Category: Provincial Politics

The Turn-Around Tories.

by Peter Lowry

The Ontario conservative government has broken another record. It has turned around and cancelled more schemes than thieves trying to figure out how to rob a police station. What Doug Ford and his cronies often announce with great flurries of publicity, they quietly and meekly admit they will not do.

The latest plan for the conservatives to cancel was the plan to separate the three component municipalities of Peel Region. This plan was introduced to so much cheering, we really thought they had a winner in which we could all cheer.

But no such luck. It was less contentious than Highway 413. It did not get the interest of the police like in the billion-dollar boondoggle in the Greenbelt. It was not as silly as the ‘Buck a Beer.” It was not as mean as passing laws saying nurses and teachers could not have the raises they needed. It got so bad with the Greenbelt fiasco, they had to promote Stephen Harper’s apologizer Paul Calandra to municipal affairs so that he could weep over the failure in making more Ontario developers billionaires.

One scheme that they are actually resuscitating is beer in the convenience stores and big box stores. We thought we would have to wait for many more years before any Queen’s Park government got sensible and gave the convenience stores something to keep them alive other than milk and lottery tickets. Mind you the blue stocking types have yet to have at our premier and they can sometimes be resourceful.

But if the Peel County dissolution was successful, the Tories were prepared to look at more regional municipal complexes in the province. The problem was that they rushed the Peel solution at the behest of the late Hazel McCallion and did not do the analysis that was needed. When the provincial panel that was supposed to assist the three new municipalities in the transition realized some of the complications involved, they panicked and advised the province to cancel the plan.

What they should have done was to help by examining ways to solve the problems. One of the alternatives was to recognize the connections between Mississauga and Brampton and if put those two municipalities together as one city. That would have provided far more cost savings in the long run.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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Concerning Calandra.

by Peter Lowry

Paul Calandra is now the go-to guy at in the Ontario government for apologies. It is his ability to feel the pain. He is the guy who cried for the House of Commons in Ottawa when the MP was the appointed apologist for prime minister Stephen Harper. He is now basking in the accolades from the building industry as an MPP in Ontario.

Just last week, as the new minister of housing for the Ford government, Calandra apologised to the Building Industry and Land Development (BILD) association, at their annual general meeting in Woodbridge. They treated him kindly. They even offered him a free lunch.

With the Royal Canadian Mounted Police possibly checking his script, an unabashed Calandra told his audience that he regretted that the government could not bring people with them in their 7,400 acre give-away in the Greenbelt. It came across as though he and the Ford government were deeply disappointed that they did not do it right the first time.  It is not known just how strongly the audience felt about losing the potential billions in profit.

The particularly poignant part of the speech was the heartfelt shout-out to Silvio De Gasperis president and CEO of TAAC Developments. Calandra could not seem to say enough to this gentleman of their mutual Italian heritage. He made it sound as though he and the conservatives in government were deeply disappointed that they could not deliver to Mr. De Gasperis and friends the billions in profit that the conservatives thought they had earned.

But it sounded like Mr. Calandra was telling the builders that next time, the government will get its ducks in order before playing Grand Theft Greenbelt.

Some of the comments from the attendees made it sound as though they were puzzled by minister of housing. They complained that Calandra made it sound as though the Ontario government and the building industry in Ontario were joined at the hip.

But, all in all, it was a good time for all when Paul Calandra came to Woodbridge.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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Hold High in Honour.

by Peter Lowry

Honouring people for their contributions to our society is a timeless human tradition. There have also been those times when we have taken down the statues or have erased the names of those we determine to have erred in their responsibilities. I mention this at a time when people are talking about honouring former Toronto mayor Rob Ford who loved football and also loved smoking crack cocaine. They want his name attached to the current Centennial Park Stadium in the formerly Etobicoke area of Toronto.  Let’s just hope, that in years to come, we do not realize that the two loves are not equal. Does one excuse the other?

Would we, for example, seek to obliterate the memories of John A. Macdonald because of his fondness for whisky? Did he not still accomplish the task of creating this Canada? And did he not succeed in his duties to accomplish this new country’s rails of steel from coast to coast? Sir John has been dead these many years lying in a long- neglected family plot. The debates on his accomplishments run on. He can have the credit for bringing this country together but he was also here for the attempts to take the native out of our aboriginal peoples. It was a common direction in his time.

And who would want to honour the former Toronto mayor’s older brother whom the younger tutored in politics. Doug Ford got into politics as a replacement city councillor when his younger brother ran for mayor. The older brother lost his subsequent bid for the mayoralty after Rob Ford’s death.

And yet, when he lucked into the leadership of the provincial conservatives and ended up as premier of Ontario, his first act in office was to vent his anger at his former enemies at Toronto city hall. His administration restricted the salaries of those in medicine and education. He was caught up in the pandemic and struggled through his first term. His second term saw him caught up in inflationary pressures, unexpected and concerning. And yet he has still cut the spending by the Ontario government at a time when government has to make sure that it is looking after its responsibilities. While Ford has been very generous in his help for his developer friends, we have seen our universities starved for the funds they need to do their critical job for the province. Doug Ford is always a salesman, never an academic.

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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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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:

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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:

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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 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:

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Not an Organized Party.

by Peter Lowry

We used to joke that we are not members of an organized political party. We are liberals. And it was never more obvious than when the wife and I went to vote the other day in the provincial leadership for the party. I have been seriously considering suing the party for its total incompetence.

If you have never seen my wife really pissed, you have had a lucky life. My problem is that I am the nearest liberal on whom she can direct her anger. The wife has been a paid-up member of the Ontario Liberal Party for more than 60 years. She actually married me despite the fact that we had never taken the time to talk about politics. It just wasn’t a topic on our agenda. Imagine our surprise when we came home from our honeymoon in time to vote in a federal election.

We went to our separate ridings to vote where we had been enumerated. It was then that I found out that we both voted liberal. She was the first to get involved in the party when she met our provincial candidate and offered him some help—mainly me.

She felt up to coming out with me to vote for Bonnie Crombie on Sunday and I was concerned about it. I was concerned because I had done everything to make sure she was registered to vote in the election and I had never seen anything to confirm she was listed. And my concern was confirmed. The liberal who was acting as poll clerk knew us and also expected to find the wife’s name on the list. Out of more than 300 liberals registered in our electoral district, the wife’s name was missing.

I consider it Justin Trudeau’s fault. I don’t think he likes the liberal party. We took up too much of his father’s time when he was a youngster. He dumped the liberal senators in the senate, he cancelled the federal membership fee. He uses the party list as his ATM.

And the Ontario party followed suit. They cancelled the wife’s membership. She was supposed to re-register but they forgot to tell her. I re-registered her to be on the safe side. It never happened.

When you consider that our ‘One person, one vote’ in an electoral district with over 300 registered liberals was treated as about a third of a vote each, it hardly seemed worth it.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]