Category: New

Where Agents Get Their Info.

by Peter Lowry

It was about 35 years ago and I was introduced to an agent of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Quebec. It was during a break in a business conference in Quebec City and I trusted the person who introduced us. We had a fascinating conversation. My experience in such subjects had only been with the Toronto Police and the RCMP. This guy was low-key and modest, despite his American accent.

The most challenging question I asked him was where he got most of the information that he reported to his Langley, Virginia headquarters. His easy answer was that he got it from our newspapers, and I believed him. He didn’t need to add that conferences such as the one we were at would also supply information.

What author Ian Fleming tended to forget in his 007 thrillers is that in times of peace the most important information of interest to foreign agents is about trade and technology. No doubt any indications of political change need to also be analyzed in terms of what it might mean to the agent’s country.

At the time, I was working for the Canadian subsidiary of an American company that manufactured and sold high level computers for such tasks as seismic analysis of reserves in oil fields. Part of my work was the greeting, escorting and management of the presentations for visiting customers who wanted to see our Canadian plant and learn more about the products we were making here. There were frequent groups coming from the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese reciprocated for my company’s courtesy by inviting me or one of my staff to consular and embassy functions for their other trade groups. They also bought some of our computers.

It is hardly a surprise today to hear of the increased size of the Chinese consulate in Toronto or the embassy in Ottawa. Nor does it surprise me that this blog has a large number of regular readers in China according to Google Analytics. None of it is a surprise when you consider Canada is an important trading partner and is a favoured country for people from China seeking new opportunities and a new home. This is furthered by the fact that there are large communities of ethnic Chinese here to welcome them.

While carefully reading the recent complaints about possible Chinese government interference in Canadian elections, I would sincerely doubt that there is very much to it. You can be sure that Althia Raj writes more information of interest to the Chinese government for the Toronto Star than any backbencher in our parliament can supply. Frankly, I don’t think the People’s Republic of China would waste money on Canada’s democratic elections—a process in which they are not overly familiar.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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A Shout-Out for Poilievre.

by Peter Lowry

The former Manning Conference had a special guest this year, former prime minister Stephen Harper. Much of Harper’s effort at the conference was to try to knit together old and new conservative supporters. He even told the audience of conservatives of some of the mistakes that Pierre Poilievre has been making.

He pointed out that the current requirement for the opposition leader is to hold the government to account, not to tell them what he would do as prime minister.  It was also amusing when the former prime minister referred to the NDP as a branch plant of the liberal government.

This was a new Stephen Harper. He set aside his old vendetta with Preston Manning, founder of the Reform Party. The two had argued years ago over the direction of the reform movement. He had also resisted Manning’s control over the back bench but used the same techniques when he was leader of the Conservative Party of Canada which included the former Reform. The two were almost chummy when they did a combined fireside chat shtick at the conference.

The new name of the annual event is the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference. It seems most older conservatives prefer to refer to it by its earlier and simpler name as the Manning Networking Conference.

It seems that Mr. Harper thinks that Pierre Poilievre is scorned in the same way as anti-establishment conservatives such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were scorned in their day. Neither of them had any credentials in economics either.

Mind you, if that is the case, there is no earthly reason for Poilievre to be elected anywhere. Just because he is as confused as those two, is absolutely no reason for him to be elected.

And it should be further noted that Mr. Harper is not as universally loved and respected as he would like to be either.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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A Progressive for Toronto Mayor.

by Peter Lowry

It has been confirmed that MPP Mitzie Hunter is getting ready to officially enter the race for the Toronto mayoralty. In a constantly growing field of candidates, Mitzie is going all in. She will enter the official list late as she has to resign as member of the provincial parliament for Scarborough-Guildwood first.

The good news for Mitzie is that the conservative organizations in Toronto have failed to contain the right wing. They were hoping to be able to focus on one particular candidate on the right. That hope is past, judging by the field of right-wing candidates that have already announced.

There is likely to be over two dozen candidates on the June 26 ballot. It is described by some of the experienced election pundits as a free-for-all. Someone can win with just 25 per cent of the vote. And if less than 50 per cent of Toronto voters go to the polls on June 26, that makes this a crap shoot.

