"For when once people have begun to believe that prosperity is the reward of virtue their next calamity is obvious. If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtues, it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue. Men will leave off the heavy task of making good men successful. They will adopt the easier task of making our successful men good."

G.K. Chesterton, “The Book of Job,” in Alberto Manguel, ed., On Lying in Bed and Other Essays by G.K. Chesterton

In my latest Looniepolitics column I commend the Ontario Tories for having a good leadership race, while asking whether they also have conservative policies.

"no rational creature can be supposed to change his condition with an intention to be worse"

John Locke The Second Treatise of Government

Yesterday Danielle Smith interviewed me on her 770 CHQR radio show about the upcoming EEA conference in Calgary "Stemming the Tide of Red Ink" (March 2-3). We've got a great lineup of speakers from business, government and academia to talk about what's wrong federally, provincially and at the often-neglected municipal level and, crucially, about what we can do to fix it and we hope to see you there.

 “we do not ask whether interventionism is good or bad, moral or immoral, to be commended or condemned. We merely ask from the standpoint of those who want to put it into operation whether it serves or frustrates their intentions. In other words, does its application attain the ends sought?"

Ludwig von Mises Interventionism

In my latest National Post column I ridicule politicians' inability to fix the expensive, tangled, divisive mess known as Equalization.