Category: Federal Politics

Poilievre’s Poison Persists.

by Peter Lowry

Another two years of conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s poisonous attitude in the House of Commons and there could be a lynching rather than an election. The only thing we do not know is who would bear the brunt of all the vehemence and who would need to be ferried across the Styx. Canadians would be fooling themselves to consider any of the party leaders worthy of election as prime minister. But we are faced with stark decisions and we need to be sure just what we want.

A big part of the problem is prime minister Justin Trudeau. His weaknesses as a leader and failings in office are there for all to see. The one thing you can say for him is that his intentions are honourable. He has embarrassed us. He is only human. He tried hard at leading us through the pandemic and deserves a few ‘attaboys’ for his news conferences in front of Rideau Cottage. He lacked the maturity in international relations to do a very effective job in that area.

There are many differences with Trudeau’s main opponent, conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. This is an interesting trade-off. Pierre Poilievre came east from Calgary to find an electoral district where his French name was not a problem. He found it on the outskirts of Ottawa. The closest Poilievre has ever come in life to a real job is being a member of parliament.

But as an MP, Poilievre is bringing the House of Commons into disrepute. He encourages the hurling of insults and slurs across the Commons. He makes it difficult for the liberals and other parties to maintain a sense of decorum.

Instead of offering the House the responsible criticism of an opposition party, Poilievre’s people devote their time to insults and lies about government programs. While they might call for parliament to “axe the tax,” they have no alternative proposal for Canadians to slow global warming, by modifying Canada’s high level of greenhouse gas emissions.

The problem Canadians are facing is that within the next two years, we will have a federal election. None of the smaller parties in the House are offering any leadership possibilities either. It leaves us with the choice of the limited qualities of Justin Trudeau and the meanness of Pierre Poilievre.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Warnings on Wars.

by Peter Lowry

We need to smarten up. Foreign wars do not belong on Canadian streets. Thankfully those Canadians of Russian heritage, as a group, are not fond of Russian President Vladimir Putin. They don’t like his war on the Ukraine. And they undoubtedly realize how they are outnumbered in Canada by the Canadians of Ukrainian heritage. It leaves our government free to aid Ukraine in its valiant effort to ward off Putin’s army.

But we are not as lucky with the Middle East. With the increased immigration of followers of Islam, today, they outnumber Jewish Canadians by about three to one. Luckily the Jewish population is more integrated with those of European origin and they have been known to fight well over their weight class. While a few of the foolish among us might act on their sick antisemitism, I would strongly advise against it.

And the those who want to parade in support of the Palestinians of Gaza would be far wiser to make a donation to the Red Crescent. While not to disparage the efforts of the United Nations in Gaza, the Red Crescent are on the ground and are trying to do the humanitarian job. (I am sure that the Red Cross in Canada is a reliable conduit for donations to the Red Crescent.)

Those who are proud of their parading around Nathan Phillips Square or in front of the American consulate on University Avenue in Toronto in support of Hamas don’t realize the problems they are creating for their fellow emigres. The thing is that the only times you want to gather in large numbers in Nathan Phillips Square are for entertainments, winning sports teams and when the Toronto Maple Leaf team is on the ice rink.

One of the main concerns is for those Middle East immigrants who continue to wear the traditional garments of the desert. As an idiosyncrasy, a fashion statement or a financial necessity, this traditional garb is a label that is not in fashion in Canada at this time.

It might attract some unwanted attention when tempers are inflamed about the tactics of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. All who come to Canada for sanctuary, should feel safe. We live together in peace.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Poilievre of the People’s Party.

by Peter Lowry

It is becoming clear that conservative leader Pierre Poilievre wants to win the next federal election simply because he is not Justin Trudeau. All he thinks he has to do is continue to lie about Trudeau, misrepresent government policies and appeal to the greed and baser instincts of his followers. He actually believes the pollsters who are telling him that his plan is working.

The pollsters are telling the conservative leader that four out of ten Canadians think they will vote for him. The pollsters forget to tell him that the public mood could change if the vote is two years away. Much could happen in the next two years.

You get the idea watching Poilievre in action that this man thinks very little of Canadians. He really needs to spend more time dealing with what they want than what he wants. Especially the ones who vote.

