Federal Politics – Page 61 – Babel-on-the-Bay

The conservative leadership is no prize.

January 27, 2020 by Peter Lowry

The problem most people seem to be having with taking on the leadership of the conservative party is the party itself. Jean Charest said it best when he said that the party had changed much since he was involved federally back in the 90s. He was too much of a gentleman to note that the conservative party has become the playground of a nasty bunch of self-obsessed ideologues.

It was Stephen Harper who drove that truck downhill in Canada. And his lead disciples are Jason Kenney in Alberta and Doug Ford in Ontario. The crazies are in command. Look at Donald Trump in the United States. He is using the Republican’s Grand Old Party as cannon fodder in his battle against impeachment.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, I used to laughingly say some of my best friends were conservatives. But I was serious that in that time frame that there were conservatives who had some good ideas and cared about people other than themselves. I admired many of them.

In fact, my problem today is that too many of the liberals we are hearing from are more like the conservatives of 50 years ago. They have stopped being progressive. They are using conservative excuses. They take a baby step and call it a stride forward. And when it comes to the environment, I am very much worried about where today’s liberals are headed.

The other day a political commentator compared turning down a chance at being prime minister to Prince Harry and his duchess wanting to dump the trappings of royalty. I think that was reaching but there are some similarities in the feeling of uselessness of being royal and in the life of a back-bench member of parliament.

I have no idea who could have got to Pierre Poilievre. Maybe the pit bull had a revelation and stepped out of the race. Or maybe, it was that the pit bull realized that he did not have the stuff of a leader. He has to stay in the role, he does best.

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The greed that breeds corruption.

January 25, 2020 by Peter Lowry

It was never a secret that the political parties make a profit on conferences and leadership elections. They need the money for operating costs. It is that simple. In organizing an event such as the upcoming leadership races, provincially in Ontario for the liberals and federally for the conservatives, involves long hours, a myriad of expenses and the long-term financial needs of the party. The only problem is at what point have you killed the goose providing the money and corrupted the outcome?

In my opinion, that point has already been passed by the Ontario liberals. While the provincial fee for candidates is $100,000 ($25,000 refundable), the delegated convention charges are between $250 (seniors and youth) to a maximum of $600 for what is, in effect, a one-day convention.

The only problem is former MPP and cabinet minister Steven Del Duca has, effectively, already won. The convention looks bought and paid for. No honest sign-up of liberals could account for the signing up of over 14,000 maybe liberals nor would he be able to find the 16 people from each riding across the province willing to pay such a high price for the convention. If I was in my old position with the Ontario liberals, there would be a demand that the party executive does some serious checking into the bona fides of some of Del Duca’s delegates.

It looks like the federal conservatives have the reverse problem. Their leadership entry fee is too high. An entry fee of $300,000 (the $100,000 compliance portion is refundable) is the highest ever. Combined with the demand for 3,000 party signatures across 30 ridings and 7 provinces, it is designed to keep out the publicity seekers. So far it appears to have caused the withdrawal of some would-be serious candidates.

A candidate with his strength based in Quebec, such as Jean Charest, would have had concerns about getting signatures in six more provinces. But the mistake that the conservatives have made, despite enabling every party member to vote, is to continue to use a preferential vote system. Unless the leader wins on the first ballot, the voting method drills down to the least contentious, same as what happened when Andrew Scheer was chosen.

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NDP closes ranks around Singh.

January 24, 2020 by Peter Lowry

‘Better the problem we understand’ seems to be the thinking of the leaders of Canada’s new democratic party. They are closing ranks around the leader who cost them almost half the seats they held in the last parliament. Unlike the conservatives whose leader actually grew their seats by 22, they are not launching a new leadership race.

The NDP obviously rued their impetuous dumping of Thomas Mulcair just because he was run over by the 2015 liberal campaign bus of Justin Trudeau. Mulcair certainly left the NDP in better shape than Jagmeet Singh did, just four years later.

