“There is a proof that common sense and the higher mysteries lie very close together. It is the fact that they are frequently and even continually absent simultaneously from the same person.”

G.K. Chesterton in Daily News April 2, 1904, quoted in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 8 # 6 4-5/05

“They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer – not an easy answer – but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right.”

Ronald Reagan “A Time for Choosing” (a.k.a. “The Speech”) October 27, 1964

In my latest National Post column I say it’s absurd and ghastly for the major parties each to rail at the other for wanting to tax without spending, as if there were no connection between high program spending and high taxes.

“Free markets must be defended on moral grounds. We must convince our fellow man there cannot be personal liberty in the absence of free markets, respect for private property rights and rule of law. Even if free markets were not superior wealth producers, the morality of the market would make them the superior alternative.”

Walter E. Williams, “Foreword” to Friedrich Hayek The Road to Serfdom [Readers’ Digest condensed edition] with The Intellectuals and Socialism

No, really. Governments across Canada face appalling challenges including the growing threat of Western alienation. But most politicians are far too cautious, focus-grouped and partisan to put forward bold new ideas. If we want frank talk and big ideas that challenge the status quo and open the way for reforms that work, we’re going to have to do it ourselves.

So we’re holding the 6th annual Freedom School conference in Calgary on Feb. 8 and 9 to discuss “Things that Matter: An Agenda for Alberta”. We’ve got a terrific lineup of speakers to talk taxes and pipelines, pensions and schools, equalization and efficiency, and open the way for politicians to escape the rut of stale rhetoric, complacent overspending, bad public services and a weak economy.

Remember Ralph Klein’s supposed wisdom about finding a big parade and getting in front of it. Well, join us in Calgary and let’s get the parade going.

In my latest National Post column I offer the State of the Union address I think should be given in 2019… even if it makes people cry.

“A knowledgeable fool is a greater fool than an ignorant one.”

Molière [e-mailed by a friend without further citation]