We are all responsible. We are failing to support democracy. We are making bad choices in leaders, bad choices in who represents us and failing to demand that they protect our democratic institutions and customs. And we can only blame ourselves. We need to face the facts: our political parties
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Northern Currents –: Why the Liberal Party is Losing the Youth Vote
Many of us voted for Trudeau, giving him a majority government for four years. But since his 2015 legalization promise, Justin Trudeau has done little to help the generation that got him elected. He is losing the youth vote. The post Why the Liberal Party is Losing the Youth Vote
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: It’s not your father’s liberal party.
When Pierre Trudeau resigned his leadership of the liberal party in 1984, it was a robust organization with supporters across Canada. The president of the party was B.C. liberal Iona Campagnolo. She was the party president that when the new leader John Turner was caught by the media patting her
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: In praise of liberalism.
Being a liberal is not just some fuzzy feeling. It is a commitment to life. It matters not the color of your skin. It matters not whether you are rich or poor. It matters not the extent of your education. It depends on your caring. It depends on your ability
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Political leaders get lots of advice.
It is part of the job. Leaders of all political parties get lots of advice—most of it ignored. Maybe the Toronto Star is not aware of this phenomenon. That must be why they run advice columns for different leaders every Sunday opposite the editorials. One of these, that ran last
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: To listen and to learn in Ottawa.
Yesterday it was noted how quiet the Ottawa scene has been while history is made in America. But we ignore Ottawa at our peril. You have to listen to buzz in the quiet. There is the testiness of the conservative caucus—planning for the partisan attacks to come. There is the
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Don’t blame Singh.
If there was ever a guy on the wrong side of the parliamentary ledger, it is Jagmeet Singh of the new democrats. While the rest of the opposition thought they were driving more nails into liberal coffins, this week, there was Jagmeet and the NDP caucus keeping their word and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: “I double dare you.”
The kids are bruising for a fight but unsure of the outcome. The Ottawa liberals are tantalizing the conservatives with the prospect of an election. The only problem is that it could all be for nothing. If nobody can win, what is the point? And that is the real problem.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The unindicted Bill Blair.
It took them a long time to start to redress the wrong and they still have not got it right. Here it is ten years down the road and the only people we are confident are being compensated to date are the lawyers. The G20 summit in Toronto in 2010
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: This fails the smell test.
It must have been the final political straw for Bill Morneau. After taking some of the heat off the prime minister in the ‘We charity’ imbroglio, the former finance minister is still being criticized for his naiveté. Not only is he being pilloried by the opposition in parliament and ridiculed
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Doing what they do best.
It is time for the conservatives in parliament to return to what they do best: criticize. They are so good at it that they have more people lined up to criticize the liberal cabinet members than there are liberal cabinet members to criticize. It would be easy to just give
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: So, who wants an election?
Americans do it every four years. Canadians sometimes do it more often. We are talking about federal elections here. Americans have never seen one like this one: the vote seems all locked down two months before the actual election. Given that intention and the determination of the voters, Donald Trump
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Tooling along with O’Toole.
It is ‘go easy’ time on the new leader of Canada’s conservatives. Erin O’Toole is getting the easy ride ahead of any election. The media are throwing him the soft lobs to try to give them some of the thought processes he will be using for tougher questions during a
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A sharp turn to the left?
Bloomberg News must be concerned. The business news people are reporting, that under the new management of Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s economy will take a decisive lurch to the left. The only delaying factor that might have held up that lurch was obviously Bill Morneau, whom Freeland replaced
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Justin’s ‘Turn to Bow’.
Yesterday’s show from Ottawa reminded me of a small book produced by Maclean’s magazine for the 1972 federal election: Their turn to curtsy – Your turn to bow. It told you all the magazine thought you needed to know to be a knowledgeable voter. Maybe that was the intent of
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Liberals whistle past the graveyard.
While it might be foolish to buy stock in Trudeau and Company in Ottawa, you have to ask who is going to gain in an election? It is a serious question. It would be necessary for the opposition to get together and bring down the minority liberal government in late
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Morneau’s meandering memory.
Fool us once Mr. Morneau, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us. Finance minister Bill Morneau has the amazing ability to remember between breakfast and lunch more than $40,000 in expenses he should have paid. I am sorry those harpies in the conservative caucus are making his life
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Longing for leadership.
Sometime, after August 21, the conservative party hopes to announce the winner of the party’s national leadership. The big question though is does anybody care? What possible difference would it make if Erin O’Toole beat Peter MacKay? It is the same old, same old conservative dogma. It would mean promising
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Finance Minister Morneau has to go.
(Before warming to today’s topic, I would like to thank the readers who sent their comments on yesterday’s topic. I thought at least five per cent of Canadians could name our last five prime ministers. I now think it might be only two per cent who can name Kim Campbell,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: How do we pay the mortgage?
It would have helped last week if finance minister Bill Morneau had paid some attention to the deficit side of our financial snapshot. The problem is that to many Canadians the figures he was discussing were unfathomable. The average citizen does not think of money in billions and trillions. Reality
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