You would think that this far into the summer, when many readers are taking a holiday from politics, that bloggers could also take a well-deserved (if not earned) break. It might not happen. Babel-on-the-Bay is still well supplied with ideas and sources for commentaries. The in-box regularly produces interesting challenges from readers and friends. The stack of comment ideas is as tall as ever beside the computer.
But we have to stop getting too far ahead. We have a backlog of items sitting in the computer to run in the weeks to come. And we are already putting together some of the stats we will be using in September to provide a morning line for Toronto’s municipal mayoralty election. Babel-on-the-Bay is sticking to an earlier decision that we are not commenting on the Toronto mayoralty until it becomes important in September. And one comment a day is plenty for people to digest. Think of Babel-on-the-Bay as your own personal political comment-a-day calendar.
And when you consider the political hiatus across Canada over the rest of the summer, we are delighted with the loyalty of our many readers. Fully half of our readers check in at least weekly to see what we are discussing this week. Hopefully there is also a chuckle or two to please their palate. While we truly believe that laughter is the best medicine, sometimes our annoyance with politicians in general seeps through.
We also need to be more conscious of our many American and world-wide readers who might not be au currant with political names, customs and events in Canada and appreciate it when we explain things. We will not be as kind with the occasional words used that require a quick search on Google. As Reader’s Digest always admonished us: “It pays to increase your word power.”
As a public relations professional throughout our career, including many years for the computer industry, we have a broad interest in everything from sports to the environment. And there is no apology for being very proud of Canada and taking less pride in politicians who screw things up.
We tend to view the current political scene in Canada with some regrets. After many years of being a faithful political apparatchik, we still believe in the political process and the concept of liberalism. What we can do is write with some inside insight on how politicians are failing us in the 21st Century.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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