Category: Federal Politics

Coalitions; Like Good Sex.

by Peter Lowry

Former new democratic leader Ed Broadbent was talking on the CBC recently about the current liberal-new democratic supply and confidence agreement in Ottawa. He thinks this agreement should have been shorter. Not to just be contrary, I think it should have been for much longer. It comes down to the assertion that a long-term relationship is much more satisfying than just a night of passion.

In fact, I have always been a strong believer in a permanent relationship between the two parties. The NDP has gone through its socialist phase as the CCF and more recently its labour-related phase has brought it to maturity. It is ready to take the responsibilities of an adult in society. It might even be available to procreate.

And we have seen what the new democrats can achieve as a provincial government. It bombed in Ontario in the 1990s. It almost saved Alberta from itself. It is ready for better times in British Columbia. It has launched itself in Manitoba. All it needs is to combine its passion for progress with experienced progressives.

The progressives available for liaison in Canada are in the liberal party. And I give you fair warning, not all liberals today are progressives. Yet, if you combine the new democratic and liberal progressives, the combination can dominate Canadian politics for years to come. Think of it. Don’t just salivate at the thought. Look to the nights of bliss. Think of how much better Canadians can fulfill their destiny.

But always bear in mind that like good sex, a coalition works when there is mutual respect. This has always been the formula for good relations. It is not something short term. Dominance builds despair. Philandering causes straying on both sides. Combining experience and knowledge builds strength and security.

What needs to happen is for the federal new democrats and liberals to launch planning groups who can study how to enter the arrangement. This is not a shotgun marriage. It is adult to adult. It has the seeds of discontent for some of us. Nobody believes that everyone will be on-side to the arrangement.

But it can and should be done. Canadians need to look around. Do they want the discontent and divorces of the Americans, the fustiness of the Brits, the unguarded passions of the French, the coarseness of the Russians. We have something very good going for us in Canada. We can show the rest of the world how it is done.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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Talking Turkey.

by Peter Lowry

Who would be so rude as to sit around a delicious turkey dinner discussing the price of the bird? Nor should we assume that there will be much discussion of politics at this time of family gatherings. There is the possibility that the recent success of the new democrats in Manitoba might be an indicator of a new breeze in the other Prairie provinces but those provinces have two to three years before their next elections. Much could happen in that time.

Frankly there might not be that much discussion of the federal situation. We might hear a few snorts of derision if the attempt by the federal liberals to do something about the cost of food is mentioned. It might not be the role of a younger member of the family to wonder what the heck, Mr. Poilievre would do differently. After all the conservative party leader is a free-range right-winger with no instinct when it comes to the business of business. He knows nothing. He says nothing constructive. There are no saviours in politics.

But there are families sitting at that festive (?) board, that are struggling gamely at solving the needs of the Canadian grocery purveyors. What we are seeing is increased shoplifting and greater impetus to rising prices. When was the last time those politicians talking to the grocers went shopping for their families?

We were even assured the other day that inflation is easing. We were given some abstract figures for the year-on-year inflation figures, that were meaningless. The price of groceries is not an abstract. Doubling the prices of milk and eggs is not a year-on-year increase of 9.8 per cent. Who would ever believe that a loaf of bread would be a special this week at just $3.50?

We hear from the lips of industry minister François-Philippe Champagne that Canadians will “soon” begin to see some results from the federal effort. And if you believe that, I have some lovely swamp for sale up near Bancroft, Ontario.

The business of business might be business but it is the business of politicians to not only give a nod to the problems their constituents face but to do something concrete about them.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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The Second Ottawa Convoy.

by Peter Lowry

Since they could afford to fly, there are no trucks parked on Wellington Street in Ottawa this week. This convoy from the west is made up of senior executives from the Alberta oil industry as well as entrepreneurs and other Alberta industry leaders. We are told, they come in peace.

They are not exactly there to deny the comments and stratagem of Alberta premier Danielle Smith, they just smile a lot when her plans for a separatist Alberta are questioned. They have already been welcomed by prime minister Justin Trudeau. They might not want to publicize their meetings with conservative leader Pierre Poilievre—no doubt their names are prominent on the Ottawa cowboy’s donor lists.

This convoy seeks, they say, collaboration. They are selling the friendly face of Alberta. They have named the convoy as “One Alberta, One Canada” We are not overly sure just what that means but they say it with a happy face.

