Babel-on-the-Bay
Babel-on-the-Bay is the personal website of Peter Lowry. It is a vehicle for political commentaries.
Babel-on-the-Bay

Cuts With a Dull Knife.

by Peter Lowry

The generals are upset. We hear that the government wants to cut a billion dollars from the military budget. Which means we are reneging again on our promise to our NATO allies that we will spend two per cent of our national gross domestic product on preparing for war—or, at least some peace-keeping. There is always a fight going on somewhere in this fractious world.

 It means we better not go to war with anyone while this cut is happening. I was assuming that the arms and ammunition we were sending to help Ukraine were out of our military budget anyway. It does not seem to read as a ploy to cut spending on the Ukraine.

If they asked me, which I doubt, I would cut the stupid F-35A from the Americans. This is supposed to be a $14.2 billion deal over the next ten years.  The way these aircraft deals with the Americans work, you end up spending twice as much because the planes need constant upgrades and fixes. Canada would end up ten years from now with what ever of the 88 planes that have not crashed from trying to get from one part of our country to another without refueling. Why we would buy any planes that are short range fighters instead of long-range patrol aircraft is either a testament to the persuasive salesmanship of the Americans or our own stupidity. The only practical consideration is that the Americans let us sell them some parts for the F-35 because we have been pouring money into the development of the plane for the past 20 years.

Of course, part of the billion-dollar savings will be in personnel. At a time when more and more our military are being deployed for national emergencies such as floods, forest fires and other disasters, we might have more generals available than we have the lower ranks. We would have nobody for peace keeping or any of that other aid-type stuff that once earned Canada a reputation as a country willing to help.

Dare I mention that Canada once had a plane called the AVRO Arrow. It was one of the most advanced fighter aircraft ever designed in the world. Our politicians put an end to that foolishness and cancelled it before it went too far.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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Waiting for Mr. Trudeau.

by Peter Lowry

It appears that conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has a careful plan. He never bothers to fry small fish. It was very evident in the past week that he was not going to waste his resources on House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota.

Mr. Rota had made a mistake. It seems that one of his guests to hear the speech by the Ukrainian president Zelenskyy to the house of commons had not been properly vetted.by Canada’s pathetic security apparatchiks.

But would Mr. Poilievre be satisfied with the resignation of the house speaker? No, he only wants to attack Mr. Trudeau. If a flying insect got into his soup in the parliamentary dining room, Mr. Poilievre would blame Mr. Trudeau.

It is not as though Mr. Trudeau is entirely blameless. He is just not some kind of God who sees the sparrow fall. As much as Mr. Poilievre holds Mr. Trudeau to fault for the world-wide pandemic and the strains on the provincial medical systems that suffered so much criticism while doing their very best throughout the worst of the pandemic. If anything is to blame for the current animosities across our county, it is the disparate and piecemeal Medicare system in Canada. As hard as the federal government worked to get people to pull together, Mr. Poilievre was there in parliament, trying to pull things apart.

As the pandemic abates, Mr. Poilievre turned his attention to the world-wide inflation that ensued from the pent-up failures of the world’s distribution systems. Of course, he blamed Mr. Trudeau again.

Like the rotten child who starts killing flies by pulling off their wings, Mr. Poilievre uses peoples’ pain and hate, to seduce them. If you did not hate someone before listening to him, you will when he is finished.

It is a wonder what the conservative leader would do if he did not have Mr.Trudeau to insult and accuse and lie about. Mr. Trudeau can make his own mistakes. He hardly needs Mr. Poilievre to dream up new ones for him.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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Common Sense Conservatives?

by Peter Lowry

A piece of junk mail came to my home the other day. It was probably the worst mailing from a political party, I have ever seen. There must be Ontario residents in their twenties today who would not remember the Mike Harris conservatives and their common-sense revolution of 1995. The ignorance of what these federal conservatives are offering Canadians today is even more frightening.

This mailer said that they can increase paycheques, build affordable homes, lower prices, make our streets safer and bring home “freedom” (whatever that means?). I might not be a big fan of Justin Trudeau but at least he doesn’t treat Canadians as though they are stupid.

What annoys me the most about these conservatives is that they are railing against the government that got us the vaccines to carry us through a world-wide pandemic. The first concern of the liberal government during the pandemic was our people, making sure they the money they needed to live through those terrible times of lock-downs and constant fear of becoming sick and dying.

