Category: New

The boy from Flemingdon Park.

by Peter Lowry

Flemington Park in Toronto is not a prestige address. I watched the area grow over the years. It was never much in the way of architectural creativity. It was rabbits’ warrens of apartment buildings, second rate office buildings and a small strip plaza. It is in the area just north of where Don Mills Road and the Don Valley Parkway dip into the Don River valley. It is in Don Valley East electoral district. I mention this because it is currently represented provincially by MPP Michael Coteau, He grew up in Flemington Park.

I like this guy. If the last Ontario liberal leadership convention had been based on every liberal having a vote, he would likely have won. He came second to Steven Del Duca. Coteau is the kind of politician who thinks of his constituents’ needs. He spent three terms as a highly productive member of the Toronto District School Board before progressing to Queen’s Park. He has been in the Ontario Legislature for the past ten years. He was one of seven liberals to survive the Wynne rout.

Michael held five very active portfolios during his time in the Wynne cabinet. He is the kind of guy who gets the job done.

I knew about Michael before I met him. When he was running for the Ontario liberal leadership, I met him at a luncheon in Orillia, he spoke at length, He spoke well. No question was too tough. He even impressed some locals who were just having lunch.

Michael likes challenges. He has decided to take on the federal scene by running for the open nomination in the federal electoral district of Don Valley East. He is hardly the only liberal wanting to take on the challenge.

I think he is a good bet to win the riding. The voters know him and trust him.

I do not think the liberals in Don Valley East could do better.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  plowry904@gmail.com

O’Toole sings of solidarity.

by Peter Lowry

Some political pundits seemed surprised the other day that conservative leader Erin O’Toole was trying to build bridges to unions. Not all union members vote for new democratic party politicians. If there has been any drift over the years, it has been to both conservatives and liberals.

It is all about leverage. Who wants to waste time with a bunch of do-gooders that are going nowhere? When the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) joined with the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1962, it sealed the fate of the NDP as belonging to the labour movement. And not all Canadians have a favourable attitude about organized labour. Unions are seen, all too often, as an inconvenience. They picket your favourite store, delay the delivery of your new car, interfere with your travel plans and create other problems for the public to force their will on the manufacturers, dealers or service companies. Without that leverage, strikes and other labour disruptions would have less effect.

We have had the new democrats for almost 60 years. Other than the occasional provincial success, it is a party that fails to gain traction with many Canadians.

Frankly, my advice to that party has always been to dump the CLC, join the liberals, work to make it a truly left-of-centre party, and able to carry out the tasks the early CCF had intended to do. What they would find when they joined the liberals is that most of the more progressive federal and provincial unions are already supporting that party.

Conservative support by unions is usually not as direct. The best example of the type of unions providing support for the conservatives is a police union. It is in the union’s self-interest to support the people who stick with the status quo and support a closed society.

There are also the less democratic unions that tend to put a price on their support. They are available to anyone who meets their price.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  plowry904@gmail.com

‘That was then; this is now.’

by Peter Lowry

Is it not amazing how a few more nickels in your tin cup can change your attitude? Did you listen to how the Shaw executive on Monday changed his tune about the importance of Freedom Mobile? One wonders just who he thought he was kidding? No doubt he used to be one of those telling MPs and regulators how important it was to have Freedom Mobile providing some competition in the cell phone business. Surely the members of parliament on the federal government’s industry, science and technology committee could not have been impressed.

All it takes is an offer of $20 billion for Shaw shareholders. Would you not whistle a different tune for a cut of that pie? And it was not just the $20 billion. Eastern behemoth Rogers would also be taking over $6 billion of Shaw’s debt as part of the deal. That amount of money owed must have been weighing heavily on the shareholders’ shoulders.

It is interesting that the Shaw-owned Freedom Mobile was supposed to be offering consumers some choice and cost relief in Canada’s over-priced cell phone market. Now, we are told, it is not so important.

The real question here is whether the government can allow the triumvirate of Bell, Rogers and Telus to rule the Canadian telecom market? The idea might not sit well with Canadian voters. And there could be an election later this year. And, to think, Rogers Communications used to be known for its smart timing.