While the group was put together by Alberta’s oil industry, chambers of commerce, and Alberta economic development agencies, its natural leader is the executive chair of Cenovus Energy, Alberta’s largest company in the tar sands extraction business. His name is Alex Pourbaix and he seems to be central to all the interviews by eastern news media.

It is a chance for him to pump the unproven carbon capture plan of Pathways Alliance. This is a consortium of various tar sands companies who want the federal government to fund their sketchy plan. What is cramping his presentation is the advertising campaign by the Alberta provincial government saying that the federal government’s clean electricity plan, that is coming soon, will increase the cost of electricity. That is very brave of the Danielle Smith government to suggest that will be the outcome of a plan they have never seen.

But easterners are coming to expect this type of presumption from Alberta’s united conservatives. Their recent display of erratic arithmetic to claim they own more than half of the funds in the Canada Pension Plan must have taken a lot of chutzpah.

But more and more, you get the impression that Alberta premier Danielle Smith and the leader of the opposition in Ottawa, Pierre Poilievre, have the same speech writers.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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American Chaos.

by Peter Lowry

It is not that we have been ignoring what is going on with the Americans. We just keep hoping it will heal itself. Past President Trump is under indictment and on trial in a few states and it seems that he sees no problem to continue running to be president again.

These are uncharted seas. The man continues to delude himself that he can again run for president. And the people who want to vote for him who are suffering from the same delusion.

The really scary part of this fiasco in the United States is that it happened before. It must have been the soap opera that entertained us through the pandemic. Watching the antics of Trump and friends in the White House was our entertainment. It was unreal. It couldn’t happen here, we told ourselves. We lied to ourselves.

We’ve got a guy named Pierre Poilievre who is further right wing than Trump and friends, thinking he can be prime minister of Canada. If you believe pollsters, two years before the voting, can pick a winner, you might be just as deluded as those poor Americans.

Can you just imagine a pissing contest between the American White House and the falling down 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa? And you thought relations were bad between Ottawa and New Delhi? Just wait until you’ve got two right-wing twits slinging right-wing insults back and forth on the Internet. And we used to think that aluminium embargoes in the East and softwood lumber in the west were a strain on our economy?

With our luck, President Trump would send a platoon of American Marines to Ottawa to arrest the Canadian prime minister. Maybe we could embed a CBC camera crew and reporter with the Marines to record the historic event. We would see the Marines asking directions of an Ottawa police officer on how to get to Sussex Drive. They could still go to the wrong side of Sussex and break into Rideau Hall in error. Imagine taking the Governor General back to Washington as a prisoner of war. Would she have to confess to the burning down the White House in the War of 1812?

Would the Americans expect the Brits to pay a ransom for their Governor General?

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

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A Cutting Contest.

by Peter Lowry

The other day, we addressed the severity of the military budget cuts. The bad news is that there are more cuts to come in other departments of the federal government. It is as though Mr. Trudeau is in competition with Mr. Poilievre. He is showing the conservative leader that liberals can make as many or more foolish cuts in federal spending than the conservatives might.

To understand the federal spending in its simplest form is to consider the debts of a person making $5,000 each month. If the person only had debts of $1,000 to service each month, it would not be much of a problem. Of course, when you expand the debt to include federal agencies, the provinces and their debts plus the debts of each citizen, the right wing gets very upset. It is very difficult for the average citizen to comprehend trillions of dollars.

But at the same time, it is very difficult to compute the revenue of the government, federal agencies, the revenues from each province and the income and personal debts of Canadians. It seems that the right-wing agencies such as the Fraser Institute and the Montreal Economic Institute are in horror of our debt.

What they forget to mention in their complaining is that Canada is a country that attracts new citizens every day from around the world. We just past 40 million in population. Some might not be permanent residents as they are Ukrainians who needed safe haven away from Russia’s war. In the meantime, they are helping Canada grow.

And we are a rich nation. The products of our mines, the wood of our forests, the produce of our farms, herds and orchards join the products of our engineers, designers, planners combined with our factories are known around the world. And Canada is proud to be a trading nation. We also have access to the products of countries of this artistic and inventive world.

