Category: Provincial Politics

A Question of Trust.

by Peter Lowry

Journalists report on our politicians all the time. They think they can judge them best. They kid themselves. There is too much that they do not say about our MPs, MPPs and MLAs. Even if we, as interested citizens, watch our politicians on CPAC and provincial channels, we might only get a small sample of what our local politician is doing on our behalf in Ottawa or as a member of our provincial government.

So, what can we do four years or less later when they want to be re-elected? How do we judge their worth? Do you trust them again to represent you?

Many people abdicate the responsibility by voting for the party. It is their right to do that. Some will cheerfully vote for the village idiot—if he or she represents the preferred party.

The news media encourage voting for the party by spending considerable reporting resources on following the travels of the party leaders. Some of the large city media will also take the trouble sometimes to interview candidates in your electoral district. There will be the usual complaints about sign by-laws and access to voters in institutions and condominiums.

Some people try to save all the literature they receive during the election period and, maybe, sift through the pile before going to vote. What you have read is what they want you to know, or believe. Do you trust all you read?

Surprising few of your neighbours ever bother to go to one of the all-candidate meetings. And there are fewer of those than in the past. There used to be coffee parties where a supporter would invite neighbours to meet and talk with one of the candidates. The rarest event is when a candidate comes to your door.

But if you are lucky and can question your candidate, what do you want to know. Doesn’t it all boil down to a question of trust? Can you rely on this person to represent your concerns to the government of the day?

You are the voter. What do you want? Whom do you trust to deliver for you?

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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In Disdain of Demagogues.

by Peter Lowry

It was easy enough to identify U.S. president Donald Trump as being a demagogue. He exhibited all the hallmarks while in office. He was a brash, boisterous braggard. He would not have known a truth if he tripped over it. He promised his followers any foolish thing they wanted.

The classic demagogue is Ontario premier Doug Ford. He learned about politics indirectly from his conservative father and from his younger brother in Toronto city hall. His classic promise of ‘Buck a Beer’ was demagoguery at its best. He promised change and instead gave Ontario confusion over covid-19, cronyism, confidential deals with developers and attempts to control competition.

Ford’s major problem was that he was neither as smart nor as experienced as his buddy out west, Jason Kenny, premier of Alberta. Kenney had years of experience in Ottawa behind him when he went home to ‘unite the right’ in Alberta. He understood the need to drive a pick-up truck, wear a ten-gallon hat, engage ethnic groups, stamp out competition and feed on the old shibboleths of outing Ottawa. What identified Kenney’s demagoguery was his foolish expenditures on false enemies and hoped for pipelines.

Who but a demagogue would pour more than a billion of taxpayer’ dollars into a failing pipeline that is now dead? Who else would see conspiracies in who supports organizations that care about the environment? And who would arrange for a propaganda office to fight Ottawa and environmental concerns?

And yet, we cannot leave these notes on demagoguery without considering Canada’s chief demagogue. We are dealing here with a person who has lived with privilege his entire life. His disdain for those less privileged is there for all to see. He talks environmentalism and builds a pipeline to carry the highly polluting product of Alberta’s tar sands. He talks feminism and fires women who disagree with him.

He harbours with the rich and famous, he is an elitist, he loves the stage and the adoration, he is the cuckoo in the clock at Rideau Cottage. He is the most dangerous of demagogues. He is Justin Trudeau.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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Doug Ford Stands Alone.

by Peter Lowry

Like his hero, Donald Trump, Ontario premier Doug Ford has few friends. He has followers, he has some like-minded associates and he has those who pander to him. He is brash and loud and not the warm cuddly type. And as a politician, he thinks he has no peer.

And when the federal election comes, conservative leader Erin O’Toole hopes Doug Ford goes away and stays away. He needs no reminders of the incompetency of Doug Ford in the critical province where the federal conservatives need to make inroads.

Worse still, all the competitive political parties in the Ontario legislature have promised to never cooperate with a Doug Ford minority government. What that means is that if Ford’s conservatives should end up with a plurality of seats next June but not a majority, he could get the heave-ho as premier.

