Federal Politics – Page 58 – Babel-on-the-Bay

The good and the ugly in tough times.

April 15, 2020 by Peter Lowry

It has been more than a few years since I was traveling around Ontario lecturing business students at our universities. At the time, the subject of my lectures was the rarely discussed social responsibility of business. I got the feeling on those journeys that the professors really appreciated some one else handling the subject.

But the subject is bandied around much more today and the argument still continues as to whether it is just good public relations or a genuine desire of business leaders wanting to be a contributing party in their community or communities.

We are certainly seeing some very interesting examples of both good and ugly at this time. Of the good examples, Tim Hortons stands out in doing whatever is necessary to be a good corporate citizen. As it is now foreign-owned Tim’s has had to be very fast on its feet to meet the coronavirus needs head on. Much of what the corporate staff and its franchisees are doing is not visible to the customer at the drive-through window. It is a joint effort and it is paying off.

The critically important steps Tim’s has taken is for truck drivers. They are not only encouraging their walking up to the drive-through window for their double-double but Tim’s have said they are opening their washrooms for the truck drivers. No doubt readers have other examples of good corporate citizens doing what’s right in these times.

But it is also easy to identify the ugly in these times. The example I prefer is Bell Canada. Maybe I have learned to expect the ‘screw you’ attitude from Bell but what is our lifeline today while we are trapped in our homes? The answer is the Internet. Those bastards at Bell have chosen this special time to raise their rates on the Internet. I would call them to complain but for some reason Bell’s business telephone lines are all busy.

Years ago, I visited a friend who had joined Bell Canada in their government relations office. He gave me the tour and I was amazed at the number of people involved. Yet I got the impression that their idea of social responsibility was to make selective political donations.

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The validity of vision.

April 10, 2020 by Peter Lowry

It is an old-fashioned view of leadership, but it is still valid. You have to have vision. Without it, where are you going? A leader understands people and shares with them views of what is to come. A leader understands detail and shares the steps to the future. A leader also shares the pain and the glory of this future.

In recent years, Canada has been bereft of leadership. We have been substituting political populism for vision. Conservatives have been relying on the political ranting of the right. Liberals have been caught in the trap of trying to win over soft conservatives with right-wing solutions. The new democrats have been trying to reinvent a modern socialism. The greens have made the mistake of putting environmentalism ahead of a political future. Canada’s collective strength has been left in the grasping hands of the provinces.

But the question is what do Canadians want their country to be in the near future, maybe 20 to 30 years from now. I think the first thing they want to be is masters in their own house. We must shake the vestiges of colonialism that have smothered our ability to be the people we want to be and the people we believe ourselves to be.

We cannot be the true partners to our friends to the south if we persist in being the junior member of the relationship. We cannot work on equal footing with the European Union if we wear the trappings of a vassal of an out-dated British empire. We must show a strong face to our trading partners in Asia.

Canada cannot continue as a cauldron half full of the peoples it needs to build and defend our changing country. We need to further accelerate the welcoming of people from the crowded nations of the world and offer them a new future as Canadians. Our land can offer millions more of us a wonderful life. Our aboriginal peoples must choose between a full life as Canadians or an existence in isolation from the main stream. We know that a foot on each of two paths does not lead us anywhere.

We must address our political structures and rebalance the provinces from the colonial past. Multiple languages were never the problem but tribalism is a threat to our nation.

The rest of the world will only respect our country if we respect ourselves. We need to build our future with pride.

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Lucking into leadership laurels.

April 8, 2020 by Peter Lowry

You hardly need to check with pollsters to know that prime minister Justin Trudeau has aced it. He is getting lots of positive votes for his leadership in this time of crisis. You even talk to known conservatives and some of them tell you what a good job he is doing. And would you believe that, in some ways, he has won the kudos by happenstance?

Part of it was Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. Her testing positive to covid-19 on returning to Canada after a speaking trip to the United Kingdom, is not something that could be planned. The prime minister’s wife was quarantined at home and the prime minister chose to be in isolation with her and the children. He was just one more Canadian being told to go home and stay there. Mind you, when you are prime minister, you can work from wherever you like.

