Category: Federal Politics

‘Send in the Clowns’?

by Peter Lowry

When Steven Sondheim wrote “Send in the Clowns” for the musical “A Little Night Music,” it was not about circus clowns. It is a haunting song about the mistakes we make in life. It can also be easily applied to politics. Take the recent selection of a new leader for the conservative party.

You can easily visualize MP Pierre Poilievre with a whip and a chair inside a cage with the oversized pussy cats of the conservative party. And you know he will have them jumping through fiery hoops.  

But then you realize that to complete the job and achieve his ambition to be prime minister, they have to let him out of his cage. Will that be the time to send in the clowns? Will they be able to take away the image of the whip and chair or as Mr. Poilievre puts it, “Make the grand pivot”? His answer is no. He said “There is no grand pivot. I am as I am.” Or is it time to send in the clowns?

For the first time, at the announcement of the new leader, many conservatives were shown Mrs. Poilievre. She did a carefully scripted introduction for her husband on national television. Call her ‘clown number one.’

I remember another Pierre. Some of us communications people tried to get Pierre Trudeau to bring his wife and first son, Justin, to more events. Our pitch was rejected in very clear terms.

Yet, to make the point even more obvious, Pierre Poilievre brought wife and son to meet the conservative caucus a couple days later. Call the baby ‘clown number two.’

But who are the clowns who can humanize Poilievre for Canadian voters? What we know already is that only a small percentage of Canadian voters would consider him for prime minister. The majority do not think he is trustworthy. Women, particularly, dislike him. Assuming that there will be little need for members of parliament in a cut-down Poilievre parliament, are they just the clowns?

And, after all, what is he offering us? He wants a lean, mean government that leaves Canadians to fend for themselves. He wants fewer bureaucrats and a small civil service. He has no plans to try to alleviate climate change. And he can hardly fix the problems at the passport office or at airports or at border crossings with fewer people.

But there is no doubt that Mr. Poilievre wants to be prime minister.    

We will have to keep telling him: “Well, maybe next year.”

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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The Anguish of Anger.

by Peter Lowry

The new conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has told the news media that he does not pivot. That presents an interesting problem for his speech writers as we head down the road to the next federal election. That election could be as far away as three years. Will the anguish of the pandemic still be with us? Can prime minister Justin Trudeau be goaded into calling an election while the anger still rides high?

Are these extremes of anger still those that came with the pandemic? Was it the confusion of the lock downs and the isolation and the loneliness? Was it just the fear of some people of vaccines? Or was it the medical assumption of 100 per cent participation in being vaccinated? Maybe it was the fear of crowds, the fear of contamination? Or the fear for our lives? Yet this type of anger will ease over time. Some might never lose it. Others will control it.

As the pandemic gets less of the news cycle, world-wide inflation and the war in the Ukraine are feeding fresh anger. Mr. Poilievre has helped build that anger when he blames inflation on prime minister Trudeau and threatens the governor of the Bank of Canada.

Mr. Poilievre needs that anger to feed his campaign. He needs to hold on to that stridency and urgency. He uses the anger. He uses it as a replacement for clear and logical plans for Canada’s future. He has none.

Without the anger, people will realize that Pierre Poilievre is a sham. He is no populist. The last Prairie populist to be leader of the conservatives in Canada was John Diefenbaker. I admired John Diefenbaker. He really was a man of the people. I was doing on-air commentaries at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens as a liberal observer in 1967 when the conservative party chose Robert Stanfield to replace him as leader. One thing, for sure, Pierre Poilievre is no John Diefenbaker

Populism is simply not compatible with conservatism. Speaking out about vague elites is hardly an endorsement of populism. Saying that the prime minister could be personally responsible for inflation in Canada is rabble-rousing. Threatening to fire the Governor of the Bank of Canada is neither populist nor conservative. It is laying blame for inflation where it also does not belong.

Nor is the Bank of Canada planning on going into the cryptocurrencies business. Mr. Poilievre should listen more carefully to the bank’s official statements.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Darkness Falls.

by Peter Lowry

They say that bad luck runs in threes. The Queen died last week. Justin Trudeau said he was staying as leader of the liberals for the next election. And Pierre Poilievre won the leadership of the conservative party. That is certainly a hard-luck week.

Queen Elizabeth II has been the rock that anchored the United Kingdom for many years. Even in the depths of the roiling public concerns over Diana’s death, she was obviously evaluating options available to her. She, and the rest of the royal family, got on board the bus and rode it to a fresh acceptance. Charles cannot not compare with her and will soon start to wear on the family’s mystique.