With Mitzie in the race, Queen’s Park’s loss can be Toronto’s gain. She has a BA from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management. She has a solid background in Toronto’s needs from serving as head of CIVIC Action and as administrative head of Toronto Community Housing.

There is no doubt that Mitzie can address the current issues facing Toronto and she can make a major impact on Toronto’s future. It is also to Toronto’s advantage to have someone who knows the language and buttons to press at Queen’s Park to correct some of the imbalance in funding for the city. She can also count on a good reception with the current government in Ottawa for some of Toronto’s special needs.

I believe Mitzie has a good grasp of the importance of Toronto to the rest of the province and to Canada. The city has always been absorbing more that its mathematical share of the newcomers to Canada, and it has used their skills and industry well.

Mitzie will be sure to win if progressives from across Toronto get behind her. Don’t wait for her to call you. As soon as her Mitzie Hunter campaign headquarters are announced, call and get out there in your ward to help her.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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A Palace to Profit.

by Peter Lowry

Driving to an appointment with my family doctor the other day, I noticed a new and very fancy building nearing completion down the road from the doctor’s office. The sign was already on the building and it is one of the private clinics that Ontario premier Doug Ford has been promising Ontario. This private clinic is for cataracts and other eye surgery and it has obviously been planned for a while.

Thinking about that clinic near my doctor’s office makes an interesting comparison. Family practices are currently having a hard time meeting their expenses each month and ophthalmologists have been making out like bandits. Obviously, there will be a lot of expensive equipment in that building but that modern equipment enables the doctors to do in minutes what used to be an hour and more of delicate surgery. With assembly-line-like cataract surgery, Ontario’s ophthalmologists are fast-tracked millionaires.

And the problem rests with the government and the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). The stranglehold that the specialists have on the OMA is unfair to the general practitioners. Nobody is saying that specialists do not deserve something extra for the long internships required, but a difference that can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year between the specialist and the general practitioner is not only vulgar but unnecessary.

But it is not just the Medicare payments to these private clinics that are the concern. For too long now, our ophthalmologists have been loading on non-Medicare charges. These specialists have been hawking expensive lens to seniors who can ill afford them and they do little to their benefit. Older people are often of the school that believes in doing what the doctor recommends. And who really wants to say ‘no’ to someone who will be using a laser on their eyes.

It is not so hard to imagine under the Ford government, that we could have private surgeries with an array of extra cost titanium hips and joints for replacement parts on sale. And imagine what you could sell in the way of baby merchandise at a private birthing clinic. Medical doctors can also be entrepreneurial.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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The Ethnic Wars.

by Peter Lowry

Despite the headaches it involved, I often thought it would be interesting to write a book about the ethnic battles for political advantage in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) from 1950 through to the 21st Century. I lived it. I was part of it. I won some and lost some. What has held me back is too many of the transgressors are still alive and they have maybe a bit of their pride left to protect.

The ethnic wars were never a fair fight. My first direct involvement was the Davenport liberal nominating convention in 1968. It was a marker. My role was as an observer. About 5000 people gathered at the horse palace at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds. I learned a lot. The voting process was slow. There were multiple ballots. The final winner was a young Italian immigrant, Charles Caccia. The joke going around was that he won the nomination and went home and painted his house while waiting for the election He served 36 years as MP for Toronto-Davenport.

I always thought the worst and most out-of-control meetings was the one I chaired in St. Catherines-Ontario in 1968. The most impressive of meetings was one in an arena in New Hamburg, Ontario that did not matter. It was not needed because we knew the election was to be called under the old boundaries the following week. The guest speaker was MP Gene Whalen and he was at his funniest for the area farmers. He said they couldn’t have Pierre Trudeau or John Turner as speakers. He said Pierre sent him because he was living proof that anyone can get elected as a liberal.

Skipping to one of the last, was the 1985 Toronto-Fort York nomination meeting in the Toronto Congress Centre, that was a classic ethnic event. It was the first time we had a candidate of Chinese ancestry with a chance to win the riding. The only problem was that Bob Wong was born in Canada and spoke neither Cantonese nor Mandarin. Rather than being a candidate for the Chinese community, Bob was a representative from the Bay Street community, that was also part of Fort York electoral district.

