Babel-on-the-Bay has resisted the urge to do an occasional potpourri of comments. We usually try to stick to one (related at least) topic at a time. If we did a potpourri, it would probably look like this:
Ignorance is bliss: In a letter to the editor of the Toronto Star this week, a reader says he has solved the problems of Toronto municipal elections. He appears to think that the city should have proportional representation without political parties. Since proportional representation is based on voting for a party instead of a candidate, he has certainly solved the election problems.
More bliss: That letter writer has some support among the Governing Party of Ontario (GPO). The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing wants to ignore history. He wants to have a preferential ballot for municipal elections so that the losers can pick the winners in Ontario municipal votes. How soon the GPO forgets that fiasco in 2007 when the province tried to get a referendum passed for yet another ill-considered voting system.
More ignorance: Ontario is a week away from the wake for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. In the final leadership debate between federal MP Patrick Brown and the MPP for Oshawa Christine Elliott, Brown accuses Elliott of being more of the same as former leader Timmy Hudak. He accuses her of supporting Hudak’s promise to fire 100,000 civil servants. Elliott does not seem to be aware that Brown knew about that policy before she heard it on the news. Brown was one of the first to jump up after Hudak’s Barrie Country Club speech to congratulate Timmy on his brilliant new strategy. And does anyone have a clue where Brown would take the party?
Other commentators: Few Canadian pundits and commentators can hold a candle to Chantal Hèbert of the Toronto Star and CBC. It will be very interesting though to compare her readings of the tea leaves in Alberta with ours. She is forecasting that a good showing for the provincial NDP in Alberta is good news for federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair. That good showing will only be good news for Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley and the people of Alberta. Tom Mulcair has his own problems.
And municipal affairs in Barrie: Babel-on-the-Bay’s lack of comments on this subject is because Barrie’s municipal politics are conservative and boring. Yet we are glad to see that council has finally decided to pay its putative liberal mayor a proper stipend. He was blocked from receiving money from PowerStream (Barrie’s hydro supplier) while being on the board for the past four years. It was a matter of an additional $30,000 a year that he had to forgo.
But expect you will hear even more of Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman in about three years when he is expected to quit Barrie council for one of Barrie’s seats in the provincial legislature. There will probably be a cabinet seat for him if Wynne’s GPO stays in power.
-30-
Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]