there should be enough refinery capacity in Canada to handle what crude we have to produce from oil sands.  That would at least keep some of those refinery jobs in Canada, if not the profit from doing the refining in Canada.

The Star writer thinks it is just rotten, crass American politics that Trans Canada Pipelines is not being allowed to go ahead with the creation of 20,000 jobs (mainly in the United States of America) to build its pipeline.

What that writer should read is the posting in Bloomberg News about Mr. Obama’s decision.  Bloomberg, in case the writer does not know it, is a well respected business news network that pays attention to matters such as U.S.-based pipelines and new construction plans.  Bloomberg says that Trans Canada’s loss is probably Enbridge’s gain.  Enbridge is a Calgary based energy company that runs pipelines from Alberta down through Illinois.  Enbridge would like to compete for the contract to ship the oil-sands crude through Illinois and, from there, down to the Texas Gulf coast.  Bloomberg’s conclusion is that Trans Canada’s loss is Enbridge’s gain.

It seems Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is also unaware of the Enbridge plan.  When he heard about Obama’s delay of the Trans Canada proposal, he suggested a pipeline to the West Coast so we could ship all that crude to China.  Flaherty must also be an environmentalist.  It seems nobody wants to refine Canadian crude in Canada.  The Toronto Star writer never thought of it.

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Copyright 2011 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  peter@lowry.me