Category: Federal Politics

Lament for Losing Liberals.

by Peter Lowry

Canada has now had ten years of Justin Trudeau and his version of liberalism. It is ten years since he assumed the leadership of the liberal party of Canada and set about changing the party to suit his purposes. It is now but a fraction of its former self and unprepared to meet the challenges of an election.

But Justin Trudeau, with his ego, clings to power. He makes a bad deal with the new democrats to stay in the prime minister’s office. Yet he has little of the real liberal party left to support him. It used to be a party active and prepared to meet the challenges of winning.

Trudeau is looking at his major opponent and saying I can beat this person. That might be true if they ran against each other in one electoral district. Elections in Canada require strong, organized, committed support in every riding. They need candidates who can put their commitment and strengths before the voters. They need dedicated teams to support them. They need to raise funds for the campaign. They needed writers to help put the campaign concerns in local riding terms. Every riding needs experienced leaders and workers for the ground game. They need to know how to get out the vote.

But no. Mr. Trudeau abuses his listed supporters with endless requests for money for the central party. Nobody seems to care for the needs of the individual electoral district. Do they have volunteers, trained and ready? Nobody seems to care. Are the party people in the riding active in community affairs? Are they recruiting liberal-minded supporters? Are they encouraging potential candidates?

The liberal party has a leader who thinks he can put on an act for the voters, take a selfie with them and win their support. We have an elitist leader who leaves the party to his henchmen, who know little about the party they are supposed to be leading.

Justin Trudeau is but an actor. He pales in comparison to his father who saw the potential for Canada in a turbulent world. The younger Trudeau enables the bigotry and sedition of Quebec. He buys the Alberta cowboys a $22 billion pipeline and then says he is helping save our planet.

Mr. Trudeau should resign before he completely destroys the party of his father.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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What About Ontario, Justin?

by Peter Lowry

No doubt many Canadians were pleased to hear that prime minister Trudeau had criticized prime minister Netanyahu of Israel for the attack on the holiest of Muslim mosques. It was particularly heinous in that it was during Ramadan, a major time of worship for the world’s Muslims.

The right-wing Israeli prime minister has already been under siege by Canada’s foreign affairs minister and the prime minister for his attempting to take away the independence of the Israeli courts.

Yet little has been said about the similar attempt by the Ontario government to politicize the Ontario superior court of justice.

Maybe nobody has told the feds that the Ontario attorney general has told the Ontario superior court of justice that he wants a larger number of applicants from which to choose. He is actually understood to have said, he wants to choose someone who is like himself.

And that is a very sad thought. The attorney general is my member of the provincial parliament (MPP) and in that position alone, I consider him useless. I don’t even know if he is ever in the riding other than when his limousine drives through Barrie on Hwy 400 on his way home to Severn.

He was the go-to guy in Severn, Ontario for the conservatives and a small-town councillor in Orillia. He is, at best, a ward healer. He was Mr. Ford’s second choice for attorney general after he found out that Caroline Mulroney was not allowed to practice law in Ontario.

But back to Israel. Mr. Trudeau said that Canadians were deeply concerned by the direction the Netanyahu government was taking. Sending Israelis into the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan was the height of disrespect. Our prime minister also expressed solidarity with the huge number of Israelis demonstrating against the attempt by their prime minister to politicize their senior judges.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Pierre Poilievre’s Plan.

by Peter Lowry

In mentioning former Ontario premier Mike Harris’ ‘Common Sense Revolution’ the other day I did a bit of research and reread what it was all about. Other than some stomach heaving memories, I recognized that it is the same blather as the federal conservative leader is spreading like lard across the country today. The only difference is that on a national scale, it can kill far more people.

Not that Poilievre would care. If you are going to cut the federal civil service by any appreciable amount, you are going to cut services to people. It is always a good question, when he talks about smaller government, which federal department, he will cut first. He never says. And if you think it takes a long time to get a passport today, you could not believe the time it would take with half the staff.

But he does hope to cut taxes. That, his supporters would demand. They don’t give a damn about the minimum wage earner. Tax cuts mean far more to the rich. And whatever he would cut, it would mean far more for the higher earner.

