Category: Federal Politics

Indicting Justin Trudeau.

by Peter Lowry

Let’s make it clear from the beginning, as a liberal, I feel betrayed by prime minister Justin Trudeau. From the first time I met the newly-minted member of parliament in 2010, there has been the nagging impression that he is but an actor. He is his mother’s son, not his father’s. He is glib with a practiced speech or a teleprompter. He likes to hide behind grease paint and costume.

But, in the beginning, I welcomed him as a liberal. With the problems Canada’s liberals had after the Chrétien years, the party needed stable leadership. With Justin, I was never sure if we were getting leadership or selfies but the party took the chance.

And I liked what he said about stronger riding associations and hands off on candidate selection. We were so trusting!

The 2015 election was a foregone conclusion. Harper had shown his true self during his one majority government. The liberals danced to Rideau Hall in the sun’s rays for the swearing in.

But all was not right. Trudeau the Younger did not want the grey beards of the senate in his caucus. Yet he welcomed all who wanted to be a liberal without making any commitment or charge. Until they found out there was no party left, just constant pleas for funding.

Trudeau is a traveler. He revels in the world spotlight. Yet the world has realized that he is a light-weight who makes hollow promises.

He tells us he is a feminist and yet fails to try to understand women.

He tells us he is concerned for the environment and yet wastes billions of taxpayers’ dollars on the Trans Mountain pipeline. He thinks he can ship the product of the tar sands exploiters to other countries and blame them for the destruction of our planet.

He might use his father’s name but he betrays him. He will not stand up to the politicians in Quebec who deny religious symbols. Pierre Trudeau was a real liberal. He would have labelled Quebec’s Law-21 as bigotry and fought it.

-30-

Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Climate of Promises.

by Peter Lowry

Did you know there is going to be an official plan on how Canada will achieve its climate target for 2030? We would probably feel more encouraged by this if the federal climate commissioner had not complained the other day that Canada has not achieved a single target, it set for itself, since 1992. And since 2030 is not far away, what are we going to promise now?

It seems our government doesn’t know. That’s right. Rather than cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions, they increased in Canada between 1990 and 2019 by 21 per cent. During the governments of the Chrétien liberals, the Harper conservatives and the Trudeau liberals, they have not only missed their targets, they increased the problem.

So, who is going to trust them to set a target for 2030?

They have a solution for that. It seems, we are going to tell them what that target should be. The Trudeau liberals are going delay their legal commitment to have a plan in place by the end of December 2021. They are delaying it by three months so that Canadians can tell them what to do with Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions between now and 2030.

No doubt, you share with me some skepticism about this solution. I am sure you also share some doubts about the appropriateness of some of the answers the government will get.

And I am not that impressed with the Alberta tar sands people who are planning to stuff all that bad stuff back down into the earth so we can stop worrying about them. And they are going to ship all that highly polluting tar sands stuff to other countries so that the other countries can get blamed for all that nasty climate warming. After all, the Trudeau government is twinning the Trans Mountain pipeline so that Canada can ship three times as much of that tar sands stuff to other countries.

A lot of my friends in British Columbia are going to lie down in front of the path of that new pipe being laid. They are saying: “Might as well kill us now, instead of killing our progeny slowly.” 

-30-

Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Do Not Go Gentle.

by Peter Lowry

It would appear that conservative leader Erin O’Toole does not intend to “Go gentle into that good night.” He does not seem to be Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ sort of guy. In O’Toole’s case, the death is to his dream of leading this country.

It is not as simple as O’Toole tried and failed and it is time to move on. The problem is that he tried everything and failed his party. He promised victory and glory and he delivered stagnation.

But it was how he did it that was the rub. The problem was that, from the beginning, he stood alone. In that cold and forbidding studio in downtown Ottawa, he transitioned from pamphleteer to panderer. If this promise does not work, let’s try another.

Nobody can label the O’Toole leadership of his party in opposition. In parliament last week, we wondered where the yelling went? From the vindictiveness and vitriol, parliament entered a time of cooperation and cohesion. It passed a conservative motion unanimously. It did. Really. It confused and bewildered but worked. The bill against conversion therapy promptly went on to the Senate for that body’s approval. For a bill that could still raise one or two human rights questions, it was given short shrift in the Commons.