These are conservatives who are opposed to cutting back on the pollution that is throwing our world into the chaos of climate change. They are opposed to any new taxes, whether they are designed to help people or not.

You would think that the time of Stephen Harper as prime minister would have proved to many Canadians that the meanness and cruelty of that conservative government did not need repetition. Ontario residents should be particularly wary after the lies and larceny of its conservative provincial government under Doug Ford.

I have no idea why these modern-day conservatives are so ideological and ignore the real needs of Canadians. They certainly march to a different drummer than conservatives such as prime minister John Diefenbaker and Ontario’s premier Bill Davis. As a liberal, I liked those two—because they cared about people.

Pierre Poilievre MP is a man of little life experience, who is committed to the extremes of conservatism. He will do anything, say anything, to get people to vote for him and his followers.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to:[email protected]

Leave the Old Feuds Behind.

by Peter Lowry

When Stalin of Russia murdered more than five million Ukrainians by starvation in the 1930s, did the world rush to their aid? Didn’t Finland fight the Winter War alone against Russia in the winter of 1939-40? Most of the Canadian population were not even here for those events. Nor does the majority of our population know much about the events in the Punjab since India’s independence in 1947.

To those of us born in Canada, events such as pogroms and genocide are far away and too often forgotten. Canada welcomes people who are refugees from the problems of the world but we tire quickly from the import of these antipathies. We listen to the adventures of those who struggled to get to Canada. We are glad they are here.

But these people, whom we welcome, must learn to leave the old animosities in the old world that suffered them. And it is not that we do not care about the wrongdoing their people have endured. One on one, we can commiserate. There is also forgiveness.

Canadians cannot take sides in the atrocities of the past in faraway countries. The arguments of the Armenians, for example, belong in the old countries.

Most Canadians have only heard of the Waffen SS that a 16-year-old Ukrainian joined at the beginning of hostilities in the Second World War. It was a time when the hatred for the Stalin genocide of the 1930s was far more palpable in the Ukraine than any understanding of the horrors to come of the Nazis.

The man from the Ukraine who was in parliament the other day, reminds me of an Austrian who came to Canada after the Second World War who had been trained to fly the early German jet fighter planes. He was captured by the Russians. After the war he escaped from a Soviet Gulag and walked across a continent to return home to Austria. He was of noble heritage, yet nothing remained for him in his homeland.

He came to Canada and we accepted him. He had to dig ditches for a while to get a start but what we did not yet know about him was his skills as a designer and as an artist that would make him famous in his adopted homeland.

So be aware, no matter where you were born, Canada welcomes you. Just remember to always leave the old animosities in the old countries. They have no place here.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Who Are We Hurting?

by Peter Lowry

Listening and reading the advice of so many, we find we are in the hands of imperfect problem solvers. We complain to our politicians and yet we find them on the next kneeler, wringing their hands in frustration. We lay the blame on industries and all they want is to complain to us of their challenges. And if we complain to the central bankers, they whip us with increased interest rates. And the cycles of pain continue.

Politicians can offer only false crutches. Wage and price controls are possible. And they can offer special taxes on the more offensive industries. What happens when those plans and taxes have run their course? The only truth is we are hurting ourselves. We are further grinding down on the poor, the disadvantaged and the minimum wage earners.

Sure. We can blame industry. Industry only thrives in friendly environments. They can fold their tents and steal away in the night. And what becomes of our jobs, our goods, our goals and our economy?

Canada is a trading nation. It is too late to think of changing that fact. Only fools want us to accept deep cuts in our standard of living, this late in the game. Nobody wants Canadians to be the biblical hewers of wood and drawers of water. Canada is a winter nation. As seasons temper, due to global warming, nobody wants to forecast the vagaries in our future. Will wildfires continue to tear at our forests? Will hurricanes and cyclones pester our shorelines? Will our rains continue to flood our homes? Will our power lines continue to be torn by high winds? We have no insight into the world of tomorrow.

What we do know about the future is that we are ill-prepared. Crops can fail in the path of droughts. Mines will be depleted. Water routes will etch in new directions. Technology will offer new revenues and changes in direction. New world-wide plagues will beset us. New diseases will be discovered as some are cured.

In addendum: When Tom Smyth retired from Heinz Canada as chair and CEO, in 1995, the food industry in Canada lost a strong advocate. Tom was, at heart, a farmer. He understood the food industry in all its stages. Canada needs others of that verve

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

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Before the Fall.

by Peter Lowry

Last Friday (September 22) there was a large picture above the fold of the front page of the Toronto Star. It was captioned: ‘It was a mistake’. It was a picture of a steely-eyed, stony-faced Ontario premier Doug Ford. This was not a picture of a contrite and apologetic premier. It was a picture of an old-fashioned salesman plotting to get even.