It also brought the news media to the Rideau Cottage briefings. It might not be 10 Downing Street but only the prime minister is allowed at that mike. The briefing at 11:15 am has been convenient for the government and the news media. And large numbers of Canadians are watching and talking about the words direct from the PM.

Compared to that buffoon in Washington, Mr. Trudeau’s information is precise, understandable and helpful. Mr. Trump seems to run a Gong Show with more-qualified actors trying to correct his misdirection, confusion, pet theories and favoured medications.

While no doubt the opposition leaders in parliament are deeply resentful of the opportunity given to the liberal leader, there is little they can do about it. Mr. Trudeau can easily fall back on the national interest and the non-partisan (well, sort-of) nature of what he has to tell Canadians. What can the opposition do anyway when the largest opposition party (the conservatives) is trying to choose a new leader, the new democrats need a leader, the bloc québécois want to stick around for a while and the greens want a new leader.

The only achievement of the opposition so far is to say no to a very silly suggestion that they give complete control to the liberals for the next two years. That was taken off the table.

But it really could be two years before politics in this country gets back to normal. Until then, we are going to be fed pap such as deputy pm Chrystia Freeland and Ontario premier Doug Ford being the best of buddies. With politics in that bad a shape, we have got to beat this coronavirus as soon as possible!

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What Value Trust?

April 7, 2020 by Peter Lowry

Do you trust U.S. president Donald Trump? Why would you when his actions are erratic, his decisions changeable, his sources of information questionable and his attention span so limited? In approving the revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), did the parliamentarians consider this man’s weaknesses and frequent whims? They might have, if they understood the executive power he wields over American foreign trade.

The reason the first version of NAFTA worked so well for Canada is that the Americans wanted guaranteed access to Canada’s resources such as the tar sands and grandfathered the Auto Pact in exchange.

It was a few years until the fracking for oil in the U.S. proved that the U.S. was actually self-sufficient in oil resources. At the same time, Eastern Canada had rebuilt its manufacturing to supply auto parts and was attracting auto assembly operations from Asia. The Americans felt the rules of origin in NAFTA were under threat. What started as ruffled feathers over soft-wood lumber on the west coast became steel and aluminum barriers in the east. Donald Trump saw the free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico as an easy target in stirring dissent with the status quo in political America.

When Trump found recently that he was in the cross-hairs for not managing the panic in the U.S., he saw a chance to lay blame on 3M for selling critical N95 surgical masks to Canada and Latin American countries. Despite the new NAFTA agreement, that he had congress approve, Trump used his executive power to stop shipments to Canada and others outside the U.S. This was also despite the fact that the major material for these masks comes from Canada. Trump was very lucky that the Canadian government did not choose to retaliate.

But that is the trust that countries place in trade agreements. The agreements are not just for sunny days. Situations change, needs change but the countries that make these deals have to be able to trust their trading partners. You do not make unilateral changes. A dire need on one side of a border can be just as dire as the need on the other side. And it is in times such as this that the unilateral actions of one country can be long remembered by the population of the other.

Trust cannot be written. It can only be earned.

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Paying for Jobs?

April 6, 2020 by Peter Lowry

After careful study over the past few days, listening to the ideas of others and comparing the programs, I have decided that it is all a terrible waste. The federal government’s big billion bailout for Canadian business is money down the drain. We can do much better.

First of all, this emergency wage subsidy idea is not only wasteful but turns its back on a sensible approach to the need. Why not let the banks do what they do best—lend money to business? In this case, the loans can be forgivable—if it is confirmed that the money is directed to salaries and keeping Canadians employed, as promised. That way experts are doing the lending. And the government has their back, as usual. The government can foot the bill and allow the banks a bit of interest—a lot cheaper for the taxpayers.

And the whole system can be in process as soon as the government gives the banks the go-ahead. And, let’s be honest. Government employees make poor loan officers.

You might also want to ponder just how many former employees want the job back with the company that fired them or, euphemistically, laid them off? They should be allowed to go where they want. This is still a democracy, I hope.

But at the same time as this program eventually gets off the ground, will these people really be going back to work? Will airlines need flight staff so soon, will restaurants need wait staff, will fitness clubs need instructors, will schools need teachers? Or will we still be dancing two metres apart?

