“A recent article on the left-wing website Rabble.ca, of all places, accused him [Jack Layton] of being ‘a political doughnut ... All sugar icing on the outside ... and a big hole right in the middle.’”
Adam Radwanski in Ottawa Citizen April 1, 2004
“For as Chesterton remarked, you cannot introduce anarchy into the intellect without also introducing anarchy into the commonwealth.”
Link Byfield in British Columbia Report November 17, 1997
“The reasonable people (for I know some quite reasonable people who allow me to talk to them), the rationalists, the liberal progressive people all say, ‘The Indian need is Independence; it must be a self-governing unit,’ and so on. Then they both say, ‘Let us hope no silly squabbles about religion will spoil this great unity,’ whether Imperial or National. Now I am so perverse that I think the religious squabbles are much less silly than the political squabbles. I am much more certain that there is such a thing as Islam than there is such a thing as India. I believe much more in the existence of a Hindoo than in the existence of an Indian. And I think the difficulties do arise from the doctrines; but much more from the trick of ignoring the doctrines.”
G.K. Chesterton in “The Thing They Left Out” in the New York American January 9, 1932 reprinted in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #2 (November/December 2023)
“It would be impolitic to suggest [Chrystia] Freeland has gone bananas, but she has definitely been at the fruit bowl.”
Michael Higgins in National Post June 11, 2024 [re the Canadian Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister suddenly claiming that without their capital gains tax increase the rich will live in fortified enclaves while the poor burn everything else down].
“Signs of a narcissistic sociopath/ 1. They live in a deluded reality/ 2. They are obsessed with power and control/ 3. They take advantage of and use other people/ 4. They have no moral boundaries/ 5 They have a limited range of emotions/ 6. They have a huge discard pile/ 7. They become hostile when threatened/ 8. They feed off negative energy/ 9. They get bored easily/ 10. They are empty inside”
Arrived in my X feed in January 2024 (with regard to a particular politician but they're not the only ones).
“Without freedom of speech, we would not know who the idiots are.”
Emailed without attribution by a friend May 28, 2024
“Honesty is never solemn; it is only hypocrisy that can be that. Honesty always laughs, because things are so laughable.”
G.K. Chesterton “A Plea for Hasty Journalism” in The Apostle and the Wild Ducks, quoted in “Can’t You Take A Joke?” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #2 (November/December 2023)
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say the Governor General was very wrong to prorogue Parliament on behalf of a First Minister who had clearly lost the confidence of the House of Commons, and that the House should reconvene itself and fire Justin Trudeau.