Category: New

The Other Kind of Truss.

by Peter Lowry

They never learn, do they? They are a never-ending line of false economists preaching the same fool’s gospel. They could be a Reagan, a Thatcher, a Truss or a Poilievre. They all preach the same drivel: “Get aboard our freedom wagons. Just bring money.”

 They preach smaller, less caring government, fewer regulations and open markets. They want tax cuts for the rich that can be paid for later. The working stiffs will inevitably pay the bills. The rich will just get richer.

And what do you think of this new girl in town in Westminster? Her first act as prime minister in the United Kingdom was tax cuts for people earning more than £150,000 per year. She said the money lost to the Treasury can be borrowed and paid back later—much later. The hew and cry for her head on a pike, the imploding pound, the economy tanking, convinced her of the error of her ways.

But the Brits never learn. Ever since the stupidity of Brexit, the world has watched the once-proud country’s economy dance on the head of a pin. And the last vestige of stability on the island has been laid to rest. Long live the king?

But England’s Truss is no different from the false gods before her or those who will trail after her. She was amazed at the outcry for her head. She withdrew her crowning gesture. She said she was not that kind of girl.

But what about this loud-mouth in Canada, Pierre Poilievre. He thinks he should replace a prime minister who has yet to give up his training wheels. Poilievre preaches freedom. He promises small government, low taxes, less waste on those unworthy of patronage. He promises a Bitcoin economy in a land where the central bank knuckles under to political direction.    

And the poor will pay the cost of an economy written for the rich. It is the new freedom that he promises the rabble-rousers, the trouble makers, the anti-vaxxers, the anti-immigrants, the bigots—and the youth who do not understand the extent of the freedom they already have.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Troubled Paradise.

by Peter Lowry

It was a triumvirate of Bitove, Rivett and Peterson. The two young entrepreneurs and their eminence gris, David Peterson, the former premier of Ontario. Jordan Bitove, fresh from his family’s success in bringing the Toronto Raptors to Toronto and their NBA championship, and Paul Rivett, the hardnosed investment whiz, with their lawyer taking over the history laden Toronto Star—not a newspaper person among them. It was failure in the making.

But what a way to go. Newspaper exposés. Dramatic war coverage in Ukraine. Eulogizing a queen. In depth coverage of Canadian politics. All in a newspaper bleeding red ink. Add an on-line casino to the mix to get some positive cash flow.

Did you not think that was a funny way to run a family newspaper?

And tell us this; Is it cheaper to tell a few stories at great length or to tell many stories in shorter lengths?

Hey, I was betting for them. And I knew to stay away from their casino.

There must have been lots of special deals to get all those causes to take full-page ads in the daily paper.  

But I think that Mr. Rivett has finally got the message that a daily newspaper is a money pit. Every day, you have to shovel in more money to keep it running. The first hundred years are tough. The second hundred years are tougher. And once you stop, there is no easy way to restart it.

Part of the problem is the constant advancement of technology. A hundred years ago radio was going to replace newspapers. And 60 years ago, television was going to replace radio and newspapers. Now we hear that the Internet is replacing newspaper, radio and television.

But the technology cannot verify accuracy. There’s a confidence people build into the information they learn from print media as opposed to broadcast. It is also why broadcast media will spend money and time building up the legitimacy of their reporters, columnists and news anchors.

And as Mr. Bitove and Mr. Revitt have found out, there are no overnight answers to profitability in such a complex business.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Dreamed-of Day-Care.

by Peter Lowry

It looks like out of all his missteps over the summer the most serious for Ontario parents was when premier Doug Ford gave the $10-A-Day Care file to MPP Stephen Lecce. The education minister has likely only been to a day-care as a politician looking for a photo op. Ford picked a person with no sympathies or understanding of what day-care is all about.

And the conservative government is reaping what it sowed. They are always so hung up on their credo that for-profit is better than not for-profit. They have been catering to the for-profit daycares. They are changing the federal government plan to please the 30 per cent of for-profit daycares that have signed up to participate.

To accommodate for-profits they are rewriting the specifications of what can be paid. It is like when the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ordered a skinny-basic platform of television channels for $25 per month for Canadian subscribers and the Telecoms have been adding charges to it ever since.

Try as you might, finding a $10 per day daycare for your children in Ontario does not seem likely as long as Doug Ford and his education minister are in charge of delivery.

