Category: Federal Politics

Is Conservative Winter Coming?

by Peter Lowry

In viewing the Netflix Game of Thrones, I always felt the chill in the dire prediction that Winter was coming. In a mix of medieval knights, giants and fire breathing dragons, it was just another conservative leadership contest writ large.

Conservatives put too much stock in their leadership contests. Everyone waits with baited breath before the three-car garage of the conservative mansion. And what comes out, but a bicycle. The fire-breathing dragons are, in reality, just pussycats.

Maybe, the evil doctor Poilievre has wormed his way into the spotlight, this time. Yet, what is he going to do if he has won? Can he continue to enthrall the freedom convoy participants? Can they be trained to do the boring chores of the politically faithful? Are they even trainable?   

And what if Jean Charest should win because he has more ridings in his basket than does Poilievre in this quaint Easter egg hunt of a conservative leadership? Will the freedom convoy crowd go home in disgust and distrust. Do they even have a home? Or do they have kennels? Will Poilievre be satisfied with being finance critic instead of the Grand High Poobah of the conservatives?

Or is there a middle ground between these two leading contenders? Is there a kinder, gentler conservative party that really wants to lead Canadians down a conservative path to a Canada that cares?

Do conservatives really give a damn about the World Economic Forum and the Great Reset? Do they even know what it means?

And just how many real conservatives have their undies in a knot over vaccines? They cannot all be conspiracy theorists.

The biggest joke of all is that Pierre Poilievre is some sort of economist. He has been lauded in conservative circles lately for his taking Justin Trudeau to task for the high price of breakfast cereals. He hardly gets his facts and figures from the late Milton Freidman. And it is hard to imagine any monetarist who would have anything to do with promoting cryptocurrencies.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Trudeau’s Choice.

by Peter Lowry

It looks like the churn is working but that is hardly butter we are getting. There is a demand for change in Canada and it need not be change for the worse. I will admit that I am not overly optimistic about the current trends in the conservative party federally or in Alberta. There are frustrations that people need to handle.

But we still have time to respond. The Trudeau government has to move ahead with some of the NDP objectives and keep that liberal-NDP accord in place. It is Justin Trudeau who has to make the Hobson’s Choice—his long-term determinations. He has used up his family franchise. He is not his father’s son. His only choice is his timing to resign. He has to leave the party with the question of succession.

Sometime in the next four months, Trudeau has to announce his end-date. He has to ask the party to replace him. Of course, the party has to be rebuilt so that a proper transition can take place. Trudeau has been using the party as an automated teller machine instead of a source of electoral and policy support. We have to rebuild with real liberals, not rented supporters just for the leadership event. That could take us until 2024 when we are due for an election anyway.

And if anyone wants to question Justin’s legacy you only need to say he brought us through the pandemic. He might have resembled a cuckoo popping in and out of Rideau Cottage, but he was the face of government relief throughout those bad times.

Regrets, he might also have had a few. Who can forget the events of the Jody Wilson-Raybould tenure as justice minister? Strange doings for a professed feminist! Then, there was a trip to India with the ‘dress-up’ family. And what environmentalist would purchase a trans-mountain pipeline?

But we should remember the good with the bad. There was sunlight dancing through the leaves of a verdant Rideau Park on the way to Rideau Hall for the swearing in ceremony—because it was 2015.

There was much promised in 2015 and we need to uphold those promises. Because Canada is a democratic country, a progressive country and a country that has promises to keep with the rest of the world.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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The Matches of the Month.

by Peter Lowry

September is promising to be the most exciting and maybe the most terrifying month for political liaisons Canadians have seen for a while. It was kicked off by the reported bromance between Justin Trudeau and his new BFF premier Doug Ford in Ontario. It gets weirder though when you consider the heating up of the relationship between Pierre Poilievre of federal conservative fame and Danielle Smith of the Alberta’s dis-united conservative party.

Just when you think prime minister Justin Trudeau is the loneliest guy in the country, there he is all buddy-buddy with Ontario’s Ogre-in-chief at Queen’s Park. We see Quebec’s Legault has kicked off his re-election campaign bad-mouthing his fellow Quebecer, the prime minister. So, Justin shows up at Queen’s Park—saying not a word about Ford’s passing a bill dumping seniors and bed holders from hospitals into long-term care homes. Nor was there any comment about the use of Medicare money instead of provincial funds for this abuse of the sick and elderly. And, of course, you don’t rudely ask your buddy where he expects to get the medical and support staff for the long-term care homes?

