Month: December 2021

Regg Cohn Cries ‘Wolf.’

by Peter Lowry

Toronto Star opinion writer Martin Regg Cohn might be a Ford fan. He tells us that he believes Ontario premier Doug Ford has found a path to truth, justice and the Ontario way. He even believes Ford is a shoo-in next June for a second four years in the premier’s office. Regg Cohn must be smoking the strong stuff.

The problem is that the Ford, Regg Cohn is referring to, is a phantom. He doesn’t exist. Ford and his side-kick, girl-wonder Christine Elliott, have destroyed Ontario’s over-rated health system. Do you really think anyone with a clue about what has happened to our hospitals could conscientiously return that dangerous duo? Have you found anyone concerned about health care who would vote for them next year?

And have you talked to any school teachers lately? They are hardly silent about what they would like to do to education minister Stephen Lecce. They have found out that Lecce is a phony. He is his own public relations creation. It is kind of like a lawyer who acts as his own lawyer. He is a waste of good suits.

Believe it or not there are people in Ontario who care about the environment. They are concerned about global warming. And they are askance at the Ford government’s Ministerial Zoning Orders. Can you imagine anyone who gives a damn about the environment agreeing to Ford’s highway 413? The act of destroying wetlands and good farmland to please Ford’s developer friends has turned off more than a few Ontario voters. And the Bradford Bypass needs to bypass the Holland Marsh, not destroy part of the Marsh, and part of Bradford.

And, don’t you love Ford’s solution to electricity generation? He wants more nuclear power. When anyone else can make an easy guess as to how popular that idea might be, he thinks nukes are the answer. He could buy the same amount of power from Quebec’s water-generated power grid for about a third of what nuke’s cost. And Regg Cohn thinks Ford knows best?

It is enough to make you want to find out about the liberal’s secret leader, Stephen Del Duca. Or, heaven forbid, consider the NDP’s Andrea Horwath.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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Trump, Trust and Truth.

by Peter Lowry

If wife Melanie doesn’t poison his late-night cheeseburgers first, Donald Trump is planning his return to the U.S. presidency in 2024. He already has a large chunk of U.S. voters convinced that he was cheated in 2020 and that the Biden presidency is not legal. And republican politicians in red states are preparing the way for his triumphant return.

In a corrupted political system, such as exists in America, it is easy for the Trump lackies to prepare to strew rose petals in his path. They are passing laws, in republican-controlled states, to control who votes and how they will be allowed to vote and whether their votes will be counted. They have gone well beyond gerrymandering. Their motto seems to be “We can steal better.”

It will not necessarily be a stealth campaign. You can expect Trump to be more open in his campaign for a white, racially pure America. (You thought “Make America Great Again” meant something else?)

And the ultimate recourse is violence. Trump showed his followers what could be accomplished last January 6—Trump’s Day of Infamy. And can you imagine the result if they had all brought along their trusty assault rifles?

The red states are once again emboldened to challenge Roe v Wade, the bedrock of liberalized abortion. It is not so much as they all give a damn about the rights of the fetus. They are exercising their right to expect a Trump-appointed Supreme Court to bend to their wishes.

At the same time, Trump has his search and destroy list of untrusted and weak-kneed republicans. He is cleaning house before putting himself before a republican nominating convention. This convention is only for those who make the Trump Pledge of Allegiance.

No, it is not likely that Trump could garner a majority of votes for president but it might not matter. We should never forget that the Nazi party won the last contested vote in the Wiemar Republic (Germany) in 1933 with just less than 45 per cent of the popular votes and winning only a third of the seats in the Reichstag.

And, in case you where not aware, Trump has launched his own Internet showcase and will have all the popular social media singing from his song sheets for 2024. It might be the last open election in America for many years.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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Climate of Promises.

by Peter Lowry

Did you know there is going to be an official plan on how Canada will achieve its climate target for 2030? We would probably feel more encouraged by this if the federal climate commissioner had not complained the other day that Canada has not achieved a single target, it set for itself, since 1992. And since 2030 is not far away, what are we going to promise now?

It seems our government doesn’t know. That’s right. Rather than cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions, they increased in Canada between 1990 and 2019 by 21 per cent. During the governments of the Chrétien liberals, the Harper conservatives and the Trudeau liberals, they have not only missed their targets, they increased the problem.

