Pursuing Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
A recent issue of The Economist marked Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s five-year anniversary in power by asking some very provoking questions for Canadian conservatives as well as the general public. In the article entitled, “The circumspect and circumscribed Conservative,” the question is put: “Stephen Harper has proved remarkably durable by curbing his instincts. Can he…
Just imagine in Canada, we are taxed to pay for the activities of our national political parties. Canadian taxpayers are on the hook for all politicos – paying for both MPs who represent our point of view and those who don’t – and even for Bloc MPs who are only interested in getting a…
A government is not in power, it is in office, put there by the will of the people. – Stanley Baldwin I have never regarded politics as the arena of morals. It is the arena of interests. – Aneurin Bevan Politics and the fate of mankind are formed by men without ideals and without greatness….
The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet. – Mark Twain When you are in politics you are in a wasp’s nest with a short shirt-tail, as the saying is. – Mark Twain Look at the tyranny of party — at what is…
Liberal soccer moms are precisely as likely to receive anthrax in the mail as to develop a capacity for linear thinking. – Ann Coulter Good for you, you have a heart, you can be a liberal. Now, couple your heart with your brain, and you can be a conservative. – Glenn Beck A group of…
There are more votes on Main Street than Bay Street. – John G. Diefenbaker In politics, madame, you need two things: friends, but above all an enemy. – Brian Mulroney In some ways, a vote is a little bit like falling in love. People do not fall in love with the best-qualified candidate. – David…
A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither. – John Stuart Mill The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it. – John Stuart Mill A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or…
There are no lost causes in politics because there are no won causes. – Margaret Thatcher If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing. – Margaret Thatcher The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong. – George Bernard…
Columnist Christina Blizzard calls a Big Government as she sees it. Here’s what she writes about Ontario’s McGuinty Government: The bald figures are these: 1.Your electricity bill will climb 46% over the next five years. 2.The government will give you a 10% rebate on the total bill — including the…
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. – Benjamin Franklin Honesty is the best policy. – Benjamin Franklin Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. – Benjamin Franklin The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. – Benjamin Franklin Words…
Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness. – Thomas Paine The most fundamental problem of politics… is not the control of wickedness but the limitation of righteousness. – Henry Kissinger Every statesman must attempt to reconcile what is considered just with what is considered possible. – Henry Kissinger Democracies are value-neutral….
Canadians’ apathy towards politics is reaching new lows. Today we have an ingrained sense of cynicism for anything political and, particularly among our country’s youth, a growing disenchantment and disengagement with our political process. This unhealthy condition is reflected during elections when we are able to best gauge the citizenry’s interest by the percentage…
In the wake of decisive, anti-establishment mayoralty victories in Toronto and Calgary, there has been a great deal of commentary about the average Canadian’s disenchantment with the political status quo. With the common cry of “greater respect for the taxpayer” winning the day, it seems our collective conscious is saying “we’re mad as hell…
Brace yourself (again) taxpayers. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty wants to sell the HST as “strong medicine” for an economy that needs fixing. Well, it appears he’s traded in his snake oil and fancies himself a medicine man now…. This new tax is designed to take even more money from Ontarians’ pockets to help pay for our…
The budget should be balanced; the treasury refilled; public debt should be reduced; the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled; and assistance to foreign lands should be limited, lest the State become bankrupt. The people should be forced to work and not depend on Government for assistance. – Marcus Tullius Cicero The more…
In public affairs, stupidity is more dangerous than knavery, because it is harder to fight. – Woodrow Wilson Government is merely an attempt to express the conscience of everybody, the average conscience of the nation, in the rules that everybody is commanded to obey. That is all it is. – Woodrow Wilson I like the…
Would it not be simpler / If the Government / Dissolved the people / And elected another? – Bertolt Brecht History is the sum total of things that could have been avoided. – Konrad Adenauer The natural tendency of representative government, as of modern civilisation, is towards collective mediocrity: and this tendency is increased by…
Power is not alluring to pure minds. – Thomas Jefferson I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. – Thomas Jefferson I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. – Thomas Jefferson The two…
Government is nothing more than the combined force of society, or the united power of the multitude, for the peace, order, safety, good and happiness of the people. – John Adams Ambition is one of the ungovernable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable. – John Adams Public business…
When considering the spot Canadians are in with out-of-control government spending, political columnist Angelo Persichilli has written a great article in today’s Toronto Star. It’s politics as usual as deficits mount up http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/782554–persichilli-it-s-politics-as-usual-as-deficits-mount-up He writes: “You want to cross a wide, deep river but keep going up and down the shore…