“He could not care less about the number of hours he had to put in.”

Another of the "He's an extraordinary man" style phrases to use in a two-edged letter of recommendation, this one for a lazy or unambitious person; it is on various websites but I do not know where it originated.

In my latest Loonie Politics column I say now is a very bad time for public sector unions to destroy gig-economy jobs.

In my latest Epoch Times column I say we should tackle economic and medical issues as though something else bad might hit us, even another pandemic, rather than returning to unfounded complacency.

“All plans of government, which suppose great reformation in the manners of mankind, are plainly imaginary.”

David Hume, Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth quoted in Samuel Brittan Against the Flow

In my latest National Post column I say we must get over our belief that we can live without trade-offs or anything bad ever happening, and make real-world choices about quarantines and everything else.

“It’s budget season in Canada — the time of year when economists emerge from their dens, shake the moss out of their hair, scratch a tree, note the length of their shadow and use it to predict that the economy will definitely grow this year unless conditions cause it to stall.”

Monte Solbert in Ottawa Sun February 24, 2014

“And now, as we birds say, nests before eggs.”

The Raven in C.S. Lewis The Horse and His Boy