But the truth was that Singh wasted time in finding a safe seat to get into parliament, fell way behind in fund raising for the party and made little impact on voters before a small boost during the election period.

The truth is that Singh would have been far better to have fallen on his sword as soon as the election was over. He had to admit that his efforts were a strategic failure. He was neither an effective leader nor was he articulating a clear and understandable platform. He spent the campaign apologizing for taking the NDP nowhere.

For lack of anyone else to be an apologist for Singh, the news media have been interviewing NDP national director Anne McGrath. She tells them she would have preferred to hold the convention sooner as she is impressed with the personal popularity of Singh after his failures in last fall’s election. It makes you wonder about the quality of political journalism in this country.

By pushing out the convention to 2021, the urgency of a possible election will be even greater than of a snap (but probably accidental) election this year. In addition, the new conservative leader with the second largest caucus in parliament, will be much more eager to launch an election before the liberals have a chance to become even better established in office.

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The gravitas of Justin Trudeau.

January 20, 2020 by Peter Lowry

You do know that prime minister Justin Trudeau used to teach drama, do you not? Given the holiday time he had with family in the Caribbean over Christmas, he had time to work on both the new beard and demeanour. This is supposed to be a new Justin we are seeing.

The beard was not gilding the lily. A more thoughtful style, minus the beard, would not have been as convincing. And the amount of grey in the beard is indicative of the trials of his job. I hope he does not expect us to feel sorry for him because of the workload of being PM.

After being reduced to a minority government back in 1972, Pierre Trudeau also bit the bullet. His solution was to capitulate to the party and recognize that he needed the party, on side and working. He restored Senator Keith Davey to his previous position in party election preparedness.

If Justin Trudeau has reinstated former senator David Smith in the Davey-type role, we have not heard about it. Pierre Trudeau also added some highly regarded liberal thinkers in his office. We have not heard of Justin Trudeau doing that either.

In the meantime, his relations with the party are continuing downhill. The other day, the crassest of fund-raising letters was sent on the e-mail circuit using the conservative leadership contest as a theme. There does not seem to be many limits for the writers of these e-mails. I suppose if I ask them to stop sending them, they will say I am no longer a liberal.

At least the cabinet is meeting this week and hopefully, the members will have some renewed confidence in what they are doing. They are running out of time given by the Quebec court to fix the ill-considered medical assistance in dying bill. That has to have some priority.

Many of us who are worried about the environment are also worried about where the cabinet is going with the Trans Mountain pipeline. If they take the route of passing the buck to the regional aboriginals by selling the pipeline to them, it will be the most disgusting hypocrisy ever foisted on Canadians.

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Big tents are hard to move.

January 19, 2020 by Peter Lowry

If only we had a nickel for every time someone told us that Canada’s conservative and liberal parties are ‘big tent’ parties. Big tent parties are, as the name implies, large enough to accommodate many different views, as opposed to smaller, narrow interest parties. You can think of the big tent parties as being big enough to include the three rings of a circus tent. And, I can assure you, what goes on inside those parties has all the earmarks of being a circus.

But where all the clowns, aerialists, lion tamers and elephants get together is when the tent has to be moved. It requires all hands.

The federal conservatives are in the throws of one of those moves. With political parties, you never know where these moves are going to end up. Which segment of the party will dominate? Will it be the old school such as Peter MacKay from the Mulroney years, Pierre Poilievre of the Harper legions from the turn of the century or some one from the social conservatives, who have always felt left out?

We are not sure if there are really any Red Tories left? Or is there a populist with the bombast of a Doug Ford out there, ready to declare? We have yet to be introduced to all the potential players. Not that the rules permit casual inclusion in this soiree. The price of entry is stiff to keep out the adventure seekers and other riffraff who just want the notoriety. The voting rules will winnow the candidates down to the bland and acceptable.

The party learned nothing from its adventure with Chuckles Scheer. They have the history of their party to teach them the foolishness of how they are voting. The rules are clear. You either win on the first ballot or the party goes down to defeat with another loser.

