In my latest Loonie Politics column I berate Canadian “conservative” politicians for being as clueless about how to avoid wedge issues as they are spineless about how to approach them.
“There is a straight road which runs from Runnymede to Philadelphia. We did not ‘borrow’ provisions from the British Constitution, which had come from the people; those provisions were ours, paid for with the lives of our ancestors on many a battlefield. I have examined the matter. I tell you our Constitution came up from the body of a self-governing people. But we can lose our capacity to govern by its nonexercise.”
Congressman Hatton Sumners of Texas in 1937, quoted in Daniel Hannan, Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World
In my latest Epoch Times column I ponder uneasily what George Washington, or indeed Sir John A. Macdonald or the Duke of Wellington, would make of modern politics.
In my latest Epoch Times column I say we should get back to the values that made Canada great starting by celebrating them with gratitude on July 1.
In my latest National Post column I say the “inclusive” teacher who told a Muslim kid to celebrate pride or get of Canada exposes not just reflexive intolerance but a deep, unresolvable contradiction in multiculturalism.
“Eddie Izzard likes pink. Pink coats, pink jackets – they’re all over the website promoting his failed bid to stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election. Labour’s colour is traditionally red but pink is for girls, and Izzard has been campaigning in what he coyly calls ‘girl mode’ for months now. Alas, all his efforts came to nothing at the weekend when he was soundly beaten by a local councillor who also happens to be a woman…. while people are ready to applaud an actor and comedian who challenges gender stereotypes, they may not be so keen on a man making demands that defy the evidence of their senses. Izzard’s claim to be trans highlights the problem at the heart of self-identification, which is that it requires so little of the individual – but so much of everyone else. Izzard is a man who likes to wear women’s clothes, favouring garments that are a parody of what actual women choose to wear.... The setback to Izzard’s attempt to become a Labour MP is a heartening sign of a return to sanity. After all, being a woman involves a great deal more than wearing pink.”
Joan Smith on Unherd December 5, 2022
In my latest Epoch Times column I say if Communist China is acting nicer because its drive for world domination is faltering, we should not relax our vigilance or forget our principles.
“Indeed, one of the real lessons of history, is that nobody ever learns them. In every age and era, too many people believe that the experiences of others can’t apply to them. Their age and place is unique and therefore exempt from experience. Two other lessons of history are these: Nothing lasts forever, and very few people notice or care that their society is in trouble until it is too late.”
John Thompson in Mackenzie Newsletter April 1998 #32