Uncategorized – Page 26 – Babel-on-the-Bay

In defence of the new capitalism.

April 10, 2019 by Peter Lowry

It seems like many years ago, I was standing in front of business students in Ontario defending responsible capitalism. Nobody called me a raving socialist—at least, not out loud. There was no question that what I was lecturing was more on social democracy than the bitchiness of Donald Trump’s raw and nasty version of capitalism.

Recently I was sent a copy of a Bill Maher piece called Capitalism Plus. This clip must be a hot item in democratic circles in the U.S. today. He explains how socialism is an excellent add on for capitalism. It explains why caring for others matters. It is also great to have a few good laughs as a popular and practiced raconteur explains something that is very important.

There seemed to be as many examples of good companies back in the 1970s and 80s as there are examples of bad companies today. Take the General Motors situation for example. I think the giant company has shot itself in the foot to remove the Oshawa plant’s manufacturing from Canada.

In the 1970s and 80s, there were companies throughout the United States and in Canada that believed in the social responsibility of business. They treated their employees as responsible partners in the enterprise, sharing the benefits and financial success.

And there were lessons to be learned in failure at the same time. There are different ways of handling layoffs as assembly lines become redundant. A company I worked for ran to the end of a product cycle and we had some good employees on that product line without work. One day some of them were repainting the hallways of the plant and they asked me why there were no layoffs. All I could do was ask them to be patient.

What we had done was ask our personnel people if they would like to try out their sales skills. We sent them out to similar type companies in the municipality to sell them on interviewing some of our employees. The only layoffs that took place where when everyone had a new job.

But call it democratic socialism, social responsibility of business or capitalism plus, business wants to be part of a stable environment where it can plan ahead and grow its opportunities. Canada offers that. We hardly need to tell anyone that we are open for business. Nor do we always need to attract business with lower taxes or incentives. We know that business will come.

-30-

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

Can bad software crash a 737 Max?

March 17, 2019 by Peter Lowry

In a career of explaining computers to people, I always deferred to my brothers as to what it was all about. I had four brothers who, each in his own field, was an expert. My oldest brother is the systems guy, the next brother (now deceased) developed innovative computer equipment for film and television, the next developed operating systems and languages and the youngest is an expert in computer encryption. That left me the job of explaining all these developments to the world.

And I have not done a good job. Nobody is really interested when you tell them the last real improvements in computer software happened about 45 years ago. Now, there is a headline for you. Who cares?

The point is that the computer industry and everyone else is starting to reap the rewards of ignoring software development. When the Lion Air crash last October killed 189, the most likely answer was: software.

What we have today is a hodgepodge of programs written over the years and rarely, if ever, updated. And the worst aspect of this is the lazy programmer who copies a line of code that might or might not have extra notations in it to do something that nobody cares what.

I remember one time returning from Vancouver to Toronto on a new, at that time, Boeing 767. The chief pilot invited me to the cockpit and he was showing me all the bells and whistles on the large cathode ray tube displays that had replaced banks of switches. We even had some macabre fun putting in impossible destinations for the plane and seeing where it would tell us we would crash for lack of enough fuel.

But the point the pilot was really making was that this was the first aircraft that he had flown with software that was able to take off, fly the plane and land at any suitable airport without a human hand on the controls. I remember looking at him at the time and saying, “Thank you, but please save that demonstration for some other time.”

We have to remember that as we computerize more and more of the systems around us, we are putting lives at risk with every careless bit of software programming. As we listen to and read the comments of aviation experts about the 737 Max 8 crashes, it is becoming more and more obvious that the software involved needs to be just as up-to-date and fine tuned as the equipment it controls.

-30-

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

Saving the Scenic Salish Sea.

February 25, 2019 by Peter Lowry

To nobody’s surprise the other day, Canada’s moribund National Energy Board (NEB), once again, approved the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. And once again to the barricades my friends to stop the tripling of the ocean-going tankers manoeuvring under Lions Gate Bridge, through Vancouver Harbour to the Second Narrows and into Burrard Inlet to fill up on highly polluting tar sands bitumen.

The NEB approval comes with the caution that the traffic will harm the killer whales, annoy some of the aboriginal groups (probably the ones that could not be bought off) and cause significant greenhouse gas emissions. Since nobody has figured out a way to provide emergency measures services to the endangered Orcas, you would think this advice alone from the board would come with a negative on the project.

But, no. The NEB obviously made note that the federal government now owns and operates the pipeline and the government can do what it wants anyway. And since this is also the government that appoints the board members, you can assume that they would not bite the hand that feeds them. And, at the same time, it pleased their friends down at the Calgary Petroleum Club. This was a win-win for those guys.

The funniest response was from Alberta premier Rachel Notley. She took a cautiously optimistic approach. She figures it’s an important step, though she did not seem to be rushing to call out the brass bands.