It is that nobody is sure just what this new approach will cost O’Toole? It left many people wondering just how he is going to square this with the conservative right wing. He can hardly send them over to Maxime Bernier’s peoples’ party. He cannot afford to lose them.

He had succumbed to the pleas of the conservative party’s fiscal right when he gave Pierre Poilievre back his finance criticism platform. Nobody needs to tell O’Toole that Poilievre is a loose cannon with his own agenda. That “Justin-flation” that the Carleton MP coined is being picked up by other members of the caucus and the speaker is going to have to call it what it is: unparliamentary.

But it will be after the pandemic is over that economics will once again impact on Canadians’ concerns. Until then Poilievre’s plaints are just chatter.

-30-

Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

PR for the Royals.

by Peter Lowry

Maybe I was in the public relations business at the wrong time. Retiring at the turn of the century, I missed out on the opportunities. There was no denying that the British royalty had to have a renaissance but it was too late for me to get a share of the lolly. There was money to be made by a smart PR person but Buckingham Palace is a tough house to crack.

A good PR program for the palace needed to be two pronged. The royals had to take part of their strategy from the Hollywood fan mill. It would have made good sense to send one of the junior royals to Tinsel-Town to learn how the movie fan-frenzy works. I guess young Harry would do.

You have to admit, the Hollywood fan mill is a grind but it works. Sure, some of the people being promoted might be embarrassed occasionally but Hollywood fans must be some of the most gullible people in the world. The key is that they are just like the people who think being a royal is something special.

And let’s give a thought to the awful experience of growing up in a drafty old palace with obsequious servants and cold toast for breakfast. And North Americans would be horrified at sending their children off to what the Brits call public schools. Eton might be hard by Windsor Castle but there is little sympathy from a Queen who had to handle her own hard knocks as a princess for sale to the highest bidder.

Let’s face it, the Brit royals have suffered some ups and downs over the years. Thank goodness the Queen is trying to set a record for longevity. Nobody seems to want Charlie on the throne. But the palace is putting it all on King Billy. They have not yet figured out a way to skip a generation.

But the 39-year-old prince is being carefully groomed, just in case. They’ve enshrined his late mother to more than she would ever have wanted. He is rugged and outdoorsy, the ideal husband and father. He uses the latest technologies as though born to high-tech. He has a beautiful wife and the right number of offspring. Maybe when he and Harry get together, they have a laugh at the whole thing.

-30-

Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

The Fool is in the Fine Print.

by Peter Lowry

Now we know that the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is a waste of time. When I complained to the commission back at the time of the election, I found you had to be persistent. Their first reaction to complaints appeared to be a brush off. You had to let them know you are serious.

You are not supposed to be amused by all the provincial CRTC commissioners these days being female. I never said anything was wrong with that but the fact that the chair, a long-time bureaucrat, is male makes something of a point.

But my complaint had to do with the rank unfairness of the Global program West Block on the last two Sundays before election day on September 22, this year. I could not believe that three people who were voting conservative made for a balanced or even knowledgeable political panel. It was not only an insult to the viewers but, to me, it seemed to be highly partisan and biased.

Having been involved in the birth of the CRTC back in the late 1960s, I take a bit of a proprietary stance with the commission. I have appeared before it several times at hearings and have always paid attention to its rulings.

In this case, I was caught off guard. The commission responses all told me that I should make my complaint to the station involved. I once did that with a radio station that made a mistake and I was taken to a very nice lunch by the station manager, wrote an apology for the station and picked the announcer who would read it on air.

But Corus Entertainment that runs Global needs to understand that its bias does not wash in Ontario. They were overdoing their conservative prejudice.

The commission finally sent me an e-mail quoting Section 8 of Television Broadcasting Regulations of 1987 that requires broadcasting of programs of a partisan political character on an equitable basis. It then says that this is assessed on a basis of the entire election period. Which I guess leaves the question moot. There is no way a single citizen could assess the programs of a network over the entire election period.