Justin Trudeau was probably never able to understand his father’s relationship with Canada’s liberal party. Pierre Trudeau recognized in his second election that Trudeau mania was not reality. It was his realizing that he had to work with the party that gave him the majorities needed over most of his time as prime minister. Justin Trudeau’s weakness is that he has no respect for the liberal party. He has taken away its annual membership fee and turned it into a faux automated teller machine to which he can turn to for financing.

What the younger Trudeau fails to understand is that the liberal party is not just a financial backer but the workers who can validate party policies, do the door knocking, distribute the literature, erect the signs and bring out the vote.

To nobody’s surprise, MP Pierre Poilievre won the conservative leadership. It was a carefully orchestrated, overly long and unappealing event. What felt wrong was the lack of a future vision of Canada. Poilievre sits on the extreme right of Canadian conservatism. He spells out an austere and cruel vision of small and uncaring government. Despite the obvious objectives of the carefully crafted speech on the teleprompters, Poilievre lacks the warmth and personality needed in the party leadership. He has no life accomplishments to justify his new position. Using his wife to overcome his personal limitations is unlikely to help.

So those were the low points of the week. And the kids are back in school, so please drive carefully.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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A Farewell to the Royals.

by Peter Lowry

It was sad to hear of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. She was a remarkable lady. What intrigues me about the whole business is the antipathy many people feel towards our new king, Charles III. They think that because his son William looks like a nicer bloke, we can just bypass Chuck and make his son King. Sorry folks, it just does not work that way.

The royals are a family business that has been handed down for many centuries.  Despite the beheading of Charles I, who was also disliked, the practice has been forbidden since. And even though the lineage has been refreshed when needed from the Houses of Orange and Hanover, it has been remarkably durable.

As kids in Canada, we were taught to sing There will always be an England, during World War II. Just how that helped English morale while being bombed by the Luftwaffe, I am not sure. I think that the fact that the royal family stayed in London during the war did much more for morale.

But the royals do nothing for Canada. We are not a real constitutional monarchy. We have a faux Governor General playing the role of head of state. We have the English monarch’s face on our coins and $20 bills.

Canada has a constitution suited to the needs of the late 1800s with only the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to modify it. We fail to recognize and relish the complexities and accomplishments of our country and our stature in the world of today. The world is at our doorstep, waiting for our invitation. We have arable land to farm, roads to build, businesses to build, homes to create for more people.

Canada is sanctuary. Canada is a land of forests and waters. Canada is a great country that can partner with the United Kingdom, yet it owes no loyalty or homage to that country.

Canada is a land of opportunity. It does not need royalty. It should never encourage tradition or privilege over the rights of all.

We can honour Elizabeth II for her charm, her selflessness, her attention to her duty. She was an example to us all. It is suitable time to end the monarchy for Canada.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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The Stalking Horse.

by Peter Lowry

The stalking horse is a strategy that has been used in politics over the past 200 years. A stalking horse in politics appears to be a candidate for an office who builds a base of support but delivers the support to another candidate in the actual vote. We will soon know if it worked in the Canadian federal conservative leadership being decided later today. The stalking horse was former MP and Brampton mayor Patrick Brown. He was doing the stalking on behalf of his friend, former Quebec Premier Jean Charest. The prize at the end of the game was for Charest to win the leadership against MP Pierre Poilievre.

While people such as former prime minister Brian Mulroney were working the conservative party sign-ups in Quebec for Charest, Patrick Brown was signing up temporary conservatives across Canada—supposedly for his own campaign. His main target was the sub-continent diaspora of almost 2 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs who are concentrated in Toronto and Vancouver and other cities such as Montreal in Quebec and Brampton, Ontario. Brown signed up more than 100,000 temporary conservatives and renewals.

There are many theories as to why Brown was turfed from the conservative contest. There were rumours of illegal acts and there were rumours of rules violations. I think Patrick Brown set up his own ejection from the race. The problem was that with his sign-ups voting for him on the first ballot, he was risking coming second to Pierre Poilievre. For the stalking horse effort to work, Jean Charest had to come first or second on the first ballot. All was lost though if Poilievre had more than 50 per cent of 338 electoral districts on the first ballot.

Brown had no problem asking his temporary members to vote for Charest second to him. They would also accept his advice to vote for Jean Charest after he was out of the race. It did not matter that his name was still on the ballot. It is his second vote that is counted.