The only part of the deal to be presented to parliament that makes any sense is the Canada emergency response benefit that will pay individuals $2000 per month. It is really too bad that this program is only slated to be operating for four months. In Ontario where there are more than 360,000 people getting support from the provincial disability support program (ODSP). The maximum ODSP payment is just over $1100 per month. These people stay alive because charities, food banks, churches and families give them some help. There is no help from the uncaring Ford conservatives. They even tried to cut the payments in the program when they came into office.

Maybe the Trudeau liberals also forgot these people!

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What was left under the rug?

April 5, 2020 by Peter Lowry

There always comes that time when we have to look under the rug. Maybe we were just sending the rug out for cleaning but we can hardly ignore the detritus of time that we have collected. It is like this covid-19 emergency. This dust from under the rug was what finance minister Bill Morneau meant when he admitted recently that he did not know how to help.

This is when all the problems politicians have tried to ignore come back to bite them. It is also a time when they must face the reality of the past myopia and do something about it.

It was like my reporting early in the Ontario shut-down about the problems of washrooms for long-distance drivers. Professional truck drivers, desperate auto drivers and even city bus drivers have been faced with the closing of all public washrooms. How careless! How thoughtless! How typical of our politicians.

I hear that the Tim Hortons people are stepping into the breech—so to speak. They should be compensated for the extra staff and supplies they will need to try to keep those coffee-shop washrooms reasonably sterile and usable.

But what about those members of our society whom we always seem to ignore? We walk by them on the sidewalks of our cities. They are the homeless, the invisible rejects of society, the mentally challenged, the sick, the despairing, the old, the lonely—a smile, a friendly word, a bit of help, can make their day. And what do you need?

These are problems we ignore as we shrug and say, “What can I do?”

And if you are not tired of this direction yet, what of the overcrowding in our prisons. That guy responsible for prisons, a minister of the crown, named Bill Blair, even asked the parole board recently to do something about it. What else is he doing about the overcrowding?

I guess, we should all check under the rug.

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It’s the Tory party that is self-destructing.

April 2, 2020 by Peter Lowry

Last weekend, Chantal Hébert wrote her regular opinion piece for the Toronto Star. She was ruminating on the idea that presumed front-runner Peter MacKay’s campaign for the conservative leadership might be self-destructing. Not that MacKay was heading anywhere in particular anyway. He is hardly the saviour of Canada’s conservatives.

If you are checking with conservatives on the telephone, you can hear an audible gagging sound when you ask them about MacKay’s campaign. And it is hardly a direct reference to the Deity when you hear the person say, “Oh God.”

But Peter MacKay has been in trouble since the turn of the century when he drove the progressive conservative bus into the arms of Stephen Harper and the Alberta cowboys of the reform conservative alliance. It was hardly good intentions that finally united the right across Canada. It was more like desperation.

What is really desperate today is not MacKay. He might be Elmer MacKay’s son but even our friends in Nova Scotia wonder about Peter’s campaign this time around. They have been there before.

If you did not know that Peter is a lightweight, you have not been paying attention over the past 20 years. At least he is a married man today and we can stop making fun of the ways his lady friends embarrassed him.

And he no longer is among the privileged who have military helicopters at their beck and call.

But it is really the party committee that was making the rules for the leadership that did Peter in. They set forth the most ridiculous and short-sighted rules for the leadership campaign that were more suited to the requirements of Vladimir Putin in Russia than a democratic party. The cut-off was just the other day for their proposed $300,000 fee and 3,000 party signatures.

The right leader for the conservatives has not even surfaced yet. It is a good thing the campaign was delayed because of the coronavirus.

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Checking with the Cuckoo Clock.

March 30, 2020 by Peter Lowry

We have a pattern emerging. Every day at 11 am Eastern, we are now tuning into a news channel or live streaming CPAC on the Internet. The opening shot, is of the front door of Rideau Cottage, on the grounds of Rideau Hall in Ottawa. There is often a wait but the news channels are filling the time with related news about covid-19. We are waiting for the prime minister to pop out of the cottage door to provide us with an update on Canada’s war with the coronavirus.

It is somewhat similar to the news media practice in England of setting up at 10 Downing Street in London for announcements from the prime minister of the United Kingdom. I like to think of it as sort of ‘the mother of all cuckoo clocks.’

