Federal Politics – Page 187

First hurdle: the National Energy Board.

June 5, 2013 by Peter Lowry

So you want to fight against bitumen slurry being piped through Toronto on its way to shipping points at Saint John, New Brunswick and Portland, Maine? Your first problem is that you have to make your pitch through the Calgary-based National Energy Board (NEB). And Prime Minister Harper has directed that the NEB speed up the process. They are doing that by controlling who the people are who are getting involved and the constraints on them.

Your next stumbling block in this process is coming to grips with the language Enbridge uses to describe the application. Enbridge does not refer to bitumen. The company wordsmiths talk of ‘heavy oil.’ The pipeline was approved over 20 years ago as an east-west route for crude oil to Sarnia and other refineries in Ontario. What Enbridge wants to use it for now is for bitumen mixed with polymers to create a mixture that can flow through a pipeline if heated and pushed at higher pressure.

Line Number 9 was designed two decades ago for crude oil at two-thirds the volume and under lower pressure and lower temperature. While the Enbridge engineers can assure us that the line can sustain this new usage, they are incapable of telling us for how long. Breaks in Line 9 in Toronto are going to be a fact of life. There are too many external factors impacting the life cycle of the line in an urban environment. The vibrations and pressures of vehicle traffic on major arteries, the laying of new utilities, constant construction, the concentration of subway and rail lines and other urban considerations have never been a major concern in the laying of pipelines.

To approve this application is not just foolhardy, it is a guarantee of a disaster that will destroy Enbridge. The very thought of bitumen slurry moving slowly down from Finch Station to York Mills Station on the Yonge Street subway line is a spill that nobody has seen before and can never be allowed to happen.

Even watercourses such as the West Don River, which the line intersects, are a direct route to fouling Toronto Harbour, the Toronto Islands and even jeopardizing Toronto’s Deep Lake Cooling System. And Toronto’s ancient storm sewers, that are not always separate from sanitary sewers, are the worst route for a slurry that could clog the system for years to come.

In case, we forgot to mention it, this commentator has already been approved by the NEB to comment on the Enbridge application. When we find out what that means, we will let you know.

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

If an MP falls in Ottawa?

June 4, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Would anyone care? There were better times on Parliament Hill when being a Member of Parliament stood for something. They were times when being an elected Member or an appointed Senator was a source of pride. It was honourable. It was devoting oneself to a higher level of service to Canadians. You could stand proud at those times as you rolled out the rhetoric for those decisions of importance to your constituents. You stood to your name in the roll call of voting for a better tomorrow. And then came Steve Harper to the Hill and it has been headed downhill ever since.

And no one cares about to-day’s nobody Conservative MP. They are not elected to serve their constituents but to serve the needs of an imperial Prime Minister. These MPs are lackeys, bought and paid for with the quasi-legal funding schemes of a rapacious Conservative machine. They are elected under the clouds of nefarious actions that besmirch the honour of all concerned.

And then there are Senators. They are also parliamentarians. Sure, they are the bagmen, the party apparatchiks, the former MPs that the Prime Minister’s Office deems worthy. It is under Steve Harper that the wholesale dissemination of Senate seats to the hangers-on and party sycophants has destroyed the veneer of usefulness that the Senate previously tried so hard to maintain. Harper stepped beyond the bounds of knowledgeable party people and brought in people with their own sense of entitlement and their own egos. He promised to reform the Senate. Instead, he destroyed it.

This is not to suggest that others were blameless. The Liberals on Parliament Hill were so busy during the Chrétien era with the infighting between the loyalists and the Martin rebels that the party lost interest and wandered. When the rebellion was over, there was nothing left to support a weak Martin regime. The sponsorship scandal in Quebec even revolted Quebeckers.

What this has left Canadians with is a disinterested electorate, a dysfunctional parliament and a growing disgust around the world at Canada’s disintegration. Canadians can do much better.

The one glimmer of hope is that there is an opposition in Ottawa. And it is not just the news media. While there is not a great strength behind him, Thomas Mulcair is starting to rag the Prime Minister on his parliamentary excesses. Eventually Mulcair is going to capture more of Harper’s attention and tie-up some of his efforts.

