Category: Provincial Politics

Nothing For Sure in Quebec.

by Peter Lowry

Say it in English or in French, nothing is for sure politically in Quebec. Yet all the talking heads are referring to the upcoming Quebec provincial election as a cake-walk for François Legault’s Coalition Avenir du Québec (CAQ). You would think the pundits would know better.

First of all, it is never safe to prognosticate about what will happen politically in Quebec. The moods of the voters can turn on a dime. There has been many a Quebec premier who has stood there on election night, wondering why a speech for a possible loss had not been written.

I like to think of premier Legault as something like King Canute defying the tides. All this foolishness his party imposes on Quebec about the danger of speaking English is going in one ear and out the other across the province.

It must have come as a shock to Legault and his other bigots when they heard that, according to a recent survey, French is spoken in fewer homes in Quebec. Part of the problem is that they have been taking in more immigrants who speak neither English nor French. The other reason is that French-speaking parents want their children to have better economic opportunities by speaking both official languages. Legault has been trying to suppress those opportunities. His efforts have just led to more lawsuits that the province has to defend in court.

And quite frankly, Legault has gone too far. He knows the anglophones and allophones are pissed with him and he doesn’t care. He thinks his majority is safe with the farmers.

But Legault fails to understand the cycle of life. People age and new voters replace those who have past on. The younger vote is more volatile, more questioning, more eager to try something new.

Legault and his CAQ are living in the past. There is life beyond Quebec. Canada is a big and welcoming country. Those who speak both official languages benefit.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Dougie Did It.

by Peter Lowry

As one of six siblings, I found as a child that blame tended to run downhill. It was not geological but based on age. My youngest brother, Douglas, tended to take the blame for much of the damage done by six rambunctious children. It seemed our mantra when questioned by a parent was mostly; ‘Dougie did it!’

It seems the probable mantra for Ontario over the next few years will also be ‘Dougie did it.’ With the ham-fisted political philosophy of Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, it will hardly be difficult to lay blame squarely on his broad backside.

It is important to remember that Doug Ford’s experience is that of a boisterous sales guy. He is neither well educated nor polished. His introduction to conservatism was through his one-term member of the legislature, father, Doug Ford Senior. His introduction to politics was by his crack-cocaine smoking younger brother, Rob, who served a term as mayor of Toronto.

It seems appropriate that Doug Ford campaigned in his last election as the conservatives will get it done. What it is that will get done remains to be seen.

It seems appropriate that as soon as the legislature got back into session, the conservative MPPs handed premier Ford an important lesson. In the secret ballot to choose the next four year’s speaker of the house, a number of the conservative MPPs voted with the opposition members for a speaker who was definitely not approved by the premier. That loss stung Ford.

It became obvious as soon as the legislature was in session that Ford and his cabinet had no plans in place for the two major and most expensive provincial problems—healthcare and education. The desperation solution for hospitals to move out bed occupiers to long term care homes is a desperation tactic that will bounce back hard on the conservatives while making money for the privately-owned long term care properties in the province.

The war between the teachers and their co-workers against the conservative government is in the early days of skirmishes. It will be the parents who see another lost year for their children who will bitterly say: ‘Dougie did it.’

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Political Pitfalls.

by Peter Lowry

It’s a wonder that the way we vote hasn’t been blamed for bad breath. It has been blamed for everything else. Fewer people vote, blame it on first-past-the-post (FPTP). A party wins the election with just 40 per cent of the vote, blame it on FPTP.

Mainstreet Research annoyed Ontario voters recently by having automated telephone calls ask how they would like to exercise their vote. The result was also annoying. According to reports, it appears about a third of us want to vote for proportional representation—that is where politicians are appointed to sit in parliament according to the per cent that we vote for. About a third also opted for preferential voting—where your second, third or fourth choice can help one of the candidates to get over 50 per cent support. Luckily another third of us supported first-past-the-post. You would think that all the ballyhoo about voting, some sort of consensus would start to form.

Back in 2007, Ontario voters chose by about two-thirds to stick with FPTP instead of opting for a form of proportional representation. In that version, only some of the politicians were appointed. I got the impression at that time that our voters were opposed to the idea of having anyone appointed to the legislature.

