Category: Federal Politics

A news story yesterday told us that an international public relations firm has won the first stage of what will be a $22 million contract to promote the output of Canada’s tar sands. Natural Resources Canada has announced that the Ottawa office of Fleishman-Hilliard has been awarded an initial contract of $1.695 million to oversee the first phase of the program that is supposed to be directed at markets in Asia, Europe and the United States. The international public relations firm has been selected to promote Canada’s supposedly ‘responsible’ resource development in Alberta’s Athabasca Region tar sands and Canada’s faltering environmental record.

Exactly how the firm will deal with the growing environmental concerns with the Athabasca region exploitation is the question.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a New York business audience recently that he wants the Americans to set the standards for environmental protection so that Canada can just tag along. That sounds a bit more likely than the early statements that have been made that the government is waiting for the companies exploiting the tar sands to propose regulations. For more than two years now, promised deadlines for such regulations have been forgotten and ignored. This is the ‘responsible’ resource development that the public relations firm is supposed to promote.

This must be a serious challenge for a firm that promotes it self as believing in “true.”

It is obviously easier for the companies such as Shell and Chevron who are busy digging in the tar sands. It also seems easier for the pipeline companies that want to ship the bitumen output of the tar sands to where it can be loaded on tankers for world markets. They find it easier to lie.

The exploiters simply ignore the vast settling tanks of polluted fresh water that have been used to wash the sand from the bitumen. They like to call bitumen ‘heavy oil.’ While bitumen can be refined into synthetic oil, it is by no stretch ‘heavy oil.’ The bitumen coke residue of refining bitumen creates a carbon footprint that can march across continents. Europe is too environmentally conscious to welcome bitumen. The United States does not want it. Asia will take it, if the price is right.

Fleishman-Hilliard has its work cut out. Maybe, a few millennia from now, as our world shrivels to dust in the fading glow of a dying sun, we will need to use bitumen energy as the remaining humans prepare to give up the planet that nurtured them. That will be our saddest farewell.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

Reading Terry Fallis’ book, The Best Laid Plans in 2008 was a chore. Not writing the requested review was diplomacy. It seems to be an ideal book for people who like their humour about three metres wide and a centimetre deep. We can hardly advise it for people who seriously want to know about Canadian politics, politicians and voters.

But, after watching the first two episodes of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s television series by the same name, we might watch more. CBC script writers Susan Coyne and Jason Sherman appear to have fixed Fallis’ fallacy. These script writers must have enjoyed watching old reruns of the British series Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister and realized that the truth should not get in the way of humour.

You have to admit that making out the Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition to be a buffoon is stretching things but it can be funny. There is nothing funny at all about a speech writer being sent to win an impossible seat in parliament. Especially when it once happened to you and you seriously considered joining a different political party.

The turn-around possibilities for an impossible win of a seat in parliament is not as unlikely as it once was after some of the New Democrat wins in Quebec in the 2011 federal election. There was one accidental MP from Quebec who was rumoured to have decided not to waste her time campaigning and spent a good part of the campaign period in Las Vegas.

As someone who has trained thousands of political canvassers, you realize you have to forgive writers for their depictions of the fun of political canvassing. The truth is Canadian voters are invariably polite but in a hurry to get rid of you. That is the most common canvassing experience. You have probably knocked on thousands of doors before one is answered by a lady who forgot she was topless.

It was nice to see that CBC script writers have also succumbed to the use of gratuitous sex scenes to enliven their shows. There are more than a few desks in ministerial offices in Ottawa that have been polished in the sexual exploits of eager young aides and we can hardly debunk that.

But the point is that nobody wants to be bored by the truth of what really goes on in political Ottawa. Somehow it reminds us of an old line by a character named Schultz in the American Hogan’s Heroes television series: I know nothing!

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

When New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair was on Tom Clark’s West Block show on Global this Sunday, the wife remarked that the Opposition leader seemed to be testing campaign lines for 2015. He was. Tom Clark even thanked Mulcair for the preview. The only problem for Mulcair is that the lines he was using were obvious losers.

While much is made by the news media of the fine prosecutorial role Mulcair has performed in the House of Commons over the Nigel Wright-Mike Duffy affair, it is not coming through to voters. If we are ever foolish enough to elect crown prosecutors in this country, Thomas Mulcair would certainly be recommended. His dual Canadian-French citizenship might not be a factor in that job but Canadians have a right to expect their Prime Ministers to be solely loyal to Canada.