It used to be in Ontario if a party had the majority, the party leader would be allowed to form a government. It was considered the proper thing to do in the club-like atmosphere of the Ontario Legislature. We smashed the club-like atmosphere in 1985.

On election day that year I was about to go into my riding’s liberal committee room when Hershel Ezrin, liberal leader David Peterson’s executive assistant was leaving. We stopped to chat about the election.

We had a friendly argument in that I told him that I expected the count that evening would reduce the conservatives to a minority government but they might still maintain the most seats. The problem was, at the time, that the urban rural split gave rural seats an advantage and the conservatives looked to win those rural ridings. Hershel disagreed with my analysis.

I said, whatever, he and David Peterson had to be ready to bargain with Bob Ray of the NDP to dump the Tories. We had more than 30 years of conservative rule in Ontario at that point and we had to be able to prove to Ontario voters that the provincial liberals could do the job.

The next thing I heard about it was that long-time liberal MPP Bob Nixon and Hershel were in negotiations with Bob Rae.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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‘Show and Tell’ for Political Promises.

by Peter Lowry

Politicians in power tend to deal with problems by telling us they will throw our money at the problem. They have some confused idea that we will all feel good because the problem is being looked after.

That is not necessarily the case.

Sometimes, we look at the amount of money and we recognize that the amount is only a token and it cannot solve the problem. There are other times when we are annoyed because we recognize that it is costing far too much money to fix the problem. The politicians look stupid either way.

And speaking of stupid, there is a third problem with conservative governments. This is the problem created by the Harper conservatives when they were in power with a majority government from 2011 to 2015. This government was very good at guessing the amount of money needed to fix a problem. They would have elaborate news conferences and posts in social media about the amount of money they were going to use to fix this or that problem that had been brought to their attention.

What the Tories discovered was that even if you guessed the right amount of money to solve the problem, you did not have to actually spend the money. It was the MP for Parry Sound—Muskoka, Ontario, Tony Clement, who was president of the treasury board during the four years of the Harper conservative majority government. Most Canadians have no idea what the role of president of the treasury board might entail.

It is the treasury board that ensures that cabinet departments have the staff and funding necessary to implement government programs. As president of the treasury board, Clement could turn the funding taps on or off. Instead of running the board to implement programs, he used the treasury board to implement conservative ideology. He would pick and choose which programs got the money and which might be told to wait. It meant that the finance minister or the prime minister could make grandiose promises but nothing necessarily happened.

Listening to premier Ford of Ontario and some of his minions, it seems they have discovered the same solution. We should ask them at these promise sessions to show us the money.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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Mr. Ford’s “Good Ship Lollypop.”

by Peter Lowry

Get it while you can. Like the career of Hollywood child star Shirley Temple that peaked from the time she was 3 to 13-years-old, the Ford government in Ontario is already on its downward slide. The conservative’s rearranging their cabinet crew is time wasted. Their Good Ship Lollypop is sinking.

While it might be foolish for Doug Ford to do anything stupid in the time he has left in office, we are sure to find more reasons to turf the Tories next June. You can re-arrange the deck chairs, offer more candy to the voters but the captain of this ship is going down.

And putting the pandemic behind us, is hardly going to save the premier from being roasted come election time. It was almost amusing seeing him repairing his tattered cabinet the other day. Sure, that pathetic Merrilee Fullerton had to get out of long-term care but to put her in the position of delivering her brand of incompetence to children, community and social services might embarrass the Ford brand even further.

And it was nice to be reminded why the overly-entitled Rod Phillips was needed back in the cabinet. He is the guy who follows the Ford ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ code to the letter. He showed off his communication skills while covering his tracks last Christmas while holidaying in St. Barts. We hear that you can get some quite decent accommodations on that Caribbean pleasure island for as little as a $1000 a day. Was he getting tips on how to improve long-term care facilities in Ontario?

It was no surprise that former prime minister Brian Mulroney’s kid was kept on in transport. Caroline Mulroney is in an ideal position to drive the new highway 413 through Ontario’s vanishing wetlands.