But the federal government still has 90 days to make a final decision. It can take its time. Notley and the tar sands exploiters have spent a great deal of money on the false advertising for their part in the tar sands charade. You would think that with how Notley and her government have stood up for the lies, there would be some payoff. They have cut themselves off from the federal new democrats and crossed the country telling us that ‘bitumen is good for you.’

Despite all her efforts, I hear there will be nothing but bad news for Notley in the election she has to call.

Maybe Justin Trudeau will be even more of a chump. Does he really think his liberals will hold all three seats they now hold in Alberta after the October election?

-30-

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

Corporations can be citizens.

February 21, 2019 by Peter Lowry

In last Sunday’s Toronto Star there was an interesting juxtaposition of two letters-to-the-editor on the SNC-Lavalin affair. It reminds me of the time I spent over the years lecturing business students at Ontario universities on corporate social responsibility. Despite the assumption by the public that you cannot charge a car for someone’s careless driving, you can certainly charge the manufacturer with liability if the fault is in a manufacturing defect.

Companies are people too, as far as the law is concerned.

And companies can also suffer double jeopardy as they have their own judge and jury when they are found at fault. The company that has just paid a fine or a court ordered recompense, is hardly going to say, “It is just the cost of doing business!” The company’s reputation is an asset and you besmirch it at your peril. I have helped carry boxes of a few careers to the parking lot and have seen how it can be an object lesson for others.

And while baksheesh can be considered a tip, a small gratuity, or a charitable donation in many countries, in large amounts, it is a bribe.

While many think corporations lack a brain, a soul and a moral compass, the truth is they have many. From the night cleaning staff to the chief executive officer, everybody has an investment in their company. And they do not always look favourably on people around them who disrespect the company’s moral compass.

People who invest in shares of companies for their retirement years should always look beyond the public relations department’s hand-outs. How employees think of their company, the rate of turn-over of staff and how their suppliers feel about them tells you far more.

Thinking of another example of corporate social responsibility, I am disappointed that General Motors Corporation has broken faith with William C. Durant’s vision for the company and certainly the deal made with Sam and George McLaughlin when GM bought their company in Oshawa, Ontario and made Buicks and Chevrolets there for the Canadian market. GM gave up more than just market share when it made the decision recently to end a hundred years of Oshawa manufacturing and leave North American production to the U.S. and Mexico. People do not buy your products quite so readily when you disrespect them.

-30-

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

The dynamics are different.

January 23, 2019 by Peter Lowry

When talking about dynamics in politics, we are talking about what will influence the political outcome. And in looking at the upcoming by-elections in three federal electoral districts on February 25, we have to deal with each district as a separate entity.

Reading the tea leaves for the three by-elections is especially important because these will be the last federal by-elections before the general election scheduled for October, this year.

The complexity starts in Burnaby South. The electoral district in Vancouver, B.C. was previously held by Kennedy Stewart of the NDP. Mr. Stewart resigned to run successfully as an independent candidate for Vancouver mayor. He strongly opposes having the Trans Mountain pipeline expanded and coming through the city to transfer diluted bitumen from the Athabasca and Cold Lake tar sands to ocean tankers in Burrard Inlet.

Despite the resignation of the initial liberal candidate, her replacement is a former Speaker of the B.C. Legislature, also of Chinese heritage. With 38 per cent of the district population of Chinese descent, he has the same base as the previous candidate.

If the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh can get out the word forcefully that he opposes the Trans Mountain, he will likely get a lot of help in getting out his vote. Mind you he will have the prime minister and lots of cabinet ministers in the riding smothering the voters with kindness.

Pipelines are of nowhere near the importance in Montreal’s Outremont electoral district. The NDP consider this riding important in that it was former NDP leader Tom Mulcair’s seat. It is also a must-win seat in October for the liberals if they are to hold their majority in parliament.

The third by-election is in Ontario’s York-Simcoe electoral district. The fiefdom of federal conservative Peter Van Loan for the past 14 years, York-Simcoe was a cake-walk for conservative Caroline Mulroney in the recent provincial election. The conservatives could be too confident.

Like all by-elections, the key in all three districts is identifying your voters and getting them out to vote. To do that in February takes far more volunteers than the areas can produce. They will need help from other electoral districts. In by-elections, it is the party with the best ground game that wins.

If the liberals win none of the by-elections, they are in trouble.

If the liberals win just one of the by-elections, it will mean the October election will be hard fought.

If the liberals win two of the by-elections, it means the status quo in October.

And if the liberals win all three of the by-elections, the Toronto Maple Leaf hockey team is also likely to win the Stanley Cup.

-30-

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

The Tentacles of Torstar.