I would really like to tell you more about this but the Toronto Star devoted more than 4000 words to the story along with pictures—the cutest is one of Mr. Lecce playing mini-basketball with someone’s adorable child. So, if you want more of the story, that is where it is. Beside I’ve got a cold and I’m going back to bed.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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The Demeaning of Democracy.

by Peter Lowry

Setting sights on local politics the other day, was a severe disappointment. I was fooled by the democracy Barrie enjoyed with the mayor we had for the past 12 years. I helped Jeff Leman get elected 12 years ago but I guess he didn’t think this has-been was needed when he tried to move up to provincial politics earlier this year. He lost.

I think, if he understood the situation in his electoral district better, he might have won. He took on Doug Ford’s minister of justice without targeting his opponent’s weaknesses. There were no shoo-ins for liberals in that election.

But back to the mayoralty. I did not go to the only candidate meeting near me the other day because it was a small venue and would be crowded. And there were to be no questions. What kind of a political meeting is that?

I read about the meeting in the local digital newspaper the next day. There are two local conservatives running head-to-head for the mayor’s spot in this civic election. Of the seven candidates, three seem to be getting some strong support. Long-time Barrie reporter, Bob Bruton gave over most of his report to Ward 10 councillor, Mike McCann, former conservative MP Alex Nuttall and deputy mayor Barry Ward. Watching Nuttall and Ward when both were on city council was never an exciting event. I have not seen enough of Mike McCann to form an opinion.

Nuttall was just a one-time MP. His support for libertarian Maxime Bernier against Andrew Scheer must have convinced him to quit. It was obvious that he was out of his depth in the nation’s capital. He appeared to make no contribution. With the narrowness of his win in 2014, he obviously did no want to waste the effort in the next election.

Thinking back to Alex Nuttall’s performance when he was a Barrie councillor was also an exercise in uselessness. I never saw where he made a positive contribution in that role either.

Sure, it is easy to come up with the right promises. Mind you, Nuttall takes them all from the conservative handbook. He says he is going to do all the right things while keeping the tax rate down. That is really a promise to do nothing.

Most of the progressives in town tell me they are going along with Barry Ward. They figure he will screw up things the least.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Armed To The Teeth.

by Peter Lowry

Watch what you say in Alberta partner. That province has enough guns to go to war and lacks a sensible government to prevent it. Between the lunatic fringe vying to replace the discredited Jason Kenney as premier and the existing Alberta justice minister Tyler Shandro, they seem to be very confused.

Maybe they are getting too much of that tar sands bitumen in their drinking water. Shandro says the federal government is going to confiscate all the guns. That is an interesting impression of a proposed federal government bill that has only now reached the point of committee study.

Shandro thinks that the federal government is going to have its mounted police (who are paid as Alberta’s provincial police) confiscate some 190,000 guns that are reported to be locked and loaded throughout the province. Well, that is what you get when you offer to buy back the more dangerous weapons. I sure would not want to be the first Mountie to kick in a door to confiscate anyone’s possibly illegal assault weapon.

According to the justice minister, the Alberta government is going to fight any and all firearms prohibition laws. Shandro tells the news media that he has had a letter from federal public safety minister Marco Mendicino saying that his provincial RCMP will be required to start confiscating guns later this year. Maybe, in Alberta, the schools do not teach the difference between a buy-back program and confiscation?

It would be possible to disregard Mr. Shandro if it was not for Danielle Smith. Ms. Smith seems to be the front runner in the race to replace Jason Kenney as leader of the united conservatives and premier of Alberta. Her pushing of the Alberta Sovereignty Act might seem Looney Tunes to reasonable Canadians but it is resonating across the province.

Her explanation of the Sovereignty Act goes well beyond firing the Mounties as the province’s police force. She also thinks Alberta can simply decide which federal laws the province will agree to obeying. It might just be sour grapes from Jason Kenney but he considers Smith’s act to be “a de facto plan for separatism.” He’s out of there!

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Delusions of the NDP.

by Peter Lowry

That did it. The federal new democrats think they can ingratiate themselves with Quebec voters by supporting bigotry and economic deprivation. As Puck said in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “What fools these mortals be.”

