Category: Federal Politics

The ‘champion of change’?

by Peter Lowry

This writer has never been a fan of former new democratic politician Ed Broadbent nor of the institute that he has named for him. There is no reason for him to be concerned about this as I also hold no briefs for the Fraser Institute, which likely supports the antithesis of the objectives of the Broadbent Institute. I have always been suspicious of think tanks with a built-in bias. Which I suspect is most of them.

Of the 100 or so think tanks in Canada, I tend to pay attention to the Samara Centre for Democracy that describes itself as a non-partisan charity. I expect that we are not the only country wherein our democracy needs charity.

But the bone I wanted to pick with Ed Broadbent today is in regard to his grandiose Canadian Democracy and Corporate Accountability Commission that he created and chaired with publisher Avie Bennett back in 2000. Their purpose was to encourage Canadian businesses to be socially responsible.

This is not to say how long I can hold a grudge. This was not a royal commission nor in any way supported by government. I debated and finally decided to provide them with some of my expertise on the subject. It was some 20 years before that I had spend time giving guest lectures at Ontario universities to business students. I had written quite few articles at that time on the social responsibility of business.

When I appeared before them to support a paper I had sent, I found that Ed Broadbent was rude and Avie Bennett appeared bored. I wrote off the experience as a waste of time and forgot about it.

But the other day, I came across some references to the report that the Broadbent-Bennett effort issued. The gist of it was that business needed to be coerced to be concerned about the environment, human rights and local communities, as well as the countries in which they choose to operate.

What annoyed me about this was that if Broadbent and his buddy had listened for a bit, they would have had an entirely new perspective. What I was saying 20 years before was that business can only benefit from being socially responsible. It is demonstrable that the socially responsible business has lower costs for staff turnover, better recognition in the news media and easier access to politicians. The company can attract desirable board members and can be much more profitable.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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No, He’s Not His Father.

by Peter Lowry

Prime minister Justin Trudeau recently told Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star that he was not his father. I knew that. I respected his father. His father respected the liberal party.

It was 50 years ago that Justin was born. Early that year the party held a large fund-raising dinner featuring Pierre Trudeau in the Canadian room of Toronto’s Royal York Hotel. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) staff had kept those of us working on the dinner from knowing that Pierre was on his way to Vancouver to marry Margaret Sinclair. I should have seen it when the news media kept asking me about the syrupy speech he was giving on women’s rights. There were a lot of jokes afterwards that it was Pierre’s bachelor dinner.

The only times that the party connected with Pierre’s family life were in his Christmas cards. My wife still has her collection of Pierre Trudeau family Christmas cards and when she mentioned it to Justin, before he became party leader, she was immediately on the list for Justin and Sophie’s cards. And that is about the only way Justin is like his father.

One of the remarks in Susan Delacourt’s article was that “No one knows what would have happened to the liberal party if Trudeau had kept to (his) decision 10 years ago to sit out the leadership. And since he ran for the leadership, that decision was obviously bogus.

The one thing I believe is that the liberal party would have been better off without Justin. He acts as an elitist and he thinks he knows better than a party with the accumulated knowledge of this country since Confederation. He wasted much of that knowledge by barring the party senators from the liberal caucus. He cancelled the party’s minimal membership fee and opened the party to anyone who wanted to be on the party list. He left the party no role other than that as a quasi-automated banking machine where his office could go to ask for money.

Justin told Delacourt that he and his team in Ottawa made a decision to connect with the liberal grassroots. That, of course, is BS. Justin appears to be doing his utmost to destroy the party. He looks down on the grassroots and thinks all a party needs are selfies. He promised not to interfere in riding nominations and immediately, he became leader, forced out a candidate because he might not have liked her husband. He put elitists in charge of elections and loses ridings, that the liberals could have won.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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The Well-Worn Warrior.

by Peter Lowry

I certainly hope conservative leader Erin O’Toole is enjoying this holiday break from parliament. He deserves some rest. He needs to sit back in a warm easy chair, his feet up, his mind at ease and a thirst-quenching beverage of choice in easy reach. He needs the break to think about his future. What he really needs to think about, despite the amenities of Stornoway, the opposition leader’s residence, is his future.

This is Erin’s third career. When he was young, he went into a RCAF recruiting depot in 1991, with dreams of becoming a top-gun pilot. Like many of us, who have done that, you end up somewhere the air force thinks it needs you.

