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

Reforming Voting.

by Peter Lowry

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 the party leader, works against democracy. We want our representative to represent us.

Democracy can only be measured by its effectiveness for the people. If the leader has to much 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]

Requiem for Truth.

by Peter Lowry

When politicians fail to tell the truth, when the Internet is littered with individual versions of truth, and print media is failing to survive, where do you look for truth?  And where do you turn when your daily routine for most of your life that has started with a cup of coffee in one hand and the daily newspaper in the other? Does broadcast media fill the void? Does news on an I-pad step up? Does the electronic news fill the need for trust? Are these not similar questions to what we asked when broadcast news first challenged print?

But when American news media came to Canada and loosed their political vitriol in the form of Canadian news, were we better off? AMI, the US-based company that owns Postmedia and Sun newspapers, are an embarrassment. These right-wing Americans, with their National Enquirer falsehoods, are now likely the largest newspaper chain in Canada. The only good thing you can say about them is that they sold off their fictional tabloids, led by the National Enquirer, a couple years ago. Their version of Canadian news is best explained by their mindless devotion to Donald Trump in the United States and Trump-light, Pierre Poilievre in Canada.

The reason Postmedia seems bigger and more dangerous for our country is the collapse the other day of Metroland Media, a subsidiary of the Toronto Star. It meant the loss of 65 jobs in Ontario, without severance or pensions. It also spelled the end of the weekly publications that were nothing more than wraps for grocery fliers. Before criticizing TorStar, the owner, for this treatment of their employees, you should also wonder if the proper treatment of those employees might not have collapsed the entire TorStar enterprise? Judging by what we see in the Toronto Star every day, its best revenue generator these days appears to be the obituaries.

Metroland is expected to try to continue its dailies in print form and provide the other papers in limited on-line versions. You might want to wait until the courts are through with the bankruptcy claims before betting further on TorStar. This last step it took with Metroland is obviously a sign of desperation.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Come Blow Your Horn.

by Peter Lowry

You have to admit, Little Boy Blue got a lot of attention from the media with his speech to the conservative convention recently. It was neither modesty nor myopia, nor missing his glasses that caused his eyes to appear to be squinting. It was the placement of the teleprompter screens. Pierre Poilievre was standing on a platform about 30 centimeters (12 inches) above the floor. The teleprompter screens were attached to the top edges of that riser and can be on two or all sides. It takes a lot of practice to make that arrangement work well.

But no matter how he blew his horn though, his message was mean, nasty and counterproductive to good government for Canada. I think I lost interest in the content of his speech and was more interested in his taking a misstep and falling off that riser. With the luck liberals have been having lately, there were likely people in the front row of that quadrangle prepared to catch him.

But why would the party be so busy with new types of teleprompters, redesigning the party logo and producing professional, image-softening commercials of Poilievre and his wife and kids. If they don’t like how he dresses or his haircut, you would think they would also want someone that people can like.

Poilievre built his reputation as an attack dog over the years in parliament. This guy has devoted his entire life to becoming prime minister of Canada. You would think that if getting to that position was his objective, that he would want people to think of him as competent. He might also talk about how he is going to help people. Who would believe a person who promotes Bitcoin just before the flaky promotion crashed and investors lost millions.

He spends many hours of his day complaining about Justin Trudeau but rarely tells anyone what he would do differently. He builds on animosity and hatred instead of trust and acceptance. And if everything in Canada is broken, as he claims, how does he think he can fix it? We have heard nothing but complaints and claims that it is all the present government’s fault. The few answers he approves of are from the extreme right wing of his party. I think Little Boy Blue should go blow his horn elsewhere.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Liberals Cannot Count.

by Peter Lowry

It looks as though the Ontario liberals have almost doubled their membership. And they are busy arguing about it. I would be more impressed and might even care if people had paid something for those memberships. The possibly 80,000 members in Ontario is a bit higher than the 74,000 members the party had in the 1960s, when the party had a membership fee. The recent boost in membership is credited to the Ontario liberal leadership contest with five contestants duking it out to be leader of the party.