Back when I was working regularly on election campaigns, we would do some of our own polling in the riding to to see how things were going. One of the things included in these polls were a few questions that we could read as a barometer of the interest level in this or that candidate and whether the person being interviewed was likely to vote. When less than six in ten voters are making an effort to get to the polls, these questions become more important.

One of the conclusions we came to about these answers was the cockier the candidate about winning, the higher the drop-off factor. There was the occasional upset.

And with Poilievre demanding an election right away to be on the carbon tax, you wonder how foolish he could be. His “Axe the Tax” campaign says a great deal about Mr. Poilievre. It says he does not give a damn about the environment. He fits in so well with his vaccination deniers, his crude and uncaring truckers who visited Ottawa last year and blocked border crossings to the United States, hurting our economy.

More Canadians are realizing all the time that Poilievre is not even a conservative. He acts and talks like a libertarian. He wants little or no government, he wants no government regulations, he wants no protection from inflation, nor does he care about global warming. and he does not care about the consequences. If he was honest, he would be part of Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

The Gall of the Geopolitics.

by Peter Lowry

It is becoming clear after all these years of studying our politics, that Canadians are dealing with far more political factions and causes than are needed to govern this country. Instead of concentrating on the outward view of foreign relations, trade and peace, Canada’s federal government is constantly having to deal with low-balls from pesky provinces. And, frankly, the feds are not handling them well.

But who in federal politics really wants to deal with a wanton child like Quebec? Squabbles with a country-sized Ontario. And the schizophrenia of greedy Alberta. Add to that the angst of the big cities trying to go to the top dogs instead of the go-betweens. There is no discipline here—nor traffic cops to direct the rat race.

Canadians used to have the reputation, at least in the United States, of being polite and pleasant people. Boy, is that ever a lot of BS to-day.

Our parliament is supposed to be a forum of polite discourse on the appropriate legal structure to serve the needs of Canadians. We just appointed a new Speaker who thought up a few suggestions on how we could improve the qualities of that discourse. What he heard back was not polite enough to be called a discourse.

In a bilingual country, we have one province that thinks they can keep our majority language outside their pristine, pure, French-language-only province. Instead of putting the needs of the Quebec population first, their politicians do their best to maintain their seigneurial rights that dictated how the province of New France was to be run for its first 200 years.

We all seem to get the feeling that our federal government desperately needs some relief from whiny, dissatisfied and over-reaching provinces that have this country by the gonads. As much as I liked Justin Trudeau’s father, he left us with a constitution that now nobody knows how to re-open. You couldn’t if you really wanted to.

Maybe, sometime in the distant future, while the world is still allowing us to live off its bounty, more intelligent Canadians will have a series of referendums to achieve a better union. Let’s just hope that it will not be too late.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Trudeau Turns Tactical.

by Peter Lowry

It caught us by surprise last week when Justin Trudeau caved in on the carbon pricing on heating oil. It was good to see him get off his high horse for once.

What amused me about the announcement was the Toronto Star ran the story on the front page on top of a special front-page advertisement for Toronto’s Mount Pleasant Group—the management service of the major cemeteries in the city. The copy on the ad said: “Burn the candles. Use the good china. The special occasion is always today!”

I could not think of a more appropriate positioning for Trudeau’s conciliatory offer—or depending how you feel about it, his death-bed repentance.

But what we should hope is that this could this just possibly be the beginnings of an offensive against that pathetic Pierre Poilievre and his lies? PP has been getting away with far too much for too long.

But when the liberals need the entire Atlantic provinces to support them in the next election, the increase in taxes on heating oil was cancelled—until after the election has to be called. The four provinces in the east are needed to offset the solid conservative attitude of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

What the three years mean is that there is obviously a support payment coming down the pike to encourage people to switch to heat pumps for home heating instead of oil. Heat pumps can save a lot of energy and have the advantage that they also mean easy home air conditioning in the summer.    

What we should also remember is that the carbon tax is a very important tool to control greenhouse gases. If we are going to save this planet for future generations, we have to drastically reduce the pollution. Wildfires, Tornadoes, Hurricanes and floods are just being sampled today. Mother Nature is just giving us a small taste of what is to come.

