The New Year came and went and it was such a busy time for political comment that we missed commenting on the past year. And that year needs a look. Babel-on-the-Bay set some records. Readership is up. In 365 days, there were 365 commentaries. Other sites are asking for our commentaries. Others send us readers. The numbers are confusing because so many of you are frequent flyers. This blog is fun but on the occasional cold day, it can also be onerous.
But the record continues. Babel-on-the-Bay called the shots on every election of interest to us last year. The Liberal win in Quebec was a slam-dunk after a nouveau péquiste Pierre-Karl Péladeau blew his opening news conference.
Very few agreed with us that the Ontario Liberals were going to win so easily against the embarrassment of Conservative Timmy Hudak and the incompetence of New Democrat Andrea Horwath. And the amusing part of that was that we guessed wrong in our own riding. We have a very surprised new Liberal MPP from Babel. Since the local Whigs did not think they needed a rabble-rouser around for their token campaign, we missed what was happening in our own backyard.
The best long-range prognostication was the Scottish Referendum in Great Britain. That was a nip and tuck situation but the sensitivity to the Scottish side of the family came through for us. Mind you the Scottish side of the family left Dundee more than 200 years ago, so guess-work also helped.
Municipal elections can be an interesting study but Babel’s municipal election was a snore last year. Only the Toronto mayoralty contest held any interest and Babel-on-the-Bay went with winner John Tory from day one.
There was no question that Americans had tired of Mr. Obama’s rhetoric and both of the American Houses of Congress fell to the Republicans in November. Canadians will be sleeping with a very cranky, dyspeptic elephant for the next two years.
Everyone is now girding their loins (whatever that means?) for the three-way tilt for the pan-Canadian title of Prime Minister some time in 2015. The more serious problem is what this election is going to do to our democracy? That is the real question for the voters this year.
-30-
Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]