Category: New

Singh’s Slippery Slope.

by Peter Lowry

Canada’s federal new democrats met in Hamilton the other day. It was a weekend of glad-handing and denial. It was a weekend of conviviality and self delusion. It was renditions of “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Solidarity Forever” by a mixture of faiths and agnostics. It left a practising Sikh at the helm of a fated Argo.

There was no recognition in that gathering of why Jagmeet Singh has taken his party down the slippery slope to potential oblivion. The direction was clear. Singh’s eroding support has dropped to 81 per cent.

What few new democrats recognise is that Singh owes his first loyalty to his fellow Sikhs. He trained as a lawyer and the new democratic party is just his client. He represents the new democrats to their Canadian judges. He is a persistent advocate. He has to deal with distrust on both sides of the supply and confidence agreement he made with Justin Trudeau’s liberals.

Singh can point to the progress in dental care. His party can look forward to the anti-scab legislation for federally incorporated companies. Pharmacare remains a work in progress. And it all remains part of Trudeau’s legacy. Many NDP are also dissatisfied with the lack of universality in the dental care program.

Older NDPers have seen support for liberals before and lack any degree of trust in the arrangements Singh has made.

The crisis in the Middle East also bothered many party members. They wanted Singh to say whether he stood on the possibility of Israel committing war crimes. He made no commitments on one side or the other.

Singh also said recently that he was concerned that his family might not be feeling safe in Canada after the claim that agents of India might have been involved in the murder of a Canadian Sikh who was a pro-Kalistan advocate.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Don’t Do It Here.

by Peter Lowry

There is no honour among those who hate. There is little honour in the Middle East. Hamas is but a tool for the hypocrites in Arab states that fulminate war in fear and hate of Israel. The Jews of Israel forget that the Semite nations of the Middle East are their brothers and they have failed to commit to the pursuit of peace. Politicians who take the hard-line beget a hardening of relations in return.

And don’t bring these conflicts to Canada. We can support Ukraine against Russia. There is no honour in the Kremlin under Putin. The honour belongs to Ukraine that is fighting for its very existence. Canadians know the difference.

Canada offers no place to fight for the Sikhs seeking a refuge in a Sikh Khalistan. This is not the place for foreign agents to seek to silence protest. Nor is it a place for other countries to try to influence our politics. 

Canada is a country populated by the diasporas of the world. Canada is a safe haven. It is not a zone of conflict.  It is no place to rage against oppressions of the old country. We should never forget the past but we do try to leave it in the past.

There is no place in Canada to march against peace. If your concern is for the old country, let it be in the old country. Be it religious quarrels, or ethnic oppression, or the need for land, or imagined insult, ancient feuds have no place in Canada. We have a verdant land. Come and help till this land with us.

Canada remembers the old countries by honouring the food specialties of the old countries. We also remember the dances and the songs, the writings and the entertainments. We often name streets and places for old country memories.

We well appreciate the concerns of Canada’s Jewish population for the safety of those in Israel. There is no safety in retribution. Only the death toll rises from enabling further conflict.

Peace comes to those who can deal with the past. The path to peace requires swallowing pride. The only real tribute to those who are gone is in creating peace.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Leadership Down.

by Peter Lowry

It was interesting to read the other day that the Jerusalem Post believed a poll that indicated that four out of five Jewish Israelis blame prime minister Netanyahu for the armed incursion by Hamas into Israel. It also comes to mind that an honest poll in Russia would be likely to show that the Russian people disapprove of Putin’s armed incursion in the Ukraine. And is anyone pleased with the upcoming presidential contest in America? Closer to home, we can record conservative displeasure with the nastiness of the conservative leadership in Canada. Nor is anyone paying attention to the growing liberal party members who think that actor Trudeau has run out of support for his clinging to the role of prime minister? Dissatisfaction abounds.

My best guess is that enough Canadians are frightened by the pathetic Mr. Poilievre that an election might prove nothing.

In a world struggling to recover from a pandemic, there is anger in the air. There is distrust and scepticism for political solutions. Everyone is struggling with inflation. Blame is scattered to all quarters. There are no adequate answers. In runaway inflation, people are failing to pay their usurious mortgages. There is more stealing in our stores. Organized crime believes it has license. Politicians think more police are the answer. They promise harsher sentences.  And they continue to fill the streets with the disadvantaged and complain that the police are not doing their job—while the police wonder what their job might be. Mental health challenges our hospitals while the hospitals struggle to return to a normal that nobody remembers, understands or believes.