So, who is going to trust them to set a target for 2030?

They have a solution for that. It seems, we are going to tell them what that target should be. The Trudeau liberals are going delay their legal commitment to have a plan in place by the end of December 2021. They are delaying it by three months so that Canadians can tell them what to do with Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions between now and 2030.

No doubt, you share with me some skepticism about this solution. I am sure you also share some doubts about the appropriateness of some of the answers the government will get.

And I am not that impressed with the Alberta tar sands people who are planning to stuff all that bad stuff back down into the earth so we can stop worrying about them. And they are going to ship all that highly polluting tar sands stuff to other countries so that the other countries can get blamed for all that nasty climate warming. After all, the Trudeau government is twinning the Trans Mountain pipeline so that Canada can ship three times as much of that tar sands stuff to other countries.

A lot of my friends in British Columbia are going to lie down in front of the path of that new pipe being laid. They are saying: “Might as well kill us now, instead of killing our progeny slowly.” 

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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Don’t Bother Biden.

by Peter Lowry

U.S. president Joe Biden is not Canada’s friend. It is not all that likely that Joe Biden would have time to find Canada on a world map. This poor guy gets all the problems of this crazy world thrown at him. And we think he has time to worry about us? Canada is the least of his problems.

The first consideration when you look at Joe Biden is that he is really too old for the job. Biden has spent his life as a second-string American politician. He represented Delaware in the Senate. Nobody takes Delaware seriously except for its corporate-friendly positions. He won the senate seat by a fluke and stayed for more than 35 years. Americans are parochial and do not care about the rest of the world so he specialized in foreign affairs and stayed out of trouble.

Biden’s first run at the U.S. presidency was in 1987. He used an accusation that he had plagiarized part of a speech, to drop out when he found little support. He tried again 20 years later and found that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton left little chance for him.

But he was a good solution for vice president for Obama. He was the ideal guy to look after the rust-belt states and he had some traction with the right wing because of his stand on supporting police and longer sentences for crimes. Compared to a left-wing Democrat such as Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden is definitely less progressive.       

In choosing a Democrat who could defeat Trump in 2020, the party had slim pickings. It could not bring back Hillary Clinton. There were comers like Kamilla Harris and the Energizer bunny, Senator Sanders but nobody that was guaranteed to defeat Trump. Yet it was ‘good ole’ Joe Biden that made the cut. And the Biden-Harris duo delivered the goods.

But the nation remains in trouble. Trump is not finished. The supreme court has been politicized to serve the Republicans. Gerrymandering is rampant in the red states. In a nation divided, they will rise again.

Biden has China and Russia to resolve. The Russian troops are massed at the Ukraine. And you want Biden to worry about Canada’s complaints? Get real.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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Do Not Go Gentle.

by Peter Lowry

It would appear that conservative leader Erin O’Toole does not intend to “Go gentle into that good night.” He does not seem to be Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ sort of guy. In O’Toole’s case, the death is to his dream of leading this country.

It is not as simple as O’Toole tried and failed and it is time to move on. The problem is that he tried everything and failed his party. He promised victory and glory and he delivered stagnation.

But it was how he did it that was the rub. The problem was that, from the beginning, he stood alone. In that cold and forbidding studio in downtown Ottawa, he transitioned from pamphleteer to panderer. If this promise does not work, let’s try another.

Nobody can label the O’Toole leadership of his party in opposition. In parliament last week, we wondered where the yelling went? From the vindictiveness and vitriol, parliament entered a time of cooperation and cohesion. It passed a conservative motion unanimously. It did. Really. It confused and bewildered but worked. The bill against conversion therapy promptly went on to the Senate for that body’s approval. For a bill that could still raise one or two human rights questions, it was given short shrift in the Commons.

It is that nobody is sure just what this new approach will cost O’Toole? It left many people wondering just how he is going to square this with the conservative right wing. He can hardly send them over to Maxime Bernier’s peoples’ party. He cannot afford to lose them.

