Babel-on-the-Bay – Page 421 – Babel-on-the-Bay is the personal website of Peter Lowry. It is a vehicle for political commentaries.

Does the Rotman School have a degree for prigs?

March 3, 2012 by Peter Lowry

Who would have thought of the Rotman School of Management promoting a prurient position? The director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School writes in the Toronto Star the other day that a casino in Toronto would be a “costly, socially destructive boondoggle.” Instead of offering serious economic studies to make his case, the author tells us of the supposed glitz, tackiness, misery and crime that goes with casinos. This is hardly a very scholarly approach to the question.

We can assure the writer that to not build a casino in Toronto is more socially destructive than he seems to understand. Maybe if he knew of the scope and conditions of the illegal casinos that are operating in the Toronto area and the criminality that these operations generate, he would have a far greater appreciation of the need for legal outlets. And to suggest that a casino is a boondoggle—a waste of time and money—could only be made by someone with no idea of what is involved.

The writer needs to understand that Toronto is a major tourist destination. The city attracts visitors from around the world. The city is a year-round convention location. That is why Toronto is also a very successful North American entertainment centre. It is a major league sports town and a world class business and financial centre. To not have a casino is to degrade us in the eyes of sophisticated tourists and business visitors.

To be fair to the writer, he did make one statement with which many experts agree. He said that building casinos “in an already thriving downtown, is a truly terrible idea.” The best example of this is the bad planning that put a young adult ‘entertainment district’ in the John and Richmond Street area in Toronto. It attracts the wrong crowd, at the wrong times in an area that did not need that much more traffic.

What the writer does not seem to understand is that casinos are an entertainment venue. You go there to be entertained. Most of us, who go to casinos, go to have fun. That money you lay on a craps table or stuff in a slot is part of your cost. The few people who win get some added fun. Humans have been gambling since the dawn of time and only the foolish and prurient think they can stop it.

The Rotman School writer also seems concerned that some people want to turn Ontario Place into a casino. That is a very bad idea for the wrong location. Ontario Place works as a family entertainment area. A casino might be a viable tenant at the west end of the Exhibition grounds if other year-round entertainment besides Medieval Times can also be located there. It is not ideal but, at least, there is good access.

The best location in all of Metropolitan Toronto for a casino is probably Woodbine Racetrack. The track is already in the entertainment business. The operators clearly understand that good food, services, excitement and entertainment are part of the glamour and attraction of a full-scale casino.

But Woodbine is not the only location. The Greater Toronto area can probably sustain as many as four casinos if the proper mix of entertainment and tourist attractions are included. And as managers for these casinos, there might even be some spots for Rotman School of Management graduates.

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Do NDP bloggers know what is going on?

March 2, 2012 by Peter Lowry

It was all done in a search for insight. It seems there are oodles and oodles of self-professed New Democrats across Canada who feel they must produce a blog. Usually they appear to do it badly. Our quest was for some insight into their party’s national convention coming up this month. It was assumed that NDP blogs would offer some added insight into the leadership candidates and their possibilities.

No such luck.

In the main, we found NDP blogs to be sporadic, crude, boring, self-centred and fulsome diatribes against the other political parties. The one of the most interest had all the qualities mentioned but also offered trendy graphics to emphasize a diatribe against ever uniting with the Liberal Party. This person should be advised that if he feels so strong about it, the Liberal Party might not want him.

But none of the samples (more than 40 blogs) seemed to have any insights into their own party. You would expect these people would want to write about something they know about. Why would NDP bloggers not know about Topp, Mulcair, Nash, Dewar, et al? Do they not care who will run their political party next month? Do their want to keep Interim Leader Nicole Turmel at the helm?

Mme. Turmel is a nice lady but the NDP really needs a leader with somewhere to take the party. Mind you, when you see the list of people behind Brian Topp, it would seem unlikely that Mr. Topp has any direction that is not totally predictable. Mr. Topp is no Tommy Douglas. Nor could he even hold a sign for David Lewis.

It would probably be more fun to choose MP Thomas Mulcair. There is no telling just where Mr. Mulcair wants to go. It is most likely that the NDP needs M. Mulcair in the House of Commons where he can offer some leadership to the NDP’s fledgling Quebec caucus, Having Mulcair lead the entire NDP might be a bit of a stretch.

