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

Glory Awaits, Mr. Brown.

by Peter Lowry

It is only fair to hear that Patrick Brown’s lawsuit with CTV has been settled. Not that we ever believed the stories that took the Ontario conservative leadership from him. For Patrick Brown to be accused of treating women that way never did ring true. I would still bet that it was some of his conservative caucus members at the Ontario Legislature who orchestrated his losing the Ontario party leadership.

There were many of us in Barrie who were pleased to see his downfall for other reasons. He is a career politician who brings nothing to the table. He could be but a parasite, living off the body politic. His machinations four years ago to find a new political home rivalled a Mack Sennett movie. His home town of Barrie would not stop laughing at him. The County of Peel needed a newly-elected chair—Premier Doug Ford slammed that door on him. His solution was the mayoralty in Brampton. A weakened mayor and the voting strength of the Sikh and former sub-continent population were his key to the city.

And it makes you wonder just how many of Brampton’s beautiful parks have been converted to cricket pitches to please his supporters?

Brown was an acolyte of Jason Kenney when he was an MP in Ottawa. Having no agenda of his own, Kenney suggested to him that he become the party expert on South Asia. Those long flights to India paid off with the key to prime minister Modi’s office as well as close relations with the Sikh community.

But as Brown found, to win the Ontario conservative leadership and Jagmeet Singh found to win the new democratic party leadership, the sign-up of 100,000 new members from the Indian diaspora to swamp a smaller membership is possible. In the time for sign-ups in this federal conservative race, there is little chance of anyone swamping the more than 200,000 existing conservative party members across Canada.

Another problem for anyone thinking about the conservative leadership is the $300,000 that has to be handed to the party before you are allowed to join in. I might complain about liberal Justin Trudeau’s elitism but then the entire damn conservative party is a bunch of elitists.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Life in the Cesspool.

by Peter Lowry

We should be ashamed to admit it but we helped create this cesspool called the Internet. We have not only created the false news, the filth and the ignorance, we wallow in it. Every morning when I turn on my desktop computer, I almost regret those efforts we made to keep the Internet free and unregulated. The facts are that the Internet today is often intentionally wrong, biased and vulgar. And as a reference tool, it has become less and less reliable.

I was using computer networks decades before the Internet. In a testing situation I had an Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (Arpanet) terminal at home that I was asked to also let my children use. I installed it in the kids’ playroom and like any seven or nine-year old’s, they quickly drifted from academic subjects, with which I tried to entice them, to the games that idle hands had introduced to the play list. At least, I knew the kids were using it; I often had to wipe the jam and peanut butter smears off the touch screen.

The embarrassing part was when I had to rein in the use by my son. He had discovered the communications part of the system. He had to be asked not to challenge people he found on the Arpanet to play computer games with him. What I found sometimes when using the terminal was university students communicating to ask for a rematch with my son. They had no idea that they had been beaten by a nine-year old. He still plays a mean game of Backgammon.

But what we did not expect in that early development of the Internet was its rapid expansion into the home environment. What used to cost thousands, you can now get on a smart phone for less than $200.

As for the Internet, it is nothing more than a series of protocols, relays and hubs. They connect our world. Today’s proliferation of smart phones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers has made them household items. Along with the good it has brought us it has also been a journey downhill into the depths. I sometimes wonder which is the most obnoxious, the pornography or the Kardashians, the social networking programs or the invasive and manipulated news of the search programs, the program traps for the unwary, or the egos of the blog writers who create just another tree in the forest.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

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Creating Criminals.

by Peter Lowry

Could you feed and house yourself in Ontario today on less than $1,000 per month? Think about it. When Doug Ford took over as premier, he not only blocked an increase in minimum wage to $15 per hour, he cut the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) back to levels considered disastrous back when premier Mike Harris cut them last in the 1990s.

The best description I have heard for this idiocy is that Ford has created close to a million hunter gatherers in Ontario. They are always in search of their next meal. They are in line-ups at the few charities that will give them some food. They haunt the streets, panhandling, checking the garbage, mugging, and finally, stealing.

Have you ever wondered why shoplifting, stealing from cars, veranda thefts and other petty thefts increase after the middle of the month? That is when these people can be out of money and likely out of food.