The demand on our food banks is growing while the cost of food challenges our wages. Labor unrest is becoming a staple of democracy while the unrest with democracy threatens its continuance. Fear becomes just another equation of living. We challenge children to make adult decisions when they only want to play. The arts of the adults turn dystopian and morose.

We have politicians who would rather reward their cronies with billions rather that meet the needs of a family—evicted, hungry, with no place to go, nowhere to turn.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Conservative Curmudgeons.

by Peter Lowry

Somehow, through the years, the conservatives in Canada have taken a wrong turn. From a basic ideology of conserving the qualities of life for Canadians, the conservative leadership has taken on a vindictive stand in favour of dog-eat-dog capitalism. Truth has suffered, and there is no excuse for it.

To yell distortions and lies across the floor of the House of commons belittles those conservatives who have given of themselves to this country. To not honour the leadership of conservative Sir John A. Macdonald in creating this country is a betrayal of history.

A conservative party that places such importance in fiscal responsibility should wonder about the transgressions of provincial conservatives and the last federal conservative government that routinely lied to the Canadian public about what they intended to spend.

For a party bent on conserving the past, conservatives make little to no effort to forestall global warming. It makes no sense to make minor motions towards preventing pollution in the face of wildfires, floods and the rising of the oceans.

Conservatives are great believers in smaller government being better government. All they have proved over the years is that when in power, they fail to do the job for Canadians. They let people starve on the streets in a climate with a cruel winter. They fail the elderly, they fail the children, they fail the infirm, they fail the destitute. How big should government be? Big enough to do the job! Let capitalism grow, but be regulated. Let capitalism build, but be inspected. Let children be children, but properly fed. Let medicine do its job, but make sure it has the funds.

Don’t preach to Canadians about law and order. World order requires we fund a full range of an adequately-equipped military. And don’t preach to us about false news when your platform is based on it.

And that old conservative chestnut about reforming the Senate of Canada is still with us. There are many other reforms needed in how this country is governed. The very worst thing a Canadian government could do is only change the Senate.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Coalitions; Like Good Sex.

by Peter Lowry

Former new democratic leader Ed Broadbent was talking on the CBC recently about the current liberal-new democratic supply and confidence agreement in Ottawa. He thinks this agreement should have been shorter. Not to just be contrary, I think it should have been for much longer. It comes down to the assertion that a long-term relationship is much more satisfying than just a night of passion.

In fact, I have always been a strong believer in a permanent relationship between the two parties. The NDP has gone through its socialist phase as the CCF and more recently its labour-related phase has brought it to maturity. It is ready to take the responsibilities of an adult in society. It might even be available to procreate.

And we have seen what the new democrats can achieve as a provincial government. It bombed in Ontario in the 1990s. It almost saved Alberta from itself. It is ready for better times in British Columbia. It has launched itself in Manitoba. All it needs is to combine its passion for progress with experienced progressives.

The progressives available for liaison in Canada are in the liberal party. And I give you fair warning, not all liberals today are progressives. Yet, if you combine the new democratic and liberal progressives, the combination can dominate Canadian politics for years to come. Think of it. Don’t just salivate at the thought. Look to the nights of bliss. Think of how much better Canadians can fulfill their destiny.

But always bear in mind that like good sex, a coalition works when there is mutual respect. This has always been the formula for good relations. It is not something short term. Dominance builds despair. Philandering causes straying on both sides. Combining experience and knowledge builds strength and security.

What needs to happen is for the federal new democrats and liberals to launch planning groups who can study how to enter the arrangement. This is not a shotgun marriage. It is adult to adult. It has the seeds of discontent for some of us. Nobody believes that everyone will be on-side to the arrangement.

But it can and should be done. Canadians need to look around. Do they want the discontent and divorces of the Americans, the fustiness of the Brits, the unguarded passions of the French, the coarseness of the Russians. We have something very good going for us in Canada. We can show the rest of the world how it is done.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

The Tory Trap.

by Peter Lowry

Only the Ontario liberals could fail to look ahead. They decided to have a leadership contest, so leisurely, it is putting the party to sleep. They need to wake up and understand the provincial political situation. Instead of having the time for this wrongly planned leadership, the party could still be running a leadership race in the midst of a provincial election.

