Ottawa is a strange place. But the trial of Mike Duffy is weird even by its standards, as I explain in C2C Journal in the only format that seemed suitable to the occasion.
In June the CBC asked me for a radio commentary based on a National Post column I’d written on the thoughtless way social conservatives are abused in Canadian public debate. You can listen to it here.
My latest National Post column explains why history is not on Hillary Clinton's side.
My latest video for The Rebel. https://youtu.be/ENPRpnJhkos
Just kidding. Yes, the Fraser Institute's annual calculation reveals that June 10 is indeed Tax Freedom Day this year. But we're nearly halfway through this year and this magnificent event is a day later than last year. I'm constantly hearing how some heartless administration has slashed this, gutted that, neoliberalism is rampant, Occupy is protesting, we need a national strategy, it's time to restore our faith in government and so on. Then you turn around and find the blob hasn't gotten any smaller.
Maybe it's time some conservative party in power somewhere actually, you know, made government smaller the way we keep hearing that conservatives do.
In my latest Policy Options post I ask why Rick Perry is running for President again. Then I realize I don't want to know.
The 800th anniversary of Magna Carta is just 12 days away now. June 15 2015 is Magna Carta Day. Well, not in Ontario. A private members’ bill from Julia Monro (MPP York Simcoe) to make June 15 officially Magna Carta Day in this province is bottled up in committee and will likely languish if not die there since the legislature will rise on June 4 and won’t sit again until Sept. 14. They must be tired or something. Technically committees can meet in between so the bill could get reported out. But Third Reading must wait until fall if it ever happens.
Now I realize that private members’ bills rarely pass and it’s generally a lengthy process for those that do. Arguably it could go faster as a rule. But certainly when you’re looking at the 800th anniversary of what is widely agreed to be one of the most important events in our entire history, MPPs across party lines could have moved this particular bill along faster given that it was first introduced on July 24 of last year. Assuming they intend to move it at all.
On the plus side, we can celebrate Magna Carta even without the politicians.
Are social conservatives treated like lepers in Canadian public debate? They should be so lucky, says my latest National Post column.