In my latest National Post column I reflect on how far modern race- gender- and even youth-obsessed identity politics progressivism has fallen in the United States from Martin Luther King Jr.’s inspiring vision of judging people by character not skin colour.

“What is the problem we wish to solve when we try to construct a rational economic order? On certain familiar assumptions the answer is simple enough. If we possess all the relevant information, if we can start out from a given system of preferences, and if we command complete knowledge of available means, then problem which remains is purely one of logic.... This, however, is emphatically not the economic problem which society faces.”

Friedrich Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” American Economic Review, 35 (January 1945)

"always brilliant, sometimes intelligent"

Robert Bourassa's frequently stated verdict on Bernard Landry, quoted by Paul Wells in National Post November 29, 2000

“How could man have such utter contempt for man? Because he had reached the point of contempt for God. Only a godless ideology could plan and carry out the extermination of a whole people."

John Paul II at Yad Vashem, quoted by Richard John Neuhaus in First Things October 2000

If tearing down statues of historical figures because they don't entirely meet contemporary standards worries you, come hear author Bob Plamandon and others (including me) at a Hands Off Our History barbeque this Sunday, Sept. 9, at Ottawa's Andrew Haydon Park starting at 3:00.

For details visit https://www.facebook.com/mycanadaincludesmyhistory/

In my latest National Post column I say the deep ideas the government solicited about preserving the welfare state regardless of what it actually does or what's going on around it seem to miss the point.