Category: Uncategorized

Dougie and Bibi: L’État c’est moi?

by Peter Lowry

What have the Province of Ontario and the State of Israel in common? They have political leaders who want to rewrite the law. They want to be the law. Neither Israeli president Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu nor Ontario premier Doug Ford are lawyers but that does not stop them from trying.

In Israel, the right-wing president and his Likud Party are trying to tear down a famously fair supreme court and enable the government of the day to over-rule the court of law. In Ontario, it has to be a simpler proposition—since Ontario can be overruled by Ottawa. The change in Ontario is how you pick your senior judges.

But Canadians have seen the problems that causes in the United States. When a long-time conservative ward-healer such as attorney general Doug Downey asks for longer lists of prospective choices for senior judicial appointments, you are not too sure if he is looking in the longer lists for like-minded appointees. It is as though he is inferring that a conservative, such as himself, would be unlikely to be included in a shorter listing.

What the Netanyahu government has caused is many weeks now of massive demonstrations against the government plans. Israelis are not reluctant to show their dissatisfaction with their government.

But Canada is a country of law. Our judicial  appointments are a largely impartial process. It has to be when the judiciary have the power to force changes in the law. Just look at the mess the United States is in with the canceling of the ‘Roe vs Wade’ ruling by a partisan supreme court. Individual states in America are once again making their own rules on abortion.

What Doug Ford has experienced is impartial courts that can even overturn a “not withstanding” clause in a provincial law, to get around Canada’s constitution, when the clause is used improperly in Ontario laws. The problem is, in Ontario, Doug Ford wants to be ‘The Boss.”  

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Poilievre: Pees into the Wind.

by Peter Lowry

Like wise writers everywhere, it is great fun to drop the bomb in your last paragraph. Chantel Hébert did it the other day in the Toronto Star. In a story about liberal Marc Garneau’s decision to depart from Parliament, she sharply questioned Justin Trudeau’s judgement. Her last line was to ask “how can he think he is still fit to hold his current position?”

The truth is that he is not. The actor in young Trudeau hit his peak when giving pandemic updates in front of Rideau Cottage. If you can only carry on, as prime minister with the help of Jagmeet Singh, you are a sorry excuse for a leader. And with all the right-wing crap we are hearing from deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland these days, she certainly does not need to have any delusions.

We have already given over the extremes of the right-wing of politics to Pierre Poilievre’s partisans. And you can write “loser” on him. He has already broken every rule in the ‘Loyal Opposition’ playbook. It is just that while the word ‘oppose’ makes sense in the job, you are not there to betray the Canadian people. And betrayal is the only word for it.

To ask the prime minister to expose himself as an agent of another country is the same as asking when he stopped beating his wife. It is an inane and silly question. It makes no sense to the Canadian people. It is a selfish question. It serves no purpose other than to defame.

If you have some proof, use it, prove it. Don’t make these crazy charges unless you can prove them.

What Poilievre is giving us is nothing but a reprise of Donald Trump. This is the lie, cheat and steal school of politics. If Trudeau cannot handle a weasel such as Poilievre, he should get out of the way.

It should not be left to writers such as Chantal Hébert to ask the questions so indelicately of the prime minister as to when he is going to get out of the way and let some real leader take the reins of the liberal party?

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Of Fools and Damn Fools.

by Peter Lowry

Common sense tells us that conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has gone much too far. To accuse the prime minister of colluding with a foreign government, to win the 2019 election is not only crazy but obviously did not work. The 2019 election could not be called a win for anybody. Canada’s federal government is currently held together by sticky tape and Jagmeet Singh’s new democrats.

And that fool Pierre Poilievre is way out of bounds. He has been reading too many of those Ian Fleming novels. I can just see Chinese leader Xi Jinping, sitting in his office in Beijing, saying to his minions, “They think we did what?”

The world, of necessity, has developed a code of conduct for international relations. It does not include a handbook on interfering in other countries elections. If anyone does have a handbook, where were they when we needed to save the Americans from themselves in 2016? To suggest that we could have stopped Donald Trump and didn’t, is just plain cruel.

I still remember joining a trade mission from the Peoples’ Republic of China for a meeting in the board room of the Royal Bank of Canada, in Toronto, almost 40 years ago. It was a beautiful summer day and the meeting was dreadfully boring. I was standing by a window, during a break, looking east from high up in the Royal Bank building. It was more interesting when the leader of the trade delegation joined me. I found out that he really did speak English and I would swear he was a young doppelgänger for the later leader of the Republic, Xi Jinping.