It would also be a mistake to put the party behind MP Paul Dewar. His weaknesses in French are those many Anglophones suffer from in Quebec. While the Quebec NDP caucus might be forgiving, he would be savaged by much of the Quebec media.

But we are not trying to tell the NDP who to choose. Someone a liberal likes might not be their best bet. We can certainly hope though that the NDP chooses someone who has the good sense to know that an ultimate merger of the political left in Canada would be in the best interest of all Canadians.

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McGuinty’s wily Whigs can work wonders.

March 1, 2012 by Peter Lowry

It was a revelation this morning to be reading a columnist in the Toronto Star who thinks like a real liberal. This is not only a rare and wondrous thing but the writer actually proposed not cutting but even increasing provincial taxes for business and the rich. If we all write in the same vein do you think we could embarrass McGuinty’s Whigs into acting as liberals for a change? Or do you think this was Premier Dalton’s scheme all along for him to bow to the pressure of liberals in Ontario’s populace?

We have never suggested that he might really be a liberal before. While his Whigs use the name “Liberal” as though they might be a legitimate political party, he seems to scoff at any suggestion that he might be anything other than an out-of-date, right-wing Whig. McGuinty is certainly far to the right politically of the early reformers of York and Clear Grits of Western Ontario that came together under George Brown to create the venerable Liberal Party of Canada.

In a recent CBC television special, actors showed how George Brown set aside partisan positions to work along side Sir John A. Macdonald to bring together Canada as a nation. Now would you not have laughed to see Premier McGuinty in the role of Brown?

But you never know. Some people have more depth than we give them credit for. His doughty Treasurer Dwight Duncan has yet to be heard from. It will be March 29 before we get the Treasurer’s word on how much, if any, of the bunk from Don Drummond will be heeded. While Mr. Duncan is well known for his hesitations and half measures, it will be his chance to recant his Whigishness and emerge as a true reformer.

Duncan could, for example, doublecross Drummond and take a giant step into political stardom, by selling off the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) operations. He is hardly going to lose any tax revenue—in fact, it would increase tax revenue substantially—when privately-owned stores are free to do proper merchandising for their customers. Think how wonderful it would be to have a privately-owned central warehousing operation vying with independents to supply privately-owned liquor stores across the province. Wow!

Mind you, we could hardly have the privatized liquor stores competing with that decrepit old Brewers’ Warehousing operation. There would have to be a companion act by the legislature to end that foolish beer monopoly. Just think of how many Liberal votes that would garner from convenience store operators across the province. The government could then use all the Beer Store ‘In and Outs’ as recycling depots. They already smell like it.

We do so wish that this is the delightful surprise that Mr. McGuinty has in store for us. If he did, all would be forgiven. Well, almost all.

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How did Mr. Brown miss that bus?

February 29, 2012 by Peter Lowry

While everyone was complaining about robo calls and Conservative call centres, we were busy trying to make sense of the local Conservative’s election expenses. Of a legal limit of $96,630.18 that could be spend on his campaign in May 2011, Mr. Brown claims to have spent $95,328.54. Someone obviously kept a close eye on expenditures to cut it that close but it appears that a bus might have been forgotten.

And how the heck do you miss that bus? It belongs to a local company and was provided to Mr. Brown for the duration of the general election last year. It was hard to miss. It was plastered with signs for Mr. Brown. In fact, since there was no out of town need during the campaign, it was a daily eyesore here in Babel.

Mind you an eyesore is just in the mind of an observer. As the bus normally parked overnight at the company’s premises just a block from where we live, it was a regular reminder of the in-your-face nature of Mr. Brown’s campaign. Obviously, we are not impressed with Mr. Brown.

But this bus was a movable eyesore. We never saw it full of Conservative party faithful joyfully going for a picnic. Its principle use was to be parked at spots that it would be illegal for Mr. Brown’s supporters to erect a billboard. These parking places seemed to be prominent and busy intersections in Babel and at polling places when people were voting. Mr. Brown was, of course, advised by the local returning officer that having a portable billboard at a polling place is illegal and Mr. Brown’s supporters had the bus moved.