And when you care nothing for climate change, much of the effort in greening the environment would be wasted. Canada will never be close to zero emissions while letting the tar sands exploiters take credit for useless carbon capture and storage.

All Pierre Poilievre ever does is lie about and demean Justin Trudeau. To constantly accuse the prime minister of causing inflation and wasting money getting Canada through the pandemic is not only stupid but promoting the same foolishness to others.

Poilievre plays on prejudice. When you consider the millions of people who have come to Canada over the past century because of the freedom the country offers, just what freedom is he promising his followers? Doesn’t he promise to reject certain immigrants? This is a man with no understanding of economics and yet he wants to politicize the Bank of Canada. He wants conservative control of the bank.

But then, he is the guy who promoted Bitcoin as an anti-inflationary solution just before the false coins crashed. And Mr. Poilievre is never going to say he is sorry.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Echoing the Fraser Institute.

by Peter Lowry

It is not as though we really need another Fraser Institute. This one is called the Montreal Economic Institute. It has the temerity to say that it has “ideas for a more prosperous society.” They should prove it. Judging by the news release they sent me a few days ago, it comes across as another “Don’t Think Tank.”

You certainly would not want this think tank to do any thinking for you. This news release is nothing more than whining about the budget offered by the federal government last week. It accuses the federal government of creating irresponsible deficits and doing nothing for productivity. It seems to be nothing other than a back-up chorus for conservative politicians in Ottawa.

I hate using the pandemic as an excuse for anything these days but if you ignore the attempts the current government made to stabilize things during the worst of the pandemic, you are clueless. And the money distributed during the pandemic had nothing to do with inflation. It really was borrowed at a very low rate. It was not just printed. That is a fallacy spread by irresponsible politicians.

What makes the news release ridiculous is the statement in it saying “The growth of debt in recent years has drastically reduced our ability to deal with crises.” That is an ignorant statement considering the cost of bringing our country through the worst of the pandemic. And what is particularly annoying is that our antiquated constitution stood in the way of the federal government really stepping in to help fight the needs across the country.

What we really need to reduce now is our world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Instead, the Montreal office of this think tank is concerned about our productivity. And who quotes productivity without telling you the methodology involved and the time periods. What I will never understand is quoting supposed productivity comparisons 25 years in the future.

All I know about productivity is from sitting on the management committee of a Canadian subsidiary of a U.S. company. Our productivity measurements were always better than the U.S. figures when you translated dollars and overheads.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Progressives in an Imperfect World.

by Peter Lowry

Wearing a label seems wrong. While we are often willing to bestow labels on others, we know that we are more complex. And if you live long enough, you know that nobody is perfect. It should concern us that those who choose to wear labels should chose those labels with care. I would suggest that, in Canada, we are getting careless with political labels and we need to pay more attention.

For today, I think we can have a discussion on progressivism. It is an easy topic, as I think of myself as a left of centre liberal, or, in a single word, a progressive. In North Korea, I would likely be considered a capitalist deviant and a troublemaker. In the United States I have been told I am a deviant socialist, and a troublemaker. And that is just because I agree with Bernie Sanders.

The problem is that there is no place for a true progressive in either a communist dictatorship or a capitalist-dominated republic. Dictatorships have non-malleable management. The American Constitution was written by the elite landowners of the colonies and the country has been run by their progeny ever since.  

Republicans in the U.S. and conservatives in Canada are similar in that they have come to think of progressives as people concerned about their entitlements. They think we want too much. I guess we do. That does not mean though that we want more than the country can afford. We have to set priorities. Medicare was a priority. It was not to save money. It did, but that was not the intent. Medicare was an entitlement for all citizens. It saved lives. The only priority was the seriousness of the need. And a government that recognized the fairness of Medicare passed it into law in Canada. That was a government for the people, elected by the people, to serve the people.

I think the most serious concern of Canadian progressives today is the approach to adding dental care to Medicare. Piecemeal puts it at risk. We have to go all-in.

One of the concerns for progressives in both Canada and the United States is that both countries are constrained by their constitutions. We need change, not just amendments. Amendments are patchwork that cause problems. Democracy is government by the people and for the people. We have to get back to democracy.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Where Agents Get Their Info.

by Peter Lowry

It was about 35 years ago and I was introduced to an agent of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Quebec. It was during a break in a business conference in Quebec City and I trusted the person who introduced us. We had a fascinating conversation. My experience in such subjects had only been with the Toronto Police and the RCMP. This guy was low-key and modest, despite his American accent.