Erin did well by the air force. We are told he got a BA in history and political science at Royal Military College in Kingston. In exchange, he became a navigator. They even let him navigate in antiquated helicopters.

After the military, he stayed in the reserve while studying law at Dalhousie University. This led to his second career in in 2003, as a lawyer in Toronto. His talent seemed to be in commercial and regulatory law.

The legal community lost him though in 2012 when he saw the opportunity to go for the federal by-election in Durham to replace the former MP, Bev Oda, who had resigned. Prime minister Harper must have liked him because it was only after a few months of indoctrination as a new MP, that Harper invited him to sit at the cabinet table.

O’Toole liked that so much that when the conservatives lost in 2015, the member for Durham ran to replace Harper as leader of the conservatives. He lost to ‘Chuckles’ Scheer. When Scheer resigned in 2019, O’Toole was ready. No more Mr. Nice Guy seemed to be his motto. He wooed all conservatives, social conservatives and all the rest. He ran as a true-blue conservative. He won the brass ring.

But Canadians did not know him. In the 2021 general election, he ran a campaign trying to meet their expectations. What he did was confuse them. He came out of the campaign with no gains and an angry, disappointed caucus. He awaits the verdict of the party. He can always go back to law.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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The Friendly Warrior.

by Peter Lowry

The wife said it. I told her that I wanted to write something positive about federal new democratic leader Jagmeet Singh. I happened to have a newspaper page open in front of me when I asked and she pointed to a picture of Singh on the page and said: “He has the kindest face.”

She is right. Despite the kind face, Sikhs have a tradition of being warriors and as a follower of the Tenth Guru of Sikhism, Jagmeet carries the symbolic knives (Kirpan) which are one of what the Sikhs call ‘The Five Ks.’ The Kirpan shows he is always prepared to fight battles for the oppressed and downtrodden.

But there is a certain incongruity in wearing a bespoke suit from the Harry Rosen tailors and a smile and trying to look like a hardened warrior. And nobody seems to be taking Jagmeet seriously. When you fight an election earlier this year and come out of it with an increase of just one seat in the House of Commons, you have to wonder what is wrong.

From a political point of view, I am not inclined to blame Jagmeet. The guy is really trying. What he lacks is a strategic plan. He needs a cohesive party behind him. And, I think, he knows that the socialism of the party’s past is a dead issue.

This is the obvious time for the new democrats to prove that they have something to offer Canadians. They would probably be wise to re-open the Leap Manifesto to being revised and invite the support of the green party and left-wing liberals in the task. We probably have at least two years before anyone starts thinking of having an election. That time could be put to good use.

But as for Jagmeet’s position, I really do not think he is a leader. Sorry, guy. You are a married man with a little one on the way. Nobody thinks about leadership as they are changing a diaper.

I think Jagmeet made a mistake to encourage the Sikh diaspora in Canada to support him for the leadership of the NDP. He needed to build support among all Canadians and we are not seeing that happen.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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A Christmas Wish.

by Peter Lowry

Santa might scratch his head if I ask him for this: I want to hear the sounds of leadership throughout our land. And those sounds have to be about the future for Canadians and their beautiful, bountiful country. It is unlikely that anyone will object if elected or unelected liberals, conservatives, NDPers or greens sought out opportunities to speak out about the future our country offers its citizens. It is a big country and a critically important subject.

We desperately need thinkers in politics who can imagine a better future. For example, why does this country not think about small nuclear reactors to help open our near arctic lands to livability and productivity and the development of resources?  Why are we not replacing some of those highly polluting jet airliners with high-speed electric trains across the country? Why are we talking of restoring what is past, when we could have an enriched future?

No doubt, even Santa would remind us that we are still in the midst of a pandemic. We all know that. It is just that we have to see beyond. Who, but only an idiot, would suggest that Canada should go back to things as they were before?

It is obvious to Canadians that their future is in the East and the West and the North. The Biden administration in the United States is proving to be another downhill ride for our relationship to the South. That country has its own problems. It is time our politicians stopped whining about the U.S. ignoring us. With some leadership, we can solve our own problems.

Canadians have no wish to be looked down on in the same way as Americans treat Mexicans. We hardly want to be sycophants, singing from the same shallow foreign affairs song book as the Americans. We made a deal years ago that made us partners. If the Americans no longer want that partnership, we have other fish to fry.

