Babel-on-the-Bay – Page 72 – Babel-on-the-Bay is the personal website of Peter Lowry. It is a vehicle for political commentaries.

Boy Blue in Waiting.

January 31, 2022January 30, 2022 by Peter Lowry

It seems the news hounds and pundits have made up their minds: they expect Pierre Poilievre, MP from Carleton, to be ready to accept the conservative crown after Erin O’Toole is deposed. It is too bad. Conservatives really need someone that Canadians can respect in that position. They can hardly survive as a party if they keep selecting losers to be leaders.

The party should be embarrassed flitting from manipulative Stephen Harper to Andrew ‘Chuckles’ Scheer to flip-flopping Erin O’Toole. The ultimate destruction of the party would be if they then turn to a person such as Poilievre.

Poilievre combines the manipulative tendencies of Stephen Harper, the foolishness of Andrew Scheer and the flirting with the truth of Erin O’Toole. In fact, Mr. Poilievre’s version of the truth is whatever is convenient. It is trait we saw in American president Donald Trump. It is not an honourable trait.

Poilievre got his French name from his adoptive parents but he was born in Calgary and is well schooled in the Alberta attitude. He got his start in politics working for the then Alliance leader Stockwell Day. He is pro-pipelines and no environmentalist. He came to Carleton, in the Ottawa suburbs, where he could use his name to advantage. By pushing hard at being finance critic for his party, he has built a persona far beyond his basic strengths.

Watching him on Zoom during the pandemic, he has always had the most professional, properly lit setting for the camera, been meticulously dressed for the part and hogged the limelight.

Typical of most people who set their sights on a political career, Poilievre will tell you what he wants you to hear. He maintains a strong presence on social media such as Twitter and You Tube attempting to indoctrinate followers on his version of the Milton Friedman style of extreme right-wing economics.

Poilievre coined the Justin-flation line that many conservatives have picked up. He makes a habit of blaming the prime minister for any and all supposed causes of inflation—many of which the prime minister has no means of controlling.

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Don’t Bet on a Minority.

January 30, 2022January 30, 2022 by Peter Lowry

Politicos and observers are doing some wishful thinking to believe there is likely to be a minority government after Ontario’s June provincial election. Voters are faced with three major party leaders that they either dislike, don’t know or distrust. This is obviously not one of the better times for political leadership in Ontario. It is how the four major voting blocks of voters respond to this leadership situation that will determine the outcome. And it is obvious from the polls that there is lots of room for changed attitudes in the coming four months.

There is a slight electoral edge for the Ontario progressive conservatives. The conservative voting block is about 25 per cent of eligible voters. The party is strong in rural areas where fewer votes can win the seat. The party has been in power for almost four years now with a mixed bag of smart moves and dumb moves. It is a party friendly to the rich and panders to the anti-abortion activists, gun enthusiasts, anti-vaxxers and people who have no understanding of our tax system and what it pays for.

The party’s problems are that nobody is impressed with the handling of the pandemic, nobody believes we really need the new highway 413 and there are conservative voters willing to concede that premier Doug Ford is incompetent. He is both disliked and distrusted.

The liberal voters are the other major voting block. They also have a base of about 25 per cent of eligible voters but are more concentrated in urban centres, where you need more votes to win the seat. While they tell everyone they are progressive, they are generally considered good mangers. They are business friendly and cater to the younger voters.

The liberal party’s most serious problem this time is that nobody knows their new leader. He has not won any awards lately in getting himself known. The one ridiculous pledge he has made to voters is that he will quit if gets to be premier and does not change how we vote in this province.

The third large voting block in Ontario are the 30 per cent of voters who always have some reason not to vote. This is a mixed bag of people, who either do not care, do not understand, do not believe in voting, have gone on vacation or have died. The one thing you can count on is that they always confuse the pollsters. And they are why the major parties make the effort to be sure voters, identified by their party as supporters, get to the polls.

The smaller bloc of voters, about 20 per cent, are the new democratic party (NDP) supporters. The Ontario party’s problems are basically a lack of direction and poor leadership for more than a decade. It is unlikely that many in Ontario would trust NDP leader Andrea Horwath in the premier’s chair.

It is a waiting game.

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Pierre’s Peculiar Pedagogy.