Mind you, my wife has taken umbrage at what she considers my rude reference to our prime minister. She is quite in agreement if I choose to suggest Boris Johnson is a cuckoo. As all we have is each other in this time of isolation, I think I will acquiesce.

Besides, in discussing the prime minister’s performance over lunch, she asked me to rate his performance on a scale of one to ten. I gave him an eight. He stuck to the script during his prepared remarks and there was far less grunting as he thought about his words in answer to reporters’ questions.

We were particularly impressed when his remarks were directed to Canadian children. Only a caring father would think of that. It reminded me of the times when there were arguments with his father, Pierre Trudeau, about including some remarks about his children when addressing the Canadian public. He kept his children private. A different era, I guess.

Pierre did allow his children to be included on his Christmas card. When she first met Justin, my wife was telling him about her collection of Trudeau family cards that showed him and his brothers growing up. He had his staff add her to his Christmas card list. At least Pierre sent them to both of us.

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An idea that’s time has come.

March 29, 2020 by Peter Lowry

It has been hard to be one of the few writers harping on the need for a Canadian universal income program. This past week, we got some support in the person of Mike Schreiner, leader of the Ontario green party, and Jo-Ann Roberts interim leader of the federal greens. They drew up a simple little opinion piece for the Toronto Star lauding the concept.

But where were the leaders of the new democrats? Are they unable to get any ink these days? Have the new democrats decided that universality is for peasants? Are they on Bill Morneau’s ‘save the one per cent’s wealth and the trickle down will follow’ bandwagon?

To be fair, I listened to the federal finance minister carefully when they were streaming the media conference with the cabinet luminaries early in the week. I got the feeling from what he was saying (more than doing) was that he did not believe there was a really an effective way to reach all the Canadians in need of support. Anyone who thinks our retail banks can help is suffering from myopia anyway.

What the banks can do is give every person access to a bank account. They have got to stop sending indigents to cheque-cashing store fronts.

I believe that there are fair-minded conservatives and many more liberal-minded Canadians who understand that a universal income program would save a great deal of money that is now spend on inadequate and wasteful support programs.

And there will also be a small percentage of recipients of these funds who will need what is recognized in some courts as a McKenzie Friend to provide advice and assistance in managing their stipend.

But the essential point, as stated in the green party commentary, is that “Our social safety net has been broken for a long time and the covid-19 crisis has only exposed the gaps in our income support programs.” Employment insurance cannot fix it. Payments starting in April are too late. We have to get money to those who need it immediately. And if we can get the wrinkles out of the program, we should keep it.

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A professional is on the job.

March 28, 2020 by Peter Lowry

Kirsten Hillman of Global Affaires Canada has been appointed Canada’s ambassador to the United States of America. She has been in the job in an acting capacity since the departure of political appointee David MacNaughton to take part in the federal election last year. It is certainly a time when we need a professional diplomat on the job.

While Canada has always tended to have a political person in the hyper-intense political environment of Washington, Donald Trump in the presidency has changed that. He leaves those with just some political expertise lost and in the dark. He is not a political animal. He might be a lot of things, but he is no politician. The last three years have been a learning experience for all of us.

The appointment of Hillman as deputy ambassador in 2017 was in recognition of her expertise in international trade agreements. She was our general in the battles over NAFTA 2. While Canada’s foreign affairs was Chrystia Freeland’s bailiwick at the time, Hillman must have been the source of much of the strategy.

As a professional diplomat Hillman must spend hours in Washington just making sure she is retaining her cool visage. She can probably run rings around Trump’s ambassadors to Canada. Both the first appointee, Kelly Craft, and the more recent appointee, Aldona Wos, are best noted for the large amounts they (or a husband) donated to the Trump and republican party campaigns.

These ‘bought and paid for’ ambassadorships go back a long way in American history and the Americans have been roundly criticized for it over the years. I remember back in the mid 1970s the former Hollywood child star Shirley Temple Black had been appointed ambassador to Ghana by president Gerald Ford. The Ghana leadership felt insulted by the appointment. My wife and I met Shirley at a conference in Spain during that time and it was very obvious that she was not happy in that posting. I think she reached her ideal in political appointments for Foggy Bottom later when she was, briefly, chief of protocol for the United States.

But what can you say for a person who reached the peak of her career when she was eight-years old?

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