But they got some great selfies!

You wonder though if anyone is getting the picture in Alberta with Poilievre’s buddy Jason Kenney going out the door of the premier’s office while Danielle Smith of Wildrose fame looks like the probable winner of the key to the premier’s office.

Nothing is guaranteed here as both federal and provincial conservatives like to use a preferential ballot system. That can guarantee you the worst of results.

Danielle Smith has been wooing throngs of Albertan conservatives with her fanciful stories about pandemic lockdowns that never happened, weird stories about machinations by Ottawa to destroy Alberta’s economy and her ludicrous sovereignty bill that the most avid Quebec separatist has only dreamed of.

But it is the combination of Poilievre federally and Smith provincially that makes me wonder what this world is coming to. The two Albertans are reflecting badly on the residents of the wild rose province. The loonies are coming, ta-rah, ta-rah.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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What Open Border?

by Peter Lowry

I was trying to figure out the ArriveCAN app today and I think this border-crossing nonsense would be appropriate for a police state but it really does not belong between Canada and the U.S. I grew up in this country when crossing into the United States was about as formal as saying ‘Hi.’ I remember more than a few times heading for Niagara Falls teaching the kids with foreign-born accents how to say “Toronna” in case they were questioned as to where they were born.

And that is all it should be between countries such as Canada and the United States.    I was hardly inconvenienced when we started using passports at the border but I thought of it as unnecessary. By that time, I had been on business or holiday to all but three of the states of the union. I have no idea what would attract me to Rhode Island and, maybe I shouldn’t count Wyoming, as I don’t think I even stopped for gas crossing that state. Though I bet I am the very rare Canadian who has ever addressed a state police convention in Salem, Oregon.

I should hasten to add that the border needs to have barriers against COVID 19. Proof of vaccination should be sufficient. My opinion is that ArriveCAN is excessive, intrusive and stupid. And the assumption that everyone has a smart phone is the most stupid. This government has the nerve to think that all Canadians are so self-important as to pay the outrageous cost of smart phones and usage charges of the telecoms in this country.

And for the agist idiots who think the smart phone is an inconvenience for seniors, I should mention my oldest brother was having fun with his smart phone at 93. He found it was a great toy. And that is what it is, a toy. And whomever dreamed up the idea of putting a camera in cell phones must have been a sadist.

Have you ever noticed that when you are checking an app to see if it suits your needs, you find there is more than one source offering to help you download the app. Most of these secondary sources are just trying to get your information for their own usage. Many of them profit from selling the information.

But then a smart phone is, by its nature, like wearing the story of your life on your sleeve. It might seem a boring subject to you but there are people who want that information to sell you, to influence you, to manipulate you or to steal the money recorded in your bank app. You do not have to be paranoid about this. Your cell phone can tell them all they need to know.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Welcome Back Chrystia.

by Peter Lowry

It looks like the kids have forgotten their manners since finance minister Chrystia Freeland was at home in Alberta. For someone to accost her and spew invective at her is not the Alberta that I know.

But, just as bad as the manners of the stupid fool who caused the scene was the ignorant woman who raced to the door of the elevator with her phone to record the deputy prime minister’s reaction. It took the man in his undershirt and that woman to make a lie of Alberta hospitality, for all to see.

It reminds me of my late friend, MP Bob Caplan, when he was solicitor general of Canada. I bumped into him at Ottawa airport, one time, when we were both headed for Toronto. I noted that he had an RCMP constable with him, carrying a couple cases. I nodded towards the Mountie and asked Bob if he was in custody?

It turned out he was taking some seriously secret stuff with him to Toronto and had to have the Mountie for protection, and to carry the files. It was one of the very few times I had seen any protection arranged for any member of the cabinet, other than the prime minister.

And did you know that when Lester Pearson was prime minister, he drove himself to work from Sussex Drive to parliament in the old family car?

That all changed with prime minister Pierre Trudeau. He was most annoyed when he was told he had to have a driver, rather than drive his Mercedes-Benz 300SL to the parliament buildings. That was when he was still single and the joke was that little car was his chick bait back then.

My role in the prime minister functions in Toronto was usually to set up facilities for the media, do on-site media briefings and do all the things that somebody had forgotten. For some reason, I was often doing the liaison with the Toronto-based Mounties and police.

