Category: New

How Shallow These Mortals Be.

by Peter Lowry

It tells a story. All by itself, once more, the talent of Time magazine comes to the fore. It tells tales of these terrible times. Yet it ignores the wars, their rape and pillage, their lack of decency or honour. It tells you that the person of the year is Taylor Swift. Could they have been more appropriately shallow in their assessment?

But are these not shallow times? Could we tolerate the brief dictators and right-wing politicos who ravage and destroy their neighbours. Is the destruction of Gaza such a trivial event? Is the bloodletting in the Ukraine just last year’s horror? The bombs and rockets and drones are targeting civilians, the working man and woman who seek but a decent life for themselves and their children? Must the next generation be killed at the same time?

And have we succumbed to the indecency of letting our elected leaders take second place to the prurient symbols of Hollywood—where the writers went on strike. And in these times of artificial intelligence, nobody noticed.

Are we using care in selecting our politicians?

Is Vladimir Putin to continue to stand on the bodies of his country. Who speaks for the Russian people—praying for those relations dying to please Putin? Who stands tall with Volodymyr Zelenskyy to deny Putin his land grab, his one-upping of the Holodomor of Josef Stalin.

And who cries out to the Sheiks and Mullahs and Emirs and other pretenders of the Arab world to stop funding the crazed Muslim extremists such as Hamas and Hezbollah. And what will become of their peoples when the desert sands cease to give up their oil riches? Will there still be pilgrimages to Mecca by the world’s Muslims and guilt trips to Jerusalem by the Jewish diaspora?

And who can rein in Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu? Will there ever be an Israeli prime minister who can convince the Arab world that Jews can live peacefully side by side with their neighbours.?

It certainly would not happen in another regime of Donald Trump in America nor the growing strength of the right-wing loonies in Europe. The Christian Christmas is a time of love and peace and understanding.

And who the hell is Taylor Swift?

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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Ford Wrong Twice.

by Peter Lowry

Anyone in Ontario who has voted for premier Doug Ford should be embarrassed. This guy can’t get it right, no matter how hard he tries. Did you hear that he is trying to find a way to get out of dissolving Peel Region. He promised my friend Hazel MacCallion on her death bed that Mississauga would be separated from Peel Region.

But now he wants out. Separating Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon creates impossible costs for each of the three new municipalities. That was obvious from day one. What seems to be missing in all these political shenanigans is some common sense. The only way there are major cost savings to be seen is to amalgamate Brampton with Mississauga and return Caledon to the status of a rural municipality as part of one of the bordering regional jurisdictions—either Dufferin or Wellington.

The worst problem in this situation is mayor Patrick Brown in Brampton. He obviously saw the split up of Peel as a possible win for him. What he is finding out is that for the first time in his life, he would have to do some hard work. The reality is that Brampton has been growing over the years through its proximity to Mississauga. It is now, become an integrated community with Mississauga. And amalgamation with Mississauga is the only practical answer. That is where efficiencies are possible.

My only concern in this situation is that Bonnie Crombie has taken on the task of rebuilding the Ontario liberal party. The thought of Patrick Brown becoming the mayor of the newly integrated city of Mississauga/Brampton is frightening.

I first met Patrick when I had moved to Barrie in 2004. He wanted to shake my hand and I wanted to know what he wanted. As a do-nothing conservative, he did not impress this progressive liberal. It turned out that he was what is known as a retail politician. All his effort goes into getting elected. It was how he finally got elected to the Harper conservative government where he embarrassed Barrie as a do-nothing member of parliament.

But I have followed his career closely over the years. I was one of the few who recognized that his contacts with the Indian diaspora could win him the leadership of the Ontario conservatives. It was obvious to me that those who encouraged those young ladies to complain about him and brought about his downfall as Ontario leader were from within his own party. They knew what a bad leader he would be.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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The Common Man?

by Peter Lowry

As the farmer who spreads manure over his fields, Canada’s federal opposition leader lays it on for his party’s right-wing supporters.  It is why Pierre Poilievre would feel at home with the right-wing C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto. While there would be no doubt that Clarence Decatur Howe helped Canada’s Mackenzie-King liberals launch Trans-Canada Airlines (Air Canada) and get through the Second World War, the institute named after him caters to the business interests to whom the MIT trained Howe paid homage.

