If you're in the Ottawa area on Oct. 30 please consider joining MP David Anderson (Cypress Hills-Grasslands, and Shadow Cabinet Secretary for International Human Rights and Religious Freedom), Janet Epp Buckingham (Director of Trinity Western University's Laurentian Leadership Centre), Jay Cameron (Litigation Manager for the Justice Centre for Canadian Freedoms) and myself to discuss "Canadian Freedoms: Growing Threats?" at the Parliamentary Forum on Canadian Freedoms.

It's in Room 430, Wellington Building (197 Sparks St.) from 7 to 9 p.m. on Monday Oct. 30 and it is open to the public. But you need to RSVP to David Anderson's Legislative Assistant Tristan McLaughlin (613-995-1616 or david.anderson.a1@parl.gc.ca) and you will need photo ID for admission to the Parliamentary premises.

I'll be talking about Magna Carta, how Parliament evolved to protect the freedoms guaranteed in the Great Charter, and how the weakening of Parliament in recent decades threatens our liberties.

"I find that a change of nuisances is as good as a vacation."

David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister (attributed, in reply to a question how he stayed cheerful, according to "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe and Mail July 28, 2004)

In my latest National Post column I say the strong showing of the allegedly "far right" Alternative für Deutschland in the German election means you must either call one in eight German voters a neo-Nazi or concede that many normal people are deeply dissatisfied with politics as usual nowadays.

In my latest National Post column I offer good news and bad: we know what's needed to fix our broken governments. 

In my latest National Post column I say tax reform would be easier to discuss and accomplish if governments weren't universally desperate for money. So arguably politicians and voters should give more thought to why they are.

"The first impression that one gets of a ruler and of his brains is from seeing the men that he has about him."

Machiavelli, quoted in Dan Rather The Palace Guard

In my latest National Post column I wish news stories would more often refer to government spending being cut, especially by contrast with the lurid and generally inaccurate "slashed".

Jesse Brown of Canadaland just posted an interview with me about The Rebel, Charlottesville and the state of public debate more generally. He and I certainly don't see eye to eye on a lot of things so I appreciate the opportunity to have a civil discussion about our disagreements instead of the sort of shouting match that too often erupts nowadays.