The possibility of an election must have been why all the MPs questioning the telecom executives where asking the same questions. They were there to protect the consumer, where they not?

MPs from western Canada must have felt particularly under the gun. Rogers would hardly have need for a second head office in Calgary. That city has enough problems with its dominant oil industry. It hardly needs the ultimate job losses as Rogers shifts Shaw’s management to the east.

To counter this, Rogers was making all kinds of promises. They mentioned fifth-generation (5G) networks for the west and rural high speed broadband networks for their phones and computers. What these would cost consumers was not discussed.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  plowry904@gmail.com

Picture That.

by Peter Lowry

Ontario premier Ford likes to bring some back-up when he is doing a Covid-19 presentation. It was a surprise last weekend when one of the smirking faces in the conservative back-up was that of Brampton mayor Patrick Brown. Oh, how well we know that weaselly countenance. He was even wearing a new suit to impress us.

Last time I checked, I was under the impression that Ford hated Brown. It was Ford who cancelled the election of the new Peel County Chair, who was to be the new super mayor of Caledon, Brampton and Mississauga. It forced Brown to drop down from running in that race to just running for mayor of Brampton. It was a bit of a come-down for a former member of parliament and a former leader of the Ontario conservatives. It was a step up for the guy who wrote a book about how certain conservatives in Ontario stabbed him in the back.

I first met Brown during the 2004 federal election. He was at my condo door in Barrie, Ontario, offering to shake hands. I just glared at the hand and asked him what he wanted. Here was the most unappealing person I had met in a long time and he wanted me to vote for him. It did him no good that I could see the conservative symbol on his literature. That confrontation led to a mutual dislike that has lasted.

As politicians go, Brown is an interesting study. At an early age, he probably decided that he did not like working for a living and entered politics. People familiar with politics think of him as a fairly good ‘retail’ politician. He knows how to sell the external package but you know the inner part of that melon is rotten. In parliament, he reminded me of the line from Gilbert and Sullivan that “He always voted at his party’s call.” I could never pin down what he did for his constituents.

In Ottawa, as an MP, he was an acolyte of Jason Kenney, minister of everything slippery in the Harper government.

It was Kenney who showed him how to pick strong ethnic groups for support and set him up with his trips to India. He and that hard-ass Indian president Narendra Modi were made for each other. It is why Brown had no problems winning the Sikh and sub-continent support to oust the Brampton mayor. Mind you, I am waiting for Brown to convert most of the parks in Brampton to cricket pitches—as he promised his Sikh supporters.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  plowry904@gmail.com

Pick your battles.

by Peter Lowry

If you want to win, in war or in politics, you pick the battles you can win. Losers fight any battle that comes along. It is the problem facing the major opposition parties in the coming election. It is a special problem for conservative leader Erin O’Toole. He is between the proverbial rock and the hard place.

O’Toole’s conservatives need an environmental platform that will convince eastern Canada that the party is sincere about saving the world from greenhouse gasses. At the same time, they have to convince the climate change deniers in the west that, under the conservatives, they can continue to pump up the bitumen from the tar sands and knock down mountains for coal.

‘Simple,’ you say? You must be forgetting the master-servant relationship between Erin O’Toole and Alberta premier Jason Kenney. Who do you think touched O’Toole’s shoulders with the sword of approval during the recent conservative leadership contest? It was Jason Kenney who gave O’Toole the Western Blessing. It was a Jason Kenney who was riding high in the saddle at the time and could promise O’Toole those western votes.

Jason Kenney might have fallen on bad times recently; but never forget, he is still one of the slipperiest politicians in Canada. When Stephen Harper was making his retirement plans in 2015, Kenney was plotting his triumphant return to Alberta.

The federal new democrats have a different problem as they have had the Leap Manifesto since 2016. A radical environmental approach, the party still does not know what to do with it. At the time it was introduced, leader Tom Mulcair was trying to stake out a middle of the road platform and the Leap Manifesto was too radical for him. No doubt, Jagmeet Singh would like to revive the manifesto now. The question is, Jagmeet might lead with it but whether the party would follow is a different question.

