Category: Federal Politics

Prime Minister Stephen Harper had it right when he recently commented on the problems he has with friends. He does not have any. With Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in rehab, he does not have anyone to fish with. Even the lackeys in his prime ministerial office point to the revolving door when you question their potential time on the job. Not even his Calgary based National Energy Board (NEB) has done him any favours. By blindly approving questionable pipeline decisions, the NEB has landed him in trouble.

Not the least of his problems is the Northern Gateway pipeline planned by Calgary based Enbridge to run from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia. It is probably the most contentious of all the planned pipelines but it is actually the most honest. Nobody is lying about the purpose of this pipeline.

This is a duel pipeline. The smaller pipe is designed to pump light crude oil over the Rockies to Bruderheim. There it will be mixed with tar sands’ bitumen to create bitumen slurry that can then be heated and piped in the larger pipe to Kitimat where it can be loaded on ocean going tankers. The capacity is over 500,000 barrels per day. ‘Could not be simpler,’ you say.

Nobody is lying and calling that slurry ‘crude oil.’ It is bitumen. One of the oldest materials used by humans, bitumen is a chemical hodgepodge originally providing the pitch to keep wooden boats from sinking. It mortared the bricks in building the early cities of Mesopotamia. It is readily available around the world but the world’s largest deposit is in the Athabasca region of the Province of Alberta. It was only when crude oil neared the $100 per barrel barrier that it became economically feasible to process bitumen into synthetic crude oil.

But economics does not trump the human environment. Extracting bitumen from the tar sands is destroying the fragile environment of Northern Alberta. It is polluting the rivers and creating vast areas of settling ponds. It is denying the first nations of the north their traditional hunting grounds and denying them their traditional livelihood. Just the extraction of the bitumen is an environmental disaster.

If the bitumen exploiters continued the processing into synthetic crude in Northern Alberta, the carbon fallout would cover our three Prairie Provinces and Northern Ontario.

And that is why Prime Minister Harper wants to see the bitumen shipped to countries that do not care about pollution. That is how he looks after our environment.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

The government finally came clean and admitted that the total bill paid by the taxpayers to take the Hair, the hairdresser and some friends to Israel in January was over a million dollars. And there was no justification for it. It was gratuitous. It was political. It was a deep embarrassment for Canadians.

What, for example, was optometrist Gila Martow doing on that trip? At the time, Ms. Martow was the candidate for the February provincial by-election in the Ontario riding of Thornhill. She managed to get a nice memento of the trip—a picture of herself with Prime Minister Harper of Canada and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Finding out precisely how much the Canadian taxpayers paid for that little gift would take years of Access-to-Information applications.

There were about 200 people on that junket and they could not all fit on the Hair’s Airbus. Guest airfares added $300,000 on the bill. Bureaucrats from the Privy Council Office were not allowed on the Airbus and they alone spent another $148,000 on commercial airfares. Israel is not an inexpensive place to visit and there was another $676,000 spent on accommodation. Canadians were damn lucky that this little excursion was only for a one week holiday. After all it was January and the beaches at Tel Aviv are lovely at that time of year.

And who but a Conservative politician would whine to the Prime Minister’s staff about having his picture taken with Prime Minister Harper at the Western Wall in Old Jerusalem? That one incident stood out to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike as the height of rude, insensitive sacrilegious political chutzpah.

Mind you, speaking of chutzpah, the Israeli politicians are not above their little joke. Naming a bird sanctuary after Prime Minister Harper during that visit was the height of something very silly. The only good news is the number of times Israeli bond sellers have renamed a forest to commemorate another million dollar investor.

But Mr. Harper thanked them by addressing the Israeli Knesset. Luckily most of the Israeli parliamentarians were able to stay awake during a litany of platitudes and ill-considered hard-line support. Most of Mr. Harper’s Canadian claque was spared the boredom of the event.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

The Toronto Star waded into the discussion of prostitution the other day. In four pages of wandering and badly edited prose, Star writer Heather Mallick further muddies the waters on the subject. Her research is anecdotal and her conclusions curious and unsupported. The Star feature read like a fast low-budget sex excursion to Europe. It will hardly help our parliamentarians to understand the questions when the Conservative government gets around to introducing new prostitution laws.