One time when the PM was doing a major announcement at the Royal York Hotel, we had invited local liberals and general public. When the prime minister got to the microphone, I was standing at the first step to the stage and one of the plain-clothes RCMP was stationed on the next step up. When the prime minister was well into his speech, I got shoved aside and I looked at the Mountie and shrugged. He then got shoved aside and he looked at me and shrugged back. We were both outranked by a news photographer getting his pictures.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Are We There Yet?

by Peter Lowry

It must be the frequency of conservative party leadership contests that make them seem to go on forever. No wonder Canadians seem bored with politics. In a week when the most exciting political stories are on the east side of the Ottawa River or in the far north, you know that it is still the dog days of summer.

But I bet you think MP Pierre Poilievre has already won that conservative leadership. That could be the bad news for the conservative party.  I think sensible liberals are more concerned about Jean Charest. The former Quebec liberal premier is the kind of guy that the last two federal conservative leaders tried to be. Both Scheer and O’Toole tried to drive their party down the middle of the political road and became road kill.

But Canadians are not about to warm to Pierre Poilievre. He is the high-risk candidate. Sure, he appeals to the people from the truckers’ convoy. He appeals to some of our younger Canadians who fail to understand how divisive he can be. Any Canadian who has paid attention to what has happened in the United States over the past ten years can understand how divided that country has become.

We hope that Canada could never become that divided. It has taken over 50 years of Alberta acting as though it is not the favourite of the politicians in Ottawa. Alberta politicians have made a mantra of blaming Ottawa for everything.

But then, why would any sensible Canadian voter be impressed by politicians who constantly blame others for our nation’s problems without providing any answers themselves. Mr. Poilievre says he wants to make Canada the freest country in the world, when it already is one of the freest in the world. He says he wants smaller government. A smaller government would nor be able to build the high-speed electric train systems we need in this country. How would a smaller government be able to maintain the international trade that our country enjoys? Would a smaller government be able to protect our country? Would a smaller government look after our seniors, our disabled, our sick? The problem is that Mr. Poilievre is spouting hollow political slogans because he has no solutions. He is a fraud.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Writing the B.S.

by Peter Lowry

In a career in public relations, I wrote for many clients. And I occasionally advised against some things clients thought I should write for them. What was critical in every case was whether or not I really wanted that client and whether there was a better answer to suit the client’s need.

What brings this to mind was a full-page advertisement for Rogers Communications. It was structured as a letter from Tony Staffieri, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Rogers. Staffieri works for the late Ted Rogers’ son who is the sole decision maker at Rogers these days. It reads like something a client would ask their public relations firm to write for them.

Rogers was embarrassed recently when there was a serious outage of its Canadian network for Internet, cell phones and business services. I did not know that I was on part of that network for a minor service until I got a small rebate on my last bill.

The rebates, the apologies and the full-page mea culpa are all part of the desperate public relations campaign by Rogers to rescue its takeover of Calgary-based Shaw Communications for a reported $26 billion.

Despite already being given a pass from a friendly Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and agreeing to sell Freedom Mobile to Videotron in Quebec, Rogers is not getting any warm fuzzies from Ottawa over this merger. Which is hardly surprising when you consider that Canadians are being ripped-off enough by the big three, Bell, Rogers and Telus. Why we would ever want to make any of those rapacious companies any bigger is beyond me.

But what was also in the paper the other day was the small article saying that Edward Rogers had told the bond holders for the Shaw takeover that he would like to have an extension for another year. It reads to me that Ottawa is in no hurry to make Edward Rogers the tzar of communications in Canada.

In that full-page ad, Tony Staffieri made five commitments to the readers. He talked about network reliability, quality of service, customer satisfaction, network access and support for our young Canadians. That is all very good but he forgot to mention the need for a break for Canadians in the highest telecom rates in the civilized world.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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Ye of Little Hope.

by Peter Lowry

It is being called ‘The Chill on the Hill.’ It’s the assumption that MP Pierre Poilievre is going to win the brass ring on the merry-go-round of the conservative leadership. It has not happened yet. We will not know the answer until September 10 when the results are announced.

And there will certainly not be a bolt from the heavens announcing Poilievre’s ascension. And if 90 per cent of his support comes from Alberta, there might not be an ascension. You have to bear in mind that the conservatives use a very convoluted way of counting ballots. If all 2000 party members in one electoral district vote for one candidate, it goes into the tally as 100 votes. There are probably some electoral districts with less than 100 members and they will take the eventual vote count to less than 33,800. As you can see, in conservative thinking, it is the electoral districts that decide, not the individual members of the party.