It has been said that a definition of insanity is the repeating of the same thing over and over and hoping for different results. That is an excellent description of the conservative party’s voting system for leadership. They always use preferential voting—and never seem to like the results. This is the form of voting used with a large number of candidates and you indicate your preference from one to ten to find which one can first reach 50 per cent plus one. The problem is that they drop the poorest performers first. They then add the second choice of this loser to the count. What they are doing is adding the losers’ second choice or then third choice or fourth choice and so on, until somebody adds up to more than 50 per cent. In effect, it is the losers who really pick the winners.

The more reasonable alternative to this is when one candidate does not get more than 50 per cent on the first ballot is hold a run-off vote for the top two. At least this precludes drilling down among the losers.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Ford’s Foolish Fumbles.

by Peter Lowry

Ontario premier Ford has fallen on failing times. It was not just swallowing a bee the other day—that, at least, was funny. It is incidents such as watching him read from a teleprompter and realizing that nobody has taught him how to use it. It is his conservative caucus blind-siding him and voting for a speaker of the house who was not his choice. It is his not knowing when to shut up about his ‘strong mayor’ proposal. If he doesn’t stop talking about it, people are going to realize what it really means. And if there was one error that will hamstring his government over the next four years—it is the conservatives collective lack of empathy.

Quite frankly, that private-schooled education minister is going to be the first cabinet road kill. That poor fool is facing a gathering swarm of teachers and education unions who are not going to pay any attention when he offers minimal wage increases. In an education system that has failed its students and abused teachers and staff throughout the pandemic, Stephen Lecce, has no solutions, no money, no plan and faces off against people facing runaway inflation.

And here we have Ontario hospitals crashing. And people are dying. The replacement health minister will probably not even be there long enough to institute private medicine, even if she could.

And there are people in Ontario who are waiting to see just what Doug Ford will accomplish for them. I keep waiting for a ceremony to start the building of highway 413. This is the highway through rich farmland and wetlands from Milton to Vaughan that nobody really needs. No doubt transport minister Caroline Mulroney already has her shovel polished and ready for the event.

At least Ontario voters in the cities of Hamilton and Vaughan have the amusing chance to vote for the two losers for Ford’s job earlier this year. Ms. Horwath is running for ‘strong mayor’ in Hamilton and Mr. Del Duca is running for mayor in Vaughan. What neither of them realize is that this ‘strong-mayor’ proposal really means that the mayor reports to Queen’s Park. It is quite likely that the only time one of these super mayors can stop something passed by their council is when the provincial government of the day disagrees with it.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Looney Tunes in Alberta.

by Peter Lowry

If I had a bucket list of places I have not visited in Canada, I would have to include Nunavut in the north and Gander in the east. It is only Alberta that I need to revisit. It seems that the entire province has gone Looney Tunes since I was last there.

We will have to blame Jason Kenney. When he put on his fat boy jeans and his ten-gallon hat and started driving his pickup around Alberta back in 2015, it was hard to imagine the mess he would make of the politics in that part of Canada.

It was obvious that if he could unite the right in that province, he would end up in the driver’s seat. He made short work of the Wildrose party. He told so many lies about life back in Ottawa and how the NDP’s Rachel Notley was in cahoots with those eastern devils, we were getting confused about who he was talking about.

You have to admit that Jason Kenney brought some of that ‘old time’ politics back to Alberta. What he did not foresee was what a pandemic might do to his leadership. He was caught up in a maelstrom of nature’s making. He could not blame it on others or pass the buck. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. To put it bluntly, he did not have a clue what to do.

And it could not have happened to a more deserving politician. He is out of there.

But wait for it! Do you know that the most likely candidate to replace Kenney is the dynamic Danielle Smith of former Wildrose fame. She was the dingbat, who, as leader of the Wildrose and leader of the opposition, crossed the floor of the legislature with most of her caucus to join the conservative government. She virtually held the door of the legislature open to elect the NDP’s Rachel Notley as premier of Alberta.

But never suggest that the devil himself could not make a comeback in Alberta. Danielle Smith has promised Alberta a sovereignty act that would place Alberta outside of Canada’s federal government. They would have their own provincial police force, their own pension plan and, pretty well, run things however they damn well pleased. Did you know that another former Wildrose leader, Brian Jean, seems to be running second behind Ms. Smith. And they call the Canadian dollar a loonie?