And the worst of it is that they attack and rob each other for small change.

And don’t complain to the police about it. If they ever arrest these people, it is out of compassion. They give them a warm bed for the night and something to eat before they hit the streets again the next day.

And don’t get huffy and ask why these people can’t get a job. They have been driven down to this level and there are very few chauffeurs to drive them back to holding a job. People do try to help. There are even some good results—not enough to make a dent in the problems.

Any honest social worker will tell you that their caseload of people in need is impossible. There are few and overcrowded hostels. And nobody feels safe in them. There are no sheltered workshops.

These people do not want to live off the dole. They have no choice. Many are physically incapable of earning a living. Others are mentally incapable. Society has turned its back on them.

And our provincial government does not care.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Three to One.

by Peter Lowry

It is probably a little unfair but if it takes three, so be it. They are showing us how weak prime minister Justin Trudeau is by comparison. With Chrystia Freeland, Anita Anand and Mélanie Joli running things in Canada, Justin Trudeau can go back to his world travels. And all he gets is the credit for recognizing their talents.

With Freeland in finance and backing up the prime minister, Anand taking command of our armed forces and Joli being the face of foreign affairs, our government has an opportunity to show what it can be. We can be progressive and sensitive to the needs of this world in which we live. These three cabinet members have an opportunity to hit home runs for Team Canada.

The challenge for the finance minister is to look beyond the pandemic and see where Canada needs to head in the future. Our country can accommodate almost doubling our population in the next 50 years. It will be a land of electricity and nitrogen fueled trains, planes and automobiles. We have the land to feed us all, the resources to build our future and the will to make it happen. Freeland has to understand that future.

The toughest job goes to Anita Anand. In the years ahead, Canada needs to look strong and be strong. The realization has to be that we do not need a military person to imagine the military of the future. Our military has to multi-task. It does not require two per cent of our gross domestic product to protect and serve our nation and our commitment to our world. Our military needs to be versatile, dedicated and provide a career opportunity for people who want to serve their country. They are not cannon fodder but a resource.

Mélanie Joli is to be envied. She is so well suited to her role. She faces the world from Canada with the knowledge that relationships are what the world understands. Freeland and Joli can team well in the face of the Ukrainian crisis. Freeland has the on-the-ground experience with the principles in Kiev and Moscow, leaving Joli free to work with Canada’s NATO allies. At a time of world crisis, the teamwork of the three can make us proud.

It looks as though the liberal party does not need to worry about future leadership. People such as these three can offer solutions.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

The Mess She Leaves Behind.

by Peter Lowry

Ontario’s health minister, Christine Elliot is leaving politics, again. Another conservative cabinet member is deserting Doug Ford’s sinking ship. She joins cabinet colleague Rod Phillips in leaving. Both leave behind nothing but trouble in their critical portfolios.

There is no question but the ministries of health and long-term care took the brunt of the mismanagement by the Tories during the pandemic. Both are woefully short of funding and staff, the balance of their staff demoralized and looking for solutions. And if money would help, they know they cannot get it from a Ford government. There were lots of promises but there is little evidence of promises kept.

Ontario’s hospitals and long-term care facilities are being bankrupted by inflation and a skinflint government that gives no quarter.

We watched as Christine Elliot grew old, backing up that buffoon Ford at his populist worst. You knew he was out of his depth. Yet, his ministers were not there to help but to seemingly reinforce his bad decisions.

We watched them make rules for the rest of us but exempting themselves. They stopped worrying about COVID-19 some time ago as they turned desperately to trying to get re-elected.

The re-election of this government is most unlikely. You can forget the pollsters. The supposed popularity of premier Doug Ford is more a factor of the lack of knowledge about his opponents than any love for the inept premier. Once the writ is issued and people start to be aware of the June 2 election date, other options will come into play.

One of Mr. Ford’s more serious problems is that it looks as though the conservatives are losing more than 25 per cent of their caucus. That is a large number bailing out on a first term premier. And Ford needs 65 seats for a majority. Even if his party wins half of those seats left empty by conservatives, he will still be short of a majority. And without a majority, Ford will lose the keys to the premier’s office.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

The Rancour of Ranking.

by Peter Lowry

The idea of voting with ranked or preferential ballots is an idea that should never be implemented. If there are only three or four candidates on the ballot, it really doesn’t matter. It is when there are five or more candidates, the system can start to work against the voters.