He had succumbed to the pleas of the conservative party’s fiscal right when he gave Pierre Poilievre back his finance criticism platform. Nobody needs to tell O’Toole that Poilievre is a loose cannon with his own agenda. That “Justin-flation” that the Carleton MP coined is being picked up by other members of the caucus and the speaker is going to have to call it what it is: unparliamentary.

But it will be after the pandemic is over that economics will once again impact on Canadians’ concerns. Until then Poilievre’s plaints are just chatter.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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PR for the Royals.

by Peter Lowry

Maybe I was in the public relations business at the wrong time. Retiring at the turn of the century, I missed out on the opportunities. There was no denying that the British royalty had to have a renaissance but it was too late for me to get a share of the lolly. There was money to be made by a smart PR person but Buckingham Palace is a tough house to crack.

A good PR program for the palace needed to be two pronged. The royals had to take part of their strategy from the Hollywood fan mill. It would have made good sense to send one of the junior royals to Tinsel-Town to learn how the movie fan-frenzy works. I guess young Harry would do.

You have to admit, the Hollywood fan mill is a grind but it works. Sure, some of the people being promoted might be embarrassed occasionally but Hollywood fans must be some of the most gullible people in the world. The key is that they are just like the people who think being a royal is something special.

And let’s give a thought to the awful experience of growing up in a drafty old palace with obsequious servants and cold toast for breakfast. And North Americans would be horrified at sending their children off to what the Brits call public schools. Eton might be hard by Windsor Castle but there is little sympathy from a Queen who had to handle her own hard knocks as a princess for sale to the highest bidder.

Let’s face it, the Brit royals have suffered some ups and downs over the years. Thank goodness the Queen is trying to set a record for longevity. Nobody seems to want Charlie on the throne. But the palace is putting it all on King Billy. They have not yet figured out a way to skip a generation.

But the 39-year-old prince is being carefully groomed, just in case. They’ve enshrined his late mother to more than she would ever have wanted. He is rugged and outdoorsy, the ideal husband and father. He uses the latest technologies as though born to high-tech. He has a beautiful wife and the right number of offspring. Maybe when he and Harry get together, they have a laugh at the whole thing.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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When Silence is Golden.

by Peter Lowry

Not all politicians understand this. It is important to know what to say to the reporter who asks a question. It is also important to know when to say nothing.  Some of the questions are naturals that fit into other programs and the politician comes out sounding knowledgeable and concerned. And some politicians are like Ontario premier Doug Ford, who will never learn when to close his mouth.

It was a good example of the problem recently when the mayors of Brampton and Toronto, as well as premier Ford, weighed in on a bail decision by an Ontario superior court judge. It was in a case of person charged with first degree murder and none of the politicians had an opportunity to read the judge’s reasoning for the unusual decision to grant bail. And since bail hearings are usually kept confidential until after the trial in these cases, only the judge’s ruling is made available.

To the delight of the news media, these politicians, and others, were willing to comment—when, if they had legal advice, they would not have commented. The only thing they could or should have said was that the matter was before the courts. Both Tory in Toronto and Brown in Brampton were trained as lawyers and should have known that. As usual, the premier knew nothing and spouted off anyway.

Ford has become famous for his bombast. Just the other day, he took off on a flight of ire towards the province’s auditor general. By now, the auditor general must be used to Ford’s outbursts. Most devoted conservatives would agree that she is not one of Doug Ford’s favourite people at Queen’s Park.

It is not that the conservatives are routinely careless with the billions of dollars spent every year by the government. It was in trying to assist Ontario companies that the government got itself into what the opposition in the legislature referred to as a “$1 billion tax dollar boondoggle.” The NDP also noted that $210 million went to businesses that did not qualify for the grants and the conservatives had just written it off as bad debts.

Now Ford is saying that the government is going after these bad actors. He never seems to learn.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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The Fool is in the Fine Print.

by Peter Lowry

Now we know that the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is a waste of time. When I complained to the commission back at the time of the election, I found you had to be persistent. Their first reaction to complaints appeared to be a brush off. You had to let them know you are serious.

You are not supposed to be amused by all the provincial CRTC commissioners these days being female. I never said anything was wrong with that but the fact that the chair, a long-time bureaucrat, is male makes something of a point.