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Ford’s Missing Ingredient.

by Peter Lowry

Some days, you wish that Ontario premier Doug Ford knew what he is doing. As premier, he is busy rearranging Ontario’s municipal politics. It shows how much harm a little knowledge can cause. He is trying to create a strong mayor system for Ontario’s larger cities without much understanding of what is needed.

The simplest way to explain the problem is that for a strong mayor system to work, you have to have political party support. It is the very rare situation where a really strong mayor can hold together a council without either a political party endorsement or a personal popularity that is equivalent to a strong party endorsement.

Toronto has had a quasi-political system for years. We have had mayors from all major parties. Most progressive mayor’s have had the support of other progressives. The current mayor, John Tory has been effective at pulling together support from the suburban right wing. Despite nobody wearing party name tags, Toronto has moved along—sluggishly—but with persuasion.

The least effective example of Toronto mayors was Doug Ford’s younger brother Rob. A right-wing populist, Rob was a loose cannon. As a background to Doug Ford’s strong mayor plan, Rob was the last person who could have made it work.

The person who could have made it work was David Crombie, Toronto’s ‘Tiny, Perfect Mayor.’ David won the mayoralty as head of a bunch of reformers in 1972. I had always enjoyed arguing politics with him until his little mob in city hall tried to stifle development, rather than to control it properly. What helped David win the mayoralty was the liberal party being honest about its participation in municipal politics. A lot of liberals lost that year. David was elected as a federal conservative MP in 1978 and I have not spoken to him since.

To elect a strong mayor, such as Ford envisages, will not work unless the mayor can get a majority of the council behind him or her. The easiest way to make that work is to invite the major political parties to run candidates for the mayor and councillor seats on city council. And that is about to happen?

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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The Tax Credit Con.

by Peter Lowry

This is not exactly a love note to Ontario premier Ford and his pathetic finance minister. The wife and I are seniors on a fixed income and these idiots are offering us tax credits. Typical conservatives, offering tax credits instead of real money.

Tax credits are a bonus for people who have money. They have to already paid for something and can wait as much as a year for the government to give any back. That is what a tax credit means. And, if you do not owe the government for taxes, you do not get any money back.

Reading about the low-income individuals and families tax credit (known as LIFT) that is ballyhooed by the Tories as a break for 1.1 million Ontario residents is nothing but BS. Maybe by raising the “low income” limit to $50,000 or less, they might find a few more who can take advantage of the maximum tax break of $300. Wow!

And as much as the wife and I would love to take a staycation in Ontario, it is hardly likely we would spend $2000 or more on a hotel or cottage rental, just to get $400 back a year later. The finance minister claimed this was going to cost the government $270 million. If you want to check with the provincial auditor, a year or so from now, I would be damn surprised if the program cost half that amount.

This is just one more reason why governments are never spending as much as they claim they will. They lie, you know.

Where the Ontario conservatives lie the most is with programs such as the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). It was four years ago when they came into office and actually cut the program back to a basic $1169 per month for a single person. There are people in this province spending more than that per month on their pet.

Think about it. Try this little exercise: could you live on $1169 today? What would it cost you for a room—with a common toilet down the hall? What would it cost you for food for 30 days? And we are obviously not talking a healthy diet. Could you afford a phone? Could you afford to ever buy clothes? Or a tube of toothpaste? Even if you were haunting food banks and charities, is this a life, you could live?

The answer is that all the experts are quoting about $2000 per month as a possible amount for one person to survive. The Ontario conservatives just raised that $1169 by five per cent.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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Nostalgia Time of Year.

by Peter Lowry

What came to mind this morning was stimulated by a full-page advertisement for the Ontario government in the Toronto Star. It reminded me of the more than 60 years ago, the first time I went through those elaborate bronze doors at the front of the Globe and Mail. The Globe was still at the corner of Toronto’s King and York Streets back then. I was a young national advertising salesman.

While the advertising domain was the fourth floor, I was soon haunting all floors of the William H. Wright Building, learning about the newspaper business. Instead of being lectured about staying where I belonged, I was soon given the special assignments from the publisher’s aerie to the back street where the bundled papers were thrown on the trucks. I even managed to be banished for life twice by the typographers for touching type in violation of their rules. I evened it up though when they went on strike and the publisher gave me all the typesetting machines in the ad alley to play with. We produced some funny ads in the early days of that strike.