January 12, 2019 by Peter Lowry

It is a small hope of mine that Babel-on-the-Bay has some of the same objectives as the Toronto Star. It becomes harder over the years as the Torstar management keep swallowing the smaller fish to keep their big fish afloat. They have done more to deprive Canada of good journalism in recent years than they have encouraged.

Since the Canada Competition Bureau is still reported to be casting a jaundiced eye on the most recent collusion between Torstar and PostMedia to end professional journalism in Canada, I will deal with other bad smells coming from Torstar headquarters at One Yonge Street in Toronto.

Frankly, I have been concerned about the lack of competence Torstar has shown in becoming functional in the electronic world of news reporting. I have been waiting, with increasing impatience, for the wife and I to be able to discuss the day’s news that we can each access at breakfast on our personal table-top tablets. Instead, each version of the Toronto Star electronic newspaper comes out worse and more difficult to navigate than the earlier version and with fewer features.

It is so confused that the other day I received an e-mail from the Star’s programming geniuses. It expressed regret that I had cancelled my subscription to the electronic version and the cancellation would take effect at the end of the month. My opening question to the first person I found in the right department was why would I cancel something that costs me nothing? As a home delivery customer, I have access to the electronic version at no additional charge.

My other recent experience where my curiosity was tweaked was in late December by a news source that I have not been using. It is iPolitics, the Ottawa based electronic news source, concentrating on politics in Canada. One of the iPolitics staff appeared on a Global News panel. She was presentable, spoke well but appeared to have no basis for the opinions she was expressing. It occurred to me that this publication needs some help.

At the time, I was reviewing my ten years of producing a daily posting for Babel-on-the-Bay. My choice is to cut costs somewhere or to find some revenue. Since iPolitics needs help, I sent the publication a quick e-mail politely suggesting we have a chat. I was puzzled when I did not receive any acknowledgement.

All became clear though when I dug deeper and found I had missed the announcement that Torstar had bought iPolitics.

-30-

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

Saluting Salutin.

January 2, 2019 by Peter Lowry

Maybe you have never wasted much time on reading Toronto Star writer Rick Salutin. I have never considered his opinions of importance or particularly well founded. I have had the impression, that the Star editors just keep him on standby to fill empty spaces in the next edition. His recent effort discussing the B.C. referendum on proportional voting is probably a good example.

Here is Salutin, a week after the results were announced, panning the referendum and claiming that B.C. voters rejected a more democratic voting option and stayed instead with what he refers to as the odious first-past-the-post. You have to admit, this guy knows where he stands.

In a country where even six-year olds are encouraged to send a letter to Santa Claus, Salutin thinks using the services of the post office are too much for our young voters. This is why he objects to the mail-in voting used for the referendum. He thinks it was mainly those risk-adverse seniors who turned thumbs down on change.

He uses the example of the Swiss, who hold more referenda than Canadians and use the mails as well. He notes that most Swiss referenda lose, though it is not clear what point he is making. When visiting Switzerland, I have found progressive to be a somewhat rare human condition.

I lost track of where Salutin was going when he started talking Chartism (a mid 19^th century human rights movement) and he then got into railing against neoliberalism. He also seemed to be concerned that the referendum was brought on by the sense of entitlement among the Green and NDP parties to gain them a larger representation in a proportionate legislature.

But he does not seem to want them to have expanded representation because they are not left-wing enough for him. Too bad.

And then he goes on to discuss non-parties such as the Yellow Vests in France. I like to think of them as more like the Occupy Movement in North America—but with flame throwers.

Luckily, I read the entire piece by Salutin. He had thrown in an ‘OTOH’ that I did not understand and something similar. At the end, he had an “IMHO’ which I believe means ‘in my humble opinion.’ I can really appreciate that he is humble about it.

But it would help if the Toronto Star gave Mr. Salutin some copy editing assistance.

-30-

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

Dictators Don’t Debate.

December 30, 2018 by Peter Lowry

A mainstay of our parliamentary democracy in Canada is the tradition of question period. This is when the opposition parties have a chance to tackle the premier or prime minister and the cabinet to ask what is going on. Over the years we have seen premiers and prime ministers who enjoyed talking in this forum, some who hated it but only rarely one who did not show up.

It looks like Doug Ford does not like to debate. He seems to think he is above this approach to democracy. He just does not want to attend. We expect it is all because he does not want to be made to look stupid.

Many thought prime minister Stephen Harper had the best strategy on this because he often sent his parliamentary assistant to Question Period. There was one of these who would stand there and talk endlessly about something else but he had to be replaced when he went to jail for something else. There was another who broke down and cried and said he could not do it anymore. It’s a tough job.

But Dougie is different. He is more like the loquacious con man who is struck dumb when the judge gives him a chance to apologize for his misdeeds. His reasoning must be that if you do not know what to say, why say it?