January 29, 2022January 28, 2022 by Peter Lowry

Watching the CBC’s Power and Politics recently, provided a good example of how Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre uses language to manipulate and convince the uninformed. It is not just his playing fast and loose with the truth, it is the use of inflammatory words, as well linking other parties to bad outcomes.

The specific dialogue was when Poilievre was speaking on a panel with Liberal MP Rachel Pendayen from Montreal and NDP MP Daniel Blaikie from Winnipeg. Each politician gave a good account of themselves for their political party but I would argue whether they gave a good account for Canadians. They were arguing about inflation in Canada.

Poilievre was still beating the drum that says prime minister Trudeau is responsible for inflation. He even went so far as to blame Trudeau and the liberals for the seriously inflated housing prices in urban Canada. This situation has been increasingly obvious because of the neglect of the problems by both conservative and liberal federal governments since the early 1990s.

The conservative countered the argument that inflation is an international problem by blatantly saying that land prices cannot be influenced internationally because land is stationery in the country where it is located. Obviously, Poilievre was well aware of the increasing pressure on home prices in Toronto and Vancouver because of outside buyers in places such as Hong Kong moving their investments and allegiances to the safe haven of Canada over the past 30 years.

And when you consider that Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou had a choice of three mansions she owned in Vancouver for her extended holiday (fighting extradition to the United States), it was not just Hong Kong buyers contributing to the problem.

The problem with this panel is that the other two politicians were out of their depth trying to deal with Poilievre’s weasel words. The CBC and other television networks like to use Poilievre because they use him to attract viewers. It is like using a poisonous snake to attract patrons to the local zoo.

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Truckers Rolling Over O’Toole.

January 28, 2022January 27, 2022 by Peter Lowry

Who says that Canadians will not contribute millions of dollars to stupidity? It was a treat the other day to read Althia Raj’s column in the Toronto Star on the so-called “freedom convoy” of truckers and their maybe supporter conservative leader Erin O’Toole. It proves to me that the measure of another person’s intelligence is how much they seem to agree with you. Obviously, Althia Raj is brilliant.

Those truckers are—or were—Mr. O’Toole’s people. Yet, like that fisherman named Peter, in the New Testament of the King James Bible, he denies them. Raj reports that in the eight times he was asked where he stands on the ‘Freedom Convoy’ he gave no straight answer. Another four times, he was asked the simple question: “Will you meet with the truckers of the Freedom Convoy.” Raj tells us that O’Toole would not answer.

O’Toole sticks to his mealy-mouthed position that everyone needs to be vaccinated but not forced to be vaccinated.

By continuing to be confused in his direction, O’Toole keeps on sending the more rabid conservative voters over to Maxime Bernier’s people’s party. It is not the he is not desperate for their votes but he doesn’t want to be identified with them. Some leader!

Raj is kind when she says the conservative leader just lacks clarity. The way he can flip-flop on issues leaves most Canadians lost as to where he stands.

She points out that O’Toole probably understands that these truckers might give cover to far more unsavoury elements who will use them for less innocent objectives than not just against being vaccinated. The last such truckers convoy seemed to contain elements of misogynists and racists. And, who knows who is riding this pony.

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A Caravan of Hate.

January 27, 2022January 26, 2022 by Peter Lowry

They are driving across our country and the anger is growing against them. These fools and their backers are doing nothing but building anger and frustration across the country. Truckers who don’t want to be vaccinated against Covid are carrying flags into battle instead of guns. They obviously don’t know that flag bearers are among the first to be shot.

And other idiots are supporting this foolishness. We hear figures in the millions from troublemakers on some Facebook funding. These weasels supporting the caravan are even bigger fools than the ones driving the trucks. They are wasting their money. They obviously have too much.

There is no way the government is going to back down. Both Canada and the United States are firm: If you want to be part of trans-border trucking, you have to be vaccinated against Covid. The fools in the caravan can drive their trucks into the Atlantic Ocean for all we give a damn. Just stay in your truck.

And you are smart not to drive your trucks through Barrie, Ontario on your way to Ottawa. In Barrie, I would be one of the people throwing rotten eggs at your trucks.

There is no honour to be earned in this truck caravan. This is cheap, unconsidered snivelling. It does no good. If there was ever a time when people needed to support each other to end this pandemic, it is now.

