Federal Politics – Page 41 – Babel-on-the-Bay

A snapshot in time.

May 5, 2021 by Peter Lowry

Nothing is more foolish than to read the opinion polls of today and apply them to a general election somewhere down the distant road. The polls are nothing more than a snapshot in time that will change and wander until the voters have a chance to have their say. Nobody can forecast the future, even though we all try.

At this point in time, the poll tracker service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation tells us that the liberals might be enjoying a 50 per cent probability of forming a majority if an election had been held. The liberals could have also got that same nice warm feeling from collective incontinence.

The truth of the matter is nobody can predict the outcome of an election if we have not achieved a common agreement that the end of the pandemic is just around the next corner. Until then, the feeling of distrust and frustration with our politicians is palpable and real.

And, despite the suggestion that the conservatives might have had little solace in the six per cent likelihood of them winning a recent election, there is a drift in the polls that is concerning.

I think the recent over-rated, over publicized and over-written budget from our lady finance minister was a colossal waste of time and effort. Selling our provincial conservatives on day care is not the same as negotiating a free trade agreement.

Basically, I think Ms. Freeland blew the opportunity. We all need a little more excitement in our lives and that budget was practically incomprehensible. It was overloaded with too much housekeeping.

That budget needed to be uplifting and give our country something to look forward to besides more diapers to change. It needed to challenge us to excel. And it certainly needed new revenues. We need to get the money from the rich before it leaves the country. The budget needed to kick start new ideas and give Canadians something more to look forward to than the same-old, same-old. It came across to me as the garbage bin where all old ideas from the finance department come to die.

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Bitumen is not oil.

May 3, 2021 by Peter Lowry

If pipeline companies were honest about what they are transmitting around North America, there would be fewer problems with environmentalists. It would also help if reporters were more accurate and editors more diligent There are differences between refined oil products such as the different grades of gasoline and crude oil. There are also serious concerns about pipelines carrying diluted bitumen to refineries for processing.

In the current dispute between governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Enbridge over Line 5, it makes considerable difference. Whitmer’s experience with a pipeline spill is based on the ten-year old spill of an Enbridge pipe that polluted a major tributary of the Kalamazoo River in southern Michigan. That spill cost more than a billion dollars, resulted in huge fines for the company and never could be completely cleaned up. That was a spill of diluted bitumen.

A spill from Enbridge’s Line 5 where it crosses the shallow lake bed of Lake Michigan at the Straits of Mackinac—from which the water flows into Lake Huron and through the Great Lakes and to the Atlantic Ocean—could be catastrophic if it is diluted bitumen.

The difference is that crude or refined oil products float and can be trapped and cleaned up. Diluted bitumen floats for a while until the diluent is washed away and the heavier bitumen sinks to the bottom. This can deny close to 40 million Americans and Canadians their source of water for home use, for farm animals, for industrial use, for leisure activities and for commercial fisheries. There is no doubt that Governor Whitmer has made a case.

And the battle has been engaged in the halls of both Ottawa and Washington. President Joe Biden has already put an end to the Keystone XL pipeline over the objections of Canada’s Justin Trudeau. Closure of Line 5 would have serious impacts on the Canadian economy as well as challenge the American self-sufficiency in oil.

But it is important to recognize that the main fight is over the diluted bitumen, not the refined products. If citizens understood the difference, there is a work-around that could mitigate the economic problems. Enbridge can complete its tunnel solution at Mackinac in about three years, In the meantime, we should tell the whole story so that people can understand the concern.

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Green with Envy?

May 2, 2021 by Peter Lowry

Why cannot Canada’s green party get its act together? There has got to be something more important for that party to do than argue about who is being nice to whom? Elizabeth May is entitled to her retirement—such as it is! She is a tough act for anyone to follow. New leader Annamie Paul has got to stop her complaining and lead.

No doubt, she has more to say about where the greens would like to lead Canada. If nothing else, she can show Canadians where the other political parties are failing us. If I were her, I would go after the other parties like a buzz saw.

Start with the hypocritical liberals. As long as prime minister Justin Trudeau continues to twin the TransMountain pipeline—to potentially flood the Georgia Straits with bitumen from Alberta, that party is vulnerable. Every time Justin Trudeau poses as an environmentalist, his hypocrisy needs to be exposed.