The most challenging question I asked him was where he got most of the information that he reported to his Langley, Virginia headquarters. His easy answer was that he got it from our newspapers, and I believed him. He didn’t need to add that conferences such as the one we were at would also supply information.

What author Ian Fleming tended to forget in his 007 thrillers is that in times of peace the most important information of interest to foreign agents is about trade and technology. No doubt any indications of political change need to also be analyzed in terms of what it might mean to the agent’s country.

At the time, I was working for the Canadian subsidiary of an American company that manufactured and sold high level computers for such tasks as seismic analysis of reserves in oil fields. Part of my work was the greeting, escorting and management of the presentations for visiting customers who wanted to see our Canadian plant and learn more about the products we were making here. There were frequent groups coming from the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese reciprocated for my company’s courtesy by inviting me or one of my staff to consular and embassy functions for their other trade groups. They also bought some of our computers.

It is hardly a surprise today to hear of the increased size of the Chinese consulate in Toronto or the embassy in Ottawa. Nor does it surprise me that this blog has a large number of regular readers in China according to Google Analytics. None of it is a surprise when you consider Canada is an important trading partner and is a favoured country for people from China seeking new opportunities and a new home. This is furthered by the fact that there are large communities of ethnic Chinese here to welcome them.

While carefully reading the recent complaints about possible Chinese government interference in Canadian elections, I would sincerely doubt that there is very much to it. You can be sure that Althia Raj writes more information of interest to the Chinese government for the Toronto Star than any backbencher in our parliament can supply. Frankly, I don’t think the People’s Republic of China would waste money on Canada’s democratic elections—a process in which they are not overly familiar.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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A Shout-Out for Poilievre.

by Peter Lowry

The former Manning Conference had a special guest this year, former prime minister Stephen Harper. Much of Harper’s effort at the conference was to try to knit together old and new conservative supporters. He even told the audience of conservatives of some of the mistakes that Pierre Poilievre has been making.

He pointed out that the current requirement for the opposition leader is to hold the government to account, not to tell them what he would do as prime minister.  It was also amusing when the former prime minister referred to the NDP as a branch plant of the liberal government.

This was a new Stephen Harper. He set aside his old vendetta with Preston Manning, founder of the Reform Party. The two had argued years ago over the direction of the reform movement. He had also resisted Manning’s control over the back bench but used the same techniques when he was leader of the Conservative Party of Canada which included the former Reform. The two were almost chummy when they did a combined fireside chat shtick at the conference.

The new name of the annual event is the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference. It seems most older conservatives prefer to refer to it by its earlier and simpler name as the Manning Networking Conference.

It seems that Mr. Harper thinks that Pierre Poilievre is scorned in the same way as anti-establishment conservatives such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were scorned in their day. Neither of them had any credentials in economics either.

Mind you, if that is the case, there is no earthly reason for Poilievre to be elected anywhere. Just because he is as confused as those two, is absolutely no reason for him to be elected.

And it should be further noted that Mr. Harper is not as universally loved and respected as he would like to be either.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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

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Poilievre Panders to Péquistes.

by Peter Lowry

Not much is heard from the federal conservative leader these days. He is letting some of his conservative MPs take the heat. He can let his Quebec lieutenant, Pierre Paul-Hus MP, tell the House of Commons that his conservatives support the bigotry of the Quebec government. This is not what Poilievre has been saying but he obviously wants to have it both ways. He wants English Canada to think he wants fair treatment for Anglophones in Quebec, while Quebec voters think he backs their National Assembly’s bigotry.

It reminds you of Prime Minister Mackenzie-King’s stance on conscription in the Second World War. It was something like ‘conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription.’ It did not work for the war-time prime minister and it would hardly work today.

The problem in Quebec today is that the CAQ government of François Legault has gone overboard in restricting English language use, to match its religious bigotry. This is just getting even as far as many seniors and farmers feel but the world has passed them by. It is the young people who think it is silly. The Legault government has annoyed them by restricting their access to, and use of English. They consider it to be sophisticated to speak both English and French. They want to travel the world and experience what it has to offer. They are not impressed with just the Francophonie with its world population smaller than that of the United States of America.