But the most egregious staying-in-place was keeping my parachuted MPP Doug Downey where he can do Ford’s bidding in the attorney general’s office. That was almost as bad as keeping that know-nothing Stephen Lecce in the education portfolio That guy is hated by teachers and parents of school-age children with equal enthusiasm.

But the truth is that the most serious need for change in Ford’s cabinet is Mr. Ford himself. He is 90 per cent of the problem.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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The Trump of the West.

by Peter Lowry

It is a long way from Mar-a-Lago Resort in Palm Springs, Florida to roof-top dining in Calgary, Alberta. Nor is former president Donald Trump likely to be confused with Alberta premier Jason Kenney. They are just kindred spirits.

It might be that Jason Kenney enjoys being linked to the much more successful (and more vilified) Donald Trump. They both share a vision of conservative politics far to the right of anything practical. They both share the autocratic attitude that some might confuse with leadership.

But they make fools of their followers. Their followers are but log jams on the rivers of life. They are there to be used by these losers. They march to the off-beat of their drums. Born again or biker, they are there to support the sacrilege of their leaders.

Kenney and Trump share visions of thrones that are there for them to seize. They believe we should all prostrate ourselves before them. And we should all tithe to them. For what is ours, they consider as theirs.

The difference between them is that Jason Kenney spent his formative years learning of politics. He learned how the politician can use the unwary. He was Stephen Harper’s go-to guy in using groups of ethnic Canadians.

And yet, the political nuance is of no interest to Donald Trump. He is a user. He is a gross communicator. He preens for his audiences. He uses women as disposable. He is only impressed by power and billions. He looks down on America’s allies and honors its enemies. He cares nothing for the environment, turning loose billionaire friends to plunder the land of its high-carbon contents of coal and oil. He let millions die in the pandemic because of his ignorance.

Kenney sees himself as an oil man. He puts on his ten-gallon hat and swaggers into the Petroleum Club. He wastes more than a billion of taxpayers’ money on a losing pipeline. He is also of little use during a pandemic.

Messieurs Kenney and Trump are both losers.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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Doug Dares Deny Us.

by Peter Lowry

The Ontario legislature is in session this beautiful weekend. Doug Ford and his conservative henchmen are attacking our right to free speech. They want to use the ‘Notwithstanding Clause’ of our constitutional rights and freedoms to silence third-party advertising close to elections. They do not like to be made to look foolish.

But they look even more foolish today. The man who likes to think of himself as a populist premier does not like the truth flung at him through the media. It matters little to him that he can spend other people’s money to tell his version of the truth, he wants to deny others the right to respond—at least during the election campaign or too close to it.

The Tories can hardly attack the right of their opponent parties to argue with them during an election campaign. That right is protected in a democracy.

But not always. When teachers’ unions band together to make their case, they should not be allowed to say they are an anonymous gathering of ‘Working Families.’ If you have something to say to me buster, use your own name!

When a rich conservative defends the injustices of Doug Ford, he or she should sign his or her name to it. Let us know who you are and let us judge.

Elections are a time for truths. They are a time to review and grade the actions and aspirations of our politicians. They are a time for the voters to be honest with themselves. It is not a time to be selfish. It is a time to look ahead. We give politicians an enormous amount of power over us. We expect them to serve our common interests. The inconvenience of democracy is that it is not just your path that needs to be followed. It is the needs of all.

What is being debated this weekend at Queen’s Park is not the needs or wants of Ontario citizens. It is the needs and wants of the conservative party and its undemocratic leader. He and his party should be ashamed.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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And he’s Pierre’s son?

by Peter Lowry

Screw you Justin, and the horse you rode in on. You have lost all rights to the name Trudeau. You have belittled and betrayed your father. You have denounced Pierre Trudeau’s legacy. You have pandered to those small-minded, bigoted politicians in Quebec who want to keep their people imprisoned on a French-speaking island.

Justin Trudeau, as prime minister, could have kept his mouth shut. Premier François Legault hardly needed Justin’s support in looking so small. Quebec’s latest demand to be recognized as some sort of nation is unCanadian, unnecessary and uncaring of the people those politicians are there to serve.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is there for all Canadians. They are not only rights and freedoms for just some Canadians. They are hardly just rights and freedoms for English-speaking Canadians.