Ford is not finished. Not by a long-shot. All he feels is that he was off his game. He has to get back on that horse! Some voters still love him. And he knows that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Behind those slitted eyes, there was a mind churning out possible solutions to this problem.

Maybe Ford is confident that the ‘commie’ Toronto Star will soon collapse on its own. It is unlikely to continue to be a negative influence on his Greenbelt plans.

In the meantime, he has ministerial zoning orders (MZOs) to keep his developer friends happy and loyal to his cause. He has probably already told them not to unload their Greenbelt properties on the market too quickly. They might not have an $8.2 billion tax write-off but maybe there are other incentives that can be fed to them.

Ford’s major problem is that he could not afford the loss of any more of his cabinet members or back benchers. When it looks as though Caroline Mulroney in transport, Sylvia Jones in Health and Paul Calandra in municipal affairs and housing are the backbone of the cabinet, you know Ford is in trouble.

Caroline Mulroney has to get the Highway 413 moving or all might be lost for some of Ford’s favourite developers. Her problem is that the conservatives are also going to have to keep the money flowing on the Bradford By-Pass. Two ministers from Barrie will be in trouble if the work on all those bridges through Barrie slows down.

Ford seems to be unable to keep too many balls in the air. His office staff is supposed to be the traffic cops for his government and they are not doing a very good job of it.

They seem to have left Stepen Lecce to face the music with the Ontario teachers by himself. He is loosing the battle with them. And Sylvia Jones thinking she can handle healthcare is a sad joke.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Reforming Voting II.

by Peter Lowry

The following item was missed by a large number of our readers who access BabelontheBay.com through Progressive Bloggers. It is a subject on which I would really appreciate some comments. Please have at it.

It seems that too often we are looking at voting methods instead of examining the entire electoral process. There is much more involved in Canadian politics that the voter should be concerned about. We could go a long way to improving our democracy. Start with our candidates for political office. Why should we have more than 100 candidates show up for a municipal by-election? What does this prove? Wouldn’t we do better to have some vetting of these people before we waste resources on the selection?

A simple approach is primaries. Primaries are used in the United States for nominating people to be president and can be different from one state to another. The basic concept can be for political parties to choose their candidate. People who register as supporters of specific parties are invited to vote in their electoral district for the individual they think should be the candidate for their party.

The impact in Canada for this process would be to take the selection of candidates away from the party leader. The power could be left for the political party to object to a candidate for reason. Registration of voters could be left to the political parties as they would benefit the most from this change. It could be a year-round opportunity for them to proselytize and gain new members.

The major reason people want to have a change in voting is because they consider it wrong to be elected without a majority of votes. With the advent of safe Internet voting, the cost of holding a vote will drop considerably. When that is assured, we can have a run-off vote a week later such as the French have for their presidential elections. If the leading candidate has 40 per cent of the vote and the second has 35 per cent, a run-off vote can be held with just the top two candidates.

In any reform in voting or the role of political parties, the objective is to improve our democracy. We should ask that question in any change. I would suggest to you that the power over candidates presently held by the party leader works against democracy.

Democracy can only be measured by the effectiveness for the people. If the leader has the balance of power, the people are losing. The more power held by party leaders, the less is held by the people.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Looney Tunes Is Alberta.

by Peter Lowry

Is it ever thus?  Premier Danielle Smith is off on her tangent to save Alberta from the rapacious government in Ottawa. It must be that they cannot teach Canadian history or mathematics in that province. It is also very important in mathematics that you count the oranges as oranges and the apples as apples.

Can you imagine an insurance program that allows you to take back everything you put in—without deducting what has been taken out? Maybe Smith has the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) confused with a tontine, that is paid out to the last person alive.

The beauty of the CPP is that the pay-out is guaranteed by the federal government. It might not please some actuaries or politicians (for different reasons). It does meet a need among the Canadian public. And it is easily taxed back if you do not need it.

But the simplest question is what the heck does Danielle Smith want with a pension plan? Is she going to decide where the money goes? Does she know anything about investing long-term? Would she put the money into funding the tar sands exploiters? And then what happens when the tar sands run out? The simple facts are that the tar sands become more and more expensive as the low-hung fruit of that resource become more and more expensive to access? And in a world converting to renewable sources of energy, what is Alberta doing, trying to stave off the inevitable? Is she some kind of King Canute, trying to hold back the tides?