I know there are a few men and women in the liberal caucus in Ottawa who are capable of speaking out about Canada’s future. It is hardly their nature to be sheep. There are even a few bright conservatives and new democrats. The message is: Your country needs you and it is time to speak up.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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The legacy of the least liberal.

by Peter Lowry

Never let it be said that Canadians do not need to see the last of Justin Trudeau. The only problem holding him in place is the lack of a potential candidate to replace him. You could see that in the staying in-place nature of the last election results. There was nobody standing ready for the job.

A leader is the person who can point into the future and say ‘follow me.’ In 2015, Trudeau forgot to point. He just said ‘follow me.’ Since he was not Stephen Harper, Canadians followed. In that election, he satisfied an unusual craving for selfies. He dumped the past of the liberal party who were in the senate. He cancelled memberships in the liberal party and inundated the party list with demands for money. He talked of reconciliation with Canada’s aboriginals. He talked of the needs of a vague middle class of Canadians.

But when some academics actually counted his promises and actions in his first four years, they found he kept about half of them. It was his failures that bothered many voters. There were also distractions. His family trip to India was an embarrassment for Canadians. Purchasing the Trans Mountain pipeline was puzzling. The Jody Wilson-Raybould matter punched a few holes in his claim to being a feminist.

Some of the failures in office were more noticeable than accomplishments. His medically supported death bill could not survive the smell test in the supreme court. As usual, Canada’s aboriginals were displeased with the progress at everything. And, to nobody’s surprise, Canada’s armed forces were accused of systemic misogyny at any and all ranks.

And to confuse things more, the American political experience was stood on its head by a gentleman named Donald Trump. American politics were far more interesting than the dull Canadian experience.

Canada is now into its second term of Justin Trudeau heading a minority government. We must admit that he has done a good job during the ongoing pandemic. We can only be glad that he, at least, understands the situation. He actually listens to good scientific advice.

But never forget how the Brits dumped their hero Churchill after the Second World War was over.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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Did the PM Do Nothing?

by Peter Lowry

In the roll-out of Justin Trudeau’s recent interview with Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star, he complains about what he calls ‘casual cynicism.’ He says it comes from the left wing of Canadian politics. He said, it bugged him during his first four years in office. Being a charter member of the progressive left in politics, that whine from Justin pisses me off. We are hardly the only cynics.

It is hard to imagine anything more cynical than promising Canadians that 2015 would be the last time they would use first-past-the-post voting. Justin gave the job of making that happen to one of the least competent and less experienced members of his cabinet. His party failed to open the examination and debate on voting systems to all Canadians. And the ‘do nothing’ conclusion was pre-ordained by the closed minds in the major parties.

And in 2016, where did our elitist prime minister and his family spend Christmas? When you take your family to spend Christmas with one of the richest men in the world on his private island in the Bahamas, it does raise a few eyebrows. And as Iman of the world’s Ismaili Muslims, the Aga Khan was unlikely to have had a Christmas tree for the kids.

You tell me what was going on in 2018 that detracted from Justin’s accomplishments? We were watching a self-identified feminist prove that he neither understood women nor left them to do their job. We all went through the Jody Wilson Raybould episode when she was justice minister. How was any accomplishment going to compete with that?

And for this progressive, the nadir of Justin’s first four years was his cynical purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline. Why he would waste billions of the taxpayers’ dollars on that one project is the extremis. That self-declared environmentalist has done nothing to help save this planet but make foolish promises of meeting some unlikely targets in the distant future.

Surprisingly, this cynical progressive was pleased with one aspect of the Trudeau government from 2015 to 2019. He was not Stephen Harper. In that we had something to appreciate.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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The Flexible Erin O’Toole.

by Peter Lowry

Federal conservative leader Erin O’Toole always has his legal career as a fall-back position. The lawyer who can quickly adjust his standards to suit client needs seems to always be in demand. And Canadians can attest to O’Toole’s flexibility during the 2021 federal election.

But, surprise, surprise, flexibility does not always win elections. It was like in Quebec where premier Legault’s Bill 21 won O’Toole’s support because he told us that a conservative government respects provincial autonomy. It did not matter to O’Toole that even though Legault said he was just expressing Quebec values, he still had to use the constitution’s ‘Not Withstanding’ clause to cover off the bigotry involved.

All O’Toole proved was that he has no concept of Canadian values.