The Babel supporters of Mr. Brown must have been disappointed with the returning officer’s interference but it made sense. Almost anyone who had ever worked in a federal election campaign before could have told them that election signs at a polling place are a no-no. We are only allowed to act stupid so many times!

But the point of this diatribe is that some how, Mr. Brown’s accountants appear to have forgotten to include the bus in his expenses. Since the company that owns the bus is not included in contributions in kind, we have to assume there is a bill somewhere for that bus. No matter what value the campaign placed on the bus, there is no place in those figures to hide that large an expense. It could not be accounted for in the sign expenses.

Realistically, nobody can rent a bus and driver for less than a couple hundred dollars a day—and probably more. Assuming it cost just $200 a day, that would be an expenditure of over $6,000 to have it available for the entire campaign.

Maybe more Babel residents should ask Elections Canada what happened to the bus.

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

On firing over-achieving workers.

February 28, 2012 by Peter Lowry

Interim Federal Liberal Leader Bob Rae fired a caucus researcher yesterday. The person stood accused of embarrassing the Liberal caucus by being identified as establishing the “Vikileaks” Twitter site. This site was designed to attack Conservative Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. The notoriety of the site made it doubly embarrassing when the Speaker’s Office discovered the culprit was in the Liberal caucus office as opposed to the original belief that it came from the NDP caucus office.

Bob Rae had to stand up in the House of Commons and publicly apologize. That can take a lot of wind out of your sails when you are trying to be indignant about possibly illegal Conservative Party activities. At a time when the NDP official opposition are busy with their leadership contest, the Liberals were enjoying the opportunity to appear as the real opposition. Their party employee did not help.

But do not feel to sorry for the miscreant in this case. He will reappear sometime down the road in another incarnation. Most young aspiring political apparatchiks do.

We all carry the memory and the scars from such events. It is part of learning the trade. In our case it was working for a certain cabinet minister, organizing events for him. One of the first events was a critical announcement in one part of a hotel and then the minister wanted to show the news media he was one of the gang by leading them to a bar that was set up in a suite. It would have worked but for a combination of events that had the minister standing, looking foolish, at a locked door. The minister did not like it when things did not work.

Luckily, the campaign manager understood what had happened and knew that it was not possible for his young organizer to be in three places at the same time. He asked us not to slash our wrists and to carry on. The minister took more time to be forgiving.

Bob Rae did not have that luxury. He needed a body to display for the Conservatives and the media. The fact that the researcher might now be enjoying an unexpected holiday on some sunny Caribbean beach is another matter.

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

It is time to end automated telephone calls

February 27, 2012 by Peter Lowry

One of the least loved of the technological innovations in telephony is the ability to call thousands of people automatically and play the person answering a recorded message. They call them robo calls. They are an affront, annoyance, irritant and cheap. And being cheap is why they are heavily used by Canadian politicians. With a great deal of luck, they could even cost Prime Minister Stephen Harper his majority government.

When this automated ability was first developed, it was thought to be beneficial because telephone companies could offer subscribers the ability to call a group of telephone numbers to inform the subscribers of a church supper or a change in a little league schedule. It became a little silly when the son’s high school started using automated calls to inform the parents that Johnny had missed school that day. The reason it was silly was because parents rarely get to answer a call when teenagers are at home.

Certainly one of the most irritating of the more recent automated calls is the political survey. This is the one that asks you to tell the unnamed call centre how you will vote. It gives you a number for each candidate that you can press and hangs up when you press a choice. Since we always press a number at random, we have to reassure the local Liberal candidate occasionally that we have not switched party allegiance.

If everyone would just press a random number, we could soon end the foolishness. The most accurate answers on those surveys are probably those entered by four-year olds when they get to the phone first.

The recent revelation that the Conservative Party has been using these automated systems to discourage voters from going to the polls is a far more serious subject. These are not simple pranks by low-level party people. This is direct interference in peoples’ right to vote and is a criminal act. While a lot of Conservative apparatchiks will have to fall on their swords for it, there is enough cause for there to be some by-elections in closely contested ridings.

If the Liberals and New Democrats could just agree to stay out of each others’ way, we could have a good chance to take away the Conservative majority in Ottawa. Now there is a cause, we can all agree on.

