Category: Uncategorized

Out of the Warm.

by Peter Lowry

There were royals in the Caribbean last month. Future King William of England and his consort Catherine visited Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas as a sort of farewell tour. All three independent countries are considering cutting ties with the English monarchy.

Unlike Canada, that ties its constitution in knots to try to stick with the fiction of the crown, these countries do not like looking like vassals.

The young royals were also roundly criticized in Jamaica for not apologizing for slavery. Why they should apologize was not particularly clear. Slavery ended in the British Empire two centuries ago. In fact, as I read it, the Brits bought off the slave owners in 1833 for the loss of their “property.” If that is true, the Brits should be thanked for their thoughtfulness, not criticized.

Instead of criticizing the young royals for slavery, there might be more justification for complaining about the Brits’ encouragement of piracy in the Caribbean and for the world-wide spread of sexually transmitted diseases by Brit sailors.

But overall, Bill and Kate had a lovely trip. The warmth and sunshine of the Caribbean can hardly be preserved and shipped to the dreary British Isles to ward off the doldrums of late winter.

In fact, I have always wondered why Canada did not adopt a few of the Caribbean islands. The island people would be delighted to share in Canada’s Medicare, assistance for families and all those Canadian tourists to keep their economy pumping. The islands could be considered as another province and they would soon be the envy of the rest of the Caribbean.

There was a feeble attempt at the idea a few years back when the Turks and Caicos Islands suggested some sort of deal. The only problem was that while some Canadians took the adoption idea seriously, the Turks and Caicos, with only about 38,000 population, would have been much too small to offer winter holidays to the many Canadians needing a break from our winter.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Defining Dignity.

by Peter Lowry

Ontario liberals have taken a bigger bite of the future than they might realize. They want to bring dignity to the people of Ontario. They want to start with the working poor. These are the gig workers, the delivery people, the Walmart employees and basically anyone working for the minimum wage. Nobody can live in Ontario on the minimum wage. A $16 per hour minimum wage would solve nothing. It is a path to malnutrition and starvation.

But when you promise dignity, you are offering much more than minimum wages. Dignity encompasses another million Ontario residents who cannot find decent or safe shelter. These are people who try to live on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and have to rely on food banks and charities for a decent meal. They are people who are forced to steal from your front porch or your unlocked car. They are not all criminals but they are all desperate.

Remember the outcry when the Ford government tried to cut the programs for autism in Ontario. Those kids had support. Nobody wants to support the people kicked onto the streets of our cities. Oh sure, we give them a loonie or a toonie occasionally. Does that cover our guilt?

We are responsible. We cannot ignore those in our society incapable of holding a job through no fault other than the inability to meet the norms of society. We cannot hide them. There are no protected work houses in our society. They do not deserve to be locked away, hidden from sight. They are reality.

And yet Ontario elects a blowhard and cruel person such as Doug Ford. He came into office four years ago and immediately cut the allowance for ODSP to an average of less than $1100 per month per person. With inflation running rampant today, that is less than half what a single person needs today for lodging and at least one decent meal per day.

I think people who care are deeply concerned with where our society is headed today. Be they liberal or be they human, they care about where our society is going. We can start by ensuring that the Ford government is gone.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.

by Peter Lowry

The last conservative to tell the truth in Ontario was premier Bill Davis and it caused his party to lose power in the provincial election in 1985. In the 21st Century, we have yet to hear of a conservative leader in Ontario with a penchant for truth. The biggest liar is our current premier Doug Ford.

He is still struggling to figure out what else Ontario voters would respond to without it costing more billions in deficits next year. Premier Ford is a blowhard. He thinks any political problem can be solved by offering to throw money at it. And if he really spent that money, that he promised taxpayers that he would spend, the province would be heading for the highest deficit ever.

The crassest of all bribes from the blowhard was to Ontario’s nurses. Because he had continued the short-term law limiting salaries to provincial workers, he actually offered the nurses a one-time bribe. Because the law limits front-line nurses to a maximum raise of just one per cent per year, he offered them a retention bonus of $5000. They would get half before the election and if he was still premier after the election, they would get the other half.

The problem is that Ford’s government has been short-changing the front-line medical staffs in our hospitals since the beginning of the pandemic. These people have worked long, hard hours throughout the worst of the pandemic with little or no recognition of their very difficult and high-risk jobs.

And next in line are the teachers of Ontario who have been put through the wringer over the pandemic with the on-again and off-again shutting down of schools—on the assumption that remote learning would work for all. And anyone who has had any experience with computerized learning programs knows that they do not work for all children. Mr. Ford and his private-schooled education minister have much to answer for.

But now we find out that Mr. Ford has been dicking with Ontario’s hydro rates over the past four years. His government has been building the provincial deficit at almost $7 billion a year while Ontario homeowners and industries have been supposedly enjoying reasonable rates for electricity.

And the promises keep rolling along.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Would ‘Wetworks’ Work?

by Peter Lowry

There seemed to be a common message in readers’ comments on my story last week on Russian president Vladimir Putin’s adventures in Ukraine. I never think of my readers as being particularly blood-thirsty but they seemed to all be in favour of dear old Vlad being offed. And they did not even seem to care who did it.  