And yet people still keep promoting the foolishness. There are municipalities using the system of voting to choose their councillors. The un-elected liberal leader in Ontario promises voters that he would implement a change to ranked voting if he became premier. It is mind-boggling what ignorance could cause.

Even the federal conservatives (who were supposed to have announced the rules by today and have not mentioned voting) are likely to use ranked voting to control the voting for their third new leader in three elections. Using ranked voting, the conservatives keep picking losers.

The problem is not the knowledgeable voter. The knowledgeable voter never votes for someone he or she does not know.  If the candidate is unknown to the knowledgeable voter, that space is left blank. It is the unknowing who votes for people they do not know. They think they have to fill out all the options.

And that is why, in a close race, with a large number of candidates, you are drawing from the bottom of the pile, with what can be a minority of the voters.

And the more you think about it, the sillier it sounds. You wanted to improve our democracy through electoral reform. That is commendable. The only problem is the reform should be based on knowledge.

It reminds of back in the days when the City of Toronto had two councillors (then called aldermen) per city ward. The alderman who got the most votes in his or her ward, sat on both city and metro councils and got more money. There were more than a few ways of convincing people to only mark one “X” on their ward ballot. While we were often accused of it, we never did anything improper. It was the former metro councillors who got bounced out of the top spot who expressed the sour grapes.

When the Trudeau government studied voting reform during its first four-year term, it should have listened less to political scientists and more to politicos who understand how people vote.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Is Kenney Coming Home?

by Peter Lowry

No, no, not to Alberta. Don’t you think that Alberta premier Jason Kenney really misses the Ottawa scene? Don’t you think he has found those Alberta conservatives are far too far to his right? Don’t you think Kenney’s chief of staff has taken a leave of absence and is out beating the bushes to put together Kenney’s run for the federal conservative leadership?

After all, it was Jason Kenney who passed up on the leadership when Stephen Harper left after the 2015 election. He did the decent thing, he thought: he went to Alberta to unite the right. Job done. Time to go on. It would be churlish for people to note that all he did was unite the right in Alberta against him.

People need to realize that Jason Kenney is only right in his own mind. Here is the guy who showed Stephen Harper how to stand in front of an ethnic wall of people to make prime ministerial announcements. He is the Catholic who never mentions abortion but fought it in college.

And don’t you think it would be fun for him to blame all the pandemic mistakes on Justin Trudeau and just forget his crock-up in Alberta? And he can recant on his promise to support Ten-Dollar Day Care.

But time is short. He has to announce before the April 9 meeting in Red Deer that plans to dump him as premier of Alberta. He needs to resign first. It is the honourable way. The entire weekend can be devoted to telling him what a wonderful job he has done in uniting the right. Even Brian Jean might be tempted to say something nice about him.

Of course, there are some other problems to solve. He can hardly run against his “good friend” Pierre Poilievre. He has got to convince Pierre to stand down and support the Kenney Campaign to Save Canada from Justin Trudeau.

After all, Pierre will step aside with a guarantee of being Kenney’s choice as finance minister, with deputy prime minister thrown in for good measure.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

Leadership Losers.

by Peter Lowry

It’s hard to tell if the conservative leadership race is just winding up or already winding down. It doesn’t look good either way. The first problem is that the party is likely to use the same method of choosing a leader as it did for the last two losers. The second problem are the losers who are trying to get their campaigns in gear.

But before we discuss Poilievre and the other losers, can you imagine using the same foolish method of choosing a leader as produced a win for ‘Chuckles’ Scheer or that fool O’Toole.

The first problem is the weighting of the electoral districts. I can tell you, with some authority, that all electoral districts are not created equal. To block the strong and successful ridings with large memberships from everyone having a democratic vote is basically stupid. You are effectively promoting losers and suppressing winners.

The second problem is that preferential voting for candidates might work to the second level but how many people pay any attention to those they consider third or fourth choice? And that is where the conservative party gets its losers.