That leaves Justin Trudeau at liberty to do the job he has to do across Canada. He has to pull together a renewed Liberal Party. He has to give it the infusion of youth it needs. And the defeat of Harper in 2015 will become more than just a possibility. That is the only hope for a restoration of parliament.

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Sousa: Jim Flaherty is your friend.

June 3, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Ontario Treasurer Charles Sousa needs to think outside the box. He needs to be developing creative ideas to fund transit in the Toronto area and he needs to realize that Federal Treasurer Jim Flaherty is his friend. Flaherty is saving Charles from making a really stupid mistake.

Flaherty has said, in very clear language, that there is no way another one per cent on the Harmonized Sales Tax can be used to fund Toronto’s transit needs. And Sousa is hardly going to win any awards anywhere for arguing the case.

Sousa should be looking at the Metrolinx problem. While it is awkward to fire them, there is no question that the Metrolinx people have overstayed their usefulness. They need to be honoured in front of family and friends and sent packing. They were bereft of ideas and helpful suggestions. Their support of a higher HST to pay for transit needs in the GTA was never going to fly.

And the Metrolinx people and Sousa did not need to have Jim Flaherty point it out to them. The HST is a regressive tax that annoys everybody. It picks no favourites but it does impose less on the rich. The basic problem is that it does not reflect the infrastructure needs of the community where it is collected.

The greatest concern for community infrastructure is among business. Business pays a high price for gridlock. It needs to get its employees to work and home again. It needs to make and receive deliveries. Doing business in a large community can be very beneficial. It also needs to be more efficient.

What also reflects the infrastructure needs of the community are costs related to property. These include land transfer taxes, development fees, municipal taxes and transportation fees. Just because Toronto Mayor Rob Ford did not understand land transfer taxes, does not mean the province has to follow his lead.

Until the last election in Toronto, there was an unholy alliance between the East and West Toronto lefties and the smug rich of Rosedale and Lawrence Park. They worked together to keep down and screw those poor people who have to live in the suburbs. It is why there has been no action on the growing gridlock on Toronto’s roads. Rob Ford’s election was the first sign that maybe the deadlock in Toronto could be broken.

If the province is going to step into this mess, it has to be prepared for a tough fight. There has to be clearly earmarked funding for transit and an audit trail that shows the funds are being used for the purpose. Anything less will just continue to fuel the outrage over the hours spent trying to get to and from another ill-paying job.

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In search of redemption.

June 1, 2013 by Peter Lowry

It seems the main subjects for political analysis today are people in search of redemption. And it is not the target of the attention as much as the people who voted for them. In Toronto, in Ottawa and at Queen’s Park, it is the voters who search for redemption.

In Toronto, we have the ongoing daily trials and tribulations of the Ford boys. Can there be redemption for the Toronto voters who chose Mayor Rob Ford? The man is a caricature of his voters. He promised them he would end the gravy train but that train had left the station. The virulent news media versus Ford saga is a sad and savage example of bear baiting from the Middle Ages. The attack hounds of the media should remember that it failed as a popular entertainment back then because it killed more dogs than bears.

But it is not the news media that will determine the fate of Ford. It will be the voters of Toronto. Given a clear choice, an uncluttered list of candidates, the voters will opt for peace at city hall. What the media has to understand is that the amorphous Ford Nation’s loyalties are fleeting.

And then there is Senator Mike Duffy. The only voter that Mike Duffy has ever had is Prime Minister Stephen Harper. There is no redemption for Harper or his Senate or his government. For Harper brought it all on himself. He is an autocrat, not a democrat.

Senator Duffy’s problem is his own sense of entitlement. And it was the Prime Minister who encouraged that entitlement. Duffy looked at Stephen Harper’s imperial role as Prime Minister with his personal A310 Airbus, his staff hairdresser and his disdain for parliament and figured that he did not need the hairdresser. He just felt entitled to everything else.