One suggestion was that the Russian oligarchs might be first in line for the honour. After all, no oligarch likes to be denied their God-given right to a vacation on the French Riviera. They hardly want to spend all of this miserable winter in Moscow. And to have their millions tied up in reprisals might limit their credit line at the casino. We certainly hope they have enough cash left in the kitty to hire a Russian hitman. They might also need a few rubles to bribe some of the guards at the Kremlin. It could be done.

As for the United Kingdom’s storied Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), I can only advise you that there is no such thing as an 007 agent. There are no licenses to kill. It has always been a question as to which country’s creative writers could come up with the more improbable scenarios for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) or the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II?

I think I had the most skeptical conversation in my life with a chap who was introduced to me as an American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent, based in Quebec City. If he had not been introduced by someone whom I knew in the Pearson Building on Sussex Drive in Ottawa, I might have just walked away laughing. What convinced me he might be real was when I asked him how he got his intelligence reports on Canada. His answer was “by reading your daily newspapers.”

A good friend of mine since we were young adults was a chap who was born in Ukraine and served in the Canadian Air Force. It was interesting to meet his mother who was Russian. He took her back to Ukraine and to Russia before she died. He told me some interesting stories about the Donetsk region of Ukraine when they got back to Canada. Maybe Mr. Putin will drop by the region to show that he is invincible. It might be a good time to prove he is not.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to:

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Did the Fat Lady Sing?

by Peter Lowry

The on-going comic opera in Alberta is running pell-mell towards the finale. With Jason Kenney’s arch enemy, Brian Jean, now back in the united conservative caucus, the provincial party meeting of April 9 is looming larger and darker for the premier. Jason Kenney is running out of friends in Alberta.

And you would think that the federal conservative leadership contest would be his savior. It is the convenient escape hatch. That race needs somebody smarter than Pierre Poilievre and with a better knowledge of the conservative party.

The race certainly needs someone better than retreads such as Jean Charest and Patrick Brown. And there are people who really like Jason Kenney—outside of Alberta. And, don’t forget, Albertans would vote for a prairie dog, as long as he came from Alberta.

Jason Kenney can tell anybody who will listen that he is just misunderstood in Alberta. It is all a conspiracy fomented among the former wildrose party members. After all, he kept telling them that the pandemic was over. He was going to get it right eventually.

And maybe he wasted billions on his pipelines. Yet Kenney is a piker compared to Justin Trudeau. The federal liberal leader is now up to up to an estimated $21 billion in costs to finish the Trans Mountain pipeline. The experts are now predicting that the federal government can never recover that much in shipping the products of the Alberta tar sands.

Kenney is probably worried that both Poilievre and Brown are his acolytes. He curried them for their current run for the roses. He taught them most of the slimy tricks they know. Poilievre might not appreciate being identified with someone as maladroit as Brown but he has to admit that Kenney was very much a role model for him.

And we have the perfect song for Kenney as he hitches up the old chuck wagon and moseys down to the Ottawa corral. It’s an old Neil Young number, with a minor gender change. It would have all kinds of interesting connotations if sung by Dolly Parton.  It’s ‘He’ll be coming around the mountain when he comes.’

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to:

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Reaching Out.

by Peter Lowry

Some politicians despair today at the difficulties they see in reaching out to their voters. Yet, there are many more opportunities today than there used to be. For example, my local liberal candidate in the first two days of being the official candidate took part in a webinar and a telephone town hall. He probably thinks I know little about the technologies but the truth is we were working on those ideas more than 40 years ago.

Webinars are based on computer-aided learning. Many of our current parents will be quite familiar with this as their children have bounced in and out with this technology during the pandemic. They probably saw some very bad methods along with some good.

For webinars, you can start with good technology. They have to have professional level sound, lighting and graphics. You would swear that some efforts are broadcast from the bathroom, by the way the sound bounces off all the porcelain. Good lighting can make a considerable difference in how people perceive the speakers. And you really need to check the clutter behind them.

Good telephone town halls are just as critical. You need good scripts for the intros and any prepared questions. You need to check the sound quality constantly. A professional master of ceremonies can make a good event better.

Frankly, I have been appalled at the lack of understanding of social media. This is an opportunity not envisaged 40 years ago. Social media is a form of creative media. It requires planning. It requires an on-going story line. It needs to build audience and interest. It is definitely not something the candidate dreams up daily.

And what are you doing about the ubiquitous lawn sign? You will probably have to Google it but you should look up the idea of the Burma Shave signs. This was a series of signs you saw on American highways back in the 1920s and 30s. They were small signs that were in a series of four or five that were funny and entertaining. You really do not have to compete with the local real estate agents for attention.

Creative approaches can help you win.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to:

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Genocide in Ukraine.

by Peter Lowry

The world quivers in its warm foxholes while Vladimir Putin commits genocide in Ukraine. He tested the world on the Crimea. Nobody did anything. Words were wasted. Protestations were not enough. And what will happen when he comes for you?