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

Destroying Canada’s world image.

February 26, 2012 by Peter Lowry

Have you met Canada’s parliamentary Bobbsey Twins? They are representing Canada to the world. We can only hope that their tenure is brief and the world forgives us for the confusion they cause. They are Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney. They might come from different backgrounds but you would be forgiven if you got them confused.

Neither of the gentlemen has ever held a private sector job. They found their calling in the extremes of right-wing politics. Baird must have been bored with his early years, learning his trade working for less extreme members of the Ontario Conservatives. He became something of a legend of ideological overkill though when he served in Premier Mike Harris’ Cabinet. He is best known to former friends of Canada for his opposition to the Kyoto Accord, earning derision and insults for Canada in breaking its word to other countries who signed in good faith.

Jason Kenney, the junior member of this duo, grew up with extensive training in a narrowed vision of things. Educated in Catholic institutions in the West, he capped it with studying philosophy at a Jesuit university in San Francisco. His crowning achievement there in 1990 was to lead the fight against a women’s group at the school who wanted to distribute pro-choice literature. Back in Canada, he served various right-wing political and catholic organizations.

Kenney was first elected in 1997 as a Reform Party member and went through his party’s various iterations, becoming a Canadian Alliance member and then a United Alternative supporter of Stockwell Day. He worked so hard for his parties that Stephen Harper made him his parliamentary secretary, responsible for multiculturalism, when the new Conservative Party of Canada defeated the Martin Liberals.

With the majority Harper government, the portfolios of these two political extremists are labelling Canada. Today, Jason Kenny tells us that he is going to stop women from Hong Kong from visiting Canada to have their baby here so that the child might later claim citizenship. This is on top of his new and draconian approach to refugees. He is making sure Canada is no longer a safe haven.

His twin, the External Affairs Minister, set the tone for his job back in 2003 when he fought the Chrétien government of the time trying to get Canada to join the American Bush administration in the Iraq War. He continues today to toady to the Americans while casually dismissing the concerns of other countries.

Canada used to have a reputation around the world for decency, fairness, openness, for peace keeping and for being an honest broker. Prime Minister Harper is letting these extremist Bobbsey Twins besmirch our image as a country to satisfy their narrow view of right and wrong. Are they representing our Canada?

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

Oil and royal action figures go south.

February 25, 2012 by Peter Lowry

Do you remember the Falklands War of 1982? We were laughing at Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, at the time, having a Brit fleet circling in the mid Atlantic hoping to scare the Argentine soldiers on the Falklands/Maldivas into surrendering. In the end it got bloody with some 900 Argentine soldiers being killed when the Brits landed. On the 30^th anniversary of the dust-up, they have found oodles of oil off the coast of those islands and the protagonists are back at it.

With an estimated US$180 billion in oil potential, the sheep herders on the islands off Argentina are becoming a cause célèbre for the entire South American continent. As the Brits have no intention of giving the islands to the Argentines, South American countries are rallying to the side of the sheep herders. The sheep herders—in case anyone cares—are quite happy being British subjects.

Thankfully, this time, it is still very much a war of words. To be on the safe side, the Brits have sent a nuclear submarine and a destroyer to the Falklands to point out their claim of ownership. They cheerfully explain to all who might be interested that the one destroyer has enough rockets on it to shoot down every fighter aircraft in South America. Their point being that they would not fool around in the mid Atlantic this time.

The Brits already had plans this year for some 30^th Anniversary events to honour their Falklands citizens. They have already sent Prince Billy to the Falklands to serve his country. (There is nothing more dangerous than to fly one of those old Sea King helicopters.) Mind you, Kate is keeping a stiff upper lip about it back in London. The scene would only be a bit better if she was pregnant with another royal heir.

The Brits have realized that an important component of the old traditions is sending their princes off to fight their battles. This has led to a rapidly growing market throughout the Commonwealth for action figures of Prince Harry shooting Arabs with his machine gun and Prince Billy flying his decrepit Sea King and rescuing people in more serious straits. The Queen has even been asked for permission by the toy manufacturers to make sure the boy dolls are anatomically correct. It is a matter of some concern in certain circles that they cannot show the royal princes without balls.