With upwards of maybe a half-million votes to count for 338 electoral districts, you need the conservative party’s computer people to tell you the result. You have to win the most votes from the most electoral districts to win this race.

The only two possible winners are former Quebec premier Jean Charest and MP Pierre Poilievre. Before this race got underway, there were about 250,000 paid-up conservatives in the party across Canada. Pierre Poilievre claims to have added some 350,000 names to that and Patrick Brown contributed more than 100,000 before leaving the race.

While logic tells you that Pierre Poilievre is sitting in the cat-bird seat, you are assuming that his temporary sign-ups are as motivated to vote as long-time conservatives. If for example, his numbers from the truckers’ convoy drop as much as 40 per cent, he would have trouble winning. While Brown’s temporary sign-ups are being asked to vote for Jean Charest rather than Brown, it is also hard to say how many will go along.

The conservatives could have a situation on the first count of 40 to 48 per cent for Charest and 40 to 48 per cent for Poilievre. That could leave the final decision to Leslyn Lewis’ second choice votes. Who do you think social conservatives would pick?

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Poilievre’s Petulance.

by Peter Lowry

It’s hard to believe that a person born and educated in the Province of Alberta would not question the past three years of continuous drought conditions in that province. Pierre Poilievre came to Ontario to find an electoral district that would elect someone with a French name. You would think the frequency of tornados and the changeable weather patterns here, in Ontario, would make him wonder.

But it is Poilievre’s petulant support for high carbon fuels from Alberta that must make him want to deny concerns for climate change. It hardly matters to him that the majority of scientific study supports concern about climate change and the need to alleviate the worsening conditions.

It is this petulance that brings into question Poilievre’s suitability to lead the conservative party. It is this petulance that raises the question of his suitability to be a member of parliament.

It is expected that if Poilievre could ever become prime minister, he would follow in the footsteps of Stephen Harper and pull Canada out of the various climate change treaties in which we have become involved since the liberal government took over in 2015. He is already fully committed to the building of a major Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) in the Saguenay region of Quebec. This project has already been denied by both the federal and Quebec provincial governments.

The rule of thumb is if you want incentives to buy electric vehicles, don’t ask Pierre Poilievre. If you want government support for pipelines for an increased output from the Alberta tar sands, Poilievre’s your guy.

What is less clear is Poilievre’s support for the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ that came to Ottawa last winter. These people are pathetically ignorant of Canada’s constitution and the charter of rights and freedoms. They demand freedom from the so-called gate keepers in Ottawa without being able to tell us what these gate keepers do.

Yet Poilievre welcomes these people to Ottawa where they became less and less welcome as time went on. We hear that some of them have even joined the conservative party to vote for Poilievre. It seems like a wasted membership fee.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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Democracy Denied.

by Peter Lowry

It could have been planned or it might be accidental. When it happens, it is wrong. It can deny voters the representation they deserve in the provincial legislature or in the House of Commons. It happened in my riding in the 2012 redistribution in Ontario and has been left in the proposed 2022 redistribution.

It was not until I worked on the recount in Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte after the 2015 federal election that I realized the problem could be best defined as an error impacting both rural and urban voters in the electoral district.

As someone who has worked for both political parties and returning officers in federal and provincial elections, I have always appreciated that the distribution most often attempts to collect urban voters separate from rural voters. This commonality of interest helps our political representatives to better reflect the needs and concerns of their voters.

That is why I was concerned in 2012 when the City of Barrie with a population a bit larger than the average electoral district was split in half and linked to parts of the surrounding rural townships. With the continued planned growth in Barrie over the ensuing ten years, the city is now virtually the only city of its size or larger in Ontario that does not have a purely urban electoral district within city boundaries.

This situation is unfair to the rural areas as the larger population in the city areas tends to determine the representation. In the 2015 federal election, for example, the two Barrie representatives elected were former city councillors who were selected by the larger number of voters in the urban parts of the electoral districts.

It seems to me that the situation can be easily corrected by the solution used in Map 3 of the redistribution for the City of Guelph, which has about the same population as Barrie. The Guelph electoral district is surrounded by Wellington-Halton riding. It would be easy to connect Springwater, parts of Oro-Medonte and Essa Townships with Innisfil Township into a largely rural electoral district. This means most of the south end of Barrie can be included in the city electoral district.

I would encourage all readers in the affected areas give this some thought and maybe you have a better suggestion. We can have our say on distribution. It is an important part of the democratic process. So please speak up.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]