What had provoked his interest was the crystal clear Hearn Generating Station smoke stack we could see down by the lake. I think it might have still have been burning some gas back then, but not on that beautiful day. I explained to him that before cutting out the role of coal in electrical generation, Toronto had many bad smog days. We also both agreed that the meeting was boring and the coffee wasn’t too bad.

What that little anecdote was to clarify was that you should always start with what you agree on in foreign affairs. It is a very simple approach but it works.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Pierre Poilievre’s Pickle.

by Peter Lowry

If the leader of the opposition, conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, thinks he could have a case to make of Chinese government interference in Don Valley North in the last election, he could not be more wrong. All he is doing is appealing to the racists in his own party and in the People’s Party. He needs their support.

And why MP Han Dong would need the People’s Republic of China to support his candidacy in Don Valley North, is beyond me. I always followed the ethnic trends in every neighbourhood of that riding very closely. Don Valley North was my old federal and provincial riding in the North York area of Toronto. It was where David Smith called me to ask if he could be the federal liberal candidate at the end of 1979. David had an easy win in 1980 but lost it to the Mulroney sweep in 1984. By then I had moved out of the city and ended up retiring to Barrie. It was only by co-incidence that then Senator David Smith had replaced the ailing Keith Davey and Barrie was the only Ontario city that was lost by the liberals in the 1993 Chrétien sweep.

But what I found in Barrie was the far more interesting saga of Patrick Brown. You can never get away from interesting politics. Patrick is what is known in political circles as a retail politician. He was the local Loblaws. He worked the street. He made the profits. He was ever present. His name was always in front of you. He was introduced to Jason Kenney in Ottawa who had made his life-work understanding and manipulating Canada’s ethnic populations. Jason sang the praises of the Indian Sub-Continent to the younger MP. Patrick was soon on his way to India. He became familiar to the Sikh and Indian diaspora in Canada. He was prime minister Modi’s friend. And it paid off.

When the handwriting on the wall was there for all to see; we all knew the Harper Era was ending in 2015. Brown bet on the provincial opportunities. He swamped the weakened progressive conservative membership in Ontario with Sub-Continent diaspora from the Indian and Sikh communities spread across Ontario.

It was a desperate conservative party that turned the tables on Patrick before he could take them into an election. The accusations were flying and Brown, as expected, lost his cool. Despite the efforts of Doug Ford, Brown found a nest in Brampton—home to so many of the Sikh diaspora. His saga continues…

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Is this the ‘Woke’ Generation?

by Peter Lowry

They thought they were doing it their way. The Ontario liberals changed their constitution. They made it just as stupid as the conservative’s constitution. They learned nothing from the other party’s experience. Oh well, those who fail to learn from history are just going to repeat it.

The Ontario liberals solved one problem and created two more at their recent convention in Hamilton. They might be of the ‘Woke’ generation but I am not all too sure what they have awoken to. I assume that when people are ‘awoke’ to the sins of their forebears, they just find a statue to knock down and they are absolved of their sins. Being neither a Catholic, who believes in absolution, nor one to believe in the passing of the sins of the fathers to their sons, I have nothing to freak out about.

I think I have mentioned it before over the years, of the time Senator Keith Davey and his wife were at the Aberfoyle, Ontario flea market. Keith bought a front page of the Saturday Globe, dated April 2, 1898. He said the picture of Sir Oliver Mowat showed him exactly where my big nose came from. Of course, he had always laughed at my being related to Ontario premier Oliver Mowat. I had mentioned it in a political brochure one time and he never let me forget it. That preserved and framed front page hangs over my computer desk today.

To add to that story, a friend of my wife and I, recently claimed her position as a status Indian, who lives here in Barrie. Her last name is Mowat because she was also removed from her family as a child and was adopted by a branch of the Mowat family. Hers was not a happy childhood and, out of respect for her, I do not make jokes about us being collateral cousins of some sort.

I have known many Canadian aboriginals and Metis over the years. But she was the first one I asked about the error in referring to Canadian aboriginals as ‘indigenous.’ The original meaning of ‘Indigenous’ was ‘from here.’ Aboriginals in the Americas are a long-ago import from Asia. They came by ice-bridge across the Bering Sea. They came across the Pacific by boat. Indigenous, they are not. They might have got here 10,000 to 15,000 years ahead of the Europeans but when the Europeans arrived, they were mainly nomadic peoples living off a bounteous land. They warred against each other and stole their enemies’ women. I don’t think the Europeans did much to help.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Paying for Our Oppression.

by Peter Lowry

It will continue to happen as long as we allow it. We let politicians such as Doug Ford in Ontario oppress us. He would have been called a tyrant in earlier times. He acts as one today. And we let his friends, the rich, the mean, the venal, the uncaring pay for him to convince us that he will win.