The lines Mulcair was feeding the viewers about the corruption of the Conservative government and the past corruption within the Quebec Liberal Party are not going to fly in 2015. So far, the ‘robo-call’ scandals in the last election appear to be isolated and ill-organized. Tarnishing an entire party with that or even the Senate scandal, is unlikely. And Justin Trudeau, as Liberal leader, has no connection with past political shenanigans in Quebec. Mulcair’s accusations were vague, all encompassing and did not connect.

The effort he put into the fact that the New Democrats are now the official opposition seemed to be where he feels his key strength lies. He seems to ignore the accidental MPs created by the so-called ‘Orange Wave’ in Quebec that was nothing more than the final collapse of the Bloc Québécois.

It should also be noted that Justin Trudeau will do more to restore some honestly among Quebec Liberals by demanding democratic selection of candidates in the 2015 election run-up. Mulcair not only brings a far less democratic approach to New Democrat party selections but his history in Quebec provincial politics will be a handicap, not a hand-up.

The one thing for sure is that Thomas Mulcair cannot pull off the bare-faced naïveté of Jack Layton. There is no ready acceptance or appeal for Mulcair. He has to find a rational reason for him to be Prime Minister of Canada. For the life of us, we cannot think of one.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

If an historian a hundred years from now writes a book about Canada’s 22^nd Prime Minister, it is more likely to be on the man’s ego than any accomplishment while in office. That is too bad. Stephen Harper had it in him to do much while in office but it is his ego that denies him any credit or respect that he might have earned.

From a liberal perspective, you can only say “Thank God.” The problem for Harper has always been that Canada is a liberal-minded country. As a nation, we have always put more reliance on each other and we do not respect the harsh “screw you” attitude of the true blue conservative.

As a young man, Harper discovered his political home among the extreme right in Canada’s most Americanized city: Calgary. Believing they are part of the wild and woolly West of some Zane Grey novel, Calgarians tend to ape their counterparts from Texas while ridiculing the liberal milksops in Canada’s East. Harper not only bought into this but came to see himself as the lone law man, strapping on his gun to meet the bad guys on the noon train.

Stephen Harper’s mentor and role model was Preston Manning, founder of the Reform Party. His academic idol and guru was his friend Tom Flanagan, a political science professor at the University of Calgary. Between Manning and Flanagan, Harper’s conservative bona fides were assured. The only problem was he knew he was smarter than both his teachers. His ego told him he did not need them.

It was Harper and Flanagan who took over the Reform/Alliance and then Conservative parties. It took a couple minority governments in the process but Harper learned his lessons and finally got a majority government in 2011. And, at that time, Harper was in control of an acquiescent Conservative Party that had no commitment other than to be fiscally conservative. Social conservatism in the party was suppressed by a powerful Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) that was also doing its best to control the news media. Harper had flooded the Senate with a majority of Conservative appointees. You would think that he would have been able to sit back, relax and give all those liberal easterners the figurative prime ministerial finger.

But Harper had bigger fish to fry. The world economic problems of 2009 made him look good. Other countries envied Canada its stable ultra-conservative banking system. Now we had Stephen Harper: law man to the world! The ego had become the monster.

Harper, his hair and his hairdresser have their own Airbus A310 to take them anywhere in the world they wish to go. He can escape the nagging opposition in parliament. He can leave behind the lame information search of the R.C.M. Police. He is leaving for Israel in a few days for his own crusade—mining for votes in Montreal and Toronto.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

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

The Supreme Court gave a gift recently to the Conservative Government that will keep on giving. It is the opportunity for Stephen Harper and his friends to learn about sex. They seem to be a very repressed bunch of people and any new learning on this subject should be welcome. And they will be tested on what they learn. The Supreme Court has only given them a year to write new laws for Canada on prostitution.

The first hurdle for the repressed among us is to understand that prostitution is a legal activity in this country. And the Supreme Court unanimously said that you cannot get around the law by putting sex workers at risk. The court said we must not deny prostitutes the relative safety of a bawdy house. Nor should we deny them the right to solicit customers or to hire protection. In short, the Supreme Court said take down the barriers that hide the truth of human sexuality and let prostitutes walk on the sunny—and safe—side of the street.

And any parent who is so worried about their impressionable children should worry more about what the kids see on television every day. The recent Conservative convention in Calgary ignorantly passed a resolution that said criminalize the John-not-the-Jane. It is quite likely that the Supreme Court would see that as exactly the same as today’s unworkable laws. In countries where they are trying to arrest the person purchasing sex instead of the seller, they are driving prostitution further and further into the darkness and the hands of the dangerous elements of society.