And you can count on them introducing something. The base of Conservative voters in Canada will demand that the government put a stop to prostitution—something that no government has ever achieved. The most likely conclusion of Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet is to invoke a version of what is called the Nordic solution. As we explained to mother years ago after a trip to Sweden, the reason her ancestors left Stockholm in the 1800s must have been boredom.

Yes the Swedes like to think they have solved the ‘problem’ of prostitution by fining the customer. While they are now treating the whore with more respect, they are actually forcing prostitution into the darkest most violent parts of their society. They say statistics seem to support their solution but it could mean they just do not know.

Mallick makes the bold statement in her lengthy piece that “Americans will never legalize prostitution and the brothels of Nevada are the reason.” It was not all that long ago that people were saying that there will never be legalized casino gambling around North America because of Nevada. It seems Ms. Mallick owes her faithful readers an explanation of her thinking.

What the narrow-minded among us might not realize is that times change. There is less difference today from having friends with benefits to turning a few tricks. The stigma of the scarlet letter has become passé. Society moves, albeit slowly, into the 21^st Century and human sexuality is becoming better understood. Every father wants his darling daughter to keep her legs crossed and go to school in groups but denying her knowledge of the real world is not protecting her.

Canadians do not want the religious extremists of the Conservative Party determining the rules for prostitution. The Supreme Court said that we have a responsibility to protect those who choose prostitution either as courtesan or customer. Neither party is culpable. The state has no place in that bedroom either. The crime is in the exploitation. End exploitation and let people go on with their lives.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

Federal New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair has reason to be worried. It is fairly obvious now that he cannot hold half the Quebec seats won by Jack Layton in the Orange Wave in 2011. He needs to win seats in Ontario next year and he sees Ontario’s provincial New Democrats are collapsing. It spells trouble with a capital “T.”

And that “T” stands for Trudeau. Andrea Horwath in Ontario is proving to the New Democrats that trying to swing around the Liberals by going to the political right does not work. That is the strategy Mulcair and the federal New Democrats have been experimenting with and it now looks like a sure loser. There is going to be a lot of rethinking the game plan for Mulcair’s people.

Among Mulcair’s biggest policy problems are the major pipelines being planned across Canada and the Conservative energy policy. Mulcair has taken a firm stand directly in the middle of the issue since he was told that the pipelines impact union jobs. He feels he has to support those jobs but environmental activists in both the Liberal and New Democrat parties are becoming increasingly alarmed at the environmental hazards. There will be a lot of support for whichever leader comes up with the best answer.

But with his provincial support base shattered in Ontario, Mulcair is in a desperate situation. That support base does much more than bring out the crowds with signs for the leader at every whistle stop in the campaign. They are the sign crews and literature distributors. They are the ones who hound supporters to vote on election day. They are the candidates and Members of Parliament that Mulcair needs to even keep his status as a political party in the House of Commons.

What will frustrate Mulcair even more is that smart Liberals in Ontario are going to offer the olive branch to former Ontario New Democrats. They will be offered a home in a new and refurbished, more left-wing Liberal Party. They will find it a party willing to work with the unions for the common good but not be dictated to.

Without a solid base of support in either Ontario or Quebec, Mulcair’s New Democrats might as well pass on the election. The key question will be how federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau will handle the situation. Will he be smart enough to make an offer to Mulcair?

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

It must be a condition of having a broadcast license in Canada: When Royals visit, you have to gush a lot. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales came for a visit the other day and he brought his lovely wife Camilla to have tea with his Canadian subjects. The Canadian news media gushed appropriately.

To be more precise about it, Charlie dropped in on Halifax, hopped over to the Anne of Green Gables place and then flew over Quebec and Ontario to say a fond ‘Hello’ to the people of Winnipeg. And the whole damn thing was a crashing bore. If the camera shots were kept tight, it looked like Charlie and good old what’s her name were drawing good crowds. Nobody expected Charlie to have Justin Bieber size crowds as we all know he and the Duchess of Cornwall are not rock stars.

The only excitement the trip created was when Charlie was reported to have said to an elderly lady in Nova Scotia that Vladimir Putin of Russia had some of the instincts of Adolf Hitler. It was rather undiplomatic of him but nobody has ever accused him of being a diplomat. And the lady did not seem to mind. In fact, we gather she rather agreed with the prince.

Of course, the Canadian news media had absolutely no intention of reporting this conversation to Canadians. It would have been considered insulting to our esteemed guests. It was the bloody Brit tabloids who blew the whistle. “Charles done it agin!” was the bold headline.