And don’t give us that guff about carbon capture. Carbon capture is not 100 per cent. That is the first given. The second problem is that carbon capture relies on underground caverns as a place to capture the carbon. That means longer and longer pipelines from where the carbon is produced to where it will be tucked out of sight.

It would be mean of me to suggest that Danielle Smith must be the dumbest politician this country has ever seen. I just don’t like the impression it leaves with the rest of the country. Just how dumb are the people who elected her? I have worked with some of the people at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and I must admit they earned my respect. I could understand the Alberta voters’ dissatisfaction with Jason Kenney as premier, but Danielle Smith can only be described as Looney Tunes.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Criticizing Bonnie Crombie.

by Peter Lowry

Having missed the liberal leadership debate at the old Ryerson campus last week, it seemed, according to the news articles, I did not miss much. The mayor of Mississauga is handling her four opponents as an older woman would handle adolescent boys. They have foolishly declared her the one to beat and they are struggling with the desire to attack. They are learning though that an attack is not worth it.

Ms. Crombie reminds me of her old mentor, the late Hazel McCallion. Hazel could cut people down with the kindest of words. Bonnie just reminds her present critics that they are fellow liberals, of the task ahead, the need to work together and never really wastes time on their criticisms.

I started out this leadership contest thinking that Nate Erskine-Smith was my kind of liberal and that Bonnie Crombie would make a good back-up plan. I have changed my mind. Despite the charge of many close friends in liberal politics that my greatest weakness is my loyalty, I have to admit that Erskine-Smith is not as well organized as he thinks. He still owes me a call back after we both missed a call.

We should all be concerned about the length of this contest. The liberals needed their new leader this September, early October at the latest. If I were still on the Ontario executive, I would have fought hard for a real one member-one vote election. The approach of the liberal party executive is lazy, unimaginative and they should be ashamed to going along with the federal liberal’s no-fee membership and the conservative belief that all ridings are equal. And I am worried about how this vote could be manipulated.

I read at some point in this leadership campaign that the liberal’s interim leader in the legislature, John Fraser, had advised Bonnie Crombie that there was no rush to get the new leader into the legislature (if not already there). It was that kind of bad idea that cost the last leader, Steven Del Duca, and the liberals any progress in the last provincial election. To be credible to the voters, the leader needs to be doing the job in the legislature. It would serve the public well in Ontario to have all five of these contestants working together at Queen’s Park. Each can be an asset.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

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To Live in Interesting Times.

by Peter Lowry

Returning home from a visit to Toronto this past week was like returning to a peaceful oasis. Not that Barrie does not have more than its share of construction going on with homes as well as the rebuilding of the Highway 400 bridges through the city. Yet Toronto felt like a battle ground. I spent most of a day driving around the city east to west and up to the northern suburbs. I never knew just where I would come to another traffic jam in a city of constant construction. And I see that the Don Valley Parkway is still jammed at any hour.

Toronto is no longer a city for a polite driver. It has the rude drivers of New York City at the speed of the crazy drivers of Rome, Italy. But I loved the experience, the learning, the old views, the new buildings, the staggering heights of new condominiums. I saw a lone transit vehicle test-driving the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Ask when it will open and Torontonians will laugh while people in Scarborough are bitter as delays and construction seem to forbid them access to downtown.

But the political anger was the most interesting. Oh sure, the younger generation seem to have bought into some of Poilievre’s bull, yet over all, the city is cold hunting grounds for conservatives today. The jokes about Doug Ford are among the most scatological I have ever heard. Any Torontonian who tells his neighbours that Trump Lite Poilievre is just what Canada needs might as well move.

They don’t have many positive comments on Justin Trudeau but then Poilievre came out with that common sense crap borrowed from the Mike Harris government, he cut his own throat. That conservative provincial government was the worst experience of the last quarter century in Ontario, I read a column in the Toronto Star last weekend where a sycophant of Poilievre had written that the conservative leader was taking a “back to basics approach.” Anyone who believes that Poilievre is going to improve life for Canadians, lower our taxes, as well as food prices, energy and trade must have just fell off the turnip wagon.

I was surprised when Trump won the presidency in the United States. It was a serious learning experience. The same type of bad news could happen here in Canada, and we sure as hell would regret it.   

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]