Only fools would support Quebec’s despicable language and religious symbols laws. Do they realize the leader of the federal NDP would be barred from a job with the Quebec government? Maybe, as an observant Sikh, growing up in Brampton, Ontario, Jagmeet Singh does not recognize bigotry. And yet in Quebec, he would be knee-deep in discrimination.

The NDP actually voted in favour of a Bloc Québécois attempt to further strip the rights of non-French-speaking Quebecers. The bill would have denied the rights of non-French speakers to Canadian citizenship if the applicant resided in Quebec. In addition, the Bloc bill would have interfered with the rights of Quebec businesses to communicate in English at work with English-speaking employees. It also denied employers and their employees from communicating in any other language but French. This bill was a further insult to Quebec’s English-speaking minority and actually interferes with the ability of Quebec firms to do business outside Quebec.

But the new democrats supported it in a feeble attempt to win praise and recognition in Quebec. They do not understand that the Orange Wave of Jack Layton is long dead.

And Jagmeet Singh is no Jack Layton.

More seriously, the actions of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) are already hurting the immigration needs of the province. This is continuing to hurt the ability of business to find many of the skills needed in a modern business world. It is crushing the ability of the province to penetrate the markets of almost 400 million Americans and Canadians on their doorstep because too many of their employees are unable to communicate with those markets in English or Spanish.

At a time when new tourism markets need to be developed, the province is denying the need for bilingualism. When his unthinking immigration minister Jean Boulet said publicly the other day (in French, of course) that most immigrants to Quebec “don’t work, don’t speak French or don’t adhere to the values of Quebec Society,” his boss premier François Legault said he still wanted him in the CAQ cabinet.

I think Quebec can do better.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Leave ‘Em Laughing.

by Peter Lowry

If you live in Ontario, you need to pay attention to premier Doug Ford. If you don’t, he and his conservatives could bankrupt us. He has totally screwed our healthcare system. He is stealing from us with his planned Highway 413 for his developer friends. He is heading for a collision with our teachers. Remember, he is just a salesman. He hopes to leave the suckers laughing.

I don’t think we have ever seen a man so delighted with his job. He got his money the old-fashioned way, he inherited it. He was taught about politics by his younger brother when Rob Ford was mayor of Toronto with a habit of crack cocaine for fun. When Doug ran for Toronto mayor, he lost to the more conservative John Tory.

But that did not keep Doug Ford from getting even. One of the first things he did when he got to Queen’s Park was to block the increase in the number of councillors for a city of 2.8 million. He left the limited number of councillors with an impossible job. More recently, he decided to have a super-mayor for our two largest cities. He and John Tory must have kissed and made up. The super mayor idea is American and works for them because they have party politics at the municipal level in most of the cities. Toronto has disguised party politics without party discipline.

But Ford’s nemesis will be healthcare. He is attempting to ‘innovate’ with privatization. And it can’t be done. Privatization would cause a further, serious, drain of medical staff from our hospitals. These facilities are already understaffed. Beds are unoccupied in wards with no nurses. There are surgical facilities in hospitals that are not being used. Building new private facilities would be charged to public dollars. Staffing the private facilities would be a further drain on our hospitals. And then public money would be used to pay millionaire doctors.

And the very idea of dumping the feeble from hospitals on for profit nursing homes is the most egregious plan of all. These facilities have neither the staff to handle this influx nor the physio-therapy facilities to help them. To increase private facilities profits in this manner can only be described as abuse of the sick and hurrying them off to what can be a lonely and dreary death.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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In Sheep’s Clothing.

by Peter Lowry

Nor does the leopard change his spots. The news media seem to think that the new leader of the conservatives in parliament has discovered his nicer self. We can expect that he would want to appear more likeable to the Canadian voter. Nobody said he was stupid. His objective is be prime minister and nobody wins that job overnight.

But what will not change are his narrow libertarian leanings. He will use his wife, his children, hollow concerns, anything to be considered more likeable. His worry for the Eastern Canadians recovering from the ravages of Mother Nature’s hurricane is facile. He is still a mean little man who fails to understand the need for government to aid and protect those less fortunate in the vagaries of life.

Pierre Poilievre preaches that it is every person for themselves. His plan is for a country where only those who strive will survive. It would be a land where the rich will only get richer and the poor and those of advanced age will be forgotten. There will be no sympathy for the sick and cold prisons for the violent.