Nice guys are supposed to finish last but we made Bob the exception. They are not going to have a ‘Welcome Back Peter’ event at the Toronto Congress Centre if I ever try to rent space there. We finished multiple ballots after two AM, and sending buses up and down Spadina Avenue and through Chinatown to pick up people who looked Chinese and wanted to vote. I thought we had given it all away when the buses brought a couple loads from the Toronto Mandarin Club, where they were having a formal event, in tuxedos and evening gowns.

But I am not going to tell you how we squeaked through in the actual election. I’m not sure if there is a statute of limitations on provincial elections.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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

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Mitzie For Mayor!

by Peter Lowry

Not knowing liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter, she has already earned my support for mayor of Toronto. Mitzie is planning to be in Hamilton for the liberal party annual convention on the weekend, promoting the “one-member, one-vote” change in the party’s constitution. Having been one of the insiders who used to take part in running delegated conventions, I can certainly attest to the unfairness and undemocratic nature of those events.

I am not apologizing for my participation, because, at the time, we had no alternative method to select party leaders. To keep things lively for the news media, we did not consider mail-in ballots. Besides, we needed the publicity and the money those conventions raised for the party. It was the advent of the internet and its wide-spread availability in Ontario that provides a fast and effective way to let every member of the party have a vote.

And as Mitzie wrote for the news media “the one member, one-vote system is not only more democratic but ultimately leads to a stronger party organization.”

But the party delegates at this convention need to be wary of attempts to weight the vote or to rank their ballots. Both of these allow for easy manipulation of the vote. For true one-member, one-vote to work, stick to your guns.

You should remember that preferential ballots and riding weighting were the undoing of the federal conservatives when they chose Andrew Scheer and then Erin O’Toole as their party leaders.

First of all, preferential voting, with a strong field, tends to count down to the least aggressive candidates. Party leaders need to be aggressive.

And weighting ridings is about the dumbest idea in a democratic vote imaginable. Nobody in politics really believes that all electoral districts are equal. Weighting means that the choices of the stronger ridings are diluted with the opinions of weak ridings. In politics, always go with your strengths. Go Mitzie!

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Poilievre Panders to Péquistes.

by Peter Lowry

Not much is heard from the federal conservative leader these days. He is letting some of his conservative MPs take the heat. He can let his Quebec lieutenant, Pierre Paul-Hus MP, tell the House of Commons that his conservatives support the bigotry of the Quebec government. This is not what Poilievre has been saying but he obviously wants to have it both ways. He wants English Canada to think he wants fair treatment for Anglophones in Quebec, while Quebec voters think he backs their National Assembly’s bigotry.

It reminds you of Prime Minister Mackenzie-King’s stance on conscription in the Second World War. It was something like ‘conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription.’ It did not work for the war-time prime minister and it would hardly work today.

The problem in Quebec today is that the CAQ government of François Legault has gone overboard in restricting English language use, to match its religious bigotry. This is just getting even as far as many seniors and farmers feel but the world has passed them by. It is the young people who think it is silly. The Legault government has annoyed them by restricting their access to, and use of English. They consider it to be sophisticated to speak both English and French. They want to travel the world and experience what it has to offer. They are not impressed with just the Francophonie with its world population smaller than that of the United States of America.

What the Legault government does not realize is that they are hurting the long term economic prospects of their own province. They have already hurt the prospects of Montreal as being a world city. As a bilingual city, Montreal had many opportunities to become the dominant Canadian city in world shipping and banking. Losing that position to Toronto and Vancouver was a process heightened by the Quebec péquistes. The Legault government is just accelerating building a wall around Quebec.

It seems to me that if I was a prominent member of the Trudeau cabinet and an MP from Quebec, I would look for speaking opportunities at Quebec universities and lay it on the line to the students. The Legault government is trying to deny them full access to the world. And that quisling Poilievre would aid Legault.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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

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Doug Ford’s Besties.

by Peter Lowry

Has the label business been slipping lately? Has the Ford family fallen on hard times? One of the premier’s daughters had a wedding celebration last year and it is surprising that the happy couple have so many close friends in the business of urban development.  Frankly, I wish I had thought of having a stag and doe party before my wedding, with an ask for up to $1000 per seat with a minimum of $150.