But we also need to laugh occasionally and the conservative environmental plans are a good joke. The entire country needs to see the desperation of conservative leader Erin O’Toole—leading his party where no conservative has gone before. He will not have a carbon tax, when he can call it something else.

And you have to feel embarrassed for those new democrats. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has a heart-felt LEAP manifesto at his disposal and he has no idea what to do with it. That party also has no idea where it is going or how to get there. Tommy Douglas helped establish that party as the conscience of Canadian politics and about two leaders back, it somehow lost its way.

There is no need for Annamie Paul, as green leader, to expect anything more than a corporal’s guard of her party to get elected in the coming election. Even in politics, you should never make promises that you know you can never keep.

But you have a duty to the party to lead. You need to focus on what you can do. You have a voice. You have a clear objective. Be our environmental conscience. We desperately need you in that role.

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Determining Democracy.

April 29, 2021 by Peter Lowry

Measuring democracy in any country is like measuring the depth of a fast-moving stream with a wood ruler. In a country where few know democracy, is there a measure? In Canada, we think we know democracy and we seldom measure it. It is time we started questioning our democracy.

Ask yourself, why in a democracy should federal power be so concentrated in the office of the prime minister? Why is the upper house of parliament, the Senate of Canada, such a sad joke? Ask why powers, given to the provinces in confederation, are the appropriate powers for today?

And measured against the exigencies of the covid-19 pandemic, would a better structured system of government have benefitted Canadians?

Since the time of the present prime minister’s father, Canadians have been increasingly concerned about the power with which we anoint the prime minister of the time. Even in the Roman Republic, they always elected two consuls to rule and they answered to each other and the patrician senate. No consul could say to the news media of the day: “Just watch me.”

Why did the politician writers of the Canadian Constitution ensure that only land-owners could serve in the senate? We have now made sure that senate and other appointments are elitist selections—selected by elitist committees—and appointed by an elitist prime minister. No riffraff allowed.

Why is it that political party leaders are given the power to determine who may or may not run as a candidate for the leader’s party? If a political party cannot practice democratic principles, how can it be entrusted to run a democratic country?

Democracy is rule by the people and for the people. And Canada is supposed to be a constitutional monarchy with a faux monarch in the form of a governor general. It has a constitution controlled by its parts, being provinces, that are all different sizes and populations.

This is supposed to be a democracy. Canadians should question that.

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Ridiculing Freeland’s Luxury Tax.

April 27, 2021 by Peter Lowry

My old Lamborghini is just fine, thank you. It was amusing to read a conservative’s apology the other day for people who buy luxury cars. After duly noting the foolishness of finance minister Chrystia Freeland’s luxury tax on the toys of the very rich, I had gone on to more important issues.

But now I am mad. Freeland failed us. Her budget is a farce. She is toying with us. We need a legitimate wealth tax in Canada. And to do that you have to start closing tax loopholes. Not all of us can afford the best accountants to wheel and deal and advise. We want everyone to pay their share.

And oddly enough, I know a guy with a couple luxury yachts. He loves sailing. One is parked on Lake Ontario and the other is down in the Caribbean. He might be well off but he is hardly filthy rich. He rents out one yacht while sailing the other. He started with a skiff years ago and kept trading up.

This must be the first time I have agreed with that conservative writer. He thinks the Trudeau luxury tax is just show biz. And he concedes if we are ever going to pay the cost of the pandemic in Canada, it is going to take a lot more than a tax on luxury goods.

What really annoys me about the budget though is that the mainstay of Ms. Freeland’s effort is child care across Canada. She is probably going to be old and grey long before all the provinces agree to the federal government taking over that territory. There are lots of easier ways for the federal government to subsidize child care for working parents.

If we really want to start negotiations with the provinces, Pharmacare is by far the better fight. Logic is on the side of the feds. We can all understand that a single buyer for the entire country can do better than individual provinces and territories, each negotiating for various quantities of product.

And we all have had enough of the environmental bullshit from Justin Trudeau until he puts an end to the twinning of the TransMountain pipeline.

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The Vulnerable Sex Workers.

