Provincial Politics – Page 49

Doug Ford meet Mike Harris.

May 10, 2019 by Peter Lowry

Philosopher George Santayana told us that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That idea has obviously sailed right over the head of Ontario premier Doug Ford. Despite his father being a back bench MPP for the Harris government, the younger Ford is making the same mistakes.

It was Mike Harris who cut back the number of MPPs in the 1999 provincial election to 103 from 130. Doug Ford Sr. lost in his attempt to win the conservative nomination in the new larger riding.

It must have been where premier Ford got the idea to cut the number of Toronto council seats when he took provincial office. He was settling some old scores. And he is hardly finished unloading provincial costs onto the municipality.

In fact, much of the younger Ford’s actions in office have been based on ‘get even’ and vindictiveness. And only an adhesive sticker salesman would come up with the highly partisan action of telling gas stations they have to have stickers on their gas pumps blaming the federal carbon tax for the price of gas. The only way gasoline retailers should comply is if they also show how much higher the provincial taxes on gas are in Ontario.

But the basic problem with this current Ontario government is that all these ‘get-even actions’ are costing the taxpayers more than they are saving them. Many of his ham-fisted actions are ending up costing us more instead of less.

It is obvious that one of the problems Dougie has is that he is trying to be a populist. He is trying to win the approval of people such as he knows in what they call Ford Nation. That is where the beer in convenience stores and tail-gate parties at football games comes from. He actually thinks of his supporters as a lower class of people. He sees himself as a benevolent lord of the manor.

In contrast to this stance by Doug Ford, Mike Harris was more of an ideologue. He thought the things he was doing were improving the way the better half of society could live. Harris, the golf pro, was a snob. Ford, the sticker salesman, is just another schmuck.

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It’s not a game, Mr. Ford.

May 8, 2019 by Peter Lowry

Ontario premier Doug Ford has yet to realize that he is not in a life-size game. There are repercussions and blowbacks and consequences for his whims at governing. Like the irresponsible Mike Harris, the premier of two decades ago, Ford has been busily downloading costs on the municipalities in hopes that his base would not know where the problems originated.

The problem is, his base might know, but does not care. His base is the person who casually throws the used Tim’s cup out the window of the SUV. There are lots of those people in the base. Most of them do not understand what he is doing. They are happy as long as their pal Dougie shakes up the establishment. That was what they wanted. The more we complain about Dougie’s cuts, the happier his base. It sounds to them like he is doing something.

Let me make it clear though that Dougie cannot commit all this mayhem without help. Look at the people who are gleefully joining in. Dougie has to have a conservative caucus behind him. Some of these people are even in his cabinet and get to join the fun. The cabinet is mostly trusted sycophants who are ill-equipped for their responsibilities or have their own agendas.

A couple of the favourites are the two Lisas, Lisa MacLeod is responsible for troubling parents with children with her hand throttling down services to communities and children. Lisa Thompson gets to spoil their childhoods with education. She is busy making sure we have fewer teachers and less classroom support in Ontario.

The entire caucus gets to stand and applaud when either of the Lisas stand to obfuscate a question in the legislature.

My favourite cabinet member is environment minister Rod Phillips. The sign over his door at the legislature should be “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” How an environment minister can be opposed to environmentalism, leaves me at a loss.

But do not get me going about the rest of the conservative caucus. These are a bunch of drones who have no excuse at all for using our fresh air.

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Who runs this country?

May 7, 2019 by Peter Lowry

Like it or lump it, Canada is a confederation. And that means the parts of the country that created it think they are just as important as the whole. As many wise politicos have noted over the years, it makes the country a bitch to govern. The federal government got the best of the deal though. It appoints the judges of the supreme court and that is where most of the complaints of the provinces go to die.

Scott Moe, the earnest premier of Saskatchewan learned something of this lesson the other day. He took the federal government’s effort to reduce carbon emissions to his province’s court of appeal only to get a 3 to 2 decision that the fed’s really do have the authority to do that.