The best bet for the opposition parties is a ‘Cap and Trade’ policy. We already have that in Quebec and British Columbia. Ontario was also partnered with Quebec and California in a ‘Cap and Trade’ plan until the Ford conservatives came to power and cancelled it. Like most Canadians, Ford did not understand it. That might help the opposition get voters to support it.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  plowry904@gmail.com

 

Liberalism Betrayed.

by Peter Lowry

You hear it too often. It is the jerk who tells you that they are socially a liberal and financially a conservative. Does that mean that you want to do the right thing but you do not want to pay for it? Is this like the idiocy of the conservative budget recently in Ontario? The treasurer stood up in the mostly empty legislature and proposed accumulating an increased debt of $33 billion with no new taxes. It makes you wonder how stupid a conservative can be.

It is beginning to look like this pandemic is the biggest rip off of all time. The richest among us are having a field day—earning profits by just being wealthy, while the weak and vulnerable among us are being kicked into the gutter.

Why do we keep hearing that the fix is in for rapacious Rogers to acquire Shaw Communications? What does two billion buy you but a guarantee of the highest profits ever for the triumvirate of telecoms in Canada.

And what are these complaints we hear about the supreme court judges usurping the rights of our elected politicians. Has not the prime minister made it clear to the world that we are a country of law? If parliament is writing ill-considered laws, are not the judges entitled to rule on them?

But where did the sunny days disappear to? We thought Winter was behind us. What happened to the promises of Justin Trudeau? Has voting reform been forgotten in the cold of reality? Is the prime minister forgetting the promises of environmentalism? Is equality of the sexes only for those women parliamentarians who do what they are told? Can the PM be an elitist? Can his family not benefit from the WE charity and friendships with the rich and famous?

And why does our liberal leader spend far more time asking Canada’s liberals for money instead of their opinion?

In this time of the ravages of a pandemic, in this time of concern for all, why are so many being forgotten? What ever happened to the decency of liberalism?

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  plowry904@gmail.com

The knocking on Trudeau’s door.

by Peter Lowry

Like the late-night tapping on his door, as written by Edgar Allan Poe, Justin Trudeau dares not fail to answer this summons. It is at the heart and soul of liberalism in Canada. It must be answered with fairness and justice. It is in the face of the rape and pillage, so long the hallmarks of Canada’s big three telecoms—Bell, Rogers and Telus.

The visitor is not Poe’s raven, but a chance to reform. We were promised the reform during the 2019 election. The Trudeau liberals promised Canadians a 25 per cent reduction in broadband fees. It can be matched with more competition in telephones and fees. They still have time to bring this reform into legislative reality before the coming election.

Fool us once Mr. Trudeau and there will not be a second chance.

We have, for too long, seen the failure of the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The commission is the weak sister—for too long the brunt of the telecoms’ manipulation. It has failed us. It no longer serves the users but is obsequious to its telecom masters.

Let the telecoms set the stage for reducing costs by decimating the lobbyists that work for them. These people work against the needs of Canadians. They are an affront to our members of parliament.

We need commissioners of the CRTC who represent the users, who understand the industry, and who can resist the blandishments of lobbyists.

And we need members of parliament who can truly represent their constituents. Nobody is stopping them from standing up in caucus and asking that the liberal government keep its promises. Nobody denies them the right to report the desires of their constituents. Nobody denies them the right to be liberal—in practice, as well as name.

Those MPs who act as though they are sheep will be shorn of their positions and pay in the coming election. There are worse things than the visit of a raven ‘on a midnight, dark and dreary.’

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  plowry904@gmail.com

Do we really understand China?

by Peter Lowry

They are known to most Canadians as ‘the Two Michaels.’ They have been in prison in China since before the pandemic. Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, were arrested in China just days after the RCMP arrested Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, in Vancouver on a warrant from U.S. authorities. Many Canadians think we should get tougher on China but if we do, we might get both of the Michaels executed.

It all comes down to the quaint Oriental custom of saving face. During the 1970s and early 1980s an interesting aspect of my job with a computer company was hosting delegations from countries around the world. These delegations came to better understand the large-scale computers we were manufacturing in Mississauga at the time. Many of them were from the Peoples’ Republic of China.

The Chinese usually came in groups of four or five. It did not take long to figure out who was the party cadre and who were the technical experts. The party person was usually the official interpreter despite some of the technical people being quite fluent in English. When the groups were larger, we would often have an additional interpreter from the Canadian government.