The world must awake. Putin is a psychopath. He cares not how many he kills. He will not hesitate to use atomic weapons. He is but a blemish on the body politic. If the Russians will not contain him, then they will also suffer the blame for his actions.

The world must say ‘No.’ Putin lies to the Russian people. He brooks no criticism He threatens all. He deserves the same treatment as a rabid dog.

Is our world leadership so weak as to believe that sanctions are effective against lunacy? Is the United States of America so torn with political strife within its own borders not to recognize that Putin threatens mankind?

There are only two things that give us any hope. The first is the ineptness of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russians have broken every rule of war. The Russian generals seem to have never read On War by Carl von Clausewitz. Based on reports from inside Ukraine, the invasion seems disorganized. To send tanks from the east to where the capital city is located, takes a great deal of fuel. Every day those tanks advanced used more fuel. Finally, the supply lines were too long.

While von Clausewitz never envisaged aerial warfare, the strategies he suggested are still pertinent. He never suggested demoralizing the population by bombing apartment buildings and hospitals but he would recognize the objective. The only problem today is that these tactics, borrowed from the Bassar al-Assad playbook in the Syrian civil war, are strengthening the resolve of the Ukrainian defenders.

The second cause for hope is the leadership of Ukraine president Zelenskyy. He knows how to address the world leaders and he is he is highly effective in reaching out. He uses modern communications. He remains in Kyiv, the capital city. His leadership has changed all considerations in this invasion. He continues to create reason for hope.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to:

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A Question if We May.

by Peter Lowry

In 1938, we let Adolph Hitler have the Sudetenland.

But Chamberlain said we would have peace in our time.

And nobody did anything.

Hitler had already taken over Austria.

And nobody did anything.

Then Hitler invaded Poland and the world was at war.

My question for today:

Why are we letting Vladimir Putin follow in the footsteps of Adolph Hitler?

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The Business of Business.

by Peter Lowry

It was about 40 years ago when I first heard Frank Stronach, creator of Magna International, speak. I liked some of what he said and puzzled over the rest. What he had done in business was impressive. He had almost single-handed created an auto parts business that today dominates the industry. He had strong views in support of employees and confusing views on government.

He appears to be a strong believer in profit sharing with employees. That I like. While he is in a position to drive-up base wages in the industry, he does not seem to follow through. While it has often been suggested that his companies could almost build a complete car from the components it makes, he has never appeared interested in moving in that direction.

Stronach is no Elon Musk (best known for his Tesla electric vehicle). They both might be rich and richer but neither seems to understand economics. And it is probably just as well if they do not. They keep making money anyway.

And similar to many business tycoons, they are usually dead wrong in their views on government. Government cannot and should not be run as a business. The objectives are very different.

Stronach wrote a guest column in the business section of the Toronto Star the other day. In the column, he turned up his nose at government incentives to locate offices and factories in this location or that. Instead, he wants government to stop spending money on making rules for business and (in his view) impeding their development. He thinks that in today’s global economy, government is too bureaucratic and inefficient and we are paying too much for the overhead they are demanding of companies.

Stronach is buying into the extreme right-wing economics that says lower taxes are the only answer. He not only suggests that we lower taxes by five to ten per cent per year but his mathematics are terrible. He thinks we could lower taxes by 50 per cent that way in just five years.

Stronach is preaching kindergarten economics in the major Canadian daily newspaper. I think the newspaper could do better.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to:

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Remembering Fraser Kelly.

by Peter Lowry

Fraser Kelly died last week. Our friendship was never that close, but our paths crisscrossed over the years. He was chasing politics as a reporter and editor for the old Toronto Telegram back in the 1960s when we first met. I was working to get Charles Templeton into the liberal party leadership. It was as though every time I left the Templeton home in Mississauga, Fraser was out front with the gaggle of lurking reporters.

Fraser was a young and brash reporter. He admired Telegram publisher John Basset and it must have been mutual. Basset took Fraser him with him when he folded the Telegram and concentrated on his CFTO television station which he built into the flagship for the CTV network. Fraser was a natural on television. He made the transition from reporter, editor to television host with ease. He became a Toronto personality.

I forget when he and I realized we were neighbours. He and Joan had a similar type home on the next street in North York’s Henry Farm. Since my house had a pool, we did most of the summer entertaining. Son, Matt preferred the pool but daughter Lisa also did some of my family’s babysitting.

Fraser was always a big hit, at parties the wife and I threw, as many of our friends are also political. I laughingly told Fraser he only came because he could hold court for all the politicos there.

The one thing that always stood out about Fraser Kelly was that he was the straightest arrow I ever knew in the news media. I don’t think I ever told him an off-color joke. I knew better.

But we always had fun. He introduced me to the Franz Josef room at the now long-gone Walker House Hotel that used to stand down on Front Street. We both enjoyed our long lunches there discussing our city and politics.

I never knew why I lost touch with Fraser when he left television work. He joined a communications consulting firm and coincidently moved from Henry Farm. We had no contact after that. I was sorry to learn of his passing.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to:

[email protected]