And please do not tell us that people will go hungry because some truckers are not allowed to cross the border because they are afraid of being vaccinated. Children might be afraid of being vaccinated but we expect people old enough to drive those rigs to be people able to endure a second of discomfort because of a needle in their arm.

So why don’t you show you are an adult and get vaccinated. They are the people we respect.

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Remembering Fraser Kelly.

January 26, 2022January 25, 2022 by Peter Lowry

Fraser Kelly died last week. Our friendship was never that close, but our paths crisscrossed over the years. He was chasing politics as a reporter and editor for the old Toronto Telegram back in the 1960s when we first met. I was working to get Charles Templeton into the liberal party leadership. It was as though every time I left the Templeton home in Mississauga, Fraser was out front with the gaggle of lurking reporters.

Fraser was a young and brash reporter. He admired Telegram publisher John Basset and it must have been mutual. Basset took Fraser him with him when he folded the Telegram and concentrated on his CFTO television station which he built into the flagship for the CTV network. Fraser was a natural on television. He made the transition from reporter, editor to television host with ease. He became a Toronto personality.

I forget when he and I realized we were neighbours. He and Joan had a similar type home on the next street in North York’s Henry Farm. Since my house had a pool, we did most of the summer entertaining. Son, Matt preferred the pool but daughter Lisa also did some of my family’s babysitting.

Fraser was always a big hit, at parties the wife and I threw, as many of our friends are also political. I laughingly told Fraser he only came because he could hold court for all the politicos there.

The one thing that always stood out about Fraser Kelly was that he was the straightest arrow I ever knew in the news media. I don’t think I ever told him an off-color joke. I knew better.

But we always had fun. He introduced me to the Franz Josef room at the now long-gone Walker House Hotel that used to stand down on Front Street. We both enjoyed our long lunches there discussing our city and politics.

I never knew why I lost touch with Fraser when he left television work. He joined a communications consulting firm and coincidently moved from Henry Farm. We had no contact after that. I was sorry to learn of his passing.

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Levering Legault.

January 25, 2022January 24, 2022 by Peter Lowry

If there is one thing all politicians need to understand, it is that a margin of one or two per cent in opinion polls is meaningless. A strong breeze can blow that lead away the next day. One minute you are on top and the next, you are running for cover. Experienced politicians only look at polls to see the trends.

But nobody should assume that premier François Legault of Quebec is all that experienced. His Coalition Avenir Québec (Coalition for Quebec’s future) is a right-wing spin-off from the Parti Québécois. He is a conservative. He uses insipient separatism to make demands of the rest of Canada. And he is still feeling his way on just how much he can piss off the rest of the country.

What is interesting is that when Legault told Quebec voters to vote conservative in last year’s federal election, nobody seemed to be listening. That was a strong indication that he has a problem. It has been a long time since Quebec has had a truly conservative government. Pandering to the latent bigotry of Quebec is not the answer either. It is something the province has been trying to outgrow. Bigotry is for the old, living in the past. The young want something better.

What Legault does not seem to understand is that the youth of Quebec are not necessarily Quebec-centred. They know there is a world out there. There is opportunity out there. They think it is cool to preserve and speak French. They think it is cool to also speak English. Bilingualism means opportunities. It means better jobs. It means travel. They know that Canadians are welcome in most countries around the world.

And they are not wasting their time on foolishness such as Bill 21. They are mostly immune to religious symbols. They mean little. They can show allegiance, yes. They can also be nothing more than a fashion statement. And what people might wear in desert countries is not always the appropriate wear in Canada’s climate. Our country needs our newcomers. We have to give them time and even generations to be at home.

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The Time of the Turtle.

January 24, 2022January 23, 2022 by Peter Lowry

With the upcoming provincial election in Ontario, liberal leader Steven Del Duca is starting to get some television coverage. Watching him talk on TV, he still reminds me of a turtle. Mind you, even if turtles have no teeth, their bite can be serious. They have very strong jaws.

And this is the time when the pressure has to be put on the Ontario conservatives. Ford and his cronies have just made their biggest gamble. They have bet the worst of the pandemic is over. And we all have to hope they are reading the situation correctly.

