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

Only Heroes Need Apply.

by Peter Lowry

We need some heroes. Wannabes and also rans don’t do the job. We need an effective opposition for Queen’s Park. Both the liberals and new democrats need new leaders. We are going to get behind the one who shows that he or she can oust Doug Ford. The prize is the premier’s office.

The last two leaders of those parties showed us what losers look like. Voters of Ontario want to have a winner. It doesn’t hurt to be modest but that is a long way from looking like a loser. A leader inspires confidence in the caucus. A leader inspires confidence in the electoral districts. A leader shatters the myth that the conservatives own the farmers. A leader shows confidence.  And effectiveness counts for more than numbers.

And a hero is a progressive. Conservatism kills progress. Voters tire quickly of those who only help their friends. It takes imagination, knowledge, experience and confidence to lead. You are not selling sticky labels here.

The new democrats are in the most trouble. Since the early days of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and into the days of union involvement in the new democrats, the party has been looking for substance, for a dialogue and for a future. Through many leaders and various iterations of the socialist creed, the new democrats have been searching for the positioning that could move the party forward.

The new democrats need someone with the zeal of a Tommy Douglas, the confidence of a David Lewis and the communications competence of a Thomas Mulcair. That would give the party in Ontario a base in which to look at the future and to step forward in recognizing the needs of our citizens.

The liberal needs are not quite the same. When the province puts so much of its funding, emphasis and training into education and healthcare, that becomes the foothold on the future. The liberals have the edge on that side of the street. Excellence in education is only the start. We have to improve on the basic research we are already undertaking. We have to drill down on areas of opportunity. Besides free dental care and medicines, we have to ensure that higher education is available and free to all. These are all compatible objectives.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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A Man of No Letters.

by Peter Lowry

It is amazing how the human mind can wander. I was reading the other day about Ontario premier Doug Ford’s reluctance to release the mandate letters he is reputed to have sent his cabinet ministers. Why the news media want to embarrass a man who obviously cannot write, or dictate anything substantive, seems to be a waste of time and money?

And that is not a cheap shot at the premier. It just might be next year before he remembers what he wanted the minister of justice to do for him. He has publicly stated that he thinks our education system is to train people for jobs so I have no idea what he would tell that private school kid that he appointed minister of education. Ford has four more years to cause trouble for us. Best we treat him with caution.

I honestly do not think the premier is of limited intelligence. He is a natural sales guy. I know why he is in politics but I must admit, he does a lousy job of it. I wonder if he has ever read a book?

I understand this because I come from a family of six kids. We were a reasonably bright group but just two of my brothers have post graduate degrees. My sister and oldest brother had professions. And there was my late brother John Lowry, who confessed to reading one book of fiction in his lifetime, and he made millions. He was always getting me to write for him. All of his inventions came about because he asked “What If.”

John showed America’s NASA how to get good television pictures from the moon. He solved problems for satellite broadcasting. We had fun with gyroscopes getting them to stabilize television cameras on helicopters. He brought colour to old movies through a computerized process. The American Academy of Motion Pictures gave him a posthumous award for his work on improving the quality of modern motion pictures with something that is now called the Lowry Process.

I mention this, not that I think Ontario’s premier will ever do anything particularly brilliant. Each of us, in our lifetime though has the opportunity to help others and that is the greatest challenge of all.  

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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M. Poilievre Regrets.

by Peter Lowry

What kept MP Pierre Poilievre away from the conservative leadership’s last debate for this year? Did he have anything to lose? Did he not want to be the target one more time? What was worth the $50,000 fine for missing the event? Was there some point he was making? Will he ever tell us?

And was the debate even worth watching when the reputed front runner refuses to show? It was the Jean Charest show. An old pro, the former Quebec premier got in some final digs at his divisive rival. You have to admit, Poilievre is not you grandmother’s conservative.

It was just a trio of the old boys striving to put on a good show. It was Charest with sidesman Scott Aitchison from Parry Sound—Muskoka and the hapless Roman Baber—and God only knows what he was doing there.

But it was really all about the man who was not there. MP Leslyn Lewis was also not there and hardly forgotten. Not when the other candidates where thinking of her social conservatives and their second choice. Nobody was badmouthing her.

It was Charest who got in the best licks—in case they mattered. Everyone knew who he was talking about when he said that Canadians want a government with a real economic plan for the country.