April 26, 2021 by Peter Lowry

If we are going to consider the most vulnerable in our society for vaccination, we should start with the sex worker. They are doing something most people enjoy. It is even worse when people do not talk openly about the good, the bad and the art of it. And it is an art. It encourages mutual enjoyment. It is a dance that we humans do—combining touching, feeling, smiles, and pleasure lubricated by bodily fluids and we need to bring it out of the dark.

For people to put a price on the enjoyment of their bodies is a practice that goes back to antiquity. The ancient Greeks worshipped at the naked statue of Aphrodite. And the Romans taxed the sex worker. The sex worker should be honoured, not reviled. The dancer is applauded, the model drawn, the acrobat cheered, their bodies entertaining and gracing us.

But why draw the curtains on the sex worker. Why is he or she a harlot? Did we not understand the needless anger of the sad, sick individual who rampaged with a truck on Toronto’s Yonge Street? Do we not recognize the need for outlets to that frustration? Do we expect celibacy of our military personnel when the ratio of the sexes in the forces is so unbalanced?

Why? Oh why, do we even listen to the sanctimonious hypocrites of the clergy? Our parliamentarians need to face reality. The courts need to protect our rights as humans. And sex is not just for the purpose of procreation. Even procreation needs practice. Sex is a pleasure of living that people should enjoy as they wish. And, thankfully, most do.

But do not make prostitution legal and the client the criminal. That does not protect the weaker member of the pact. The act of prostitution should be by persons of free will. Pimping is wrong if it is the exploitation of a person or persons by another. If a sex worker or a group of them wish to hire a person as door keeper, that is just part of the sex worker’s business.

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Religion, Politics and Leadership.

April 22, 2021 by Peter Lowry

The admonition to never bring religion and politics into a conversation is a lot of B.S. They are two very interesting subjects and they are ever present in our daily lives—not only in Canada but around the world. In some countries, the subjects of religion and politics are the same subject. In China and Russia, for example, politics has replaced most religious practice. In countries such as Israel and Iran, religion appears to control the politics.

One of the benefits Canada offers is the clear trend to separate politics from religion. We are certainly not free of all biases about religion but I feel our growing tolerance is a work in progress. While fewer of us are taking part in organized religion today, there is no question but the many religions observed in Canada bring values to us.

And now we can get to our subject for the day: leadership.

We have already discussed the federal liberal and conservative leaders in previous commentaries and it is time to bring up Jagmeet Singh of the new democratic party.

Jagmeet is an observant Sikh. That means he follows the teachings of the Tenth Guru of Sikhism. This includes the uncut hair, the wooden comb, the iron bracelet, the undershorts and the symbolic knives. There are many fine qualities to the Sikh religion. While based on a warrior ethic, it teaches tolerance and protecting the poor and downtrodden, no matter the religion or caste. It is a religion where every woman is a princess and every man a lion.

And as an educated Canadian, Jagmeet Singh, can count. He looked at the less than 100,000 members of the new democratic party during the last leadership contest and realized that his supporters, with ties to the Indian Sub-Continent in British Columbia and Ontario alone, numbered more than 200,000. He simply had to swamp the membership of his party with new sign-ups from this cohesive group to win the leadership of the NDP. And he did.

In Toronto, we considered it the ethnic edge. It is why someone with an Italian name ran in certain ridings and Anglo names in others. I never approved of that way of choosing candidates. I still don’t. I want my MPs and MLAs to represent everyone in their electoral district.

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‘I’ve heard that song before.’

April 21, 2021 by Peter Lowry

It was a confused kindergarten teacher who once asked me why my daughter would tell her and the class that her mother went to hotels at night with men. She was quite relieved when I explained that my wife sang with a 21-piece swing orchestra and they performed frequently at Toronto hotels.

Listening to finance minister Chrystia Freeland delivering her budget document reminded me of a popular song from the swing era that my wife often sang. It was the 1942 hit, recorded by Harry James with Helen Forest, ‘I’ve heard that song before.’

After about a half an hour of that budget, it seemed to me that I had heard that song before. Only, this time, I was bored.

I must admit that I am delighted that after so many years of talking about it, we just might do something about adequate, low-cost daycare for working parents. It sounds to me like there will be a lot of negotiations with the provinces before the dust settles on this proposal.

