“Men are the same in all ages and in all countries. A few prejudices and customs excepted, the same passions lurk in our hearts at all times.”
J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer
In my latest National Post column I remind readers that the purpose of a government-run school system is to instill state-approved values in young people, and we should support or oppose it on that basis with our eyes wide open.
In my latest Loonie Politics column I remind people of why projects like Ottawa’s Light Rail Transit are reliably unreliable, taking loger, costing more and doing less than we were promised before it was too late to change our minds.
“The eighth mistake consists in the astounding, yet in our day widely prevalent, denial of human nature.”
Mortimer J. Adler, Ten Philosophical Mistakes
In my latest National Post article, part of the “Right Now” series on “What does conservatism mean in Canada today?”, I argue that it must mean serious attention to the deep constitutional and historical roots of our rights, our security, our prosperity and our open society. And yes, by that I mean Magna Carta.
“the best assumption with regard to the men and women of the fifteenth or any other medieval century is that in essentials they were like-minded with ourselves. We should not be deceived by different conventions, or by contrasts which may be only superficial. Both the pomp and artificiality of court life in the fifteenth century, and the extravagances of the baronial households, often commented on, had a logic of their own in the circumstances of the times; they were far from being the product of men and women whose motives were very different from our own. Life may have been more colourful, unrestrained, and uncertain, in the fifteenth century than at later times; but this did not really change the inner nature of the men and women of the age.’”
Bertie Wilkinson Constitutional History of England in the Fifteenth Century 1399-1485 (Wilkinson was my grandfather)
“Once again, you and your editors show that Gilbert Keith Chesterton is the most important man not living in the world today.”
Letter from William Cassell of Poteau, Oklahoma in Gilbert! Magazine Vol. 5 # 3 (Dec. 2001)
In my latest Epoch Times column I explain that in Canada we don’t elect governments, we elect MPs.