He raised $6 million from a secret dinner the other day and the media were barred. This is so wrong that people should be rioting in the streets. Unless we enable the opposition parties to compete with these sums, what chance do we have?

Money does make a difference. In the last election in Ontario, the opposition parties were weak, underfunded and voters thought that the Ford conservatives had already won the election. What happened was that in the small turn-out, the conservatives won. If the normal numbers of opposition voters had come out, the conservatives would have lost.

But how can we compete? We cannot offer lower taxes to business. Doug Ford beat us to it. Doug Ford gives huge presents of land to builders in our Greenbelt. We can hardly compete with that. And just who are these mystery people who will pay $1500 to the conservatives to hear the premier speak. He isn’t even a good public speaker. That is not the only reason he keeps out the news media with their reporters, cameras and microphones.

I don’t think there are enough rich medical specialists to pay Mr. Ford to destroy Medicare. Can they pay him enough? Mind you, it is alright for him to screw the nurses and support staff. They do not often go to $1500 per plate dinners.

He wishes he could screw the teachers, but they have the right to strike.  There were said to be union leaders at that dinner. They are not the type of union leaders you would want representing you.

Doug Ford will tell you he is building for our future in the Greenbelt. What kind of apartments would you build in the Greenbelt? Would you even bother building ‘geared to income’ rental housing? And how would these renters get to work from the Greenbelt? Would you build ‘cheek-to-jowl’ medium-priced homes or luxurious homes around a golf course?

And you will never be able to count on Doug Ford proving that he will build his promise of 1.5 million new homes. He knows that there are not enough skilled trades people in the province. Mr. Ford lies a lot.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Sixty Years, A Liberal.

by Peter Lowry

It was disappointing to not be at the Ontario liberal party’s meeting in Hamilton this past weekend. It promised to be an interesting event. It was also an opportunity for renewal of the party.

My introduction to liberalism was 60-years-ago through the then Toronto and District Liberal Association. I was working at the Globe and Mail and I got a call from one of my more conservative brothers. He had some ideas that he thought might help Charles Templeton become leader of the Ontario liberals. I doubted it but answered that he could call Mr. Templeton at the Toronto Star and talk to him about it. As he usually did, he convinced me to call Charles for him.

To his surprise, and mine, the call to the Toronto Star resulted in an invitation for the two of us to the Templeton home that weekend. That was when I first met Chuck’s wife, singer Sylvia Murphy, in a very skimpy bathing suit, at their pool. I think the woman hated me because she always blamed me for getting Chuck involved in politics. The truth was that he asked me to help and I think I gave the poor guy some very bad advice.

But it was a gateway into liberal politics. I liked Lester Pearson and I quickly moved from communications chair of the Toronto and district liberals to head of communications for both federal and provincial liberals in Ontario. I considered liberalism something of an intellectual experience. I enjoyed the experience of making lawyers and law professors sound like humans. I was thrilled by the opportunity to deal in the progressive issues of the day. I was fighting right-wing laggards in the party over Medicare.

The first time I met Pierre Trudeau, the two of us got into a shouting match. There were a number of vulgarities exchanged. I will never know why but he finally agreed to an interview by a reporter I suggested.  It was the interview that launched him on the front page of the Globe and Mail on his journey to becoming Prime Minister of Canada. We always laughed about that first meeting.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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A False-Flag Favourite?

by Peter Lowry

Beware the politician trying to fly two flags. Torontonians have put up with the lies about what political party mayoralty candidates belong to, for too long. I can assure you, there is no such thing as an independent who can win the mayoralty. In a city of now 2.7 million, you need the support of a well-organized party-based campaign.

What gets my goat though are the foolish politicians who try to ride on the backs of two political parties. Brad Bradford with his alliterative name had a puff-piece in the Toronto Star the other day promoting his candidacy for mayor. He would definitely lose my vote because he is an avid cyclist. I figure anyone who promotes cycling in Toronto’s winter weather and, with all the hills up from the lake, has a screw loose.

But anyone who John Tory backed, and with campaign workers such as conservatives Kory Teneycke, and Jame Watt, can be labelled conservative. He was also supported by John Tory. Of course, many liberals knew John Tory was a conservative, and didn’t care. He was a good mayor and he made that rabble at city hall pay attention.