Since it happened here, the Canadian media also had to weigh in on the subject. The consensus of both Brit and Canadian media was that Charlie could have any opinion of Mr. Putin he wished. Nobody seemed to give a damn anyway—other than the obvious outrage expressed by the Russian foreign affairs people. Mind you, nobody seems to have asked Vladimir what he thought about it.

But all of this discussion is in honour of this being 24 May in the year 2014. Today is the official birthday of Queen Victoria. That means that Canada has tolerated almost 148 years of being a monarchy with borrowed Royals from the Brits. As we look around Europe, we must admit that we have done reasonably well by the spawn of Victoria that still wear crowns. The Brit Royals are a mostly civilized lot and they rarely embarrass us.

But damn it all, royalty is really passé and we have to stop this foolishness. In the next several years, we will want to do something about our Senate problem and a few other carry-overs from an old and creaky constitution. Some changes will need to be made. Maybe we can do a better job of it. And say goodbye to the Brit Royals—they can visit any time they wish but no more gushing, please.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

While we rarely waste time reading much of Rosie DiManno’s columns in the Toronto Star, her piece Friday on Justin Trudeau was a rare treat. Maybe it is because they were both brought up Catholic, that it seemed to be a fair fight. Man, did she skewer him!

But Justin’s naiveté is the least of his problems. While we do not see his vanity in the same way Rosie can, we will take her word for it that he is vain. Whether Justin is callow though is a matter of debate. He is not unfledged or immature. People can appear that way in politics sometimes as they get beyond their depth of thinking on a subject. It happens to all of us. As a journalist, Rosie is a good researcher and before taking a position has the opportunity to research a subject to a level with which she can be comfortable. You hardly get that opportunity in politics in the middle of a scrum.

Pierre Trudeau felt the same frustration Justin must feel at the nagging of the news media—much of which is unfair. Justin has yet to learn the trick of turning the stupid questions to his advantage—not that his father ever did. While Justin keeps his cool with the media, he tends to go too far with his answers. In a scrum, it pays to be brief.

Frankly, Cardinal Collins had some very bad advice on his comments about the Pope and Justin’s ill-considered screening of new Liberal candidates. The Cardinal would have been more appropriate quoting Abraham Lincoln about the rights of man. Justin is way out of line with his party in what he is doing. His dictates about what Liberals can and cannot believe in is beyond the pale.

What parliament needs so desperately is people who can think for themselves, who can contribute to solutions, who are not ideologues but free thinkers, and, yes Rosie, can make sure that women’s rights are protected.

But people should never be restricted in our willingness to listen, to hear new ideas and new thinking on old problems. Yes, the current services to women in this country are unfettered and unequal. And that is wrong and needs to be repaired. The Conservatives are soon going to present their solution to open prostitution in this country and just wait until we get into those arguments.

But what Rosie DiManno does not admit is that Justin Trudeau can mature as a politician. His imperiousness can be softened. He can become a better leader. We might get annoyed with him but have not given up on him yet.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

But just a minute! Is this the Adam Vaughan who was handed the nomination in the federal riding of Trinity-Spadina by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau? Is it not the riding of Trinity-Spadina where Justin said Christine Innes cannot run because her husband Tony Ianno was accused of doing something wrong? And just who decided that Adam Vaughan is a Liberal?

Something smells in Trinity-Spadina and it is not just the salt air at the fishmonger’s on Augusta in Kensington Market. Is there anything else to be done to hand the riding to the New Democrats on a platter? Joe Cressy, the apparatchik running for the New Democrats, is having a good laugh at this situation. Cressy has the entire downtown corps of New Democrat supporters ready to knock on every door and drive out every possible New Democrat vote on June 30. It is just a preview of what the entire city will see for Olivia Chow when the city elects mayor and councillors on October 27. The difference is that on June 30, Liberals will be enjoying a long Canada Day weekend in Muskoka or Haliburton at their cottages.

And why would a real Liberal support Adam Vaughan? Is this not the good buddy of Mike Layton, son of the late New Democrat leader? The two councillors had to apologize for their wild accusations against city staff when they thought senior staff members were supporting a casino for Toronto. The two of them try to tell people that they are left wingers but the truth is they are nothing but reactionaries. They lead the city hall downtown clique of councillors that stop, stall and frustrate anything progressive in Toronto. They think Torontonians should all ride a bicycle to work every day. Is that the kind of people liberals need in Ottawa?