What is not clear is the obvious animosity between Brown and Poilievre. Neither of the two men are particularly likeable. Neither has much life experience. They both have had a life dedicated to politics with a conservative flavour. Brown’s conservatism is that of a smarmy, middle-of-the-road retail politician and Poilievre’s is to the extremes of the right wing of conservatism.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Is Conservative Winter Coming?

by Peter Lowry

In viewing the Netflix Game of Thrones, I always felt the chill in the dire prediction that Winter was coming. In a mix of medieval knights, giants and fire breathing dragons, it was just another conservative leadership contest writ large.

Conservatives put too much stock in their leadership contests. Everyone waits with baited breath before the three-car garage of the conservative mansion. And what comes out, but a bicycle. The fire-breathing dragons are, in reality, just pussycats.

Maybe, the evil doctor Poilievre has wormed his way into the spotlight, this time. Yet, what is he going to do if he has won? Can he continue to enthrall the freedom convoy participants? Can they be trained to do the boring chores of the politically faithful? Are they even trainable?   

And what if Jean Charest should win because he has more ridings in his basket than does Poilievre in this quaint Easter egg hunt of a conservative leadership? Will the freedom convoy crowd go home in disgust and distrust. Do they even have a home? Or do they have kennels? Will Poilievre be satisfied with being finance critic instead of the Grand High Poobah of the conservatives?

Or is there a middle ground between these two leading contenders? Is there a kinder, gentler conservative party that really wants to lead Canadians down a conservative path to a Canada that cares?

Do conservatives really give a damn about the World Economic Forum and the Great Reset? Do they even know what it means?

And just how many real conservatives have their undies in a knot over vaccines? They cannot all be conspiracy theorists.

The biggest joke of all is that Pierre Poilievre is some sort of economist. He has been lauded in conservative circles lately for his taking Justin Trudeau to task for the high price of breakfast cereals. He hardly gets his facts and figures from the late Milton Freidman. And it is hard to imagine any monetarist who would have anything to do with promoting cryptocurrencies.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Trudeau’s Choice.

by Peter Lowry

It looks like the churn is working but that is hardly butter we are getting. There is a demand for change in Canada and it need not be change for the worse. I will admit that I am not overly optimistic about the current trends in the conservative party federally or in Alberta. There are frustrations that people need to handle.

But we still have time to respond. The Trudeau government has to move ahead with some of the NDP objectives and keep that liberal-NDP accord in place. It is Justin Trudeau who has to make the Hobson’s Choice—his long-term determinations. He has used up his family franchise. He is not his father’s son. His only choice is his timing to resign. He has to leave the party with the question of succession.

Sometime in the next four months, Trudeau has to announce his end-date. He has to ask the party to replace him. Of course, the party has to be rebuilt so that a proper transition can take place. Trudeau has been using the party as an automated teller machine instead of a source of electoral and policy support. We have to rebuild with real liberals, not rented supporters just for the leadership event. That could take us until 2024 when we are due for an election anyway.

And if anyone wants to question Justin’s legacy you only need to say he brought us through the pandemic. He might have resembled a cuckoo popping in and out of Rideau Cottage, but he was the face of government relief throughout those bad times.

Regrets, he might also have had a few. Who can forget the events of the Jody Wilson-Raybould tenure as justice minister? Strange doings for a professed feminist! Then, there was a trip to India with the ‘dress-up’ family. And what environmentalist would purchase a trans-mountain pipeline?

But we should remember the good with the bad. There was sunlight dancing through the leaves of a verdant Rideau Park on the way to Rideau Hall for the swearing in ceremony—because it was 2015.

There was much promised in 2015 and we need to uphold those promises. Because Canada is a democratic country, a progressive country and a country that has promises to keep with the rest of the world.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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The Matches of the Month.

by Peter Lowry

September is promising to be the most exciting and maybe the most terrifying month for political liaisons Canadians have seen for a while. It was kicked off by the reported bromance between Justin Trudeau and his new BFF premier Doug Ford in Ontario. It gets weirder though when you consider the heating up of the relationship between Pierre Poilievre of federal conservative fame and Danielle Smith of the Alberta’s dis-united conservative party.

Just when you think prime minister Justin Trudeau is the loneliest guy in the country, there he is all buddy-buddy with Ontario’s Ogre-in-chief at Queen’s Park. We see Quebec’s Legault has kicked off his re-election campaign bad-mouthing his fellow Quebecer, the prime minister. So, Justin shows up at Queen’s Park—saying not a word about Ford’s passing a bill dumping seniors and bed holders from hospitals into long-term care homes. Nor was there any comment about the use of Medicare money instead of provincial funds for this abuse of the sick and elderly. And, of course, you don’t rudely ask your buddy where he expects to get the medical and support staff for the long-term care homes?

But they got some great selfies!