The liberals have two federal MPs, two provincial MPPs and one big city mayor wrestling for the prize. And based on the problems the Ford conservatives have brought on themselves, the liberal leadership might be an ideal stepping stone to the job of premier of Ontario.

But that is not as simple as winning the majority of votes from liberals. The people running the liberal party have shown that they are just as bad at mathematics as the people running the conservative party. The conservatives give all of their electoral districts the same weight of 100 points. If the riding has less than 100 party members, it gets those votes as one person-one vote. In electoral districts with more than 100 members, the votes for the candidates are counted as a percentage of 100.   

If you think that is one member-one vote, you were not paying attention to your grade school arithmetic lessons.

After more than 60 years in politics, I can safely assure you that no two electoral districts are the same. And why in hell would you penalize the party members in electoral districts who take their responsibility seriously to increase their party memberships between elections?

It is very hard to justify the Northern Ontario electoral district deviations from the provincial average number of voters and then also have their vote count for five times the vote of liberals in a Toronto riding.

If people were worried about the ease of manipulating the vote previously, how can they believe this silly system is any better?

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

No Ties That Bind.

by Peter Lowry

We note that the majority of Canadians have realized that there is no reason for Canada to continue to have a monarch. Charley definitely does not cut it. His wife is an embarrassment. His kids by Princess Diana have their own quarrels. Yet they have entitlements to which Canadians cannot aspire.

When polls show that four out of five Canadians feel no attachment to the monarchy, it is time we did something about it. I would suggest that no federal politician is rushing to open discussion on the constitution. That is a can of worms that only provides opportunity to the unwary.

It might fall on the provinces to make the course correction on the monarchy.  We could start by not feeding crap about the monarchy to our school children. There would be greater justification for them to learn some American history rather than believe the fancified records of the movies and television produced in the U.S.  British history might, in reality be less boring than what our textbooks tell them. Nor should we take them out of their classrooms to provide audiences for those boring visits by this or that overly entitled and titled person.  

But leave their statues standing. They provide a welcome perch and a place to poop for pigeons. And besides, only the foolish among us want to hide history. We are not all suddenly woken to the faults of our ancestors. Yes, when John A. Macdonald was prime minister, he was a drunk. It is likely that many who voted for him were also drunkards. But that drunk had a vision of Canada that benefits us today. Give credit when credit is due.

And I personally want to see John Diefenbaker, Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau on our banknotes. We can also stop messing with the ten-dollar bill and restore John A. Macdonald to where he was immortalized.

It is appreciated that the Netflix series, The Crown, did much to inform and explain the monarchy’s role for us but it did not excuse the elitist attitude that allows the monarchy to continue to bore us.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Ford’s Smoke Screen.

by Peter Lowry

Somebody must have told premier Doug Ford that he could use MPP Paul Calandra as a smoke screen to cover up what he is letting happen in the Greenbelt. By making Calandra minister of municipal affairs and housing, he has the perfect cover for what is happening. He can thank former prime minister Stephen Harper for inventing the scheme. Along with many others, I have asked: What does Paul Calandra know about the Greenbelt?” The answer is ‘Not much.’

But that is the great part of the scheme. Do you remember when Calandra was a member of the federal parliament and parliamentary secretary to prime minister Harper?  He used to address the questions to the prime minister that the prime minister did not want to answer in the House of Commons. The point was that the prime minister did not give a damn what Calandra told the house, as long as he did not answer the question. The members in the house and the news media became used to Mr. Calandra talking about something else, that was irrelevant to the issue.

Doug Ford should be warned though that this scheme does not work as long as the premier might like it to last. The problem was that the news media took to ridiculing Paul Calandra and after about a year, he broke down. He had been asked to apologize to Thomas Mulcair, who at that time was leader of the opposition in the house. He started to weep as he tried to state his apology and over all, it was a sad scene.