This is a man who has never held a job outside of politics. He probably has no understanding of the every-day workplace. He would not know the good employer from the bad. He has never experienced the discipline of military service. He fights against gun control and has probably never been on the wrong side of a person who was out of control with a weapon.

Mr. Poilievre seems to have never experienced trauma. He appears to have no grasp of the economics he pretends to critique. He must have been advised to button up on his support for cryptocurrencies. Maybe, some day, he will be able to take a tour of the Bank of Canada and learn how it functions, outside of direct government control.

A reader suggested the other day that Mr. Poilievre is a parasite on the body politic. I think such comments are counter productive. He is a person of limited experience. He does not seem to want to help protect our world’s environment and its safety for human habitation. He seems a bookish type. I wonder if he has ever read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies?

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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The Sweet Spot.

by Peter Lowry

When the new leader of Canada’s conservatives made his debut confrontation across the aisle from the prime minister, it was more of a touchy-feely session than a gun fight in some corral. It was a soft approach, testing old punch lines and old arguments. It was if they were each looking for the sweet spot before drawing the knives for real.

If that opening was “playing nice” as columnist Chantal Hébert described the occasion, the two will need better script writers over the coming three years. Pierre Poilievre’s problem is that he is going to have to hone closer to the truth. He wisely stuck to the tired but ever-present conservative shibboleths such as the federal carbon tax. His plaint over possible tax increases was just standard conservative cant and was hardly even worthy of an answer.

Hébert’s opinion that the liberals will stand firm on the carbon tax to emphasize the parties’ different stands on the environment, makes sense. Poilievre might be representing an Ottawa area constituency but his home is Alberta. He is pro-pipelines, pro-tar sands and a climate change denier.

Poilievre’s problem is that he has to grow the sweep of the conservative party with his 300,000 malcontent supporters among 37 million Canadians. And he is hardly going to do that with arguments for government meanness and frugality. If he thinks that, he just does not understand the anger that surges across this troubled and fragile world. He can use that anger only if he can identify the causes. Just 300,000 malcontents might be too small a sample.

We could all feel more confident if the standard bearer on the other side of the aisle was not Justin Trudeau. No doubt there were many groans across Canada recently when Trudeau told us that he wants to lead his liberals into the next election. He should check to find how many of these so-called liberals are enthusiastic about that prospect. He should also check to see why Donald Trump and his “deplorables” won the American presidency in the 2016 election in that country.

The facts are that real liberals need a real liberal leader.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Poilievre’s ‘Woke.’

by Peter Lowry

The word ‘woke’ is not all that new. Its use is taking a roller-coaster ride. Young people tend to use it in the sense of becoming aware of societal errors of the past. Right-wing religious writers have usurped the word ‘wokeness’ to be a label for a supposably baseless new religion attempting to supplant the traditional Christian religions. It must have cost many of us some puzzlement when conservative leader Pierre Poilievre accused the Trudeau government of entering a radical woke coalition with the new democrats.

It was this suggestion that there could be a radical wokeness that left me confused. There was nothing new in the arrangement between the two parties. Our present prime minister’s father and the NDP’s David Lewis had entered into a similar arrangement in the 1970s.

I suppose, if I had cared, I could have contacted the conservative leader’s office to find out what he meant. I wrote it off as just a weak attempt to impress a younger audience. I expect it is just another example of Mr. Poilievre’s uncaring glibness when attacking others.

When political observers write about the relative strengths of the party leaders, they tend to denigrate Trudeau’s grasp of finance while giving Poilievre a pass. They even hope that finance minister Christa Freeland can fill the void. They tend to forget the wild swings Poilievre makes at subjects such as cryptocurrencies and the governance of the Bank of Canada.

Whether Freeland is capable of complimenting Trudeau’s strong advocacy in controlling climate change and providing for the social needs of Canadians has yet to be determined. Whether there is a need for her to backstop Trudeau in the way Paul Martin supported Jean Chrétien, I doubt it. How soon we forget that Paul Martin’s far right actions as finance minister in the 1990s cost the liberal party dearly. Many of us progressive liberals never forgave Paul for his right-wing attack on social spending. It cost the liberal party the loss to Stephen Harper. Canadians seemed to say: Why vote for a right-wing liberal when you can get the real thing with Harper?

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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