In my latest National Post column, I urge the makers of the forthcoming film The Silver Chair to do it faithfully in both senses.
Woot. Today is Tax Freedom Day in Canada. That's right. June 7. That's the day, according to the Fraser Institute, that the average family stops working for the state and starts working for itself. And that was the good news. The bad news is that if governments paid for everything they took, that is, if you count deficits as if they were covered by taxation now instead of later, it still wouldn't be tax freedom day until June 18. (This methodology I believe relies on mean averages for income and taxation.)
You can find the depressing details including a provincial breakdown in their study. But here's a question to ponder as you do so. How can it be that, with Canadians so much wealthier today than they were thirty or sixty years ago, we can possibly need so much more help from government?
Remember, as we get richer, government could keep getting bigger while tax freedom day got earlier. Why isn't it happening? If it's too much to ask that government actually get smaller as our private means, including for charity, get larger, couldn't it at least take a smaller share?
Instead the total tax rate (see p. 9 of the Fraser study) is higher in every province except Alberta and BC today than in 1981. So where does it all end? And why does current political debate take so little notice of the relentless expansion of the state relative to citizens, talking instead about all the wonderful things we could get if only government finally became truly big and busy?
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, our fundraising partner on the True North and Free documentary project on fixing our Constitution, has just announced the 2016 version of its Essay Contest for Canadian college and university students. Their website gives the full terms and conditions. But basically if you were a college or university student in Canada last year or will be one this year, you're invited to write 2,500 words or less on:
Should the government and government bodies, through law and policy, force voluntary associations (charitable, political, cultural, ethnic, religious, social, recreational, educational, etc.) to be inclusive and welcoming of everyone?
Why or why not?
There are cash prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
In an official statement on Easter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said "Easter is the holiest of Christian holidays, and marks the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ." With commendable, and remarkable, direct affirmation. It may be a sorry commentary on our times that I find his statement remarkable. But here's a politician who professes to be a Roman Catholic commenting on a Christian holiday without inserting a bunch of weasel words about "Christians believe" or "some say" or "what they consider". Instead it states the resurrection as a fact.
People who aren't Christians don't consider it one, of course. And there's a time and place to acknowledge their views. But Easter isn't it, for people who are Christian. For as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:14, "if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain."
Easter is a time for Christians to hold up their heads and their beliefs, stating the reason for the hope that is in them. On Easter Friday itself our Prime Minister apparently just did so.
In my latest National Post column I say goodbye to George Jonas.
In my latest piece for the Rebel I explain why it's a good thing that the British prefer to say " trick or treat” instead of chanting “Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder treason and plot”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjTlSP5524Y
In my latest National Post column, I discuss the reactions to last week's visit to the US by the pontiff.
Are social conservatives treated like lepers in Canadian public debate? They should be so lucky, says my latest National Post column.