At Queen’s Park, Kathleen Wynne is enjoying the role of Premier. It is her voters across Ontario who seek redemption. They want their opinion on who will be premier to be recorded. Wynne has no mandate to rule the province. After more than 100 days of shoring up the dikes, she can either trust the voters or she can enjoy some final days in the role of Premier.

At all three levels of government, the need is for redemption. The one major concern is the lowering levels of voter turnout, the lack of confidence in the process, the blatant dishonesty of some of the participants and the laxness of the news media. Nobody seems to want to take responsibility. Is there redemption for any of us?

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Lessons learned from Ford and Harper.

May 29, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Toronto’s Mayor Ford and Prime Minister Harper are providing very good examples of what not to do in a crisis. Crisis management mangers are having a field day pointing out the errors the two men are making. Instead of pulling themselves out of the mess they are in, they are compounding their problems as they try to fight off their detractors.

In Toronto, the bear baiting continues as the news media tear at the rags of Rob Ford’s dignity and honour. In Ottawa, in the more genteel atmosphere of parliament, the organized protests of the opposition are fended off by the cricket bat of the Prime Minister. In neither case is the beleaguered principle taking the advice of those who understand the psychology of the situation and the need for special handling.

And in neither case is there going to be a sudden reversal, ‘mea culpa’ or confession. It is not in either man’s persona to honestly discuss the problems with the news media. Nor is either going to be believed at this stage if they attempt to redirect the media attention onto someone else.

Both men have made the same mistake in throwing their chief-of-staff under the bus. By that action alone, they have locked all sights on themselves. Neither will ever attain that level of trust again. They have left themselves slim pickings in the narrow field of available chiefs-of-staff. There will be no trust.

Of course, Rob Ford’s friend Stephen Harper is not so foolish as to tell the media ‘no comment.’ Harper had an excuse to get out of town and he took it. While Opposition Leader Tommy Mulcair accused Harper of skipping town, he looked a bit silly suggesting that Harper could make arrangements for such a trip at the spur of the moment.

While Mr. Harper may wish to call the Senate kafuffle a ‘distraction,’ He needs to remember that he created that distraction. He was promising six years ago to do something about the Senate and he ended up packing it with Conservative Party sycophants. That was not what he promised. And he got more than he bargained for.

But both Ford and Harper have convenient memories. Mind you, you might not want to ask Rob Ford about the deleterious effects of crack cocaine on short term memory. Mr. Harper seems to micromanage everything in Ottawa. He needs to explain how he let us down about the Senate. And the Supreme Court will not help. Maybe next year the judges will tell him he needs the support of most of the provinces to fix the Senate problem.

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Leadership in a dark place.

May 27, 2013 by Peter Lowry

For three days in a row, this blog wanted to explain crisis management in less than 500 words. It cannot be done. It is not only a very complex subject but it still requires leadership. Without leadership, the political ship drifts in the shoals, an easy target for the land-bound detractors and sceptics. In the City of Toronto, at Queen’s Park and in Ottawa, we are in a dark place and there is little succour in sight.

In Toronto, the city’s warring forces are in full cry. You have the Fords with their vacillating right wing, the militant left with their sometimes camp followers and the rampaging news media, all confusing the public. What is today’s truth is fleeting and stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode. And where is the leadership? What leadership?

They take a survey and tell us that if Olivia Chow runs against Rob Ford, all will be corrected and the sun will shine once more on city hall. And those who know Olivia Chow’s record at city hall are wondering where this sudden leadership is to come from?

The ownership of Toronto’s problems belongs at Queen’s Park. The problem is that the Ontario government is like a bear beset with dogs set on bringing it down. And the dogs will eventually win. Leadership at Queen’s Park is a compromise on top of a deal made by strange bedfellows. Premier Wynne has had her chance to be a new broom, a fresh face and a new direction. She stalled and can hardly fight on all the fronts facing her administration. That takes leadership.

And then there is Ottawa. This is Canada’s compromise in leadership. It took Stephen Harper’s Conservatives three elections, attack ads and robocalls to get a majority. We already knew how bad a leader he could be. We were offered no alternative. He could only pass Michael Ignatieff by destroying him. And Jack Layton was just another pawn.