CRTC: 1, Citizens: 0.

-30-

Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Battle of the Fox and Mud Hen.

by Peter Lowry

It is unusual for prime minister Justin Trudeau to hold off but in the battle between the fox and the mud hen, he knows he needs to stand back. He has nothing to gain from acknowledging or sparring with the conservative’ s fox, finance critic Pierre Poilievre. The conservative MP is tasked to defame and destroy the liberal finance minister and deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland. So far, it seems a fair fight.

Also known as the American coot, the long-legged mud hen tends to nest in boggy ground where the eggs can be searched out by their natural foe, the fox. In the quagmire of parliament, the battle is most often in evidence during question period. While fox-Poilievre likes to question what he calls Justin-flation, the slur on the prime minister’s name is actually addressed to the finance minister.

But the liberal mud hen gives back in kind. She is a highly experienced journalist and she brings her much better information gathering techniques to the fore in warding off the fox’s attacks.

There are world-wide inflationary influences that need to be addressed but are hardly caused by the liberal government in Canada. Much of the problem is in supply chain breakdowns, trucking and transportation troubles, customer-facing employee shortages and the many other business disruptions caused by the coronavirus. The world is not out of the woods yet with Covid-19 variants.

But with the fox standing in the House of Commons saying that inflation is all the fault of the liberals, there are still those foolish enough to believe him. And it doesn’t help that house prices in Ontario and British Columbia continue to climb in an out-of-control fashion. When gasoline and other fossil fuels are under indictment as causing climate change, their escalating prices smack more of price-fixing and unjustified profit-taking. It is as though the companies are looking to their retirement nest-eggs while destroying those of others. There are many financial troubles ahead but my bet is on the mud hen.

-30-

Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Canada’s Care Concerns.

by Peter Lowry

It seems fairly clear to Canadians that our battles with the Coronavirus are not over. As alarms spread over Covid-19 variants and the arguments with those who do not trust the vaccines become more vehement, political questions still have to be taken into account. Many questions need be answered about the kind of nation we want to be.

The first obvious observation has to be that Canada is a caring nation. While our American neighbours still argue about universal medicare, it is a done deal in Canada. Despite the efforts of some provinces to extort additional funds from the feds, there is no question but medicare is a fixture in our society.

That creates the logic and forethought that is now going into our other care concerns. Pharmacare is something on the horizon. Dentacare will be a logical follow-through. Long-term care has become a red flag. Child care is becoming a process and not a barrier to parents being able to work.

And, in our northern climate, we cannot ignore the plight of the homeless. We are not that cruel. Governments, at all levels, have a role to play in ensuring adequate, safe, non-polluting and reasonably priced accommodation for all.

And the most important caring of all is the care to make sure climate change is not the earth’s farewell to humankind.

But we have to recognize that there are those who will deny our care concerns.

They start out concerned about costs. They say they are concerned about our country’s debts. They rebel against taxation. They object to being taxed to support the less fortunate in our society. They confuse their rights with the need for mandated vaccine usage. Nobody has the right to infect others with their diseases.

It is a basically selfish attitude. It is a ‘me first’ view of the world we live in. It is on the right of conservatism. Conservative politicians will tell you how caring they are before an election but afterwards they seem to forget.

-30-

Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Not to Reign Over Us.

by Peter Lowry

Not that Canadians would have noticed. It was an historic moment for Barbadians. Barbados became a republic the other day. Prince Charles was there to say ‘goodbye.’ It was all very civilized. And, of course, the island country will continue to participate in the Commonwealth.

But what was wrong with this major step in Barbadian history was that it was all decided by the politicians without full participation by the people. They had been talking about becoming a republic for the past 50 years.

Compared to Canada, Barbados and other island nations have far less trouble with severing ties with the British monarchy. They do not have the complexity of being a nation of different colonies uniting in a confederation of states. Canada’s constitution locks the nation in conflict between its provinces over their various responsibilities and the small-mindedness of the politicians.