But my complaint had to do with the rank unfairness of the Global program West Block on the last two Sundays before election day on September 22, this year. I could not believe that three people who were voting conservative made for a balanced or even knowledgeable political panel. It was not only an insult to the viewers but, to me, it seemed to be highly partisan and biased.

Having been involved in the birth of the CRTC back in the late 1960s, I take a bit of a proprietary stance with the commission. I have appeared before it several times at hearings and have always paid attention to its rulings.

In this case, I was caught off guard. The commission responses all told me that I should make my complaint to the station involved. I once did that with a radio station that made a mistake and I was taken to a very nice lunch by the station manager, wrote an apology for the station and picked the announcer who would read it on air.

But Corus Entertainment that runs Global needs to understand that its bias does not wash in Ontario. They were overdoing their conservative prejudice.

The commission finally sent me an e-mail quoting Section 8 of Television Broadcasting Regulations of 1987 that requires broadcasting of programs of a partisan political character on an equitable basis. It then says that this is assessed on a basis of the entire election period. Which I guess leaves the question moot. There is no way a single citizen could assess the programs of a network over the entire election period.

CRTC: 1, Citizens: 0.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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Battle of the Fox and Mud Hen.

by Peter Lowry

It is unusual for prime minister Justin Trudeau to hold off but in the battle between the fox and the mud hen, he knows he needs to stand back. He has nothing to gain from acknowledging or sparring with the conservative’ s fox, finance critic Pierre Poilievre. The conservative MP is tasked to defame and destroy the liberal finance minister and deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland. So far, it seems a fair fight.

Also known as the American coot, the long-legged mud hen tends to nest in boggy ground where the eggs can be searched out by their natural foe, the fox. In the quagmire of parliament, the battle is most often in evidence during question period. While fox-Poilievre likes to question what he calls Justin-flation, the slur on the prime minister’s name is actually addressed to the finance minister.

But the liberal mud hen gives back in kind. She is a highly experienced journalist and she brings her much better information gathering techniques to the fore in warding off the fox’s attacks.

There are world-wide inflationary influences that need to be addressed but are hardly caused by the liberal government in Canada. Much of the problem is in supply chain breakdowns, trucking and transportation troubles, customer-facing employee shortages and the many other business disruptions caused by the coronavirus. The world is not out of the woods yet with Covid-19 variants.

But with the fox standing in the House of Commons saying that inflation is all the fault of the liberals, there are still those foolish enough to believe him. And it doesn’t help that house prices in Ontario and British Columbia continue to climb in an out-of-control fashion. When gasoline and other fossil fuels are under indictment as causing climate change, their escalating prices smack more of price-fixing and unjustified profit-taking. It is as though the companies are looking to their retirement nest-eggs while destroying those of others. There are many financial troubles ahead but my bet is on the mud hen.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

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Canada’s Care Concerns.

by Peter Lowry

It seems fairly clear to Canadians that our battles with the Coronavirus are not over. As alarms spread over Covid-19 variants and the arguments with those who do not trust the vaccines become more vehement, political questions still have to be taken into account. Many questions need be answered about the kind of nation we want to be.

The first obvious observation has to be that Canada is a caring nation. While our American neighbours still argue about universal medicare, it is a done deal in Canada. Despite the efforts of some provinces to extort additional funds from the feds, there is no question but medicare is a fixture in our society.

That creates the logic and forethought that is now going into our other care concerns. Pharmacare is something on the horizon. Dentacare will be a logical follow-through. Long-term care has become a red flag. Child care is becoming a process and not a barrier to parents being able to work.

And, in our northern climate, we cannot ignore the plight of the homeless. We are not that cruel. Governments, at all levels, have a role to play in ensuring adequate, safe, non-polluting and reasonably priced accommodation for all.

And the most important caring of all is the care to make sure climate change is not the earth’s farewell to humankind.

But we have to recognize that there are those who will deny our care concerns.

They start out concerned about costs. They say they are concerned about our country’s debts. They rebel against taxation. They object to being taxed to support the less fortunate in our society. They confuse their rights with the need for mandated vaccine usage. Nobody has the right to infect others with their diseases.

It is a basically selfish attitude. It is a ‘me first’ view of the world we live in. It is on the right of conservatism. Conservative politicians will tell you how caring they are before an election but afterwards they seem to forget.

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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]