And we continue to grow our economy. Yes, we grew our debt a little faster during the worst of the pandemic. It was never more debt than we could handle. The alarmists who would frighten Canadians over the debt are doing it for their benefit, not yours.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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Cuts With a Dull Knife.

by Peter Lowry

The generals are upset. We hear that the government wants to cut a billion dollars from the military budget. Which means we are reneging again on our promise to our NATO allies that we will spend two per cent of our national gross domestic product on preparing for war—or, at least some peace-keeping. There is always a fight going on somewhere in this fractious world.

 It means we better not go to war with anyone while this cut is happening. I was assuming that the arms and ammunition we were sending to help Ukraine were out of our military budget anyway. It does not seem to read as a ploy to cut spending on the Ukraine.

If they asked me, which I doubt, I would cut the stupid F-35A from the Americans. This is supposed to be a $14.2 billion deal over the next ten years.  The way these aircraft deals with the Americans work, you end up spending twice as much because the planes need constant upgrades and fixes. Canada would end up ten years from now with what ever of the 88 planes that have not crashed from trying to get from one part of our country to another without refueling. Why we would buy any planes that are short range fighters instead of long-range patrol aircraft is either a testament to the persuasive salesmanship of the Americans or our own stupidity. The only practical consideration is that the Americans let us sell them some parts for the F-35 because we have been pouring money into the development of the plane for the past 20 years.

Of course, part of the billion-dollar savings will be in personnel. At a time when more and more our military are being deployed for national emergencies such as floods, forest fires and other disasters, we might have more generals available than we have the lower ranks. We would have nobody for peace keeping or any of that other aid-type stuff that once earned Canada a reputation as a country willing to help.

Dare I mention that Canada once had a plane called the AVRO Arrow. It was one of the most advanced fighter aircraft ever designed in the world. Our politicians put an end to that foolishness and cancelled it before it went too far.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Waiting for Mr. Trudeau.

by Peter Lowry

It appears that conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has a careful plan. He never bothers to fry small fish. It was very evident in the past week that he was not going to waste his resources on House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota.

Mr. Rota had made a mistake. It seems that one of his guests to hear the speech by the Ukrainian president Zelenskyy to the house of commons had not been properly vetted.by Canada’s pathetic security apparatchiks.

But would Mr. Poilievre be satisfied with the resignation of the house speaker? No, he only wants to attack Mr. Trudeau. If a flying insect got into his soup in the parliamentary dining room, Mr. Poilievre would blame Mr. Trudeau.

It is not as though Mr. Trudeau is entirely blameless. He is just not some kind of God who sees the sparrow fall. As much as Mr. Poilievre holds Mr. Trudeau to fault for the world-wide pandemic and the strains on the provincial medical systems that suffered so much criticism while doing their very best throughout the worst of the pandemic. If anything is to blame for the current animosities across our county, it is the disparate and piecemeal Medicare system in Canada. As hard as the federal government worked to get people to pull together, Mr. Poilievre was there in parliament, trying to pull things apart.

As the pandemic abates, Mr. Poilievre turned his attention to the world-wide inflation that ensued from the pent-up failures of the world’s distribution systems. Of course, he blamed Mr. Trudeau again.

Like the rotten child who starts killing flies by pulling off their wings, Mr. Poilievre uses peoples’ pain and hate, to seduce them. If you did not hate someone before listening to him, you will when he is finished.

It is a wonder what the conservative leader would do if he did not have Mr.Trudeau to insult and accuse and lie about. Mr. Trudeau can make his own mistakes. He hardly needs Mr. Poilievre to dream up new ones for him.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

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Common Sense Conservatives?

by Peter Lowry

A piece of junk mail came to my home the other day. It was probably the worst mailing from a political party, I have ever seen. There must be Ontario residents in their twenties today who would not remember the Mike Harris conservatives and their common-sense revolution of 1995. The ignorance of what these federal conservatives are offering Canadians today is even more frightening.

This mailer said that they can increase paycheques, build affordable homes, lower prices, make our streets safer and bring home “freedom” (whatever that means?). I might not be a big fan of Justin Trudeau but at least he doesn’t treat Canadians as though they are stupid.

What annoys me the most about these conservatives is that they are railing against the government that got us the vaccines to carry us through a world-wide pandemic. The first concern of the liberal government during the pandemic was our people, making sure they the money they needed to live through those terrible times of lock-downs and constant fear of becoming sick and dying.