Now Moe and his friends from Alberta, Ontario and maybe other provinces, will take the case to the supreme court. It might seem like a terrible waste of taxpayers’ money but every once in a while, it is necessary for the supreme court judges to take a look at how this country is, or is not, working.

It also means that the question is unlikely to be answered before some time late next year. What those provinces are really doing is getting behind Andrew “Chuckles’ Scheer, leader of the federal conservatives. They figure with Chuckles running the frat house on the Ottawa River, they can pretty well do anything they want.

It would mean the gutting of Medicare across the country. Our aboriginals would become lesser citizens. And federal transfer payments could become history. It will be like having the stupid members of the Trump family running the farm on the north side of the border.

What would also be history would be the liberal attempts to revitalize Canada’s middle class. Justin Trudeau has never defined the middle class very well but he has done a good job of improving the lot of families with kids in the process.

But we should be thankful that this country is not run by narrow-minded, right-wing schmucks such as Jason Kenney, or Doug Ford. It is bad enough that we are having to listen to them snorting like hogs in the mud in their respective provinces. Canadians can do better.

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Is Kenney a Constitutional Crisis?

May 6, 2019 by Peter Lowry

It seems that between Jason Kenney and his predecessor as premier of Alberta, Kenney has the shriller voice. When he goes to Ottawa to bitch and whine about how his province is not given everything it wants, he knows the buttons to push and the people to harangue. There was no sign at the airport saying ‘Welcome Home Jason!’

And nobody is buying that crap about “a growing crisis of national unity” in Alberta that has only been created in the smarmy mind of Jason Kenney.

Who would believe the threats over Kenney’s opinion that the federal government “doesn’t care about a devastating period of economic adversity”? Any economic adversity in Alberta was created by greed and a lack of economic diversity.

It is disappointing that Kenney and his narrow-minded party got more than 50 per cent in the recent election. It says that Albertans, by and large are buying into the bitching and whining. It is easy to understand people who think they should not pay taxes. And it is easy to understand greed but there is nothing wrong in Alberta that the voters did not bring on themselves.

Albertans have ignored the very wise advice of former premier Peter Lougheed and devastated his Alberta Heritage Trust Fund. This was a fund to build a future for Albertans and instead successive provincial governments have used it to pay bills that were the taxpayers’ responsibility. This kind of waste and misdirection of the funds will continue as long as Albertans vote for it.

If the voters did not know what a sleaze Jason Kenney was before they elected him, they are certainly going to learn now. He took his victory lap in Ottawa to make foolish threats against the liberal government and prime minister Trudeau.

When is he going to learn what is needed to be done in Alberta?

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Why we are pissed with politicians.

May 4, 2019 by Peter Lowry

They are even quantifying just how pissed Canadians are with their politicians these days. It makes sense. And interestingly, we see they are happier with their mayors and councillors. These local people are able to generate a 50 per cent approval rate. Provincial and federal politicos do not make it that high.

Greg MacEachern of Washington-based Proof Strategies’ Ottawa and Toronto office has been studying Canadian attitudes and claims that the low-flying politicos these days are the provincial ones across the country. Based on recent vote results, the provincials are probably lucky to be trusted by as many as a third of Canadians. At least the federals are at an average of 40 per cent trust rate.

There is certainly a lot of logic to those figures. The municipal people are close at hand and you can get to talk to them when you are dissatisfied with what they are doing. Besides, it is relatively easy to verify what is being reported by the local news media. And as there are supposedly no political parties involved, you get used to those politicians municipally who fall into right or left- wing categories.

But what is obviously pissing off the populace is the power of the political parties and the secrecy of our federal and provincial cabinets. When these people are planning how to change your life, people get concerned. The politicos are springing changes on them that the people get to pay for—like it or not!

One of the things I have found travelling back and forth across Canada over the years is that trust seems to come with the smaller size of provinces. In PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador, you can get to stop and have a pleasant chat with the premier in passing and nobody thinks anything special about it. The bigger the province, the more self important the politico can be.

The federal government just has better public relations. I go back to the era of both John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson and both were delightful gentlemen with whom to chat. I found I could always get a laugh from Mr. Pearson and his successor Pierre Trudeau. And you could trust them. We seem to be going downhill since.