And the serious storm that came up so fast, in Acapulco, Mexico the other day was just one more of Mother Nature’s surprises. You would think that events like that would help convince even a jerk like Pierre Poilievre that global warming is serious.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

PP: Not While I’m Eating.

by Peter Lowry

There is a video clip doing the rounds of MP Pierre Poilievre eating an apple while being interviewed. He should only hope that the other guy in the clip knows the Heimlich Manoeuvre. Not that I was hoping that he would choke to death but to teach the little twerp not to be so damn arrogant.

He keeps getting more and more pleased with himself every time you see him in action these days. He is certainly taking the arrogant approach to politics to new heights.

It is unusual. The last time we saw that kind of right-wing arrogance was when Donald Trump first won the republican nomination in 2016. I think the Poilievre touch is a bit lighter. His lies are more poetic. He uses a feather duster where Donald Trump uses a meat axe. I think Trump gathers his flocks a little further down intellect from those Poilievre targets.

Mind you, you need to be ‘kinda’ dumb to buy into the BS of either one of these guys. Their basic problem is that they feel they have to lie to make their point. If they were in opposing businesses instead of politics, Trudeau would have dragged Poilievre into court for defamation a long time ago. American politics seems to have no boundaries.

Donald Trump has the singular honour of being the only American president to be impeached twice. I am not sure just what could happen to Poilievre in the Canadian parliament. You can get rid of a prime minister with a simple vote of non-confidence.

And most Canadians seem to understand that the majority of the popular vote does not necessarily win you the government. The Canadian electoral system has its own quirks. The American system of government seems to be built on quirks.

Up here, we blame the errors in our constitution on Queen Victoria and her 19th Century politicians in the United Kingdom of England and Ireland. In the United States of America, it was a bunch of white male landowners who gathered in Philadelphia and left the entire country in a constant state of confusion.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Piss Off Danielle et al.

by Peter Lowry

What’s with all these economic experts in the conservative parties across this country? Their ignorance amazes me. Probably the most dangerous is Pierre Poilievre who is currently spending millions on an advertising campaign telling Canadians what a sweet guy he is. Doug Ford in Ontario is so out of touch with reality that he thinks the Bank of Canada is going to pay attention to his nonsense. And then there is that Looney-Tunes premier in Alberta who goes on about Alberta’s pension plan.

I’ve got news for all these people: Butt Out. None of you know what the hell you are talking about.

Let’s start with the Canada Pension Plan. It does not belong to Alberta nor to Canada. The Canada Pension Plan belongs to me, to my next-door neighbour and Canadians from coast to coast. We put our money in. We get money out. To-date, we have put in billions. It is an excellent example of what a properly funded and managed pension fund should look like. And the clueless statements we hear from the Alberta premier are nothing more than blather that she hopes will convince Albertans to give her more money to mismanage. I wouldn’t trust her with a Canadian Nickel.

And then there is that dumbass premier in Ontario who doesn’t know how to keep himself out of trouble. The other day he was shouting from the roof top at Queen’s Park that the Bank of Canada should not raise interest rates this month. I wouldn’t trust that fool to make sure his wife has enough money for this week’s groceries. He doesn’t seem to understand that even the prime minister in Ottawa would not tell the bank’s governor anything so stupid. The Bank’s board is specifically kept at arm’s length from the politicians in Ottawa. I am not sure that they are even allowed to admit that there are provincial governments.

My sense on the current inflation problems is that, with the segments of the economy currently affected, is that raising interest rates would not help. We’ll see who is right.

And that leaves us with the Ottawa cowboy who so desperately wants to be prime minister of this country. I think he has proved conclusively that he does not understand this country. He has never held a real job. He thinks fictitious Internet money such as Bitcoin is a great idea. He is promising freedom from saving our planet’s ecology and freedom from any regulations. He is just boy wonder!

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Betrayal of the Father.

by Peter Lowry

It was the balance that Pierre Trudeau brought to the use of language in Canada that his eldest son betrayed. In Bill C-13’s enactment by parliament in June of this year, Justin Trudeau forgot that his father had declared that the English and French languages were equal. You do not protect one language by downgrading the other. You do not promote one by restricting the other.   

Justin Trudeau panders to those pathetic politicians in Quebec City who have to use the “Not Withstanding” clause to cover off their foolish attempts to force Canadians living in Quebec to use only French in their daily lives. There is no need for an additional federal law that encourages that bigotry.