These are conservatives who are opposed to cutting back on the pollution that is throwing our world into the chaos of climate change. They are opposed to any new taxes, whether they are designed to help people or not.

You would think that the time of Stephen Harper as prime minister would have proved to many Canadians that the meanness and cruelty of that conservative government did not need repetition. Ontario residents should be particularly wary after the lies and larceny of its conservative provincial government under Doug Ford.

I have no idea why these modern-day conservatives are so ideological and ignore the real needs of Canadians. They certainly march to a different drummer than conservatives such as prime minister John Diefenbaker and Ontario’s premier Bill Davis. As a liberal, I liked those two—because they cared about people.

Pierre Poilievre MP is a man of little life experience, who is committed to the extremes of conservatism. He will do anything, say anything, to get people to vote for him and his followers.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

Leave the Old Feuds Behind.

by Peter Lowry

When Stalin of Russia murdered more than five million Ukrainians by starvation in the 1930s, did the world rush to their aid? Didn’t Finland fight the Winter War alone against Russia in the winter of 1939-40? Most of the Canadian population were not even here for those events. Nor does the majority of our population know much about the events in the Punjab since India’s independence in 1947.

To those of us born in Canada, events such as pogroms and genocide are far away and too often forgotten. Canada welcomes people who are refugees from the problems of the world but we tire quickly from the import of these antipathies. We listen to the adventures of those who struggled to get to Canada. We are glad they are here.

But these people, whom we welcome, must learn to leave the old animosities in the old world that suffered them. And it is not that we do not care about the wrongdoing their people have endured. One on one, we can commiserate. There is also forgiveness.

Canadians cannot take sides in the atrocities of the past in faraway countries. The arguments of the Armenians, for example, belong in the old countries.

Most Canadians have only heard of the Waffen SS that a 16-year-old Ukrainian joined at the beginning of hostilities in the Second World War. It was a time when the hatred for the Stalin genocide of the 1930s was far more palpable in the Ukraine than any understanding of the horrors to come of the Nazis.

The man from the Ukraine who was in parliament the other day, reminds me of an Austrian who came to Canada after the Second World War who had been trained to fly the early German jet fighter planes. He was captured by the Russians. After the war he escaped from a Soviet Gulag and walked across a continent to return home to Austria. He was of noble heritage, yet nothing remained for him in his homeland.

He came to Canada and we accepted him. He had to dig ditches for a while to get a start but what we did not yet know about him was his skills as a designer and as an artist that would make him famous in his adopted homeland.

So be aware, no matter where you were born, Canada welcomes you. Just remember to always leave the old animosities in the old countries. They have no place here.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Come Blow Your Horn.

by Peter Lowry

You have to admit, Little Boy Blue got a lot of attention from the media with his speech to the conservative convention recently. It was neither modesty nor myopia, nor missing his glasses that caused his eyes to appear to be squinting. It was the placement of the teleprompter screens. Pierre Poilievre was standing on a platform about 30 centimeters (12 inches) above the floor. The teleprompter screens were attached to the top edges of that riser and can be on two or all sides. It takes a lot of practice to make that arrangement work well.

But no matter how he blew his horn though, his message was mean, nasty and counterproductive to good government for Canada. I think I lost interest in the content of his speech and was more interested in his taking a misstep and falling off that riser. With the luck liberals have been having lately, there were likely people in the front row of that quadrangle prepared to catch him.

But why would the party be so busy with new types of teleprompters, redesigning the party logo and producing professional, image-softening commercials of Poilievre and his wife and kids. If they don’t like how he dresses or his haircut, you would think they would also want someone that people can like.

Poilievre built his reputation as an attack dog over the years in parliament. This guy has devoted his entire life to becoming prime minister of Canada. You would think that if getting to that position was his objective, that he would want people to think of him as competent. He might also talk about how he is going to help people. Who would believe a person who promotes Bitcoin just before the flaky promotion crashed and investors lost millions.

He spends many hours of his day complaining about Justin Trudeau but rarely tells anyone what he would do differently. He builds on animosity and hatred instead of trust and acceptance. And if everything in Canada is broken, as he claims, how does he think he can fix it? We have heard nothing but complaints and claims that it is all the present government’s fault. The few answers he approves of are from the extreme right wing of his party. I think Little Boy Blue should go blow his horn elsewhere.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]