This possibility has been evident since the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) tossed the Greenbelt ball to the federal Mounted Police. It was deemed too political a situation for the police controlled by the provincial government.

The watch dogs of the Ontario legislature might have no teeth in their arsenal but they can write scathing reports. Their reports on the Greenbelt scandal make the best ‘whodunit’ reading. They did not report malfeasance lightly. And they showed a clear path of blame to the premier’s office at Queen’s Park.

We have all watched as the scapegoats were selected and led to the slaughter. The public was offered the underlings who could be rewarded for their loyalty later.

But the game is not over. Scapegoats are not the prize that the RCMP will accept to prosecute. They want bigger targets. And we all know who are the best friends forever of Ontario’s premier. Arranging for your BFFs to be put in a position to make more than $8 billion in such an egregious manner could be considered a criminal offence. And it could only be carried out from the premier’s office.

And, wonder of wonders, some of these developers, being in position to make such profits, are BFFs of the premier. Some of them had befriended him in the four years he spent on Toronto City council being taught politics by his late brother Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto at the time.

The evidence goes back to when Doug Ford was first running for election to Queen’s Park. The news media reported that Mr. Ford had a secret meeting with some of Ontario’s developers. He was reported to have told them that he would open up the Greenbelt for them. All the Mounties need to do is to get one or two of those developers to turn state’s evidence and they can go to a judge for arrest warrants.

Doug Ford’s resignation would be expected before he goes to trial. The Ontario election would quickly follow.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Alberta Waste Management.

by Peter Lowry

One of the tasks, the federal government leaves to the provinces is waste management. It is a task that nobody worried about very much back at the time of confederation. One thing you can say about waste management, it gets to be a bigger problem every day.

In Alberta, the province not only has problems with waste management, they also have a problem with management waste. How much, for example did Jason Kenney waste on pipelines that never happened. And how much has the current premier wasted bitching about the federal government’s “disastrous energy regulations” that might—or might not—bring us to net zero a dozen years from now.

And just why does this remind us poor benighted easterners of a slogan saying something like “Let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark.”

But when we see an advertisement paid for by Alberta taxpayers that says “No one wants blackouts in -30˚.” Who would suggest such a thing?

What really drives me crazy is the federal government has blown over $20 billion on the Trans Mountain Pipeline to ship Alberta bitumen through the Straits of Georgia. Do the poor easterners get to hear any thank-you for that ridiculous expense?

All we get are advertisements promoting that sham of carbon capture from the tar sands exploiters. I was delighted when I saw that the Competition Bureau was going to study the advertising campaign that has been trying to mislead the Canadian public. The joke is that you create more carbon to ship and store the original carbon. It is a constant cycle.

One of the advertisements paid for by Albertans was the one about the hard choices families will face between paying for winter boots for the kids or their mortgage. Does this sound like sensible discussion of the subject? It could better be described as scaremongering.

And this is the province that currently has declared a moratorium on low-cost wind and solar energy projects. Go figure?

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Ford’s Frailty.

by Peter Lowry

In seniors, frailty is a set of symptoms pertaining to the approaching end of life. In politics, it is the weaknesses other politicians will recognize as the key to defeating a politician at the polls. Premier Doug Ford in Ontario has all the symptoms. It does not guarantee that he will be defeated. It still needs the agent of his demise.

The agent who can best defeat Doug Ford is currently running for the leadership of the Ontario liberals. Her name is Bonnie Crombie. This is not to downgrade her opponents for the job of Ontario leader. They can each bring a special skill set to the task. What they are less competent to do is to understand what makes incumbent Doug Ford run. That is Ms. Crombie’s home turf.

In a recent opinion article in the Toronto Star, a writer posited that the “Greenbelt scandal won’t bring down Ford.” The writer’s opinion appeared to be based on a collection of opinion polls that claimed that people distrust politicians anyway. It seemed that the writer was telling us that since all politicians are crooks, they were expected to try to get away with stunts such as Ford tried with the Ontario Greenbelt. What the writer ignored, first of all, was his own recognition that municipal politicians had a somewhat better reputation with the poll respondents.