The new Liberal leadership in Ottawa is a glimmer and still in the chrysalis stage. It has yet to take wing. The need in this country is for a leadership of change, a leadership of challenge and excitement. It can happen in an open party, a party that accepts its responsibilities for policies, new candidates, funding and new structures. It can happen in a party that says to Canadians that the options are open to the type of country we all want. It takes leadership to make that happen. The potential is there. It will take all of us to make it happen.

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Is Lord Connie rehabilitated enough?

May 26, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Conrad Black is reported to have used his time in the United States federal prison system to write a book. It seems like a strange place to write a book called Flight of the Eagle, extolling the greatness of America. Not having read the book yet, we cannot wait to read what he thinks of Chicago. Maybe the book is a retroactive appeal for a change of venue.

But where does Lord Crossthepond go next? While his books get some critical acclaim, nobody appears to be rushing to buy them. This latest hardcover is already selling at a cut price of $20 at the local Chapters. Lord Connie might as well be writing a blog for all the wealth his writing efforts are generating.

Not that he needs a tag day. It is just that Conrad has always lived by his wits. He would never accept the fact that he is at an age where most of us think of retirement and an easier lifestyle. Even if he could get his Canadian citizenship back, it is unlikely that Stephen Harper would send him to the Senate to get it to run properly. A Senate salary might barely pay for Barbara’s shoes.

But if he is going to continue to pick fights with New Democrat Leader Tommy Mulcair, he needs to be in a position whereby he could benefit from it. Just the other day, he was razzing Stuffy Tommy for the loss by the NDP in British Columbia. Connie seems to be the only talking head in the business who thinks it is Tommy’s fault. You have to admit that Connie always has had a unique perspective on this country.

Obviously Lord Connie cannot return to the publishing business. While Paul Godfrey at Post Media seems to like him, it is hard to imagine shareholders sharing any level of trust. Connie might not be rehabilitated or ready enough to return to the publishing business. He has already been away too long.

That leaves the tried and true of politics. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems wearied. All Lord Connie has to do is renounce his lordshipness and his friend Stephen will restore just plain Connie to his Canadian citizenship. The only job that Connie wants is Stephen Harper’s. Canadians could go into the 2015 federal election with Prime Minister Conrad Black versus Stuffy Tommy and Justin Trudeau.

The mind boggles. The stomach rebels. What excitement. What a challenge. Can you imagine the ensuing campaign? We will report further on this idea.

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An appropriate salute to Queen Victoria.

May 24, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Happy birthday Your Majesty! As children in Ontario, we used to set off fireworks to celebrate your birthday. It was a joyous occasion. It was wonderful to know that the sun never set on your empire. We were all British subjects. You were the image of our strength. You were a moral compass. We all got passing grades in our loyalty.

But times have changed lady! You have been dead for some 113 years. The children that you spawned to repopulate the palaces of Europe are long gone. Your great-great granddaughter, Elizabeth II is fast coming up on your length of service to your people as one of the few reigning monarchs left in the world. When she joins you in history, there are no bets on where the English royals are headed.

Elizabeth II has certainly done a fine job on shoring up the monarchy but her own son, the Prince of Wales is one of the stumbling blocks. There is just no respect for a man who was provided with a story-book princess. She gave him a couple of nice kids but he was too busy boffing an old flame. The demise of the princess almost turned into a public relations disaster for the Brit royalty.

So how do we honour you Victoria? What is appropriate in Canada to recognize the sovereign who was the midwife of our Confederation? In four more years, Canada will celebrate 150 years. It is way past time to release us from your apron strings. Canada has proved its loyalty in the blood of wars and support in times of need. We should, in your honour, write a new constitution for this country, this Canada.

Canada has surpassed its origins. We have welcomed the peoples of the world. We are not just English or French anymore. We are all languages, all races, all religions and our perspective is of peace and hope and progress and compassion. Sorry Madam but a country such as this must stand on its own.