The last time this liberal worked for the provincial party in the Trinity-Spadina riding area was back in 1985. Jack Layton was campaign manager for the New Democrat candidate and Olivia Chow was working with the Conservative appointed returning officer. The Liberal team ran rings around both of them and the Liberal candidate won.

At least in the Scarborough-Agincourt by-election, candidate Arnold Chan was chosen by the Liberal riding association. Chan sounds like an excellent candidate and his degrees from the University of British Columbia and University of Toronto are quite impressive. We are told he has a long and highly regarded record in the community and with the Liberal Party. This is the type of candidate open nominations can produce for the party.

Justin Trudeau should pay attention.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

We all know him now. He is not Stephen Harper, mystical leader from the nether world. He is the Hair, the only Prime Minister of Canada to keep a hairdresser on staff. In fact, the hairdresser is the only member of the Hair’s staff with tenure. The Hair is the guy with his personal A310 VIP aircraft for when he feels like visiting some new part of the world. He is the PM with the most frequent flyer miles to his credit. And we now know how he is going to save Whitby-Oshawa for the Conservative Party.

The Hair is so transparent! He did not call the Whitby-Oshawa by-election for June 30 when he wants two Toronto and two Alberta by-elections to be decided. Calling by-elections in the middle of a long Canada Day weekend is not a friendly gesture. It is more like raising your middle finger to the voters in Toronto. It is also more of a laugh to discomfit the Liberals and New Democrats who will be duking it out for the Toronto seats. (He is hardly worried about the two safe Conservative seats in Alberta.)

The only satisfaction that the Hair might gain is if Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau does not stop interfering in his party’s candidate selection in by-elections. By insisting on having Toronto Councillor Adam Vaughan run for the Liberal Party, Justin Trudeau is greatly reducing the number of Liberals eager to work in that riding. The Hair would dearly love to see Trudeau’s image weakened by the loss of Trinity-Spadina.

But he could not have the Whitby-Oshawa by-election at the same time. He wants all Conservative hands on deck for that one. He is going to try to win it. All he has to do is wait until after the Ontario provincial election on June 12. He is hoping that Christine Elliott will be left standing in the ruins of the Ontario Conservatives. The Hair wants her to replace her husband Jim Flaherty on the Conservative benches in Ottawa.

It is a no-brainer for the Hair. Whitby-Oshawa has been in the Flaherty-Elliott family since Christine took the provincial riding—previously held by her husband—in the 2006 by-election. She won handily. And she had another easy win provincially in 2011. And the Hair realizes how uncomfortable she is acting as Ontario Conservative Leader Timmy Hudak’s second-in-command.

The only thing that might interfere with the Hair’s planning is if Christine is still interested in taking on Tim Hudak’s job. She will know where she stands in that race by mid June. Watch for the federal Whitby-Oshawa by-election announcement later in the summer.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

What has gone wrong here? Why is Justin Trudeau screwing up the one clear promise he made to the Liberal Party? Did we so artlessly choose someone who does not understand the role of party leader? How worried should we be?

What is wrong when Justin Trudeau tells potential Liberal candidates how to think while excusing sitting Members of Parliament? As leader, the party caucus is his responsibility. He appoints the party’s house leader and that person is responsible for discipline within the caucus. The house leader tries to keep all the MPs singing from the same song book.

But in open nominations, the leader and his underlings stay out of the riding decisions. They have a right to opinions should they care to express them. They can do that as long as the party makes the ultimate decision. That is democracy.

If the party screws up and sends some turkey to Ottawa who is at odds with the rest of the party’s caucus so what? In that circumstance the leader has the option of having one less caucus member. If the member does not agree with a party stand, he or she can go elsewhere. That is how it works in a democracy.

Why would any liberal want a caucus of sheep like the present Conservative caucus in Ottawa? Letting the Prime Minister’s Office run the party as well as the caucus is a recipe for bad government, poor leadership and a dearth of initiative and ideas.

What Justin Trudeau needs to understand is that the Liberal Party is not a party of ideologues. Liberals are reformers. They are free spirits and they believe strongly in the individual rights of all in society. They do not have to feel the pain to support those who suffer. Liberal men support the rights of women. Nor do they believe you have to be gay or lesbian to support same-sex marriage. You just have to believe in our Canadian rights and freedoms.

So free the ridings Justin—it is the liberal thing to do!

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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