It is too bad that Conservatives in our society are so repressed in their sexual understanding. Sexuality is a multi-facetted jewel in human existence. It is what brings us together for the need for procreation, communication, affection, stimulation and expression of love and need. To deny sex to yourself is simply stupid. To try to deny it to others is the height of cruelty.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

Reading a story this morning about New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair and the upcoming battle for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in the next federal election was less than enlightening. If Tommy really believes what he said to the reporter, he is, as we used to say: Dreaming in Technicolor. Tommy’s support for the Enbridge pipeline to move heated bitumen slurry under high pressure through Toronto and area will be his nemesis.

The facts of the matter are that Tommy fails to connect with Toronto. Even without his support for the pipeline, his party is in trouble in all 47 ridings that will now make up the GTA. His support for the pipeline serves to make the point that he neither understands nor cares for the GTA. And we all know that Stephen Harper turned his back on the GTA when he built his coalition from Calgary.

The battle over bitumen will be bitter. Most people do not yet know what bitumen is. Some call it Dilbit, which merely means ‘diluted bitumen.’ Pipeline people call it Heavy Crude Oil, which is a lie—bitumen can be refined into synthetic crude oil in an extremely polluting process. Bitumen is simply the residue of tar sands after the sand has been washed out. It has also been called Pitch and was used to waterproof man’s earliest seagoing galleys. It was also used as mortar in early Mesopotamia. In our modern world of innovation, there is nothing new about bitumen.

From the moment the heavy motorized shovels dig the tar sands from the soil of Alberta, the process of pollution progresses. Vast reservoirs of polluted water are now used to try to evaporate the moisture back to what nature intended.

But the pollution process does not end there. Bitumen is a witch’s brew of heavy metals, chemicals and gasses mixed in heavy carbon molecules. It has the consistency of peanut butter. To pump it through a pipeline, it has to be mixed with light crude oil or other polymers and then heated to allow it to flow. And even then, the bitumen slurry has to be pumped under higher pressure than was used for crude oil. It is a recipe for disaster.

No Eastern Canadian refineries are equipped for constant refining of bitumen. Most of them do not want the pollution it causes. The mountains of bitumen coke residue that refining bitumen creates are just another form of pollution. It is the gift that keeps on polluting.

No thanks to politicians such as Tommy Mulcair who is so willing to trade off our environment for so few jobs. Torontonians should be prepared to roast Tommy Mulcair along with Stephen Harper when that Enbridge pipeline bursts and spreads fire, death and destruction in the GTA.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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

Taking a second look at that awful, overdone and trite Christmas message from the Prime Minister on Global was sad. Knowing that he was born and raised in Toronto did not allow him to use a down-east “Well look,” in every second sentence. He reminded you of the old joke about when you can tell an economist is lying: when his lips are moving.

And if you think Global reporter Jacques Bourbeau was not soft peddling the interview, you could not have been listening. It is the standard line in Conservative talking points to refer to the European Community trade discussions as a trade agreement. For a reporter to ask the Prime Minister about the “agreement” is ridiculous—and pandering. There is no trade agreement. There is only an agreement to negotiate. Canada and Europe are years away from any specific trade agreement.

In fact that entire interview was nothing but soft lobs. It was like skipping that perfectly flat rock on calm water. You left little ripples on the water but you achieved no depth until the last skip and the rock sank. That was when Bourbeau should have also sank.

It would have been far more interesting to discuss the ingenuous trip planned to Israel in the New Year. Other than panning for votes in Montreal and Toronto, what is the Hair going to do in Israel?

Why did Bourbeau not ask about the terrible shape the federal government is in? The only federal departments that have not been cut to the bone seem to be the Senate and the Prime Minister’s Office.

And there was no discussion of the passing of Nelson Mandela? If the Hair thought it was important enough to take some former prime ministers with him to South Africa for the funeral why was it not important to the interview? At least Mulroney and Chrétien came out of the inner sanctum on the government’s A310 and spoke to the reporters who were allowed to travel with the Hair. It is not a custom, the Hair encourages.

You could imagine Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair cringing as the reporter guilelessly played the Dr. Johnson to the Hair’s Boswell. Think of how Mulcair would have followed up those soft lobs about the Senate affair? The mind boggles. We already knew that the Hair was quite prepared to blame poor Nigel Wright for the entire year-long soap opera.

But as 2013 fades to a memory, the Hair will rewrite all the events to his advantage.

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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry

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