In my latest National Post column I urge Canada’s federal Conservatives to tackle their electoral and image problems by leaning into them, being the reality party instead of trying to be Liberal lite and having it fail for the umpteenth time.
“Toward the end of her life she [Dorothy Sayers] was to write, in the 1952 introduction to The Surprise, a forgotten play of Chesterton’s whose posthumous publication she instigated, ‘To the young people of my generation, G.K.C. was a kind of Christian liberator. Like a beneficent bomb, he blew out of the Church a quantity of stained glass of a very poor period, and let in the gusts of fresh air in which the dead leaves of doctrine danced with all the energy and indecorum of Our Lady’s Tumbler.’”
John Hissong in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #2 (November/December 2023)
“Le cardinal de Richelieu a écrit dans ses mémoires qu’un ministre corrompu est moins dangereux pour l’État qu’un ministre incompétent.”
Jacques Dufresne La démocratie athénienne: Miroir de la Notre
“It was impressed on me by one of the best of mothers that ever lived that I must aim at being a thorough master of the work by which I had to get my living; and to be that, I must concentrate my whole energies on my work, whatever that might be, to the exclusion of every other thing. I soon discovered that if I ever accomplished anything in life it would be by pursuing my object with a persistent determination to attain it. I had neither the training nor the talents to accomplish anything without hard work, and fortunately I knew it.”
Canadian tycoon George Stephen, late in life, attributed his success to his Spartan training and singlemindedness, quoted in Pierre Berton The National Dream
“I approach spirituality as a social scientist who believes that whether or not God exists, spirituality is a deep part of human nature, shaped by natural selection and cultural evolution, and central to human flourishing and self-transcendence.”
Jonathan Haidt on The Free Press November 25, 2025 [https://www.thefp.com/p/jonathan-haidt-the-devils-plan-to-ruin-next-generation]. A position unlikely to attract devotees let alone martyrs.
“If you're shopping in a Home Depot store, and someone who doesn't work there offers you assistance, you may live in Canada.
If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Canada.
If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong-number, you may live in Canada.
If 'vacation' means going anywhere south of Detroit for the weekend, you may live in Canada.
If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Canada.
If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Canada.
If you've switched from 'HEAT' to 'AIR-CONDITIONING' and back again, in the same day, you may live in Canada.
If you can drive 90 kilometers an hour through 2 feet of snow, during a raging blizzard, without flinching, you may live in Canada.
If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Canada.
If you carry jumper-cables in your car, and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Canada.
If you design your child's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you may live in Canada.
If the speed limit on the highway is 100 km/hour, and you're going at 120, and everyone's passing you, you may live in Canada.
If driving is better in the winter because all the potholes are filled with snow, you may live in Canada.
If you know all four seasons: Almost-winter, Winter, Still-winter, and Road Construction: you may live in Canada.
If you have more miles on your snow-blower than on your car, you may live in Canada.
If you think of minus-2-degrees as being 'a little chilly', you may live in Canada.”
Complete text of that part of an interesting-item roundup email from a friend Nov. 22 2025
In my latest Loonie Politics column I argue that NATO meeting in Turkey instead of expelling it indicats a collapse of faith in the Western civilization NATO was created to protect.
“Organizations must be based on many issues. Organizations need action as an individual needs oxygen. The cessation of action brings death to the organization through factionalism and inaction, through dialogues and conferences that are actually a form of rigor mortis rather than life.”
Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals