Category: Uncategorized

The Emptiness of the Crown.

by Peter Lowry

Do you miss Elizabeth II yet? Or do you feel the emptiness of the Crown? You have to admit that Charlie is trying. After spending most of my life with some in-direct connection to being an Elizabethan, I am just not yet into Charlie and the Lovely Camilla. Nor can we expect a quick transition to Charlie’s squabbling progeny.

But more likely, the time of kings, queens, princesses and princes is long gone. We replaced them a century gone by with entertainers, movie stars and sports heroes. Royals are people who cut the ribbons at new supermarkets and open hospital wards. Maybe under a more liberal regime at Whitehall, we could vote to choose between Charles, William or Harry. That could modernize them.

Maybe Oprah Winfrey could go to England and get a tell-all interview with the Lovely Camilla. I bet she can give us some juicy tales of being snubbed by royals.

Personally, I think all the royals should have to pass a psychiatric review each year to earn their share of the dole. I am not sure what they would do with those who are not enough of a toff?

The only inconvenience of voting for your favourite royal would be the expense for the respective governments in switching between the royal heads to appear on the coinage and the postage. Or is that just another use of royalty that has failed to entertain us?

I have memories of my mother waking us children so we could hear the royal message from afar on Christmas morning. The only thing that puzzled us was that mother was an American. She only married a Canadian. I have often felt that Americans only wish they still had royalty. Maybe that is why so many of them like Donald Trump.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Ford’s Fools Gold.

by Peter Lowry

It is hard to say whether Ontario premier Doug Ford is encouraging gambling in Ontario or simply doesn’t care. Either way, he is going about it all wrong. After the cautious steps during the Wynne years, the number of casinos and the way they are being run today is likely to lead to growing losses and ultimately bankruptcies.

We used to think of casinos as being mainly a destination vacation such as Las Vegas, the Bahamas, Atlantic City, Niagara Falls. These were weekend or short-stay places to visit where, once you had enough gambling, offered a variety of entertainments and places to dine.

At one time, Las Vegas, with its mystique of Mafia origins was the frequent destination for people the casinos called “whales.” These were the high rollers who brought large amounts for their gambling and received free rooms, meals and other VIP treatment. While I have seen many foolish gamblers making bets of thousands of dollars in casinos, the average revenue in Ontario is more likely less than $500 per visit. And that is best explained in that many Ontario residents are not smart gamblers.

You really wish you could say to a person, obviously chasing their losses, that they should just accept their losses and go home. And telling someone that those side bets such as ‘Perfect Pairs’ in Blackjack is a rip-off is a no-no. You have to face the reality is that everyone thinks they understand the game they playing, will make their own foolish bets and will lie about their losses.

But what is really destroying the casinos is the cost of wages for staff. It is driving the current trend towards the more controlled Internet casinos, the sports books and the trend away from dealers for the games. The first victim in this trend has been the disappearance of live craps games. One of the things that the wife and I used to love about Las Vegas was the action at the craps tables. It is the siren call above and over all the bells and whistles of the slot machines.

We are now into the age of the I-Tables. They will spell the end of casinos. Blackjack, poker and table games are a social occasion. It is an interaction that is even more precious after the years of pandemic. We need it. Why should we be interested in challenging machines?

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to:[email protected]

“Just Watch Me.”

by Peter Lowry

Justice Paul Rouleau’s inquiry, doesn’t hold a candle to Tim Ralfe of the CBC during the October Crisis of 1970. Justin Trudeau’s father did not suffer fools. Ralfe was lurking with other reporters for Pierre Trudeau’s arrival at the Centre Block of the parliament buildings and he got a clear answer to his question of the prime minister.

Justin Trudeau—ever the actor—was well prepared for his day at the Rouleau inquiry. He was just as clear as his father was when answering for use of the War Measures Act 52 years ago.

I remember my anger at the use of Canadian Army personnel in our airports and on the streets of Ottawa. A senator friend talked me out of telling Pierre how I felt about his use of the War Measures Act. He knew how Pierre and I had exchanged heated words when we first met. Pierre and I laughed at it after the fact but we both felt we had made our point. He had no patience for demanding public relations flunkies and I had less for prima donna politicians. A second set-to might not have had the same ease of putting it behind us.