What was incongruous in Poilievre’s address to the institute recently was his posturing as a man of the people. He does not know those whom he pretends to hold dear. He might have left the business people in the audience in the dark about how he would do it, yet, he promised them a pared down government that would cut government spending.

He made it clear—to the delight of his audience—that he is on-side with free-market capitalism. He was, as usual, down on the economics of the Trudeau government. He told the audience, hopefully to some surprise, that life in Canada today is a “living hell for working class Canadians.”  He forgot to point to the food industry people in the audience as part of the reason that the current demands on food banks were exceeding the food banks’ capabilities to satisfy.

It was surprising though that he made his usual spurious attack on the liberal government’s carbon tax. He accused the institute supporters who pay the tax of carelessly passing it on to the working class. Since the tax is not a tax in the usual sense of the word, it is returned in its entirety to the working class to provide them with some lessening of the pain of the prices effected.  Poilievre promised the business people that he will quickly put an end to that nonsense, should he become prime minister.

He further told the business people that a government under his direction will put an emphasis on accelerating access to Canada’s mineral wealth. That is the same hollow promise you can hear in any party’s platform.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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Seeds of Civil War.

by Peter Lowry

Recently I wrote that I was tired of writing about Donald Trump. He was boring everybody. That was until he started entertaining his followers with how he intended to use Americans against Americans. This man might be a compulsive liar and a damn fool but the prospect of a second American civil war is not good news. It is when Donald Trump refers to New York and Chicago as “crime dens.” He promises to treat those cities differently if he can get back into the White House. He intends to use the U.S. Army—and not to give shooting lessons.

What was surprising in Trump’s complaint about the two major democratic cities was that he was complaining about the number of shootings. He told his audience about the number of shootings that took place and the number of fatalities. At first, I thought he was complaining that the shooters were not very accurate. It was just surprising how few of the shootings were fatal.

But any military expert can tell you that wounded enemy soldiers are even better than dead as they become non-combatants and take up medical resources.

And since the United States already has more guns in civilian hands than the military—and, in fact, by a factor of almost 20 to one, it could be a very bad scene.

Mind you, judging by the mental acuity of your typical Trump supporter in America, I would not want to be the bookmaker taking odds on the outcome.

Looking at the logistics for the Trump side, would be the problem of militarizing the American borders. Wide spread rioting and looting in major cities could be out of control very quickly. Elements both north and south of those borders would want to get in on some of that action and the situation would get quickly out of control.

But that is Donald Trump for you, always out of control.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

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Co-opting COP.

by Peter Lowry

We should not be amused. This year’s United Nations conference on climate change has brought the foxes into the hen house. Whomever chose Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as a place for the conference must have a strange sense of humour. It is like getting the foxes to set the price for eggs.

And just how much do these members of the Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC) know about global warming? Maybe the global warming is not as serious in the desert countries of the Middle East. Floods and wildfires might not be much of an everyday problem. And why would another degree or so of temperature extremes bother a Bedouin?

They probably think those of us of European origin as wusses who should stay out of the kitchen.

But what the Hell are all those oil company people from Alberta doing in Dubai?

I have to compliment David Climenhaga of Canada’s Progressive Bloggers for his efforts to explain why that dingbat, Alberta premier and her entourage are enjoying the scenic sights of the United Arab Emirates this December. Taking that bunch of Neanderthals from their reserved seats in Calgary and Edmonton Petroleum Clubs is the most egregious waste of public funds I have heard of in many a day.

I used to enjoy Alberta, not only when I was stationed there in the air force, but of the many fun times when visiting the province on business and pleasure and for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. I will never forget one time when visiting Calgary, I was doing some late-night editorial work at the Calgary Herald offices and being unable to get a cab back to the Calgary Inn. It was a long but brisk walk at minus 35 degrees.