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Doug Ford’s base is into booze.

April 30, 2019 by Peter Lowry

There. Question asked. Question answered. If you had a bunch of freeloaders such as Ford Nation supporting you in politics, would you not reciprocate by supporting some of their wishes? His base wants better access to booze. All these newspaper people fail to understand why premier Ford is changing the booze regulations in Ontario. Now you know. This is payoff time.

Doug Ford might be the first politician in Ontario to really honour his promises. Good on Dougie! He might be a jerk but he knows enough to keep some of his promises.

Former premier Kathleen Wynne knew that people were annoyed by Ontario’s antiquated liquor laws. She drove us crazy with that Chinese water torture of adding one large grocery store at a time to beer and wine sales. And then she restricted their hours of sale, forced them to charge the same as the LCBO and limited their sales.

I feel sorry for the local police in Hamilton, Ottawa and Toronto when we start having boozy tail-gate parties at Canadian Football League games. We already have enough drunks disturbing those games.

But the real problem with this circus Doug Ford is running are the lies the media are feeding people to try to stop this freewheeling opening up on booze.

One of the stupidest lies is that booze is already abundantly available. You should consider that there might be 2300 LCBO, Beer Store, Grocery store and agencies actually selling alcohol products in Ontario (population 14 million). That is ridiculous when you consider that 8 million Quebec citizens have a choice of more than 6000 outlets including SAQ and grocery stores as well as beer and wine in the ubiquitous dépanneurs. I cannot think of a better excuse to force our Ontario convenience stores to upgrade their premises.

And if you believe that Ontario is really on the hook for a billion dollars to abrogate some specious agreement with the foreign owners of the Beer Store, I will send you my bill for the inconvenience of having to get my two-fours at those disgusting, smelly Beer Stores. And no, it is not likely that convenience stores will carry many craft brews. Convenience stores are for convenience. Our liquor stores could learn how to merchandise.

Besides, I have a crying towel for all those stupid blue-stockings who think they have a right to tell others how to live. If you think booze is always harmful, hire your own billboard!

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Ford finds friends.

April 26, 2019 by Peter Lowry

Politicians always claim that they represent the people. Doug Ford ran a successful campaign in Ontario last year with the slogan: Doug Ford – For the People.

But the truth is that the voters have little say on laws presented for consideration and discussion. Bills take a long and cumbersome route from idea to fruition and most of the discussion is between the civil servants and the lobbyists for those who have a selfish interest in the bill. It is only if the bill is contentious and might be dropped that the premier or a senior minister finds that they have friends who want a word with them.

The interesting thing about that is between this new government and its predecessor, there are different friends. Times have changed.

The previous liberal government had the usual big donors but their friends seemed to be mainly corporate lawyers and bankers. If you needed to influence the premier or certain cabinet ministers, there were people you could call.

The new gang at Queen’s Park present a different situation. For one thing the Ford government is more of a one-man band. It seems that our premier does not trust his cabinet ministers to do their jobs. They do not have years of working together. Ford does not appear to think of them as colleagues. They are a bunch of people who want his job.

You should remember that Doug Ford’s previous political experience were those wacky and fun-filled four years with his late brother at Toronto city hall. In city politics, it is the developers and their lawyers who seek to endear themselves to the right politicos.

Obviously, Doug Ford is also taking their calls as premier. Lawyers throughout Ontario have already been advised who to call at Toronto firms that have invested time and effort with the premier.

Just remember, Doug Ford is open for business.

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Bountiful B.S. for the Beer Store.

April 25, 2019 by Peter Lowry

When even the Toronto Star gets in line to support the Beer Store’s battle with Ford and Friends at Queen’s Park, you know the fight is on. Just the other day, the Star proposed on its front page that having beer in corner stores could cost Ontario taxpayers $1 billion. Which you have to realize is just bull shit.

The Ontario government and its Beer Store allies have been mistreating, inconveniencing and stealing from this province’s beer drinkers for most of the last 100 years. And this is not a ‘blue-stockings’ versus ‘progressives’ argument. The people fighting the hardest against convenience stores selling beer and wine are the Beer Store union.