But if the price of a full-page ad has not changed too much in the passage of time, I wonder about that ad for the ministry of education. I think it fits the definition of B.S.

What worries parents is how much education, their children have missed. They have good reason to be concerned and an expensive advertisement proves nothing.

It promises tutoring support. I wonder ‘by whom?’ It even promises sports, clubs and field trips. I wonder who is heading that activity?

The ad explains that the ministry is preparing students for the “jobs of tomorrow.” I wonder when the people approving this ad last read Plato’s Republic?

The ad, of course, promises more money will be spent. That is just typical conservative BS. They always promise to spend more—and then forget to spend it. The government’s own auditors have been wondering about that for some time.

And the ad even includes a promise to help students with their mental health.

Too bad we are not allowed to check out the minister’s mental health!

I think parents will be more concerned, come September, if there will be any school openings. Opening the schools will require the willing help of teachers. The expensive ad forgot to mention them. Maybe the ad is promoting private schools?

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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Only Heroes Need Apply.

by Peter Lowry

We need some heroes. Wannabes and also rans don’t do the job. We need an effective opposition for Queen’s Park. Both the liberals and new democrats need new leaders. We are going to get behind the one who shows that he or she can oust Doug Ford. The prize is the premier’s office.

The last two leaders of those parties showed us what losers look like. Voters of Ontario want to have a winner. It doesn’t hurt to be modest but that is a long way from looking like a loser. A leader inspires confidence in the caucus. A leader inspires confidence in the electoral districts. A leader shatters the myth that the conservatives own the farmers. A leader shows confidence.  And effectiveness counts for more than numbers.

And a hero is a progressive. Conservatism kills progress. Voters tire quickly of those who only help their friends. It takes imagination, knowledge, experience and confidence to lead. You are not selling sticky labels here.

The new democrats are in the most trouble. Since the early days of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and into the days of union involvement in the new democrats, the party has been looking for substance, for a dialogue and for a future. Through many leaders and various iterations of the socialist creed, the new democrats have been searching for the positioning that could move the party forward.

The new democrats need someone with the zeal of a Tommy Douglas, the confidence of a David Lewis and the communications competence of a Thomas Mulcair. That would give the party in Ontario a base in which to look at the future and to step forward in recognizing the needs of our citizens.

The liberal needs are not quite the same. When the province puts so much of its funding, emphasis and training into education and healthcare, that becomes the foothold on the future. The liberals have the edge on that side of the street. Excellence in education is only the start. We have to improve on the basic research we are already undertaking. We have to drill down on areas of opportunity. Besides free dental care and medicines, we have to ensure that higher education is available and free to all. These are all compatible objectives.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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A Man of No Letters.

by Peter Lowry

It is amazing how the human mind can wander. I was reading the other day about Ontario premier Doug Ford’s reluctance to release the mandate letters he is reputed to have sent his cabinet ministers. Why the news media want to embarrass a man who obviously cannot write, or dictate anything substantive, seems to be a waste of time and money?

And that is not a cheap shot at the premier. It just might be next year before he remembers what he wanted the minister of justice to do for him. He has publicly stated that he thinks our education system is to train people for jobs so I have no idea what he would tell that private school kid that he appointed minister of education. Ford has four more years to cause trouble for us. Best we treat him with caution.

I honestly do not think the premier is of limited intelligence. He is a natural sales guy. I know why he is in politics but I must admit, he does a lousy job of it. I wonder if he has ever read a book?

I understand this because I come from a family of six kids. We were a reasonably bright group but just two of my brothers have post graduate degrees. My sister and oldest brother had professions. And there was my late brother John Lowry, who confessed to reading one book of fiction in his lifetime, and he made millions. He was always getting me to write for him. All of his inventions came about because he asked “What If.”

John showed America’s NASA how to get good television pictures from the moon. He solved problems for satellite broadcasting. We had fun with gyroscopes getting them to stabilize television cameras on helicopters. He brought colour to old movies through a computerized process. The American Academy of Motion Pictures gave him a posthumous award for his work on improving the quality of modern motion pictures with something that is now called the Lowry Process.

I mention this, not that I think Ontario’s premier will ever do anything particularly brilliant. Each of us, in our lifetime though has the opportunity to help others and that is the greatest challenge of all.  

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]