The theme for the convention in June should be the haunting lyrics of Stephen Sondheim’s Send In the Clowns. Oh well, Maybe next year!

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“Enter Laughing.”

January 18, 2020 by Peter Lowry

So, you want to be an actor? And Canada is the theatre. Nova Scotian Peter MacKay, once more wants to be conservative leader. It reminds us of the semi-autobiographical novel by American humourist Carl Reiner. He turned the book into a successful movie in 1967 and launched his career in Hollywood. Frankly, MacKay might be better off in Hollywood than in Canada’s conservative politics.

This is not the first time Peter MacKay has made the effort. He seems to have forgotten how Stephen Harper handed his head last time around. Once more, he is heading into the buzz saw of Western Reform politics. MacKay is a ‘progressive’ among conservatives and that spells ‘wimp’ to westerners.

And anyone who thinks Peter MacKay means competence, could not know the man. He is a light-weight, an egoist and is only impressed by money. He is Brian Mulroney redux. He is an old-time progressive conservative, astray and lost in the 21^st Century.

I say this when I am not even a conservative. The guy is a waste of our time. He is just another lawyer obfuscating life.

But he is welcome to join the downhill race to the conservative leadership. He could hardly do worse than Chuckles Scheer.

Can you imagine the temerity of the damn fool to make his announcement that he is running on Twitter? How shallow and inconsequential could he make the contest? He’s a twit.

You would think that MacKay would have matured somewhat since he was last in politics. It hardly sounds like it!

But back to Carl Reiner’s talents: There is a man who can stand tall while laughing at life. What he could teach Peter MacKay about life is that the high points of your life are when you enter and when you exit. If you do those two well, you’ve aced it.

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When do we get back to the environment?

January 17, 2020 by Peter Lowry

Between Mr. Trump’s tantrums, the concerns over Meghan and Harry and the disaster in Iran, the prime minister is not getting much done about the environment. And why would we ever be satisfied with just getting to a net-zero emissions target?

Net-zero emissions is not a target, it is a starting point. Net zero is the point when we are adding no new large-scale carbon emissions to our environment. We should have been there years ago.

But back when we became more aware of the dangers our earth was facing, we had the Harper conservatives in power. The environment is famously number 101 on the list of 100 conservative concerns. Harper was a hypocrite who would savage the environment for another nickel. He was always, famously, ‘working on it.’

But Trudeau might be the same. Where is he headed when he buys the Trans Mountain pipeline to speed its twinning and conversion for sending the output of the tar sands to world markets? Does he think we are not responsible for all that pollution?

The supreme court has just given the Trudeau cabinet the green light on the disastrous Trans Mountain pipeline. I guess it is not their problem.

And the cabinet is currently talking about approving the new Frontier open pit mine north of Fort McMurray that will add four million tonnes of carbon to the environment each year. This addition to the carbon pollution is accompanied by the Frontier plan to destroy boreal forests and wetlands the size of a city that could have helped to absorb some of that pollution.

Before the prime minister and his environment minister fly off to another world conference to make irresponsible promises, they need to weigh their progress at home. They have to get our friends in Alberta to back off the bitumen. That is not a move that will endear you to Albertans. Though they might forgive you if your government can find find another base for their economy.

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Politics of Oligarchs.

January 11, 2020 by Peter Lowry

In an interesting opinion piece, recently, the Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt said that both Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau had to reinvent their respective parties to win election. Neither liked the parties they were taking over in their search for power.

Similar to Donald Trump in the United States, they changed the parties to their needs. Trump now has a slavish republican party to do his bidding. It would appear that Stephen Harper forgot to leave the keys for Andrew Scheer. Justin Trudeau is already reaping the results of his errors with the liberals.

Harper’s process of changing the conservatives was slower and more methodical. You can be sure that Harper wanted nothing to do with the former Mulroney party but he first had to be confident he had wrested the Reform Party from Preston Manning. He got his top-down party off the ground but still only won a minority in 2006. It took until 2011 for Harper to get the party he wanted and he was the oligarch. Power only went to those selected by Harper.