This proclivity to cry seems to be a part of the story of Paul Calandra. There are some men who have trouble understanding a man becoming emotional but most are sympathetic. We only wonder if it can be brought to the fore when there is a need?

It seems Doug Ford is loading Mr. Calandra with lots of stressful work. Here he is minister of housing and has been challenged to get busy building the 1.5 million homes for Ontario residents that will be needed in this decade. He is also minister of municipal affairs and in that role, he is supposed to review the regional governments in Durham, Halton and York, as well as help sort out the problems in Peel County where Patrick Brown is demanding more from Mississauga in the breakup of Peel County. Doug Ford might want to ease up a bit before he pushes Paul over the edge.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

Bad Night in Thunder Bay.

by Peter Lowry

The Ontario liberals are not that inept. It was like an out-of-town try-out of a major play. The first debate in the current liberal leadership contest was allowed to have gaffs and try-out jitters. You just have to hope that not many saw it.

But when you have trouble with the sound from the beginning, you know it is going to be a bad night. You really have to have some sympathy for your stars. From the get-go, Nate Erskine-Smith MP was flat and a bit surly and mayor Bonnie Crombie was her perky self—if you can imagine a sixty-three-year-old ingénue. It was an opportunity for MP Yasir Naqvi to show off his political expertise and for MPP Ted Hsu to be optimistic. They were trailed by the noviciate MPP Adil Shamji who made some good points—if only, he talked into the microphone.

The audience was given warning of the sound problems when one of the co-chairs microphones did not work at the beginning and nobody did anything about it.

You knew that Bonnie Crombie was best prepped for the debate when she brought up Northern Ontario issues such as the Ring of Fire and the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Everyone tried to show that they were serious about the north but this was a bit strained in some cases.

Yasir Naqvi’s key phrase was that “We have to build trust.”

Adil Shamji made a good point when he (faintly) said that to build trust “We have to know what we are.”

As is typical in these events you quickly know who is leading the pack. That is the kid, the other kids pick on. Erskine-Smith led in the charge that Crombie was not building homes in Mississauga. Her simple answer was that there were currently 39 construction cranes working in the city. They are probably building condominium high rise buildings but they are also homes.

But, overall, it was a civilized event and there is no question that all five of the candidates could make a contribution at Queen’s Park. You can also tell that Doug Ford and the conservatives are particularly worried about Bonnie Crombie heading the liberals in the next provincial election.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

The Promise of Canada.

by Peter Lowry

Did Justin Trudeau break the promise of Canada to followers of Pierre Poilievre? No. It is not true. For the promise of Canada is opportunity for all. That’s it. It is the chance for any Canadian to be prime minister, or maybe just achieve a little more than their parents did before them. What Poilievre fails to add is the promise has two sides. Nobody has taken the promise away from you. It requires effort.

Nobody wants you to go hungry. We are a civilization that cares and if you are unable to help yourself, we want to help you.

And if you want to become prime minister of Canada, we can help you along the way. It would help, for example, if you had some life experience that shows you what help people need and want in this country. To set out early in life to be just a politician is not equipping Mr. Poilievre with the background of understanding this country.

Understanding Canada also requires knowledge and experience in other countries. And not just in tourist havens. It is like there are many fine restaurants in Quebec City. You have to realize though that the province is much more than that. Quebec has many people, industries, farmers, teachers, entrepreneurs and more. The province and its people contribute much to Canada’s economy.

Canada promises all its citizens and those coming from other countries the same opportunities. They come with equal opportunities to learn. And there are many opportunities to learn. Apprentice training or community college credits or university degrees. It is up to the individual. The efforts are yours. We all share in recognizing your success.

And, in the same sense as Canadians are good citizens of their country, Canada is a good citizen of this world. We have trading partners, defence partners and when people are faced with the ravages of nature, we send help. That is what this world should be, a place where people help people.