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

Have they ever lied to you before?

February 24, 2012 by Peter Lowry

In the past week, senior police have been talking through friendly media to reassure us of the best intentions of Bill C-30, currently being debated in the House of Commons. The friendly media in Babel have certainly been doing their part. We have heard from the Babel police chief as well as the top cop from the Provincial Police. These people certainly try to be reassuring.

Bill C-30 is called the Protecting Children From Internet Predators Act. Could you ask for anything more innocent or urgent sounding than that? Ontario’s top cop tells us that this bill has had misleading coverage and it is really nothing more than an updating of police capabilities to keep pace with the technology. Oddly enough, that theme is echoed by Babel’s top cop. You would almost think they have been comparing notes—or were both supplied with the same song sheets. Though, understandingly, the Toronto Star-owned grocery wrap is a bit more cautious than the Sun media publication.

The two cops seem to share the opinion that those pesky warrants can take time to process and the investigators are required to have a reason for a justice to issue the warrant. They tell us that they just want access to information such as they used to get easily from the old fashioned telephone book. Mind you, it would be an unusual telephone book that told people where our mail is sorted and delivered from and what other names people used.

It is also questionable if the government should wish to pass a bill that forces Internet service providers to furnish the police with information about customers that they would not normally collect from customers to provide the service. And why should they intrude on a customer’s privacy, just to find out if they might be doing something illegal? Are police not supposed to have an indication that something illegal might be occurring, before they lower the boom?

The entire affair serves to remind us of how the police acted during the disgusting events at the G-20 event in Toronto in 2010. Look what happened when we trusted them to do the right thing then.

If the Conservatives did not have a majority that can ram the bill through the Commons, we would not worry. If we still had a Senate of Canada that was a house of sober second instead of a house of Harper thought, we would not worry.

But since we do not have any such protection, we have every right to be very, very worried!

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

Did someone take Mr. Harper’s crayons?

February 23, 2012 by Peter Lowry

Is Prime Minister Stephen Harper doomed to the sad fate of living in a black and white world? It makes you feel sorry for him. It makes you feel doubly sorry for his cabinet colleagues, to pity his clack of back benchers, a sense of revulsion for his toadies in the Senate and wonder about the proper potty training of the confused Canadians who voted for Harper’s party in the last federal election. It makes you sad that these people cannot see the world in its full Technicolor beauty.

It seems to be a right-wing thing. As Public Safety Minister Vic Toews put it last week, “You can either stand with us or with the child pornographers.” These people cannot even see as far as the middle ground. To them, ‘compromise’ does not exist.

It all started with their attempts to get their attitude about law and order across to Canadians. In their black and white world, they see the law as a weapon of retribution. There is no such thing as justice in a black and white world. They want judges to use fixed sentences for people who are found guilty. The judges’ reaction has been that it does not take a judge to dole out fixed sentences.

In jurisdictions that have tried to use fixed sentences, it has been found that the system does not work. It ties up the courts because it eliminates plea bargaining. It plugs up the jails and raises the costs to the public. Try to explain that to Harper’s sycophants.

You have to admit though that color is complex. It is like watching the four remaining contenders for the American Republican Party nomination this coming summer. They have all realized that they can no longer diss their opponents without alienating some segment of party faithful that the winner will need to carry out an election effort in the fall. That means they are trying to make nice with each other while seeing who can say the nastiest things about Mr. Obama—without once mentioning his color.

What surprises you about this black and white world of the right wing is their intense loyalty—mainly to money. For example the Athabasca tar sands despoilers have the full support of Mr. Harper and friends. It is the same for the pipeline companies who want to take that heavy crude to refineries in Texas or over the Rockies to tankers that will take it to refineries in China. Mr. Harper seems deeply indebted to these people for some reason.

The late John D. Lowry (our brother who died in January) had an app for Mr. Harper. Among his many inventions for the film and television world, John did remarkable work in colorizing old black and white movies. (The technical Oscar, he was awarded posthumously last week in Hollywood was for his work in restoring old movies to a better than new condition.) It is all done with computers. We have to figure out a way to run Mr. Harper through the colorization program. The program is very good at staying within the lines.

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