And these visits produced millions of dollars in sales—mainly in support of seismic analysis for China’s oil industry. And there was never any direct selling involved. We treated these visits as information exchanges and no sales pressure was used.

As the sales indicated, the technique worked well with the Chinese. I also found that it led to invitations to functions at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa and when there was an important delegation coming to Toronto.

I remember one time I was at a function in the Royal Bank board room high up in that gold-colored building in downtown Toronto. I was standing looking out a window during a washroom break and the head of the Chinese delegation came over and joined me. He was just as bored with the proceedings as was I. He was quite intrigued as I pointed out the different parts of Toronto around the Hearn Generating Station—with its towering smokestack. He asked about the fact it was not emitting smoke and I explained that it had recently been decommissioned to improve the air quality in the city. He thought that would be a good idea for Beijing. I only mention this because he looked very much like a younger version of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  plowry904@gmail.com

Billions to nowhere.

by Peter Lowry

It seems strange to have a provincial budget that spends close to $200 billion in the coming year and ignores the most vulnerable among us. It is a budget that will increase the provincial debt by about $33 billion and raises no taxes. You have to remember that this is a conservative budget in a country locked in an outmoded constitution.

With provinces committed to funding education and health care, they have the excuse of the pandemic to fall back on. There are few savings in education as we struggle with opening and closing schools and the variables of computer education that are devolved to the caregiver—often a working-from-home parent. At the same time, the costs of health care grow exponentially as covid 19 rapes the system and as millionaire ophthalmologists and radiologists continue to play the system.

There is small relief for small business. They were hit the hardest by the lock downs that we are not even sure are over. And there is a little extra help for families with little ones.

Where the greatest needs were ignored was in the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). More than 360,000 Ontario citizens are being forced into desperation by a program that does not and cannot meet their needs. At a time when food banks are desperate to try to continue helping, and both shelter prices in Ontario and grocery prices are rising, these people were ignored.

The conservative budget also ignored the plight of personal support workers who had received a temporary increase in wages to try to keep them working with long-term care. There was not even a continued increase for these workers. The government forgot all the promises that had been made.

Thankfully, the conservatives forgot to mention the new Highway 413 that went from nowhere west of Georgetown, through wetlands and built-up areas to crowded highways north of Toronto. If it continues to be forgotten, we will be pleased about that one aspect of the current budget.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  plowry904@gmail.com

 

The upcoming battle for the GTA.

by Peter Lowry

Some pundits are under the impression that the key battle in the coming federal election is in the greater Toronto area (GTA). They might be able to give logical support for their assumptions but I would not suggest that it is all a done deal. Some things have changed and we need to pay attention.

It takes a while for population shifts to be recognized by census and there will certainly be some new electoral districts to be considered in a few years. In the meantime, there will be some surprises in store as assumptions are not met.

To start with there is a band of ridings that starts outside of Ottawa on the east and heads toward the Windsor area. It is what we used to think of as dominated by rural conservative and Ontario Landowner voters. Many of these ridings have been absorbing newcomers who are former city dwellers and quite often liberal voters. This offers some opportunities for aspiring liberal candidates.

It is unlikely that Trudeau and his trusted henchmen will understand it. Even more serious, they could not take much advantage of the situation. They have let those ridings drift away from them. They have destroyed the base of liberal support in that area. When you have spent the last six years doing nothing with the liberals there but demand they send money, there might not be much organization left.

And we should also wonder about the shape of the liberal organization in Toronto itself. There could be a few surprises for Trudeau’s liberals in the 25 liberal seats in the city. Why? It is a tired vote. The supposed liberal supporters will be harder to motivate. These people have been taken for granted by the Trudeau liberals and some are looking for an alternative. A couple ridings could even fall to the green party—to the disappointment of the new democrats. It should come as no surprise that a higher green vote will be mostly at the expense of the NDP. What will be concerning is the slightly higher percentage of conservative votes. Combined with a slightly lower vote for the liberals could put four to five ridings at risk. Justin Trudeau should not bank on moving back to a majority government.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  plowry904@gmail.com