What the Legault government does not realize is that they are hurting the long term economic prospects of their own province. They have already hurt the prospects of Montreal as being a world city. As a bilingual city, Montreal had many opportunities to become the dominant Canadian city in world shipping and banking. Losing that position to Toronto and Vancouver was a process heightened by the Quebec péquistes. The Legault government is just accelerating building a wall around Quebec.

It seems to me that if I was a prominent member of the Trudeau cabinet and an MP from Quebec, I would look for speaking opportunities at Quebec universities and lay it on the line to the students. The Legault government is trying to deny them full access to the world. And that quisling Poilievre would aid Legault.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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Poilievre’s Poison.

by Peter Lowry

It’s pocketbook economics. Poilievre has found that if you distort the scenario just enough, it serves various purposes. If you imply that the Bank of Canada is at the beck and call of the prime minister, you can make wild accusations against the bank, its management and the prime minister. It makes a neat package. He thinks that the money distributed to Canadians during the pandemic was wasted. He accuses the prime minister of the waste. After all, how many citizens across Canada have a degree in economics?

It is like the old question posed to many Canadians returning from a Las Vegas vacation. How many will admit they lost money. They lie you know. At least they don’t have to lie about their last trip to the Loblaws. Did you enjoy that last fill-up of your favourite flavour of gasoline? And the news from the brutal war for the Eurasian Steppe is no better than it was yesterday.

And leader of the conservatives, Pierre Poilievre, can sit back and congratulate himself on a successful trip. He went after the job and he tell himself it is now his, a job, well done. Sewing seeds of discontent isn’t exactly the Road to Avonlea. It is just Poilievre’s route to chaos and discontent and the prime minister’s office.

Poilievre is a planner, a schemer, a snake, hiding in the garb of an accountant. He promoted Bitcoin until it lost so much it could embarrass him. He promises his followers no more than hard times. He brings no solace to the destitute. He will screw the environment. “Who cares,” he asks.

Canada’s Medicare is on the ropes and Poilievre could care less. Ask him the answer to the question many of our younger people are asking about how they can afford a single family dwelling in Toronto or Vancouver?

If Poilievre ever got into the prime minister’s office, he could show you just how far to the right he really is. He is a libertarian, without a conscience.  He is a user.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Poilievre’s Plan.

by Peter Lowry

The secret is out. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has been telling his fellow conservatives his secret strategy to win the country. The fact that it is the same strategy as promoted, by then federal conservative, Jason Kenney, a dozen years ago, is beside the point. It involves, first of all, getting out the naturally conservative voters. The next part is convincing new Canadian voters that their future is assured by voting for the conservative party. It is the same strategy that won Stephen Harper a majority in 2011.

One thing I will admit is that the conservatives are much better at getting out their naturally self-centred vote today than they were back in the 1960s. That was when liberal communications specialists such as myself were making sure that we had good connections in the immigrant communities and we understood their concerns. I figure the liberals were running about 50 years ahead of the conservatives back then.

The problem that was building for the liberals, at the time, was that the CCF/NDP had been eroding the progressive vote, The conservatives were coming out in control of the rural vote but losing in the cities which were absorbing the high volumes of new immigrants.

What was wrong with the liberal strategy in the back half of the 20th Century was that right-wing liberals such as John Turner and Paul Martin Junior damaged the liberal’s progressive image and voters saw little difference between the conservative and liberal parties.

What is really wrong with the Poilievre strategy is that he is still locked in his Albertan image. Despite running in an Ottawa area constituency, Pierre Poilievre is an Albertan at heart. He has absolutely no concern for the environment that he cares to discuss and he sees prime minister Justin Trudeau as the evil enemy.

Poilievre sees the liberal handouts throughout the pandemic as a deliberate plot to bankrupt the country rather than an honest effort to soften the blows of COVID-19.

And how he will overcome his open support of the ‘Freedom Convoy’ to Ottawa in the winter of 2022 has yet to be discussed with Canadian voters? And he is going to be continued to be mocked for his support of cryptocurrencies.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]