But they are also letting the hounds loose. The healthcare workers are exhausted and angry with the mistreatment. The teachers—even with better masks—are concerned with restoring the classrooms. The provincial economy is in turmoil. Opening restaurants is showing us the problems erratic openings and closings over the last year have caused. Lost staff, lost customers, lost confidence and extended debt are hurting the entire retail and service sector. Add to that the extremes of inflation and problems in the supply chain.

And we are all exhausted with the pandemic. It has taken a serious toll. The thousands of deaths have left us shaken. We need to rebuild our confidence. We no longer need the brash, populist and phony politicians. We need to rebuild with builders we can trust. We have to clamp down on the gun culture and stop killing our young people.

We also need cooperation. We need all levels of government to work in unison. We need the parties to forget their ideology and do what is right. We need a reset. Let the petty squabbles of parliament and legislature and councils rest, dammit. Get together to restore our economy. Build a future. Do not forget the past but use it only as a baseline.

Maybe it is a good time for turtles. They live longer than most pets. The big ones can outlive humans. Maybe in Ontario, we should keep an open mind about the coming election.

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Doug Doubles Down.

January 23, 2022January 22, 2022 by Peter Lowry

In Ontario, casino gamblers are allowed to double their blackjack bet on any two cards totaling nine, ten or eleven. This is called a ‘double down.’ Since most Ontario gamblers do not understand just when this bet is to their advantage, they still lose lots. Premier Doug Ford is doubling down against the pandemic by betting that the peak of hospitalization and pressure on intensive care has been passed for the Omicron variation.

His government is more than eager to see the end of the pandemic and hopes to bask in the glow of approval for a good guess during the June election. He is betting that the medical personnel who believe the worst is over are correct and the naysayers are wrong. And it is the one time when a majority of the population would certainly agree with him.

After all, if the Pope could promise that it is over there would be line-ups at all the Catholic churches tomorrow. And Doug Ford only wants their vote.

But Ford started with a Children’s Crusade. He has sent the children back to school on promises. He spent money on air filters and better masks for teachers. He is also planning on not telling Ontario parents just how many children and teachers fall ill.

If all goes well, his government is opening up dine-in restaurants to half their capacity at the end of January. Gyms and cinemas will also be re-opening at that time, also to a 50 per cent capacity.

There will be some further numbers restrictions lifted by the end of January but the next major re-openings are not expected until February 21. If there are no further setbacks, Ontario is hoping to be open all venues to vaccinated patrons by March 14.

The government is gambling that all restrictions can be lifted for when the writ for the provincial election comes down towards the end of April.

It would be foolish to hope Ford and his conservatives are wrong but I still would not vote for them.

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Time running out for Guilbeault.

January 22, 2022January 22, 2022 by Peter Lowry

We are nearing the 100-day mark for Canada’s environmental superstar Steven Guilbeault. You remember. The Quebec MP was a byproduct of the October election last year. He had lots of promise and was put to work to save the world. Prime minister Trudeau appointed him minister of the environment and climate change. Almost immediately, he was off to the United Nations COP 26 climate change conference in Glasgow.

And Glasgow was not his first rodeo. He has been to most of the United Nations climate change conferences. He can probably discuss the minuscule progress that has been made on the promises of the Paris Accord. Canada, he can report, is no leader—unless you are measuring the lack of progress on vague promises.

By the time Guilbeault got back, the house of commons was ready for recess and he likely spent the holidays as his reading week.

January has allowed him some travel time and he went to Alberta to meet those he was supposed to challenge. While we agree that knowing the enemy is important, there is no need for him to buy into their BS. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) told him that they are bullishly forecasting $11.6 billion investment in new oil sands production in 2022. This money is on top of the more than $22 billion of new money earmarked for expansion of natural gas and regular oil production.

They should bear in mind that Guilbeault is the guy whose job in the federal cabinet it is to lower the level of greenhouse emissions by 2030 and further to net zero by 2050. Exactly how he is going to do that has quite a few Canadians puzzled.

He explained to the CAPP people that as a federal minister, he has no jurisdiction over provincial resource development other than to set rules to curtail their greenhouse gas emissions.

Where he might have some influence would be if he went back to Ottawa and told the prime minister that he needs to stop the twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline. British Columbia is going to need the original pipeline for a few more years to deliver aviation and other processed fuels. What the twinning of the pipeline is for is to accommodate all that diluted bitumen from the tar sands that CAPP wants to sell overseas.

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