I think what really annoys Dougie on this is that there would be no questioning of him about getting his friend Ron Taverner appointed head of the Ontario Provincial police, if he had not brought the legislature back into session to send the electrical generation people back to work. Maybe Dougie thinks he should be omnipotent.

Mind you, there are not too many Ontario voters eager to let Dougie have any more power. There is no telling how long that list is that he consults to see how much trouble he should cause each day. He is certainly not finished getting even with his old enemies at Toronto City Hall and cutting them down to size. And he is nowhere close to letting his builder friends pave over the Toronto Greenbelt. Dougie is a man with a plan.

-30-

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

All we got from Trudeau was a Ho-Ho-Ho.

December 21, 2018 by Peter Lowry

How do you like that bunch of ingrates in Alberta? Prime minister Trudeau comes up with a $1.6 billion Christmas present for them and all they do is complain.

Bet you just love the mental picture of premier Rachel Notley sitting on Justin Trudeau’s lap last time she was in Ottawa. She says she was only telling him what she wanted for Christmas.

But now she tells us that Trudeau is deaf and only offered the tar sands exploiters more opportunities to go into debt. He is not getting that girl onto a bicycle built for two. She knows what she wants and if she cannot have her pipeline over the Rockies, she wants more tanker cars to get that damn bitumen to markets that do not care about all the pollution.

There is a lot of speculation that premier Rachel will need a new job next year. It seems obvious now that she will never make it as a lap dancer. Nor will Trudeau make it as a department store Santa.

Maybe we should teach our eastern premiers to whine and carry-on like they do from Alberta. Could you just see Messrs. Ford and Legault carrying on about giving their free enterprise environment destroyers the store? It is bad enough that Dougie wants to sue Justin over some possible carbon tax. It is even worse that our genius premier in Ontario wants to pave over the aquifer that provides drinking water for about five million people in and around the City of Toronto.

What puzzles most easterners is that there are less than five million Albertans. They do not want to pay provincial taxes. They are horrified at the thought of paying more federal taxes. And these are the same people that scream and yell that the rest of Canada has to pay for their damn polluting pipeline. And if they cannot have that pony, they want millions of dollars worth of rail tanker cars.

What puzzles most Canadians is why these huge successful companies who are exploiting the tar sands do not plan ahead? If you are going to have a million barrels of diluted bitumen to export each month, would it not be best to plan ahead and make sure you can deliver it to your customer?

Well, surprise, surprise, reindeer cannot fly either.

-30-

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

Toronto’s Tacky-Town Casino.

December 19, 2018 by Peter Lowry

Had a weekend of fun with friends in Toronto last weekend. The entertainment was varied, the food ranged from perfectly grilled steaks to the excellent buffet at Woodbine’s Favourites dining room to pizza and beer and just talking. The entertainment ranged from the circus atmosphere of Circ du Soleil to Woodbine’s last thoroughbred racing card of the year to a look at Woodbine’s new casino.

The Woodbine casino was a shock. The operator, Great Canadian Gaming Corporation (GCGC), based in Burnaby, B.C., does not know Toronto and will long regret this cheap, insulting and foolhardy attempt at satisfying Toronto gamblers.

The one thing that occurred to me when Toronto Council went along with the Woodbine location was that it was the late Ken Thompson’s family that controlled Woodbine Entertainment and I hoped some of the class that man showed in life would pass on to his heirs. It did not.

This casino would be an embarrassment in the worst part of Las Vegas. Admittedly, these are temporary quarters under the old grandstand. They are building the new casino as fast as they can.

I hate multi-storied casinos. Like those in Atlantic City and Montreal, they seem tacky from day one. This temporary one is on three floors. In the basement, there are lots and lots of slots—frankly, a good place for them. Those gross table game machines that replace dealers are very much in evidence on floor two. The live table games—blackjack and all the variables were crowded and showed desperation. It was a mixed crowd ethnically but few looked like they could afford to play at a $25 table. They reminded me of the day-trippers who came to Las Vegas from Los Angeles by bus without hotel reservations.

The equipment on the gaming floor was cheap and the dealers looked exhausted but the surprise was to come. I recognized a floor supervisor formerly at Rama Casino and asked about the high rollers space. It turned out to be the third floor. The sign at the door said ‘No Admittance’ but we just said ‘hello’ to the guy at the door and marched in with the supervisor.

Have you ever seen silent discrimination? If there are a dozen or so tables for games preferred by ethnic Chinese and three for $100 blackjack, who do you think the room is for? And there were no craps tables anywhere. We were told that the operator did not like craps. It seems that craps is considered an American—and mainly black—game. If the wife ever meets the GCGC executive who holds those views she might kick him where it really hurts.

By the way, we only saw five players in the third-floor sanctum. One playing blackjack—badly—and the rest playing dollar slots.

Maybe this new Woodbine Casino only wants bad players who do not understand odds.

-30-

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