Mind you, we did not see the War Measures Act stretching out for a year with an inquiry. I think the inquiry has done a service for Canadians in blowing smoke off some of the operations in Ottawa. I never knew, for example, how shallow the operations were at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). I knew there was no ‘James Bond’ BS but CSIS is so bland as to be boring. It was like one time I was doing some work for the police and the RCMP and I found out how they searched millions of photographs of Canadians. It tarnished the colour of those crimson jackets.

I am frankly wondering how the RCMP is going to survive these hearings, no matter how Justice Rouleau sugar-coats his report. And if the justice lays any responsibility on former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly, we will know the fix is in. Sloly was the slow child being abused in a game of monkey-in-the-middle and he was used as a scapegoat by both the brass of the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It is unlikely that Rouleau would go that far, but no amount of hand-wringing or hand-washing saves Ontario premier Doug Ford from taking the blame for politicizing the situation in Ottawa and Windsor. The hypocrisy of Mr. Ford in this affair was appalling.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Assaulting Assault Arms.

by Peter Lowry

It seems to be a regular song they sing in the United States Congress. Once again, they want to ban assault rifles. It seems useless but you have to give them credit for trying. It happens most often when there is are outbreaks of murdered children.

And yet, they can only estimate that there are between 10 million and 20 million assault rifles running free across the country. The most popular of this type of weapon is the Armalite AR-15. This is not a hunting weapon. Its only purpose is to inflict the most damage to the most humans within a range of about 400 metres.

The AR-15 is an excellent assault rifle. It is not too expensive, relatively easy to maintain and service and was designed for use by soldiers who are not a very good shot anyway. A squad of soldiers armed with these weapons can lay down a layer of lead to make a force five times their number to keep their heads down.

But when the National Firearms Association (NRA) folks in the United States tell the politicians, they seem to own to fight back, it doesn’t make sense. If the weapon is useless for hunting, since you are not required to provide your own gun in your state’s national guard and would be wasting your time trying to improve your accuracy with it, why would you waste your money on it? All I have to note is that the people selling those assault rifles must be damn good salespeople.

What would make more sense would be to have those sales people help save the children from crazies with assault rifles.

And please do not argue about the size of the hole that an AR-15 makes in a human. There are many types of cartridges, many types of bullets and different loads. Military cartridges are often the least expensive and if they are practice rounds, they are designed to break up on impact to help prevent ricochets.

And if you want to know the stupidest statement ever heard from an advocate for the NRA. The person said that the best protection for children in their school is a teacher with a gun. That is a strange way of thinking.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Poilievre’s Poison.

by Peter Lowry

It’s a bad combination. Conservative party leader, Pierre Poilievre has been considered an ideologue. Yet, he appears to treat his ideology as dogma. He seems to accept theory as belief. In this, he is a danger to himself. When rank and file conservatives expect him to try to broaden his appeal to Canadians, he is maintaining the approach he used to stand apart from his opponents as leader. It is more of a libertarian approach than conservative.

Poor Poilievre is already learning the hard lesson of supporting crypto-currencies against government supported currencies. Some Canadians believed him when he said Canada could be the blockchain capital of the world. Now, was that before or after Bitcoin lost 75 per cent of its value? It must have been a fun day in the house of commons when the liberals, NDP, Bloc and others got to debate a conservative ill-thought-out motion supporting crypto-currencies.

Despite Poilievre’s rants against the Bank of Canada and the liberal government’s attempts at softening the blows of the pandemic, he is no economist. He accused the Bank of Canada of creating billions of dollars out of thin air to deliver on the government’s promises. The truth was that it was an opportune time to borrow the money at very low rates. It is that very critical ability of government to help its citizens in times of trouble, that helps stabilize our economy.

What is even more frightening about Poilievre’s financial ideology is his promise that should he ever be prime minister, he would ensure the any new government programs would be required to bring to end older programs of equal cost. That is probably the most destructive stupidity of any politician. The ability of government to fund infrastructure that lasts for many years that we count on to help grow our gross national product, year-in and year-out.