In the meantime, Justin Trudeau cashed in on the sentiments for his father in the liberal party—winning a seat in parliament in a tough Quebec riding and going on the road with his ‘Selfie’ tour. He found that a picture with him was more important to party members than the obligatory speech.

But after the party chose him leader in 2013, he started to put his seal on the party. He did away with party memberships and started the stream of e-mails requesting money from his followers. He also declared that there were no longer any liberal senators, cutting himself off from a depth of knowledge into the party, its fund raising, its functions and its history. He just milked his flock for money.

While Trudeau had to play catch-up with Harper’s conservatives, he made sure that the liberals also had the modern marketing plans, the technology and the more sophisticated ground game that was essential in a party that was losing adherents.

Harper paved the way for the power of the oligarchy based in the prime minister’s office. Trudeau showed how to abuse it. It works for a while, but leaves a bitter taste in the ridings.

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Where is the vision?

January 10, 2020 by Peter Lowry

In a recent commentary we complained about the lack of leadership of all Canadian political parties. What Canadians want from their leaders is vision. It is like the vision of Sir John A. Macdonald that ribbons of steel could bind this country together. It is our flag and the international role as a peace keeper envisioned by Lester B. Pearson. It is the concept of rights and freedoms of Pierre E. Trudeau. Nobody can lead unless they know where they are going.

And how good do you feel when you consider the current leaders of Canada’s political parties? Who convinces you of the better world we can gain? You do not have to look far ahead. You only vote for your MP every four years or so. What can they accomplish for you in that term of office? How much do you trust the leader the MP follows?

Maybe you have to start with what you want for you and for your family. In your lifetime, you might only get to help choose your federal government about 20 times. You really need to make each vote count.

And what do you want? Is it the selfish wish for lower taxes without understanding what federal funds do for you, your family, your friends and your fellow Canadians? Is it the pledge of smaller government when you have no idea what those people in federal offices are doing for you and your fellow Canadians?

Are the politicians offering you slogans instead of a more solid future? Are they really capable of fighting global warming? Are our airplanes as safe as they should be? Are our roads safe?

And why do we not have high-speed electric trains riding Sir John A’s bands of steel? It saves the environment. It saves money. It brings our country together.

If we are lucky, we should be seeing leadership contests for all parties over the next couple years. Would that only people with vision apply.

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Ontario offers the bland and the pit bull.

January 7, 2020 by Peter Lowry

We are still a while from knowing the slate of candidates for the federal conservative party leadership, but there are two Ontario MPs lining up their teams. They are Erin O’Toole from Durham and Pierre Poilievre from Carleton. I think of them as the bland and the pit bull.

Erin O’Toole is so bland that he came third behind Andrew Scheer and Maxime Bernier in the last conservative leadership race. As the party is going to repeat the foolishness of a preferential ballot, he has to figure that he has a good shot at the leadership this time. You do that in preferential voting by being the second, third or fourth choice of most of the voters.

He is obviously good at mathematics and that must have been why the Canadian air force trained him as a navigator. As a lawyer, he seems to have had little interest in pleading cases and most of his time as a lawyer was spent advising corporate clients.

Between O’Toole and Poilievre, it will be the Ottawa-area based Poilievre who will get most of the media attention. I am hardly the first person to equate him to a pit bull but I feel that comparing him to a pit bull is giving pit bulls a bum rap.

When Ontario tried to ban pit bulls in 2005 (the law is still on the books), it found that pit bulls are not just a single breed. When you have a bad-tempered dog, the first thing you should do is check the owner. Ask whether the dog has been trained, at all? Is it used to being around young people? Should it be muzzled when out in public?

Poilievre was former PM Stephen Harper’s pit bull. He was as nasty as his master. He often seemed to have neither respect for the truth nor any respect for parliament. I think the conservatives would be better off if the party kept him muzzled when out in public.

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