In my latest National Post commentary, I remind the politicians and chattering classes that when we make a law in Canada, we don't stop discussing it, and we don't coerce people any more than we have to. Doctors who don't approve of assisted suicide should be free not to perform it, advocate it or give referrals, and Catholic priests and everyone else should be free to say it's wrong if they think so, and work to change the law.
In my latest National Post column I urge us to heed Adam Smith and face the gathering storm with a smile.
Conrad Black does me the honour of responding to my column on Donald Trump with a splendid example of polemics done right. His piece pulls no punches but throws them all above the waist. As Chesterton says “People generally quarrel because they cannot argue” and Conrad Black can certainly argue. I still respectfully disagree. When he says “Foreigners like Robson should remember that Americans, unlike most nationalities, are not accustomed to their government being incompetent and embarrassing” I respond that “People with Ph.Ds in American history like Robson remember that Americans are thoroughly accustomed to their government being incompetent and embarrassing, under presidents from John Tyler to Andrew Johnson to Warren Harding.” Remember Henry Adams’s quip in The Education of Henry Adams that “The progress of Evolution from President Washington to President Grant, was alone evidence enough to upset Darwin.” What distinguishes Americans is their commendable determination to keep government small because they understand that it is usually incompetent and often sinister.
Regrettably Donald Trump does not share this understanding. Indeed, he himself would be both incompetent and sinister in office. That is why I continue to maintain that while he taps into legitimate anger, he does so in ways that are profoundly illegitimate.
In my latest National Post commentary I rebuke the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology for a buzzword bingo anti-obesity foray into the brave “new” world of coercing us at the supermarket and the dinner table for our own good, by people as unlikely to know what is good for us as you could find.
In my latest National Post commentary I show how the disgusting Boycott, Divest and Sanctions anti-Israel movement isn’t even pro-Palestinian, just wrong and malevolent.
In my latest National Post column, I stage an intervention with America about this guy she's getting serious with.
In my latest National Post commentary I urge Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau to have his Advisory Council on Economic Growth to concentrate on removing government barriers to growth.
Aaaargh. An alert reader notes that, in a Scarecrow moment, I reversed Sir Henry Maine’s famous phrase in this column. Open societies are of course based on contract not status, not the other way around.