If Pierre Poilievre had ever held a real job, other than politics, he might have a better idea of what Canadians really need in a prime minister. He promises nothing but harsh right-wing conservative ideology.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Ignorance Abounds in America.

by Peter Lowry

For a while now, I have been wondering why I have been getting so many strange e-mails from the United States. What idiot thinks I am interested in writing a story about the supposed usefulness of the second amendment to the American constitution? This has obviously gone beyond stupid. Today I get four pages of crap saying that you need to carry a gun to ward off carjacking.

I gather in this, that the next time I am in New York or Philadelphia or Seattle, I am expected to carry a gun to help thwart the carjackers who will try to steal my car while I am putting gas in it. With the current gas prices, I guess they will wait until the gas tank is full before they jump me. They assume I will be too busy playing with my smart phone to notice them moving in on me.

We are told that all this information has been discovered and reported by Fox News. They tell us that more heroes are needed as there are three times the carjacking incidents over the previous year.

In Philadelphia, most of the blame for this increase is placed on the faulty policies of a former Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner. (He must be one of those radical left-wing Democrats!)

What made me laugh at this document in the beginning is that the first sentence said several states are seeing “a massive increase in criminal activity” and then named three cities: New York, Portland and Seattle. It went on to say that “Constitutional-Carry is necessary.”

My problem is this: Despite being trained in weapons by the Canadian military, there is no logical reason for the Canadian police to issue me one of those very rare carry permits for a weapon. They would look at me oddly if I even asked.

And if I took a weapon with me across the U.S. border, I would probably end up in jail in the first state that found I had it.

Can you just imagine what a judge would make of it if he or she was told I was part of an advance party of a Canadian invasion of the United States of America?

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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A Policeman’s Perception.

by Peter Lowry

Justice Paul Rouleau of the Ontario Court of Appeal is listening to a concert of cabinet members this week at his Emergencies Act inquiry. First minister up was super cop, emergency preparedness minister Bill Blair, the former Toronto police chief. Blair is something of an expert in how police can mistreat citizens.

While I might have missed some of the process of Blair’s testimony, it seemed to me that he was getting the softball questions. It was Blair who brought up his handling of the G20 summit in Toronto in 2010. He used it as an example of a planned event where-in the police had control everything from day one of the event.

Exactly why he, as the responsible police chief, let anarchists rampage in Toronto’s downtown one day and then had his force kettle innocent residents, out for an evening stroll the next, has never been explained.

But, strangely enough, Blair was less concerned about the visitors to Ottawa who were in no hurry to go home last February, than the Ambassador Bridge blockade in Windsor, Ontario. He saw the Ottawa visitors as more of the anchor for the groups causing border problems across the country. He was more concerned about these blockades causing problems for Canada’s manufacturing industries. He claimed it was a serious threat to our national security and became a national emergency.

Blair said more than a few times in his testimony that the Ottawa police made a mistake in allowing the ‘Freedom Convoy’ trucks into downtown Ottawa. He must have watched with pride as Ottawa and police from across Ontario as well as Ontario Provincial Police and RCMP used mob kettling techniques to move the truck owners out of the way as commandeered towing vehicles started moving their trucks.

I remember the wife and I watching the process of clearing Ottawa streets on that February weekend. The only time we were concerned was when the Toronto Police horses were brought in to break up the crowds in front of the Chateau Laurier. That mob was so dense that we were concerned that some of the horses could be hurt. It is the first time I have seen horses withdrawn from participating in a crowd situation because of concern for the horses’ safety.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Who Rogers Hurts.

by Peter Lowry

It is unlikely that the acquisition of Shaw by Rogers will affect my readers to any serious degree. Knowing this sometimes bothers me but I have good news for the few who can see the problem: Help is on the way. When academics such as Lars Osberg of Dalhousie come forward, you are getting a carefully considered opinion. He makes the point that lower income Canadians are being left out of our society because of the outrageously high costs for telephones, television and Internet services.

And speaking for the seniors among us, I see no reason why they should be forced to pay the higher Canadian rates for modern communications. If Rogers ever tells me that they give better rates to seniors, you will find me rolling on the floor laughing.

Frankly I have no need for a smart phone. I have never taken a picture with a cell phone and probably never will. When my oldest brother was in his 90s, one of his kids gave him a smart phone. He found it had more computing power and communications capability than many of the computers he used in his years in business and he had fun with it. It is just an expensive toy.

There is no reason though to assume that everyone flying out of the country is carrying a smart phone with them. I also think it is foolish to use your smart phone as a wallet. You are just giving the unscrupulous more reasons to steal it.