Of course, Doug Ford tells us that his family has been involved in politics for over 30 years and knows hundreds of developers. It certainly is amazing that developers would be major users of adhesive labels. We know that the groom is a police officer and there are unlikely to be many developers on that side of the aisle.

Where Doug Ford must have met all these developers is at Toronto city hall. Toronto city hall should put a bounty on developers to solve the budget shortfall. The developers and their lawyers clutter the halls and meeting rooms of city hall. They are underfoot everywhere. The Ford Nation of Rob and Doug Ford spent four years together at Toronto city hall. And we now have Doug Ford with all his BFFs paying for his daughter’s wedding.

But hold it. Let’s not get carried away here. Doug Ford tells us that the wedding is a private event. He even had the provincial integrity commissioner agree with him that if he has no idea of where all this money came from, then there is no ethical question.

But to be fair to the premier, weddings are expensive these days. The premier is only paid $200,000 a year. Is it his fault he has so many daughters to marry off?

And it might be odd that so many of his best friends who are in the development business have received ministerial zoning orders for land in Ontario’s Greenbelt. And maybe it is coincidental that so much of this Greenbelt land, that is being swapped, is next to serviced land.

It is probably about time the integrity commissioner learned to ask the right questions.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Poilievre’s Plan.

by Peter Lowry

The secret is out. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has been telling his fellow conservatives his secret strategy to win the country. The fact that it is the same strategy as promoted, by then federal conservative, Jason Kenney, a dozen years ago, is beside the point. It involves, first of all, getting out the naturally conservative voters. The next part is convincing new Canadian voters that their future is assured by voting for the conservative party. It is the same strategy that won Stephen Harper a majority in 2011.

One thing I will admit is that the conservatives are much better at getting out their naturally self-centred vote today than they were back in the 1960s. That was when liberal communications specialists such as myself were making sure that we had good connections in the immigrant communities and we understood their concerns. I figure the liberals were running about 50 years ahead of the conservatives back then.

The problem that was building for the liberals, at the time, was that the CCF/NDP had been eroding the progressive vote, The conservatives were coming out in control of the rural vote but losing in the cities which were absorbing the high volumes of new immigrants.

What was wrong with the liberal strategy in the back half of the 20th Century was that right-wing liberals such as John Turner and Paul Martin Junior damaged the liberal’s progressive image and voters saw little difference between the conservative and liberal parties.

What is really wrong with the Poilievre strategy is that he is still locked in his Albertan image. Despite running in an Ottawa area constituency, Pierre Poilievre is an Albertan at heart. He has absolutely no concern for the environment that he cares to discuss and he sees prime minister Justin Trudeau as the evil enemy.

Poilievre sees the liberal handouts throughout the pandemic as a deliberate plot to bankrupt the country rather than an honest effort to soften the blows of COVID-19.

And how he will overcome his open support of the ‘Freedom Convoy’ to Ottawa in the winter of 2022 has yet to be discussed with Canadian voters? And he is going to be continued to be mocked for his support of cryptocurrencies.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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A Toot to the Past.

by Peter Lowry

What the liberals take away, the Tories can replace and the cost be damned. The Ontario Northlander rail service from Toronto to Timmins and Cochrane is expected to be back in service within the next three years. While the service is certainly needed despite the subsidies required from the province, the government of the day is looking backwards instead of forward. They are spending for the benefit to be in time for the next provincial election instead of the long term needs of Northern Ontario.

When the clear direction of Ontario is to electrify commuter and regional train services, the conservatives want to add three more diesel trains to the mix at a cost of $139 million. At the same time, they are spending additional funds on track upgrades and stations. This would have been the ideal time to electrify the line.

With the planned 16 stations over the 700 kilometres, it is an ideal application for a higher speed electrical service. The time savings alone would draw people away from the up to nine-hour trip by automobile.

The Northlander has a noble history. It had been in service for 110 years when the Kathleen Wynne government axed it as a cost saving measure. I once spent some time in Timmins and visited one of the still operating gold mines. I realized then the wealth that the Northlander has contributed to Ontario over many years. Watching the liquid gold pouring into the moulds is quite impressive.

My only conclusion on this Northlander business is that the Ford conservatives must have their hard little hearts set on winning some Northern Ontario seats in the next Ontario election. It is unlikely they can offset the seats they are going to lose in the Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to:[email protected]