If you think foreign-owned Labatt, Molson and Sleeman are going to sue the Ontario government for redress when the government is opening up millions in new sales for them, you are crazy. You never kill the golden goose that has been feeding fat profits to you.

The Ontario government, the LCBO and the Beer Store have been ripping off Ontario drinkers since the last time we had prohibition in Ontario. Why do you think Ottawa Valley residents mostly go to Quebec to do their serious beer and wine purchasing?

The arguments must be coming down to the short strokes and the more strident, the sillier. First of all, is the story that the Beer Store committed to an agreement(?) to spend $100 million per year building and maintaining its outlets. If it did not budget that much anyway, it would not be serious about doing business. They have just fewer than 450 stand-alone stores now. They have had a free ride on the liquor stores carrying their products in the most expensive packaging and recently the last liberal government in Ontario added some of the larger grocery stores.

But Ford and Friends won the last popularity contest to call the shots at Queen’s Park and they are out to show how populist they can be. They are not only lightening the liquor rules but they are opening up the distribution. If they follow through, Ontario beer drinkers are really going to catch a break.

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Facts and fake news from Ford and foes.

April 18, 2019 by Peter Lowry

The facts are few but the opinions are fanciful as we read reaction to the Ford government’s alcohol policies. What is particularly amusing is that we are told neither the premier nor his finance minister drink alcohol. And yet they are telling old, staid and dull Ontario to loosen up and have another drink.

They have obviously found out how many billions in taxes the distribution of booze brings the province each year. Regretfully, the doubling of availability will be unlikely to double that revenue.

But it still frightens the ‘blue-stockings’ among us. I always thought that ‘Repression Works’ was the motto of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

The new and plentiful hours of booze service would frighten Carrie Nation. Drinking in parks and parking lots is also new. Deals for ‘happy hour’ sound exciting and free drinks while gambling does not. (Any smart gambler will settle for the free coffee while gambling.)

Rob Simpson of Sagewood Resources writes in the Toronto Star that government costs of alcohol addiction in Ontario exceed revenues by $465.4 millions. That is a very precise estimate, when he does not seem to know the extent of the revenues.

It is not that I would argue with the suggestion he makes that the price of alcohol is the number one contributor to increased consumption. Judging by Dougie’s experience with his ‘buck-a-beer,’ pledge, there is little chance of lowered prices of booze in the province.

Simpson also states that the Wynne government had already made “massive” increases to the availability of alcohol with its water torture adding of a few grocery stores to selling beer and wine. He seriously says that the fact that each of the (eventually) 450 stores planned, which were each capped at $1 million in sales(?) would add a total $450 million to Ontario booze revenues.

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The Alberta that God forgot.

April 17, 2019 by Peter Lowry

“O outcast land! O leper land!
Let the lone wolf-cry all express
The hate insensate of thy hand,
Thy heart’s abysmal loneliness.”

From the poems of Robert Service.

Jason Kenney won the Alberta election and the embittered battles over bitumen are drawing clearer lines. He joins the blow-hard conservatives of Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in building walls against people and Canada’s future. Just another climate change denier.

But what incentive does he bring to encourage prime minister Justin Trudeau to build the twinned, high pressure Trans Mountain pipeline? We have certainly not heard honeyed words between them.

Let us remember that the Old Kinder Morgan pipeline has been in use since 1953. Refurbishing it and twinning it to carry diluted bitumen costs about as much as what the Canadian government paid for it originally. To carry the bitumen from the Alberta tar sands to Burnaby, B.C., the pipeline has to have heaters to keep the bitumen liquid and use high pressure to keep it moving.

Admittedly, the voters of Alberta had little choice presented in the election. Premier Rachel Notley looked worn and tired after the rigours of her job for the past four years. Jason Kenney even lost some of his baby fat to look fit and ready to take the reins.

But with what looked like a record turn-out in the election, Kenney’s slammed together conservatives won the field.

Albertans can repent at their leisure.

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