Canada needs to address the questions of its nationhood from the bottom up. It has to start with a constitutional parliament. This would be a parliament of citizens elected in their respective federal electoral districts on a non-partisan basis. It might start by developing a vision of what Canada should become and then plan on how to get there. The only proviso is that whatever the parliament decides, has to be approved in a referendum by the Canadian people.

There are many who would fight this suggested path. They are the small minded of the provinces. They are federal politicians with their own agendas. They are those who instinctively fight against change. There are even those who like having a privileged monarchy.

But Canada has never had the opportunity to decide on its own destiny. Of course, it is easier for smaller countries throughout the Commonwealth to make these decisions but Canada is due. We have come a long way from our original French and English origins. We have welcomed people from the world. We are long past the point when we should have made better arrangements with our aboriginal peoples. It is our country’s future that is at stake.

-30-

Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

The Bundestag teaches little.

by Peter Lowry

It came as a surprise the other day when the Toronto Star’s opinion writer for the new democratic party, Robin Sears, lauded the German government’s electoral system. While the German electoral system does confuse outsiders, it is basically an electoral system known as Mixed Member Proportional. (A similar electoral system was rejected by Ontario voters in a 2007 referendum.) The states in the German federation elect the 299 first-past-the-post members, according to their population and then party lists are used to expand the size of the house according to party vote. (There are 736 members in the current Bundestag.)

What would concern Mr. Sears is recognizing that the Bundestag is a surprisingly conservative organization. It has been under the leadership of either the Christian Democratic or Social Democratic parties for the past 50 years. The fact that no one party has had a majority creates a defferential parliament that caters to economic concerns first.

Instead of complimenting the Bundestag on its progressiveness, Mr. Sears should be aghast that they are only now proposing a minimum wage of the equivalent of $17 per hour. This country of about 80 million has the strongest economy in Europe and $20 per hour or more would be a more realistic level for its minimum wage.

Sears was impressed by the Bundestag version of our throne speech. He thinks the idea of giving all parties copies of the planned government program to study before voting on the specifics makes a lot of sense—and it does.

But what works for another country is not always the ideal solution to our needs. I find the scurrilous name calling and rudeness of our MPs detracts from the respect that our parliament deserves.

But that is a two-way street. I have come to the conclusion that neither Steven Harper nor Justin Trudeau have showed any respect for parliament and that is reflected in how the House behaves. It needs better leadership.

-30-

Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Singh Wimps on TransMountain.

by Peter Lowry

So much for new democrat leader Jagmeet Singh. He betrays his caucus and his party and his British Columbia voters. He has said he will not back long-time NDP stalwart Peter Julian in his effort to stop the Trudeau government’s TransMountain pipeline expansion.

There is only one reason for expanding the capability of the TransMountain pipeline (from 300,000 barrels per day to almost 900,000). The government is spending upwards of estimated $16 billion on twinning the pipeline and increasing pressure to almost triple its capacity. It has already accepted contracts worth about $20 billion from Alberta oil sands companies to ship diluted bitumen to Burrard Inlet at Vancouver for loading on ocean tankers.

Now, does that sound like a government that gives a damn about global warming? Does Singh’s approval of the pipeline expansion sound like he gives a damn about global warming? He should visit his riding in that province sometime and see what global warming has been doing to our beautiful British Columbia?

This is not to say that the more than 60-year-old pipeline should not be fixed after the recent washouts of the line. B.C. gets its refined gasolines and jet fuel through that pipeline and it can continue to meet that need as long as it is needed. It is the twinning of the line that needs to be stopped.

The twinning of the line is all on prime minister Justin Trudeau’s shoulders. He bought the line for $4.4 billion in 2018 and it has hung like an albatross around his neck ever since.

But it is not an albatross for Peter Julian. His position is clear. This is not the first time he has tried to do something about Mr. Trudeau’s pipeline. He can cite many authorities on why the line does not need to be twinned. Some are just realistically of the opinion that the line is hardly needed in a rapidly decreasing market for fossil fuels with high carbon content. The tar sands exploiters can keep bringing bitumen to the surface but what is the point as the world decides that greenhouse gases are destroying our planet?

-30-

Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]