Thinking about political leadership campaigns, it occurs to me that the constraints on the candidates today are not only catastrophic for the candidates but impossible for the party faithful to judge. How can you expect the party members to make a reasoned choice? When meetings cannot take place, you have
Continue readingTag: leadership
Babel-on-the-Bay: O’Toole should cool it.
It is a pity to waste good political advice on conservatives but MP Erin O’Toole’s current hissy fit with Peter MacKay’s leadership organization could cause irreparable harm in Canadian politics. And rather than being amused by the lack of political smarts of the Erin O’Toole leadership organization, most knowledgeable politicos
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Dougie has “lost the plot.”
A chap from ‘Ole Blighty’ was talking the other day about the United Kingdom’s prime minister Boris Johnson. He said “Bo-Jo has lost the plot.” The description fits too many politicians today. Johnson is just one of many. America’s Trump certainly fits the part. The Donald seems to have never
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Lessons in Leadership.
New democrat leader Jagmeet Singh got himself thrown out of our socially separated house of commons the other day. He called a fellow parliamentarian a racist. That is not leadership. That is desperation. Jagmeet’s explanation of his obduracy on the subject was also wrong. How can he insist on saying
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Please Justin, get a haircut.
We hear through the grapevine that Justin Trudeau and his liberals are thinking election. Since I am supposed to have an opinion on this proposal, I will need to reach deep into my conscience to see if I could support such foolishness at this time. The one thing that is
Continue readingWe Pivot: Open Letter to the Burnaby School District on #BLM
Hello, I was disturbed to see yesterday’s retweet of the Burnaby RCMP video greeting: This is a messed up world. White supremacy has been rampant for generations and with the deep inaction in BC and Canada about the TRC and … [Read more]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can Chuckles make a comeback?
The conservative party and the news media have written off acting conservative party leader Andrew Scheer much too soon. When he resigned late last year, the unwritten proviso was that the party thought they could get someone better. There might be four or five people vying for the honour of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Same-old, same-old Tory party.
This conservative leadership contest is a disaster. What started out to be dull and boring has been made doubly dull and boring. We are now advised that we will know who has won the conservative party leadership on August 27. Surprise, surprise, Peter MacKay will likely be crowned. Boring wins
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s all about politics.
There was a suggestion in the news the other day that few of us are interested in politics at this time. The assumption was that the coronavirus has chased politics out of the driver’s seat of the daily news. In my humble opinion, that is just so much twaddle. The
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Crisis Point: Leadership Needed From…Anywhere, Now
Imagine if real leadership from the grassroots comes now from the moderate, democratic/republican right, and not the centre or the left. Considering that the centre and left, almost without exception, have their heads up their asses, this mortifying development is entirely possible. Let us hope that basic sanity, in
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is Chuckles shooting blanks?
The lame duck conservative leader and leader of the opposition in parliament, Andrew Scheer, has a problem. Is nobody paying him any attention? Is it that difficult for him to squeeze past all the articles about the coronavirus and covid-19? Is the pandemic more important? The answer to all three
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Learning to love your local MP.
In our time of need, do you not love the attention we are getting from our local politicians? I am thinking here of your federal member of parliament. This person is your lifeline to the decision makers in Ottawa. No matter what party they might represent, they also represent you.
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Virtual Idiot?
Unless an agreement is reached before Monday, the House of Commons will resume business as usual with all 338 MPs along with their staff, clerks, interpreters, security and cleaners, returning to work in Ottawa. The Liberals are also proposing one additional session be held each week with another lengthy question period, but this one would be
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The populism of the coronavirus.
We live in an age of populist political solutions but we never expected to have to deal with a populist pandemic. The problem is that a populism pandemic is blind. It strikes the rich and powerful one per cent as easily as the person in poverty. It can kill the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Trudeau is in the catbird seat.
Canadians have never seen anyone so well positioned at the moment than prime minister Justin Trudeau. Popping in an out of Rideau Cottage like a cuckoo in a clock, the PM has the stage to himself. The news media await him. In his self-imposed isolation and working from home, to
Continue readingWe Pivot: WePivot Is Back!
It’s been a healthy hiatus. Over 3 years ago, after over 1,000 blog pieces since just after 9/11, I evolved Politics, Re-Spun into WePivot.net. I wrote about why. A couple years ago I hit pause on WePivot.net, with my last … [Read more]
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A debutante ball for John Baird?
It is difficult to explain what kind of an event this will be. It has always been evident that John Baird wanted to make some kind of a statement in his lifetime. Nobody really believed it was his final act when he left the Harper cabinet. He always seemed to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It costs less than a house and you feel welcome.
Huh? Sorry, I might have dozed off there. I was dreaming of running to be the leader of the Green Party of Canada. I will just have to run a “Go Fund Me” page for the $50,000. entry fee. It sure is a lot cheaper than the conservatives. They want
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Can the Tory race get more boring?
This is ridiculous. So far, this is not a race, it is more like a baby crawl. The conservative party of Canada, midwifed by Stephen Harper at the turn of the century, has fallen on hard times. And, so far, only one of the two candidates has ponied up his
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: When NIMBY’s win, we all lose.
It has been almost a year since Barrie city council decided to do further research on a safe injection site in their town. Some of my neighbours were there to tell the councillors that they did not want it in their neighbourhood. I am sorry I was not there. I
Continue reading