Another memory of Calgary was a conference of business executives at the time that John Turner had left the Pierre Trudeau cabinet in a bit of a huff. They had shut the door on the meeting room so that John could tell us how he really felt. After he, as expected, maligned Mr. Trudeau and most of his staff, I walked up to John at the podium, waved a reporter’s pad at him and asked him if I should give it to my friends in the Calgary media. It was the first time in years of knowing John, he was speechless.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

Crowning Cinderella.

by Peter Lowry

It took time. It took patience, but Ontario has a new party leader for its liberals. The television networks missed some great programming opportunities in the finale. For all its weaknesses, the stupid balloting system played into the party’s hands. It proved that the liberal party is a progressive, centre-left party.

If you didn’t hear Bonnie Crombie’s acceptance speech, you missed a good one. It was light, it was homey, it was appreciative and it looked at the road ahead. What she told the liberals is that there is a lot of work to do and she was there to do the job.          

The bad news of the finale in the race was that Crombie was only a few points ahead of the somewhat maverick Nate Erskine-Smith. It told her she needs to be freer in her leadership style. It told her that old style politics was not going to cut it. It told her that there was a need for new approaches to the old questions.

Of major concern was the fact that some 30,000 votes were cast out of a potential of over 100,000. That is bad news and the lady has a tough task ahead of her. First, she has to get the party to change its approach to fund-raising. She knows that there is nothing better than direct fund raising to those with the money. You cannot use the party worker lists as your political automated teller machine (ATM). That does not work.

Second, the party has to start training its supporters in door-knocking. They need to start as soon as possible in the new year. It is great if the members want to support the party with some money but they are really needed out there selling the party and its plans and what it offers our citizens. And they need to be trained in door-knocking in the coming election.

Third, the party has to work with its present and potential electable possibilities. They need to be assuring their voters in the coming election of their working for them.

They hardly need to be showing the voters that the Ford conservatives will keep making mistakes. They can do that without anyone’s help. The new leader and her party have to get the voters excited about the possibilities.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Mad Math of Moralists.

by Peter Lowry

They’re back. The blue stocking crowd are weighing in on the prospect of having alcohol more available in Ontario. It is called convenience. Having alcoholic beverages available in convenience stores is a red flag to those who disapprove of booze. If we can have cannabis stores on every street corner in our towns and cities, what the heck is wrong with catering to those of us who prefer booze?

What annoyed me the other day was an assistant professor writing an op-ed in the Toronto Star used studious-sounding statistics to prove that the province would lose tax money to let booze be sold through convenience stores. I really doubt that he needs to tell the province how to raise more tax money. They are already doing that very well, thank you.

What the province is not doing well is taking very good care of our health system. If you listen to researchers to often, you find that there are many foods and beverages that can make you sick or destroy your liver. There are also those that can give you cancer or maybe enable you the get run over by a truck. And it really is amazing that foods touted as beneficial one year are denounced the following year. We never seem to make up our minds.

But for those such as the Ottawa assistant professor, the convenience of being able to buy booze at your corner convenience store is too much. It is, he pronounces, bound to “put an enormous burden on the health system.” Oh well, everything puts a burden on our health system.

What I cannot fathom in this diatribe in favour of abstaining from consuming alcohol is how he determines that the Ontario government is going to give up a substantial amount of tax revenue by allowing booze in convenience stores. He thinks this weakening of resolve to restrict the sale of booze is going to cost the government revenue. Just how that works was not explained.

In addition, the writer complains that the government seems to have been convinced of this loosening the reins by alcohol industry stakeholders. He says that the one (?) study of what Ontario citizens want has not been released.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

And a Very Merry to Alberta.

by Peter Lowry

Alberta’s Looney-Toons premier must have gotten away from her keepers again. She has used her screw-ball Alberta Sovereignty in a United Canada Act to forbid Alberta’s provincial agencies from obeying a federal law that does not yet exist. That should leave us relieved for a while. When you consider that the provincial police in Alberta are just recently trained federal law officers, it could contribute many more laughs at the expense of Alberta citizens.

Alberta premier Danielle Smith has an excuse. She believes that provincial agencies have to obey the provincial laws. If you have any idea how much it costs to defend an action at the Supreme Court of Canada, you might help find an adult who can convince the premier to back off.

Sure, creating electrical systems and selling electricity is a provincial responsibility but what the province puts into our air is obviously a federal responsibility. The federal government realizes we have to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions.