And if I ever had a smart phone, I sure as hell would not be so careless as to walk down the street with my nose into my smart phone and not paying attention to what was going on around me.

But back to the B.S. that Rogers is feeding the government agencies, who are supposed to protect our interest. The impact of two giants in the industry merging worries me. When Rogers tell other agencies that the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved the Rogers-Shaw merger, I think you would get a far shorter answer if you just asked what the CRTC has not approved lately for the big three telecoms?

I have already got the word from Bell Canada that they want more money for my Internet service. I have checked with the supposedly low-cost providers and for the type and level of service that I know can be provided, I am stuck with Bell.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Ford’s Super Mayors.

by Peter Lowry

Heh, wannabe one of Ontario premier Doug Ford’s super mayors? The line forms to the right—the far right. And you might not be quite as enthusiastic when you find that part of the inaugural process involves kissing Ford’s fat ass on the front steps of the Ontario Legislature. Besides, your idea of a super mayor might not jibe with what Ford has in mind.

Like all bills being brought forward at Queen’s Park these days, the titles they dream up are often the opposite of what Ford and his henchmen have in mind. It is like when trying to force the custodians, secretaries and teaching assistants back to work, they called their use of the ‘Not Withstanding’ clause in action something about keeping children in classrooms. It almost caused a general strike across Ontario.

Ford’s idea of a super mayor comes across as something his late brother Rob dreamed up while high on crack cocaine. This version involves a mayor who does what the premier tells him to do. It is all in aid of getting swift passage of permits needed for the premier’s developer friends. He is drawing all that money from developers away from the cities and over to Queen’s Park.

While John Tory might really enjoy his final term as Toronto mayor under this arrangement, he still likes to think he is his own man.

But what self-respecting mayor would not want to be guaranteed control of his council with as little as a third of the votes?

Ford might have sold the idea of super mayors by touting the American model. I am not sure if I need to tell you the American model is based on party politics up and down the line. And it is the budget and appointment controls that the U.S. mayor’s often have, that helps them keep their councils in line.

Frankly, I would hardly worry about mayors such as Toronto’s John Tory or Mississauga’s Bonnie Crosbie, Of course, John Tory’s third term as mayor of Toronto is just a victory lap. I start to worry when I see Brampton’s Patrick Brown licking his chops at the prospects.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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The Tarnishing of an Icon.

by Peter Lowry

In the news media across Canada, the Toronto Star is an icon. It is a newspaper created for the working man 130 years ago and it is today, the largest circulation broadsheet newspaper in the country. And, like other news media today, it continues to re-invent itself and struggles on in its tenuous existence in a constantly changing market.

When the first non-newspaper people to take on the known risks bought the Star two years ago for a reported $60 million, I was amused. I did not know Paul Rivett but, as a Torontonian at heart I know of and respect the Bitove family—though I think Jordan Bitove is a couple generations behind me. What amused me, was that they supposedly working on the advice of their lawyer, former Ontario premier David Peterson. Not one of the three knew anything about the newspaper business and how it has evolved in recent years.       

While my earliest commentaries were written for the now defunct Toronto Telegram, I also worked for the Globe and Mail and contributed quite a few op-eds to the Toronto Star over the years—until I was black-balled by the Star in the early 1980s.

(That was an interesting story. I was doing a study for the government in Ottawa on government-industry programs and I thought it would have some legs if the Star got behind it. I got an appointment with the then president of TorStar to make the pitch. I could not understand why he was being so negative. He finally admitted that his brother-in-law, whom I didn’t know, also pitched to do the same study. I guess he wanted part of the $350,000 the government was providing. I didn’t have the heart to tell the TorStar guy that I was doing the study on an expenses-only basis.)  

But I still pick a good commentary occasionally to test on the Star. I don’t believe in what the Star is doing with lengthy stories in almost all categories. Not all of us can write 2000 words at the drop of a hat like Rosie DiManno. It looks as though the few people kept on staff are told to ‘write long’ to hide the fact that there is really less in the paper these days.

I expect the disagreement between Paul Rivett and Jordan Bitove will be solved soon. I just hope it will not result in trouble for the Star. It has always been a great paper and today, we need its voice.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]