Pursuing Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
News, articles and opinion pieces
Here are 10 of By George’s favourite quotes of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister and a Father of Confederation. Politics is a game requiring great coolness and an utter abnegation of prejudice and personal feeling. There were, unfortunately, no great principles on which parties were divided – politics became a mere struggle…
Flashback – originally appeared November 12, 2013. If we are to believe the mainstream media’s pundits and polls, in the next federal general election, the unpopular PM Stephen Harper will be trounced by the dashing Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. The left-of-centre mainstream media and chattering classes has excitedly ordained this to be so. The only…
Sunny ways my friends, sunny ways. This is what positive politics can do. We believe in our hearts that this country’s unique diversity is a blessing bestowed upon us by previous generations of Canadians, Canadians who stared down prejudice and fought discrimination in all its forms. We know that our enviable, inclusive society didn’t happen…
Paul Wells book on Stephen Harper’s politics – The Longer I’m Prime Minister – is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the man and his modus operandi in office. Here are ten quotes extrapolated from Paul Wells’ book – but, to get an insightful glimpse into the Prime Minister, get the book – read…
If you want to be a government in a minority Parliament, you have to work with other people. But I’m very libertarian in the sense that I believe in small government and, as a general rule, I don’t believe in imposing values upon people. This party will not take its position based on public opinion…
For years governments have been promising more than they can deliver, and delivering more than they can afford. As a people, we know what we can do, we know how to do it, and we just want to get on with it. How? By ensuring that Canada’s place in the world is one of influence…
A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It’s a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it’s because it’s proven. We are not going to change. We are going to continue defending our cause and our socialism. When you’re a mayor and you have a…
You had an option, sir. You could have said, ‘I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada, and I am not going to ask Canadians to pay the price.’ You had an option, sir–to say ‘no’–and you chose to say ‘yes’ to the old attitudes and the old stories of…
We will not take this nation by storm, by stealth or by surprise. We will win it by work. – Joseph Clark This is a very complicated country. You have to understand it, you have to respect it, and I think our most successful prime ministers have been people who have drawn together the…
A few years ago, an Ottawa public policy think tank – The Macdonald-Laurier Institute – hosted a lively debate on the resolution: Pierre Trudeau was Canada’s most disastrous Prime Minister. The Institute brought David Frum to speak to the affirmative and Lawrence Martin to speak against the resolution. Decades after his departure from Parliament Hill,…
Pierre Trudeau had a clear view of government’s role in society. Some of these musings have been well quoted, some have been found in his memoirs. We’re going to build socialism here. For a country with such a small population there is no alternative. As against the “invisible hand” of Adam Smith, there has to…
My life is one long curve, full of turning points. Luck, that’s when preparation and opportunity meet. The essential ingredient of politics is timing. In academic life you seek to state absolute truths; in politics you seek to accommodate truth to the facts around you. We wish nothing more, but we will accept nothing less….
So, did you know that in the US, if the president and vice president both resign or die, the Speaker of the House becomes the president? It’s always good to know who will take over. For instance, there was someone in the wings when Jimmy Carter was “attacked” by a large swamp rabbit or when…
I have done it by hard work and long hours, by making it evident that I was available for whatever was to be done; by welcoming every opportunity for new and more responsible duties; and by accumulating all the experience possible in all the varied aspects of my profession. Politics is the skilled use of…
I don’t campaign. I just visit with the people. Nothing I ever do is political. I never say anything provocative. I do not say that everything I did was right, but what I do say, Mr. Speaker, is that what I did was honest. I was criticized for being too much concerned with the…
I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind. Freedom is…
Our nation was planned as a political partnership of two great races. It was planned by men of vision, of tolerance, as a partnership in which both of the partners would retain their essential characteristics, their religion, their culture. Today, we are a united people facing a world in search of unity, and what is…
If some countries have too much history, we have too much geography. The promises of yesterday are the taxes of today. Every hour of useful work is precious. Once a nation parts with the control of its credit, it matters not who makes the laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until…
Here are quotes from two Conservative Prime Ministers – Arthur Meighen serving from 1920-21, 1926 and R.B. Bennett 1930-1935, through the years of the Great Depression in North America We have one neighbor and one only, and that one an industrial colossus. It lies for four thousand miles along our border, producing what we produce,…
Sir Robert Borden was Canada’s Prime Minister from 1911 to 1920, leading the country during World War 1. Borden’s government introduced the first federal income tax to Canada and he nationalized the Canadian railways and he was responsible for WW1 conscription in 1917. It is a miserable irregular life one has to lead and I…