I always found that for every French-Canadian who wanted me to speak French there were probably five francophones who wanted to practice their English on me. All in all, I am sure that if they had tried, I would be fluent in French. As it is, my French makes francophones cringe.

I always think of the Quebec City legislature as the fools who tried to take all the life out of Montreal and chased a quarter million anglophones out of Quebec during the 30 years from 1970 to 2000.

In the 1960s, my oldest brother had taken his family to Quebec to accept a promotion to Alcan’s head office. He became bilingual in that position but on his retirement twenty years later, he and most of his family moved to Ottawa.

What always seemed indicative was that there was also a smaller but companion emigration of francophones to other parts of Canada. While the politicians tried to offset this emigration with immigration from French-speaking countries, they continue to show their rejection of English. For example, by forcing unnecessarily higher fees for English language students from outside Quebec at the few English-language universities and colleges in Quebec.

Somehow this whole business with language in Quebec reminds me of an old adage about taking a horse to water. You still can’t make him drink.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Bringing It Home.

by Peter Lowry

It is obvious that the federal conservative party has more money than good sense these days. Watching their current $3 million advertising campaign, one can only think of the despair it could bring. What the advertising does not tell Canadians is the type of government Mr. Poilievre would try to institute in Canada.

This is a man who has never experienced a real wage-earning job. It is as though he ticks off the boxes to be acceptable to the average Canadian. Have wife and family: done. Win conservative leadership: done. Ditch glasses: done. Lose tie: done. Try to smile: in process. Muss hair: done.  He is not a warm and fuzzy person.

Mr. Poilievre’s politics are to the right of his mentor Stephen Harper. He is a western Canada conservative from Alberta. His politics are more libertarian than conservative. He offers Canadians a new freedom, from what, nobody knows.

He promises business and industry freedom from regulation. He promises the grocery chains freedom to charge what they want. He will do nothing to curb inflation. He doesn’t care. He wants unfettered capitalism. He wants less regulation.

We should never forget that this is the foolish member of parliament who welcomed the supposed “Freedom Convoy” to Ottawa. He took them donuts. When it became necessary to ask them to leave Ottawa, Mr. Poilievre was not to be found.

Lately Mr. Poilievre has been in parliament in the role of the leader of the opposition. This is a responsibility to make sure that government legislation meets the needs of Canadians. It is not just to oppose and ridicule any and all legislation.

This is a man who promises smaller, less intrusive government. He doesn’t tell Canadians what departments he would do away with. He fails to tell us where he will save money for his cuts in taxes. He seems uninterested in the wildfires that can devastate our logging industry. He seems to consider global warming to be inconsequential. He will cancel liberal attempts to decrease pollution and will give the tar sands exploiters in the west free reign to pollute the environment.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Singh’s Slippery Slope.

by Peter Lowry

Canada’s federal new democrats met in Hamilton the other day. It was a weekend of glad-handing and denial. It was a weekend of conviviality and self delusion. It was renditions of “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Solidarity Forever” by a mixture of faiths and agnostics. It left a practising Sikh at the helm of a fated Argo.

There was no recognition in that gathering of why Jagmeet Singh has taken his party down the slippery slope to potential oblivion. The direction was clear. Singh’s eroding support has dropped to 81 per cent.

What few new democrats recognise is that Singh owes his first loyalty to his fellow Sikhs. He trained as a lawyer and the new democratic party is just his client. He represents the new democrats to their Canadian judges. He is a persistent advocate. He has to deal with distrust on both sides of the supply and confidence agreement he made with Justin Trudeau’s liberals.

Singh can point to the progress in dental care. His party can look forward to the anti-scab legislation for federally incorporated companies. Pharmacare remains a work in progress. And it all remains part of Trudeau’s legacy. Many NDP are also dissatisfied with the lack of universality in the dental care program.

Older NDPers have seen support for liberals before and lack any degree of trust in the arrangements Singh has made.

The crisis in the Middle East also bothered many party members. They wanted Singh to say whether he stood on the possibility of Israel committing war crimes. He made no commitments on one side or the other.

Singh also said recently that he was concerned that his family might not be feeling safe in Canada after the claim that agents of India might have been involved in the murder of a Canadian Sikh who was a pro-Kalistan advocate.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]