What Charest had not forgotten was that there some 250,000 members of the conservative party in Canada when this leadership round was started. These were the real conservatives. They were not Patrick Brown’s South Asian diaspora. And they certainly were not Poilievre’s friends.

I hardly think it is fair to call his fellow travellers ‘truckers.’ The real truckers are hard-working types who want to make a living. What the Carleton MP has is a polyglot of the angry, the disenfranchised, the losers, the immature and the partnerships in the extreme right of Canadian politics. Probably about 50 per cent of Poilievre’s short-term sign-ups will remember or care enough to vote.

Even without a dog in the race, we will watch the results on September 10 with considerable interest. Maybe, sometime in the future, the conservative party is going to learn that its leadership rules do not seem to be producing the desired results.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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Is Doug Ford ‘Getting it Done’?

by Peter Lowry

The silence from the Ontario premier’s office has been deafening. Hallway medicine is still practiced in Ontario. Do you remember when the jerk told us that it would not be allowed in Ontario? The situation is so bad, hospitals are shutting down their emergency departments. It is so bad that the news media has tracked down Ontario’s new health minister. She says there are no quick fix to Ontario’s health care mess.

And where has the incompetent been who has caused this mess to grow and fester? Has he been busy scaring the fish up on the Muskoka Lakes? Has he been taking an underserved summer holiday at his Muskoka cottage?

But when do our healthcare people get a break? They can’t even get paid properly for their efforts. Stupid tells us that they are great and he won’t even give the nurses a raise in pay. Yet he gave them a bonus payment to stick around. In the midst of inflation hitting over 10 per cent and oil companies and grocery chains are making unconscionable profits, our premier says that our nurses are not worth more than one per cent more in pay.

You know what people do when they cannot get paid a living wage? They change their profession. We are talking to too many skilled nurses who are leaving the profession. They are making more money in sales. They are taking nine-to-five jobs in offices. We have no idea how many have already left the province.

So, what is this government going to do? The health minister in this inept government tells us that they are easing the regulations for foreign-trained nurses to be allowed to work in Ontario. That raises questions: Were we too fussy? Are we compromising our standards? Are we creating another level of standards? And, what is the long-term solution?

And what about teachers? If you think there is a problem with nurses, you haven’t seen nothing yet! The various teacher’s unions are lining up to scalp that twit of a private-schooled education minister. If he lasts through just the first two union negotiations, Ontario residents will be surprised.

Ontario is still going through the serious challenge that the pandemic caused for healthcare and for its residual effects on our citizens. The Ford government was a poor choice of government to address these issues.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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The Anger and the Anguish.

by Peter Lowry

Canada is caught in the maelstrom. We are trapped between rage and remission, revocation and respite. The pandemic has taken its revenge in the destruction of our hospital services, the lost years of education for our children and the ever-growing and lingering lists of the dead. Looking forward, the world is teetering between recession, inflation and war.

And do we understand the anger? The hopelessness? Can we cope with the insouciant climate deniers, vaccination deniers, peace deniers? Is peace, order and good government just something from another century?

Do we countenance the American use of Murder Inc. to kill Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri? How many innocents were killed as collateral damage? And how much was paid for his betrayal?

Too bad Murder Inc. does not have the address of that gentleman in the Kremlin who thinks it is alright to kill children so that he can have Ukraine as part of his domain. After all, if Americans have a talent with weapons, why not flaunt it?

Why should that talent be wasted on children in school, people peacefully shopping or people of a particular colour, engaged in their prayers? Or is this talent reserved for those wishing to kill people who might not shoot back?

Mother Nature is certainly getting back at us. She is burning the trees that are needed to give us oxygen. The same trees that gave us shade from a blazing sun. Her tornadoes tear across our landscape, destroying homes carelessly placed in their path. What she cannot inflict with fire, she floods. Those of us she doesn’t drown, she leaves destitute and homeless.

But Mother Nature is a pussycat compared to humans. The first thing we should do is take the guns away from the police. It might be our only chance at finding out who really are the bad guys.

The police can be tasked as community helpers. They can find shelter for the homeless, food for the hungry, a future for the despondent. The challenge to all of us is to help make this a better world.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

This Troubles Trudeau.

by Peter Lowry

MP Pierre Poilievre is not Justin Trudeau’s problem. The Carleton MP is the conservative party’s problem. This extremist, poised to take over control of the conservative party, poses a smaller threat to Trudeau than former Quebec premier Jean Charest.