And, who would question Alberta premier Jason Kenney’s ringing endorsement of his friend Erin O’Toole? It certainly said a lot that Kenney was always there for O’Toole and not a word was said about what Alberta was doing to the environment.

Of course, it was very different in Ontario where premier Doug Ford could never be there when O’Toole was in his own province of residence. It seems that Ford was not high in the polls at the time, so O’Toole and he did not see each other often.

But the point is that throughout that 2021 election campaign, Canadians became more and more confused by O’Toole’s flexibility. If a program did not appear to be working for his party, he would change it. This guy could flip-flop better than a fish out of water.

And yet, in the Commons recently, he surprised everyone by agreeing to his party sponsoring a motion to fast-track the conversion therapy bill and send it to the senate. That would have been fine if the bill was in danger of missing any legislative deadlines but it says very little for O’Toole’s due diligence in his role as opposition leader. This liberal, for example would have liked a little more discussion of some of the human rights questions that law touches on.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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The Long Walk.

by Peter Lowry

There is something cleansing about a walking interview with a good reporter. Susan Delacourt did a long interview with Justin Trudeau recently, while they were walking in the snow in Rideau Park in Ottawa. It seems to have given the Toronto Star reporter the leads for a number of stories. In this particular case, Justin Trudeau was complaining about the lack of recognition for the work his government had done when it had a majority after the 2015 election.

What Justin needs to realize is that missteps will hide any accomplishments, any day. And Trudeau the Younger had made more than a few missteps.

But the Delacourt opinion piece brought back memories for me. It was 55 years ago that I took a long walk around Peterborough, Ontario with a Globe and Mail reporter named John Dafoe. I don’t think I ever asked John about his grandfather. It was obvious that he would be the grandson of the famous Winnipeg Free Press editor, with the same name, who died in 1944. John had just met Pierre Trudeau, the new member of parliament for Mount Royal.

What Pierre and some other liberal MPs and party people were doing at that hotel in Peterborough on that fine fall weekend was only a by-the-way in the front-page story in the Globe and Mail the following Monday. That feature story, by John Dafoe, launched Pierre Trudeau on the road to becoming prime minister, replacing Lester B. Pearson.

The funny thing about that interview in Peterborough was that nothing of that sort had been planned. The liberal meeting was supposedly on the QT. And I was hardly the only person surprised by the local MP thinking that his invitation to the local CBC station would be kept within Peterborough.

When I asked Pierre Trudeau to talk to the TV people, he told me to ‘F-off’ in front of the entire group. And that led to a few vulgarities from me in response.

I will never know why Pierre suddenly relented and agreed to do the TV interview. The camera was set up in the hotel lobby. Everything was fine until the Globe and Mail, in the person of John Dafoe, wandered in. Pierre was eager to get back to the group and that was when John and I went for a walk

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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Pierre Poilievre’s Priorities.

by Peter Lowry

The waspish MP from Carleton, in his best attack dog style, went after liberal finance minister Chrystia Freeland the other day. The deputy prime minister is scheduled to deliver a fiscal update to the House of Commons today. Mr. Poilievre did not politely ask for his opinions on the subject be recognized. He couched his opinions as demands.

And Mr. Poilievre went well beyond the opposition party’s responsibility to question and oppose the actions of the government. He based his entire argument on a lie. He blamed the liberal government for the current inflation.

When world-wide inflationary pressures are caused by the effects of a pandemic, it is hard to believe that the conservative finance critic would be so blatantly partisan.

He said it very plainly: “Our demands are very simple: less tax, less deficits, less inflation.”

At a time when gasoline prices are escalating, world-wide shipping and transportation services are tied in knots, and customer-facing services are failing because of the pandemic restrictions, this fool wants government spending to revert back to pre-pandemic levels.

He wants a freeze on government spending and taxation as our health care system staggers on the weary legs of worn out care-givers. He demands that the government bring spending back to pre-pandemic levels. He ignores the ravages of climate warming on our infrastructure and food supply and personal services. He wants a freeze on taxes at a time when extended services to people are in extremis.

Canadians are very lucky that Mr. Poilievre is not Canada’s finance minister at this time. His ignorant devotion to conservative philosophy is unworthy of even his political party in this time of troubles.

I have no idea just what Chrystia Freeland will say in her fiscal update this afternoon, but I certainly hope it meets none of the demands of the foolish finance critic for the conservatives.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]