A hollow slogan such as “Bring It Home” is showing a selfish nature that disparages Canadians desire to help other countries, to trade with them and help defend them when attacked by tyrants. Canadians come from all parts of this world. We can only set an example for others.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Poilievre’s Petulant Promises.

by Peter Lowry

When Pierre Poilievre—the guy I think of as Little Boy Blue—gave his speech last week to conservatives in Quebec City, he was not speaking to a broad swath of Canada’s intelligentsia. In fact, you really had to remember this was an audience of conservative party faithful and donors. These people are probably able to translate Little Boy Blue’s hyperbole into concepts that conservatives can understand.

And they would certainly be able to appreciate a stupid joke such as “It was so cold last winter that Justin Trudeau was seen with his hands in his own pockets.”

But it was when you go down the short list of promises he made that you wonder just where this guy is really taking his party? The one promise that seems to continue is the promise of a dollar-for-a-dollar law. He tells us this means that for every new dollar the government spends, it must take back a dollar from some other program. A simple way to look at it would be if the government was to give people making over $200,000 per year a two per cent tax break. It could have to take two per cent from the old age security (OAS) payments to seniors.

It also seems to mean that to build a building that might last 100 years, you have to cut some existing programs to pay for it.

The one thing that really does come through with Little Boy Blue is that he does not like spending money. His trite slogan “Bring It Home” seems to mean that he does not intend to spend any money outside of Canada. He belittles Justin Trudeau’s travels in aid of building Canada’s trade relations. Poilievre does not seem to understand that Canada has to buy some requirements from other countries and, in exchange, has to sell things to other countries. Canada is a trading nation. Without our international trade, Canadians’ standard of living would hit rock bottom in a hurry.

I must admit that I have no knowledge of Canada giving much foreign aid to dictators. I do know that we encourage democracy. But if he thinks the prime minister should stay home and not go to all these ‘gab fests’, it will probably be just as well that Canadians don’t really want to have Poilievre as prime minister.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]

Doug’s Doom.

by Peter Lowry

It won’t go away Doug. The Ontario Greenbelt will live on, long after you are gone. What Ontario’s premier does not recognize is that Ontario’s Greenbelt has its roots in conservative party planning. It got its start with the Niagara Escarpment plan when Bill Davis was premier. It got its second boost under, of all people conservative Mike Harris, when he was premier in 2002, and the Oak Ridges Moraine was protected. Then it was all brought together under the Greenbelt by the McGinty liberals when close to a million acres of good farmland was added to help ensure the province’s ability to grow food for a growing population.

What Doug and his government do not seem to realize is that the Greenbelt is part of the legacy we leave our children and their children. You screw with it at your peril.

One thing is for sure, you do not get away with asking a minister such as Paul Calandra to evaluate the Greenbelt. Where does he get the advice in his urban affairs and housing ministry to help him evaluate the Greenbelt? There is more than a million acres of farmland there,

Doug Ford’s government had already shown its lack of caring for farmland when it tried to get public approval for highway 413. It was not just the paving over the wetlands and farms that were the concern with this unnecessary highway. It was the pressure it would create for development along the highway route to highway 401 from the 400.

You have to admit: Doug Ford has a penchant for appointing ministers to ministries that might not come within their skill set.

Take Caroline Mulroney. This lady was Doug Ford’s first choice for Attorney General of Ontario. The fact that Caroline Mulroney was not licensed to practice law in Ontario might have escaped the premier’s attention.

Ms. Mulroney was quickly replaced by a ward healer from my riding of Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, Doug Downey. He was given the riding by Doug Ford to help keep Patrick Brown out of provincial politics. Mr. Downey’s major project so far has been to bring back King’s Counsel (KC) designations in Ontario and pass them out to mostly conservative lawyers whom he considers worthy.

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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry            

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

[email protected]