Before Tory, it was conservative Rob Ford. Before Ford, it was NDPer David Miller. Before Miller, it was conservative Mel Lastman and before Mel, it was liberal Art Eggleton. I go back as far as liberal mayor, my friend Phil Givens, CCF/NDP Bill Denison and conservative Nathan Phillips. And since he was opposed to the Family Compact, Toronto’s first mayor, William Lyon Mackenzie was probably a liberal.

The last time I was even peripherally involved in a Toronto mayoralty race, was in the kick-off for my friend David Smith’s bad campaign for the Toronto mayoralty in 1978. The problem was there were three strong candidates, David and Tony O’Donahue, who were both liberals, and John Sewell, who had made a name for himself as a leader of the NDP’s left-wing of council. Smith and O’Donahue split the vote and Sewell squeaked in for a one-term mayoralty of a not-so-good politician.

The problem with David’s campaign was that I only went to one meeting of his campaign committee. It was in a Toronto law office with a very long boardroom table. I think I was the only non-lawyer there and I was less than thrilled with the lawyer chairing the campaign. It felt like a bar admission cramming course and I did not return.

I returned the favour to David though by helping to get him elected to parliament in my federal riding in 1980.

An added note: I hope any real Toronto liberal would keep his/her powder dry until we find out if Mitzie Hunter MPP is going to be in the race to replace John Tory.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Squandering Alberta’s Future.

by Peter Lowry

When are the voters in Alberta going to learn? Tar sands revenue is from a non-renewable resource. It is called non-renewable because it will eventually be all gone. All those big spenders at the petroleum clubs will also be gone. Albertans will have to get honest jobs. They will no longer be able to plunder their province’s resources.

But that libertarian premier is going to scatter this year’s un-earned bonanza from inflated oil prices to the winds—all in aid of bribing the voters to vote for her.

A long time ago, Albertans were advised by a sage politician that this ‘found’ money from the tar sands could build a strong future for the province. Peter Lougheed created the Alberta Heritage Fund to do just that.

In the 2022-23 fiscal year, Alberta saw a $27.5 billion windfall from its tar-sands related industries. The credit for this goes to the terrible war that is murdering civilians in the Ukraine. Combined with world-wide inflation and the ravages of the pandemic, the Alberta government has no choice but to spend more on its key responsibilities, education and healthcare.

But how protected is the heritage fund from political urges to spend lots when an election is in the offing? Don’t worry though, the government is guaranteed to skimp later on. Just elect libertarians to the legislature and you will soon learn how cheap they can be.

It is not that Danielle Smith does not have plans for the heritage money but she needs to get re-elected in May. Changing to a provincial police force from the current arrangement with the RCMP is going to cost mega bucks. Fighting with Ottawa at ever opportunity, will help keep her name in the news, but at what expense?

And don’t dare be poor in Alberta. Libertarians are not generous with welfare. They aren’t often interested in children’s welfare either.

In fact, I cannot fathom why Ms. Smith picked politics this time around. She made a mess of it when she led the Wildrose libertarians. And she is not getting any smarter.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Mitzie For Mayor!

by Peter Lowry

Not knowing liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter, she has already earned my support for mayor of Toronto. Mitzie is planning to be in Hamilton for the liberal party annual convention on the weekend, promoting the “one-member, one-vote” change in the party’s constitution. Having been one of the insiders who used to take part in running delegated conventions, I can certainly attest to the unfairness and undemocratic nature of those events.

I am not apologizing for my participation, because, at the time, we had no alternative method to select party leaders. To keep things lively for the news media, we did not consider mail-in ballots. Besides, we needed the publicity and the money those conventions raised for the party. It was the advent of the internet and its wide-spread availability in Ontario that provides a fast and effective way to let every member of the party have a vote.

And as Mitzie wrote for the news media “the one member, one-vote system is not only more democratic but ultimately leads to a stronger party organization.”

But the party delegates at this convention need to be wary of attempts to weight the vote or to rank their ballots. Both of these allow for easy manipulation of the vote. For true one-member, one-vote to work, stick to your guns.

You should remember that preferential ballots and riding weighting were the undoing of the federal conservatives when they chose Andrew Scheer and then Erin O’Toole as their party leaders.

First of all, preferential voting, with a strong field, tends to count down to the least aggressive candidates. Party leaders need to be aggressive.

And weighting ridings is about the dumbest idea in a democratic vote imaginable. Nobody in politics really believes that all electoral districts are equal. Weighting means that the choices of the stronger ridings are diluted with the opinions of weak ridings. In politics, always go with your strengths. Go Mitzie!

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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

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