You wonder though if anyone is getting the picture in Alberta with Poilievre’s buddy Jason Kenney going out the door of the premier’s office while Danielle Smith of Wildrose fame looks like the probable winner of the key to the premier’s office.

Nothing is guaranteed here as both federal and provincial conservatives like to use a preferential ballot system. That can guarantee you the worst of results.

Danielle Smith has been wooing throngs of Albertan conservatives with her fanciful stories about pandemic lockdowns that never happened, weird stories about machinations by Ottawa to destroy Alberta’s economy and her ludicrous sovereignty bill that the most avid Quebec separatist has only dreamed of.

But it is the combination of Poilievre federally and Smith provincially that makes me wonder what this world is coming to. The two Albertans are reflecting badly on the residents of the wild rose province. The loonies are coming, ta-rah, ta-rah.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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What Open Border?

by Peter Lowry

I was trying to figure out the ArriveCAN app today and I think this border-crossing nonsense would be appropriate for a police state but it really does not belong between Canada and the U.S. I grew up in this country when crossing into the United States was about as formal as saying ‘Hi.’ I remember more than a few times heading for Niagara Falls teaching the kids with foreign-born accents how to say “Toronna” in case they were questioned as to where they were born.

And that is all it should be between countries such as Canada and the United States.    I was hardly inconvenienced when we started using passports at the border but I thought of it as unnecessary. By that time, I had been on business or holiday to all but three of the states of the union. I have no idea what would attract me to Rhode Island and, maybe I shouldn’t count Wyoming, as I don’t think I even stopped for gas crossing that state. Though I bet I am the very rare Canadian who has ever addressed a state police convention in Salem, Oregon.

I should hasten to add that the border needs to have barriers against COVID 19. Proof of vaccination should be sufficient. My opinion is that ArriveCAN is excessive, intrusive and stupid. And the assumption that everyone has a smart phone is the most stupid. This government has the nerve to think that all Canadians are so self-important as to pay the outrageous cost of smart phones and usage charges of the telecoms in this country.

And for the agist idiots who think the smart phone is an inconvenience for seniors, I should mention my oldest brother was having fun with his smart phone at 93. He found it was a great toy. And that is what it is, a toy. And whomever dreamed up the idea of putting a camera in cell phones must have been a sadist.

Have you ever noticed that when you are checking an app to see if it suits your needs, you find there is more than one source offering to help you download the app. Most of these secondary sources are just trying to get your information for their own usage. Many of them profit from selling the information.

But then a smart phone is, by its nature, like wearing the story of your life on your sleeve. It might seem a boring subject to you but there are people who want that information to sell you, to influence you, to manipulate you or to steal the money recorded in your bank app. You do not have to be paranoid about this. Your cell phone can tell them all they need to know.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Welcome Back Chrystia.

by Peter Lowry

It looks like the kids have forgotten their manners since finance minister Chrystia Freeland was at home in Alberta. For someone to accost her and spew invective at her is not the Alberta that I know.

But, just as bad as the manners of the stupid fool who caused the scene was the ignorant woman who raced to the door of the elevator with her phone to record the deputy prime minister’s reaction. It took the man in his undershirt and that woman to make a lie of Alberta hospitality, for all to see.

It reminds me of my late friend, MP Bob Caplan, when he was solicitor general of Canada. I bumped into him at Ottawa airport, one time, when we were both headed for Toronto. I noted that he had an RCMP constable with him, carrying a couple cases. I nodded towards the Mountie and asked Bob if he was in custody?

It turned out he was taking some seriously secret stuff with him to Toronto and had to have the Mountie for protection, and to carry the files. It was one of the very few times I had seen any protection arranged for any member of the cabinet, other than the prime minister.

And did you know that when Lester Pearson was prime minister, he drove himself to work from Sussex Drive to parliament in the old family car?

That all changed with prime minister Pierre Trudeau. He was most annoyed when he was told he had to have a driver, rather than drive his Mercedes-Benz 300SL to the parliament buildings. That was when he was still single and the joke was that little car was his chick bait back then.

My role in the prime minister functions in Toronto was usually to set up facilities for the media, do on-site media briefings and do all the things that somebody had forgotten. For some reason, I was often doing the liaison with the Toronto-based Mounties and police.

One time when the PM was doing a major announcement at the Royal York Hotel, we had invited local liberals and general public. When the prime minister got to the microphone, I was standing at the first step to the stage and one of the plain-clothes RCMP was stationed on the next step up. When the prime minister was well into his speech, I got shoved aside and I looked at the Mountie and shrugged. He then got shoved aside and he looked at me and shrugged back. We were both outranked by a news photographer getting his pictures.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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