And it is also past time when we need to recognize our needs as a country. We tried to import your Parliament of Westminster to this new land and failed. We have the weaknesses in our parliamentary structure that Oliver Cromwell noted hundreds of years ago. We have been unable to patch them with the customs evolved over time as has Westminster. Our version of a House of Lords is a sham. Outdated, misused and misunderstood, the Canadian Senate has failed. It needs modern thinking.

Canadians pride themselves on their democracy. Yet we need checks and balances to the power of our Prime Minister’s Office. We need to distance our court and administrative agency appointments from politics of the day. We have much to rethink. And even if we reason that the time is long past for a royal head of state, in Ontario at least, we will be sure to keep our Victoria Day long weekend holiday.

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The Hair’s in Lima, Baird’s in Ottawa.

May 23, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Have your pathetic mewling in parliament if you wish, the Hair is doing South America. Far from the foolishness of the Opposition and the tulip festival of Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on a mission. In a strange reversal of their roles, Foreign Minister John Baird is in full fledged denial in parliament.

Unlike the Americans, where the Secretary of State does the travelling while the President minds the store in Washington, the Canadian Prime Minister gets far more frequent flyer points. In fact, recently Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, Mr. Baird’s Bobbsey twin, has been travelling more than the Foreign Minister. That could be telling us something about the upcoming cabinet shuffle.

But, there is a big ‘but’ if you think Jason Kenney will end up in Foreign Affairs. Jason Kenney wants Stephen Harper’s job. That would not be so crucial if it were not for Jason Kenney also being one of the leading sons of the religious right of the Conservative Party. If he chooses Kenney for Foreign Affaires, you would have to assume that Mr. Harper is not going to be around for the next election.

This does not mean that John Baird is not auditioning right now for Peter Van Loan’s job as Government House Leader. Baird has far more of a pit bull mentality than Van Loan and it might be a good trade off.

Not that we have any intention of building a better cabinet for Stephen Harper. He is on his own in that regard. Mind you when he does shuffle his cabinet, the most common question will be “What was all the fuss about?”

There is just one other observation about the Hair and Harper’s travels. This trip confirms that Mr. Harper has visited every continent and we lost track of the number of countries a couple years ago. It has been learned that the purpose of this trip is to repay the generosity of party supporters in the mining business. Our trade levels with Peru are almost non-existent but it is rumoured that we do import some of Columbia’s major export product. Mr. Harper is encouraging those countries to be kind to his friends in the mining business. They are probably the same mining magnets who explained that they could not hire Canadian workers for their Canadian mines because the Canadians could not speak Mandarin.

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“Will no one rid me of this troublesome…”

May 22, 2013 by Peter Lowry

Since the days of Henry II, civilized society has found ways of ridding our leaders of their troubles. Today, we call these trouble shooters chief of staff or principal secretary. It is a position that wields the authority of the leader, on the leader’s behalf. It is a position of considerable trust.

But it is not deniable. The chief of staff is not a fall guy. He or she is not there to take the blame. The role is that of alter ego. You do not guess at the needs and wishes of the leader. You have to know what is wanted. You are a team. And you are jointly responsible for the actions of the office.

If you are looking up the job description, good luck. Every job of this magnitude is different. Every relationship is different. The key to power is the “Pen.” This is a very simple machine that can sign the leader’s name on letters and documents. The chief of staff is expected to have the key to the Pen. That is what signifies the level of trust.

How does this relate to Prime Minister Stephen Harper? This is a man who micromanages his job. This is a methodical man. While his chief of staff would pick and choose those things that he would report to Harper, there is no way that he would keep information from the Prime Minister. Yes, he might say simply that “the Duffy matter has been looked after sir.” That would mean that he has followed instructions to find a solution. The details of the solution are immaterial to the Prime Minister. He is responsible because he gave the authority to do it to his chief of staff.

While it might be very convenient to have a chief of staff who can write a cheque for more than $90,000 to help out a friend of the Prime Minister, that can hardly be the end if the matter. When the Prime Minister’s chief of staff wrote that cheque to Senator Mike Duffy, he obviously had no concern about being paid back anytime soon. There is always a pay back. It comes with the job.

Having known various chiefs of staff—for different parties and different jurisdictions—we are pleased to report that all are comfortably off, thank you.

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