The truth of the matter is that Jean Charest coming down the middle of the road can spell ‘road kill’ for the federal liberals. Poilievre has locked himself on to the far right and that is not where Canada wants to go.

Poilievre has joined the convoy that disrupted trade last winter and tore into the heart of Ottawa. Poilievre promises trouble. Jean Charest promises opportunity.

And, surprisingly, the conservative party solved Charest’s major block in becoming leader. No, the party did nothing to block Poilievre. They removed the problem of Patrick Brown. Patrick had a deal with Charest. Patrick had 100,000 temporary conservatives signed up. Those short-term conservatives where there to vote for Brown first and Charest second. The danger was that their votes could leave Brown in second place—eliminating Charest.

If Charest is in second place coming out of the first round—and Poilievre has not won on the first round—Charest has a chance to win with the second-place votes from Leslyn Lewis. Those social conservatives don’t like Poilievre.

And don’t forget that Jean Charest has two helpers. He has Brampton’s mayor in Ontario and former prime minister Brian Mulroney in Quebec. Brian Mulroney knows where the bodies are buried in Quebec and he knows how to get them to vote. Whether Patrick Brown is running as an effective ‘get out the vote’ program with his South Asia diaspora, remains to be seen.

It would be so much easier to predict if the conservatives had not opted to stick with their convoluted voting system. It is supposed to be one voter gets one vote. To treat electoral districts as equal and voters as less than equal is not the democratic way to do things.

But nobody has ever accused the conservative party of being overly democratic.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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Home Town Haunting.

by Peter Lowry

Barrie is beset by bad decisions this summer. The city lost a good mayor when Jeff Lehman decided to finally make the move to Queen’s Park. Poor timing on his part. He was left adrift and defeated by weak liberal leadership.

I was there to help, if he had thought to ask me. We have different views of what leadership means. He needed to recognize the needs of the people in the rural areas of our electoral district. Taking on an incumbent is far trickier than a fresh field.

But the major cause for concern is Lehman’s lack of planning for the future, particularly in filling the mayor’s chair. Who wants their legacy smeared by leaving their job to the town fool?

And that is one of the possibilities looking at the early registrations. First to file was boy wonder, former councillor, former MP, Alex Nuttall. Nuttall was a disciple of Patrick Brown—the former Barrie councillor, former MP, former leader of the Ontario conservatives and currently mayor of Brampton. It was Nuttall who moved into Patrick Brown’s proposed riding of Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte. He came within 86 votes of losing and he was hardly gracious at the recount.

It took him one term in Ottawa, to know he was out of his depth. His one contribution during that period was to work for Maxime Bernier who almost beat Andrew Scheer for the leadership of the conservatives—and went on to found the extremist People’s Party of Canada. To further prove he had no political smarts, Nuttall was a worker for Peter Mackay’s run for the leadership in 2020.

I admit that I have never liked Alex Nuttall. He was a confused and negative influence on city council. He was a useless member of parliament. His fighting against Barrie having a safe consumption site when he was in Ottawa was based on ignorance. He contributed less in Ottawa than the mice that run over the MP’s feet in their offices.

But I am going to have to pay attention in my own town as we head for this fall’s municipal elections. There is a city here that needs protection from ghosts of the past.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Dog Days of Summer.

by Peter Lowry

It started in the news rooms of newspapers. The Dog Days where when the most you could come up with to write was the story of man bites dog. The Dog Days are different today. There are wild fires in one area, scorching heat in another and deadly floods in others. Mother Nature is on a rampage.

The business pages can be filled with the unconscionable profits of the oil companies and the grocery chains. These companies steal from those on fixed incomes. They beggar us all. Cars sit idle on the corporate lots—waiting for parts in short supply. Industry suffers from lack of materials, lack of staff, lack of financial support and the inability of politicians to bring order and good government.

But we still get the comments from our readers. One surprised me the other day. My reader questioned my condemnation of those who choose a life as a politician. I must admit that I have known some life-long politicians whom I liked and considered friends. These were people who brought a decency and a desire to do good to the political scene. I think of my late friend Herb Gray of Windsor, Ontario and the irrepressible Lloyd Axworthy of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

But, yes, I do revile those who lack life experience and bring nothing but the mindless cant of the right-wing of politics to the fore. And, I do despise the right-wing of politics that the clouded and unthinking minds, untouched of human kindness, bring to our political cesspools of conservative dogma.

