In my latest Loonie Politics column I explain how our finance minister can look so happy over his appalling fiscal “snapshot”.
“The measurement of outcomes in higher education is still in the dark ages. There’s still a very strong sense that universities are ultimately measured by the quality of their professoriate and their scholarly output, with relatively less attention paid to the quality of the student experience and the calibre of the learning that goes on. We profile creative and illustrious alumni, and we rub the latest prestigious report or ranking in our hair, but I worry that the actual serious measure of what we’re about is still in its early stages.”
University of Toronto president David Nayor in a Q&A with Kate Fillion in Maclean’s November 13, 2006
In my latest Epoch Times column I say if our government is to get past its baby steps in the right direction on the Chinese crackdown on Hong Kong, it has to rethink its comforting illusions about the world.
“The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and, instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”
Samuel Johnson, quoted as “Thought du jour” in Globe & Mail Nov. 5 1999
“breeding rather than feeding”
John Mercel Robson (my father) summarizing the nature/nurture argument in a letter in 1993
In my latest National Post column I lament Forbes’ characteristic attempt to stuff Michael Shellenberger’s brave apology for excessive climate alarmism down the memory hole
In my latest National Post column I say when the rule of law no longer applies either to the powerful or to the mob it’s not social justice or any other kind.
In my latest Epoch Times column I say we can have a happy Canada Day if we’re sensible about history and human nature.