But that will just be practice for the coming fight over who has the jurisdiction over long term care homes. Decent national standards might be a lengthy process to achieve.

They only want to spend a couple billion to replace Canada’s ability to develop and produce vaccines. And to think the original investment in Canada’s Connaught Laboratories was the cost of building some horse stables.

I hope it was just a sick joke when the budget said the minimum federal wage was only to be raised to $15 per hour. Try living on that?

There were also allocations for high technology in support of a green future that will be welcomed by those familiar with the technologies.

What I did not see in this first budget from Ms. Freeland was any daring, any surprise, any thing for a better future for our country. It was disappointing.

I suppose, as a senior, I should also welcome the little bonus the budget threw my way for being a senior. I guess it is nice to be recognized occasionally.

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Leave ‘em Laughing.

April 20, 2021 by Peter Lowry

In writing about the leadership skills of our political leaders, we have borrowed the title of a 1927 Laurel and Hardy two-reel movie to explain federal conservative leader Erin O’Toole. You can just visualize Stan Laurel saying to Erin O’Toole or Oliver Hardy “Here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into.”

The fine mess is, of course, Erin O’Toole’s climate plan. His only excuse was that the conservative party drove him to it when they blindsided him by saying that there was no problem with climate change.

Figuring out what training Erin O’Toole had to become leader of the conservative party and leader of the official opposition in parliament is a different matter. O’Toole’s training is the antithesis of leadership.

From the beginning of his training at Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, O’Toole was taught to salute, march in groups and do what he was told. As a navigation officer in the Canadian air force, he never got to fly the planes or helicopters.

After his military service, he went to law school at Dalhousie University. He got his bar admission in Ontario and proceeded to practice commercial law. And from that base, he went into politics. Luckily, it was conservative politics and that does not require much independent thinking.

So, what does a person trained to follow commands and laws do when he has to come up with a climate plan to match the liberal carbon tax deal—the one where the liberals give back the money to taxpayers?

You copy it, of course. In fact, the only real difference between the liberal carbon tax is that O’Toole does not call it a tax—he calls it a levy. He also gives more back to the people who spent the most on carbon producing fuels and he only gives them back the levy when they buy carbonless or reduced carbon items such as bicycles and high-efficiency furnaces.

Frankly, I am less than impressed by O’Toole’s plan. As an apartment dweller, I have no place to put a high efficiency furnace and, at my age, the wife is not about to let me buy a bicycle.

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The Actor Within.

April 19, 2021 by Peter Lowry

We were puzzling the other day as to what training our current leaders had that prepared them for their political roles. If all you have to base your conclusion on is their set-piece biography, the answers are not all that easy to deduce. It is therefore best to do some deep-dive research and take them one at a time. We started with prime minister Justin Trudeau.

First of all, the assumption that his famous father helped prepare him for the role of prime minister is wrong. Pierre Trudeau made every effort to keep his three sons away from politics. Any communications expert who tried to get him to appear with his sons was usually shot down in flames. We thought appearing with them would help soften his image but he would have none of it. If anything, Justin would have heard his father disparage politics.

And any influence his mother had on him would not help. His mother neither understood nor wanted anything to do with politics.

What the National Post labelled as kitsch in 2019, I had seen when I first met Justin as an adult back in 2010. I saw the actor with the ability to move in and out of character. It was hardly Strasberg’s method acting, where you stay in character. The young Trudeau appeared to have a switch that he can turn on and off. The telltale signs were all there: the family dress-up in India, the black face in Vancouver, the hot reaction of the crowds at the Kielburger’s Me to We shows starring the future prime minister. Justin could sure work a crowd.

Like many Canadians, I watched Justin give the eulogy for his father at Pierre’s funeral. It was poignant. I wish I had seen him also when he played the role of World War One hero Talbot Papineau in the 2007 CBC movie.

I once corrected a fellow blogger who accused Justin of stammering. You often hear it when he is answering a question—off the cuff—in parliament. It is actually thinking noises. It is the noises that people will use while they are thinking about their answer. It is a noise that poor public speakers will use to fill what they consider a void. It is not there when Justin is speaking to a prepared text or a teleprompter. Justin just needs to be scripted.

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