And then we come to the early birds in this contest:

Pierre Poilievre from Carleton will be lucky to win his own riding in the next election. His love affair with the ‘Freedom Truckers’ was embarrassing for his constituents and for his party. His Donald Trump-style lies about Justin Trudeau have embarrassed many a fellow member of parliament on the conservative side of the house. As early birds go, I would rate him as a pigeon. They make a lot of noise and leave a lot of excrement behind.

As for Barrie’s embarrassment, Patrick Brown, the former MP, he is an ostrich. He has had his head buried in the sand in Brampton for the past four years.

And then there is the former liberal leader from Quebec. Jean Charest reminds me of a prehistoric bird. They would have to run him for the conservative leadership as a long-forgotten relic of the past.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

The Pity of Putin.

by Peter Lowry

The other day, we suggested that Vladimir Putin of Russia was following in the footsteps of Adolph Hitler. I take that back. The reason is that Mr. Putin does not do good blitzkrieg. Hitler’s blitzkrieg was based on speed and surprise. He wanted the takeover to be at the least cost in lives for Germany. In the face of Mr. Putin’s multi-pronged attack, the Ukrainians, outnumbered and out-gunned, are giving a good account of themselves.

Mr. Putin does not seem to care about the Russian lives he is wasting and the Ukrainian civilians, he is so carelessly killing. He has no understanding of the number of troops that on-going control in Ukraine will require. He has little understanding of the groundswell in Moscow and other Russian cities against his ambitions.

Mr. Putin not only has to worry about world reaction to his ambitions, but he has to watch his back. The Russians are starting to see him as the problem. They are only now starting to understand that they are ruled by a sociopath.

It is that understanding that keeps the West from openly responding to the Russian leader’s talk of nuclear consequences. A sociopath would resort to nuclear use without understanding that he is signing for the destruction of his own country in the process. And worse still: would he care?

It is the Russian people themselves who now have to end this atrocity. They are the ones who must face Putin down. They had the same taste of democracy as has the Ukrainians. They know the difference that democracy offers.

They know that dictators are a dime a dozen. Good democratic leaders are rare.

Look at this guy Zelenskyy. He is the president of Ukraine. Now that man is a leader! He is not asking any Ukrainian to do anything that he is not willing to do. He is standing tall against the Russian midgets. He is the likely target of too many KGB agents. He will be remembered long after Putin is gone.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]

The Red Tape Trap.

by Peter Lowry

Nothing pleases the conservative party voter more than to hear that their government is going to cut red tape. It goes along with cutting taxes and having smaller government.  It is all part of the political mantra of people who do not waste time thinking about it.

After all, what is red tape? A good example of red tape is zoning bylaws. This type of red tape gets under peoples’ skin more than others. They are an inconvenience for developers. They are a frustration for property owners. And everyone wants an exemption.

There is actually a thriving business in municipalities in North America in handling the municipal red tape of zoning. There are lawyers who live off it. There are those who handle the squabbles over a backyard fence and there are those who clear the hurdles for the building of sky-high condominiums and million-dollar office towers.

The toughest zoning is when you are trying to prevent people from building on a flood plain or on an aquifer or wetlands. For those, the conservatives in Ontario have set up what are called Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZO) to override the conservation zoning. With the right conservative party lawyer and the right donations to a conservative party campaign fund, you might be surprised how easy it is to get an MZO in Ontario.

But then, with any law, whether it be in the Transport Ministry or Health or Long-Term Care, there are requirements that have to be met. Some of these requirements are never checked. And in other ministries, such as the Ministry Labour, the regulations are routinely checked by ministry inspectors.

What cost-cutters in government do not understand is that red tape is part of our way of life. Red tape is the structure that enables us to drive a car safely. It is the fact that a door to outside a building always opens outwards. It keeps a wrecking yard or stone quarry out of residential neighbourhoods. It means the milk we feed our children has been properly pasteurized. It means our buildings and bridges are not as likely to fall down. Red tape brings us confidence and security. And anyone who promises to cut red tape is like the conservatives who promise to cut the fat. They end up leaving the next government with their deficits and their bad judgement.

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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry

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

[email protected]