And that is Ms. Crombie’s lucky charm. She is a successful municipal politician in addition to her term as an MP in Ottawa. She understands the special place that developers hold in our city halls across Canada. She knows that Doug Ford’s only previous political experience was under his late brother Rob’s tutelage at Toronto City Hall. His best friends in politics are developers and their lawyers. There is little he can put over with Ms. Crombie.

It is also why he wants the Ontario liberals to choose someone other than Crombie as their new leader. It is also why he is unlikely to be accommodating in letting her get elected to the legislature in a by-election after the December announcement of the new leader. Ms. Crombie knows how to ask the right questions in the legislature.

And there is a second corollary to the low expectation of politicians. Mr. Ford must have missed the lesson that said: “Don’t get caught.”

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Alberta’s Arithmetic.

by Peter Lowry

Canadians must be embarrassed by the arithmetic we are hearing out of the premier’s office in Edmonton. Nobody would expect the premier to be a world class mathematician but for her to make such a fuss and make such a fool of herself is to be unfair to the sensible people of Alberta. If we get to expect people from the province to be unable to add two and two, it will cause a surge of hiring only people from out of the province to be cashiers or bookkeepers.

Face facts. How long would Tim’s stay in business if you go in for your morning double-double, give the cashier two five-dollar bills and you get a twenty in change?

We are talking here about that looney-tunes premier in Alberta who is threatening to have Albertans to dump the Canada Pension Plan and have their own Provincial Alberta Pension Plan. I wrote about it when she first told us, thinking that she was saying it for laughs.

Okay, so maybe she thought people who said bigger was better, were talking about something else.  The truth is that when it comes to pension funds, the big ones are the ones that can handle the money better in the ups and downs of stock markets.

Big makes better in this type of endeavour. And what makes it even better is that if there are any serious downturns, the whole thing is backed by a federal government on behalf of more than 30 million Canadians. In this big is better world, Quebec went their own way but being about twice the population of Alberta, it has done alright.

The important concern in this matter is if Alberta taxpayers accept the stupidity of their premier’s claim that Alberta is entitled to 53 per cent of the funds in the Canada Pension Plan. It might have something to do with the age of Albertans as opposed to the rest of Canada’s population. It could also be as simple of someone inputting data and getting a fly speck confused with a decimal point and some computer going crazy. It is no excuse for this foolishness.

The simple facts are that Alberta, with less than 20 per cent of the participants in the plan, is hardly entitled to 53 per cent of the funds. Give that premier a good shake.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Talking Turkey.

by Peter Lowry

Who would be so rude as to sit around a delicious turkey dinner discussing the price of the bird? Nor should we assume that there will be much discussion of politics at this time of family gatherings. There is the possibility that the recent success of the new democrats in Manitoba might be an indicator of a new breeze in the other Prairie provinces but those provinces have two to three years before their next elections. Much could happen in that time.

Frankly there might not be that much discussion of the federal situation. We might hear a few snorts of derision if the attempt by the federal liberals to do something about the cost of food is mentioned. It might not be the role of a younger member of the family to wonder what the heck, Mr. Poilievre would do differently. After all the conservative party leader is a free-range right-winger with no instinct when it comes to the business of business. He knows nothing. He says nothing constructive. There are no saviours in politics.

But there are families sitting at that festive (?) board, that are struggling gamely at solving the needs of the Canadian grocery purveyors. What we are seeing is increased shoplifting and greater impetus to rising prices. When was the last time those politicians talking to the grocers went shopping for their families?

We were even assured the other day that inflation is easing. We were given some abstract figures for the year-on-year inflation figures, that were meaningless. The price of groceries is not an abstract. Doubling the prices of milk and eggs is not a year-on-year increase of 9.8 per cent. Who would ever believe that a loaf of bread would be a special this week at just $3.50?

We hear from the lips of industry minister François-Philippe Champagne that Canadians will “soon” begin to see some results from the federal effort. And if you believe that, I have some lovely swamp for sale up near Bancroft, Ontario.

The business of business might be business but it is the business of politicians to not only give a nod to the problems their constituents face but to do something concrete about them.

-30-

Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]