The facts are that small government is an uncaring government. Tax cuts are bruising to those in need. No thank you, people should not be trickled on. Low taxes to business just prove that they are not paying their way. Business must be mindful of the human needs of their employees. Profit does not come first. Minimum wages are just that, a minimum. Growth and encouragement come from decency.

And if you do not like people, get the hell out of politics. Go work in palliative care and learn something about people. Each and every one of us has earned the right to share in this experience called life. Honour that obligation first.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Gunning for Gate-keepers.

by Peter Lowry

We seem to be caught in the middle. As of this weekend, we found that both extreme right-wing MP Pierre Poilievre and left-wing guru Linda McQuaig are attacking Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem. Having been, for many years, a strong supporter of Linda McQuaig, I am still trying to buy into her condemnation of the bank’s recent adjustments in the Bank of Canada borrowing rate.

Linda accuses the central bank of playing fast and loose with the economic security of Canadians. It is her contention that the bank is recklessly taking us in the direction of recession.

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Linda is exaggerating a bit. There is also a strong suspicion on my part that Tiff Macklem is well aware of the dangers in his actions. He is trying to walk the line between easing the inflationary pressures and precipitating a recession. With the United States already technically in recession, can Canada be far behind? It is when you recall that Macklem told us that some raising of interest rates might be necessary and why it might be necessary. He then told us that it was necessary and when he would raise rates. He did what he said he would do and basically it was the small nudge that some sectors of our economy really needed.

And it is only when you consider Pierre Poilievre’s criticisms of Macklem that you realize that the conservative leadership candidate is using specious arguments to defame the governor. He appears to think that Macklem wants to have his own cryptocurrency. As it was explained to him, as though he was a slow child, the bank will consider an official cryptocurrency, if and when the government requests it.

The problem is that as a far-right dilettante, Poilievre needs to get his own act together and learn something about economics. What many of the rest of us know today is that the Bank of Canada does not just print money or cause inflation. Inflation is caused by the ability to create need, the availability and cost of what we want to purchase and by greed and by war and that asshole in the Kremlin who thinks he is some kind of Tsar. And Mr. Poilievre does not seem to understand why right-wing Reaganomics and Thatcherism never worked.

Mr. Poilievre only proves that what we do not understand, we distrust.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

There is no joy in Brampton.

by Peter Lowry

Something smells in Brampton, Ontario, and it is not the roses that the city is famous for. Patrick Brown has returned to confuse and compound. A lost boy, Patrick clings to Brampton as his life raft in a stormy sea.

The former city councillor and Member of Parliament for Barrie, Ontario never has been tuned into the Brampton mysteries. He never understood the understated humour of former premier of Ontario Bill Davis. Bill was always proud of being from Brampton. It is a small town with grand ambitions.

It is not a Barrie, wrapped around a beautiful bay. It is not a Barrie, well-served with a major hospital and community college with links to major universities. It is not a Barrie with a hard-working city council. It is not a Barrie with its year-round tourism attractions. It is not a Barrie where a political Patrick Brown honed his skills as a retail politician.

A retail politician such as Patrick was never countenanced in Brampton. Retail politicians sell themselves. The brand is immaterial. A retail politician is a user. People are used and then discarded. Aides, are flattered and then floored when unknown. Voters are only a seasonal target.

Brown’s success as a retail politician was greatly expanded when fellow MP Jason Kenney explained to him the key to the ethnic diasporas of Canada. Kenney arranged for his young acolyte to make the long pilgrimages to India and Pakistan to make the connections to the Canadian diaspora from the Sub-Continent. It was how he swamped the membership in the Ontario progressive conservatives to win the leadership of Ontario’s conservatives. It was how he connected to more than 100,000 temporary sign-ups to the conservative party of Canada. It was what won him the Brampton stage four years ago.

But there is little honour in being a retail politician. You are kept busy keeping too many balls in the air. Mistakes can be made. Rules can be broken. And members of Brampton city council started to understand the callowness and selfishness of this gate crasher in the mayor’s chair. Patrick Brown just might have struck out this time. It might be time for him to get a real job.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]