Canada exists as a nation from Sea to Sea. Nobody gets a chunk of this nation to float out into the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. Separation is not an option. It all belongs to all of us. And we would be damn stupid not to fight for that.

We have tolerated this nation crap from these petty politicians in Quebec for too long. When they felt so brave as to show off their bigotry, many of us lost patience. When I drive across a bridge from Ottawa, Ontario into Gatineau, Quebec, I do not want to become any less of a citizen.

But I am according to those ignorant politicians in Quebec City. As Pierre Trudeau once put it: I have been called worse by better people.

Pierre Trudeau saw a nation that accepted its bilingualism and its tolerance from sea to sea. He thought it ridiculous for Quebec City to defy Canada’s history in preference for one language over the other. Manitoba was wrong a century ago when it tried to banish French and Quebec is wrong to constrain English. Our languages are part of our individual rights. Nobody takes them away from us.

Just because Justin Trudeau has an election coming where he wants Quebec support is no reason to betray English-speaking Canadians.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

More on language laws.

by Peter Lowry

You never know where interesting comments will come from. A reader in British Columbia agreed with my comments recently on how to protect the French language. As a he is originally from Quebec, he felt that I left out a key reason. He felt I should have mentioned the Quebec culture.

That is deep water for me to get into. I remember many years ago when I went to a few French language films in Quebec only to find that they were American movies that had been dubbed in French. I felt that it would not help me with learning French. I now know of the excellent films made in Quebec that not only win awards for their actors, directors, writers and producers but win at the box office as well.

I have also always been impressed by the growing lists of French language novels and non-fiction books on the bookshelves in Quebec—and also outside of Quebec.

The Quebec music scene has been growing and expanding for many years now in both of Canada’s languages.

The point is that the Quebec politicians don’t have to worry so much about preserving the language. Canadian anglophones are more at risk from Americanisation of their English than Quebec is of losing its French.

I have always puzzled over the conflict in Quebec created by the need for bilingualism in the tourist industry. The province is rich in history, urban mystery, entertainments, winter and summer sports venues, Carnival in Quebec City and scenic vistas. There are more than 300 million potential tourists south of the border and west of the Ottawa River. That is a challenge to be undertaken, not to be rationed.

The Montreal Saint Jean Baptiste parade might lack some of the obvious inclusionary aspects of Toronto’s Caribbean festival and parade but it would be better if it sought tourists. It would go a long way to repair some of the politically motivated harm done to Quebec over the years.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]

Locked Down, Locked In, Locked Out.

by Peter Lowry

It was never said that being a prisoner in your home was so bad. It is not until you look across the breakfast table and realize that the person sitting over there, reading the newspaper, feels the same as you. Damn you Doug Ford. His shilly-shallying over what is a lock-down has led to this. After more than 50 years of marriage, you have never spent this much time together. It is like the reverse side of a honeymoon.

Honeymoons are remembered as an adventure. No matter how much time you had spent together previously, you bring a different attitude to a honeymoon. It is exploratory. It is learning. It is having fun while digging deeper into the psyche of your partner. Bedroom antics are often tempered, while mutual and deeper understanding become the lasting bond. And the honeymoon becomes a fond memory of another time.

Children are also a bond—us against them in some ways but the beaten norms of life influence the relationships. Grandchildren are a precious addition and can bring us even.

But who keeps score?

And today when the sun is shining, the leaves are green and the tulips losing their petals, you listen to the birds and yearn for freedom. You and your partner want to get into the car and drive until you fall off the edge of the world. You want adventures of new places, new foods, refreshing waters. You want dialogues with new people, new thoughts, mental challenges.

Hurry up, you in temporary power, give us our second shot of vaccine, let us challenge a casino, send us to a baseball game, take us to the theater, let us dine at McDonalds one day and on French cuisine the next.

These might be selfish thoughts but there is life to be lived outside of this lockdown. Let us all live it to the fullest.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to  [email protected]