You might have to speak slowly and use simple words but someone has to tell that Alberta premier that fun time is over. Global warming is serious. Carbon-based fuels that contribute to getting excessive carbon into the atmosphere of our planet can make human life here much shorter than we would like it to be. It is also contributing to the large number of wildfires that are destroying the forested beauty of Alberta. It also contributes to freaky floods.

I am sorry to tell you this but someone in Alberta has to tell the people exploiting the tar sands that they have to start cutting back on their obviously noble effort to get every last bit of bitumen out of Alberta. And don’t even bother us with that crap about carbon capture and storage. It is simply bull shit. All it can do is bring up more bitumen. Why would anyone want to get involved in that game?

And Mr. Trudeau’s Trans Mountain pipeline is his problem. There is no way the Canadian government can recoup the billions wasted on that bit of federal generosity—that was never recognized in Alberta anyway.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

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The Tiring Trail of Trump.

by Peter Lowry

As a political commentator, I am tired of Donald Trump. He is no longer a mystery. He bores us. He barely holds the draw of Pierre Poilievre in Canada. Even the Donald’s lies are boring. His histrionics are wasted. He is old news.

But don’t ask any of the Donald’s supporters south of the 49th Parallel. They are blind to his faults and ignorant of his objectives. Would you believe they think he is going to make America great again? So why does he have to pull it down first?

Yet there appears to be a drift. Very gradually, the Donald’s lustre is fading. There are American Republicans looking around, casually, wondering what the flavour of the month could be next November?

Like Pierre Poilievre here, the right wing of the political divide can neither be believed nor be trusted. Just the other day when news broke about the strange event at the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls, Poilievre rushed to the news media saying it was a reported terrorist attack and then lectured a Canadian Press reporter on accuracy in reporting.

Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau was sitting back and waiting for more information. The breaking news on my computer had to do a lot of back-tracking that day. And thank goodness most of the panicked response was on the American side of the bridge. In fact, the entire event and the panic was on the American side.

And Mr. Poilievre had egg on his face, again for being obnoxious with the media.

The problem is that Canadians do not have the certainty of Americans on just when the election will take place. Mr. Trump can plot with confidence that the presidential election will be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November next year which will be November 5, 2024.

If Mr. Trump can stay out of jail until then, he just might have a better chance to really defeat Joe Biden.  As it is, he has more than enough legal problems to keep him answering for them until he is 100.  

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

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The Enigma in the Lake.

by Peter Lowry

There was dancing in the streets of Toronto the other day. Doug Ford had capitulated. He has taken responsibility for the highways through the city. He has promised cash in the billions to fund the city’s needs. It was manna, not from heaven, but from Queen’s Park. And all the premier asked in return was to control the former artificial islands of Ontario Place. There is something very strange about the deal.

Doug Ford is a boor, a schemer and a conservative. He has made no secret of despising Toronto’s NDP-affiliated mayor. They are not friends. He put others ahead of her in the land rush version of a by-election. He was disappointed when she won. And yet, he gave into all her demands but one. He kept the foreign spa down on Lake Ontario.

There is a strange imbalance in this. Doug Ford might not be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree at Queen’s Park. He just played a huge role as Santa Claus. What conservative Mike Harris down-loaded on Toronto when he was premier, back at the turn of the century, has been restored with interest.

The NDPers on Toronto council are ecstatic. They literally have money to burn—and they probably will. They have money for new housing. They can fix some of the dilapidated transit system. They can dig up some more major streets and turn the city into permanent gridlock for car and truck drivers. They even closed off the city’s grand boulevard, University Avenue, to replace a water pipe reputed to be 150 years old. The avenue will take years to be restored.

But down at the lake shore, there is trouble brewing. Doug Ford has some strange fascination with an imperial spa. He is lucky if he can spell ‘spa.’ I doubt he wants it built for his wife and daughters. Or is this one of those unisex spas?

What puzzles us is that we have no idea why this spa is so important to the premier. It was easy to see why he would give some developer friends an $8 billion gift in the Greenbelt. Those were the good guys as far as Doug Ford was concerned. They got him elected premier. They paved the road for Ford to Queen’s Park with gold.

Do those man-made islands on the lake shore explain the mysteries of Oak Island?

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]