CIVITATENSIS

Anne McLellan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, today announced $6.7 million in funding to support 163 fellowships and Canada Graduate scholarships in Alberta. This funding is provided through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Minister McLellan made the announcement on behalf of the Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for SSHRC, who today announced a total investment of $96 million in 55 universities across the country to support the appointment of over 2,300 fellowships and scholarships.

The Minister of Public Safety announces in Alberta; David Emerson, the minister in charge of the SSHRC portfolio, announces to the RoC.

Here is a notice sent to the University of Calgary community this afternoon.

At 11:30 a.m. today the Bio Sciences building was evacuated as a precaution due to a concern involving an envelope sent to an office in that building. Since that time another envelope has been discovered in the same office and we are now in the process of investigating whether or not these packages pose any harm.

Please be on alert that if you receive an envelope or package with no return address or a return address of anyone you do not recognize or in particular has a return address of North York, Ontario DO NOT OPEN the envelope. Call Campus Security immediately at 220-5333, identify yourself, your building and room number. All occupants should leave the room, shut the door and wait in the immediate area for Security to arrive.

More details will be provided later today when they are available. Any concerns should be forwarded to 220-5847.

The building in question was surrounded by police, ambulances and fire trucks for a good part of the morning. By the afternoon, the rumour on campus was that the authorities suspected anthrax.

Mexican president Vicente Fox Quesada is in Calgary today. He’s here to further business ties between Alberta and Mexico, and will travel to BC tomorrow, where he will also meet Gordon Campbell and Paul Martin.

Fox spoke to an audience (by invitation only) of a couple of hundred people at the University of Calgary this afternoon. He spoke about the accomplishments (los logros) of his government in the first five years. In particular, he mentioned social and political advances that have brought Mexico and Mexicans closer to a liberal democracy than it has ever been in its history. Beside rights and constitutional guarantees that were written down long ago but were rarely practised, Mexico today is ruled by institutions and their citizens, he said, and not by an oligarchy. The comment was directed at the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, which ruled Mexico as it were its fiefdom for more than seven consecutive decades.

Mexico today is more federal than ever (it even has an elected senate, a third of which is elected by proportional representation). It is now less centralised and more respectful of local jurisdictions. Accountability, Fox said, is the central feature of institutions and the democratic spirit its most powerful quality. While there may still be difficulties with Mexico’s civil servants, they have become more professional. Open debate and confrontation of ideas in the public sphere have given Mexican politics a fuller dimension. He concluded by quoting a passage from my favourite 20th Century Mexican writer, Octavio Paz, the Nobel Laureate, who never tired of promoting dialogue and respect for others as a means to reach more democratic conditions.

While I listened to President Fox enumerate all these small but forward steps for Mexico, I could not help to agree. Indeed, Mexico is more open, more accountable and institutionally more democratic, even if many of its problems have not disappeared. I also could not help thinking that while Mexico has been making steady progress with its political culture and its institutions, we in Canada have been going in the very opposite direction at times. We have a non democratic Senate, an unchecked and all-powerful political executive, a governing party incapable of renewing and reforming itself (the Canadian version of the PRI), a government beholden to specific urban interests, a nearly powerless opposition, an ideologically-driven supreme court, a society less and less tolerant of views that do not conform to the state and its ministers, a more corruptible civil service than it has been in generations, a class of government and Crown corporation managers who believe are entitled to endless privileges at the expense of the public purse, concerted violations of electoral law, and a corruption of judges who get appointed because of their connections and donations to the governing party.

It seems clear that, between the three NAFTA states, Canada is becoming more and more the Mexico of the trio.

Naomi Klein has been named one of the world’s deep thinkers. Only two Canadians made the list. The other one is Michael Ignatieff, rumored to be the next Trudeau. (For sound analysis of Ignatieff, see here, and here). On Naomi Klein (no relation to Ralph), all I will say is that the report reminded me of a joke I heard years ago about the not-so-friendly dictator of Nicaragua, Anastasio Somoza. In the story, Somoza is rumored to have routinely put on scuba equipment and to have dropped to the bottom of his mansion’s swimming pool. It was a daily ritual, every morning, for a few hours. That was, as the joke went, where he did his best thinking, the dictator had said. He’d go down there to think through the complex problems of State.

When asked by an American journalist why he would not prefer to sit in a comfortable chair in his luxurious office, with a cigar and brandy in hand, Somoza replied: “My wife always tells me that deep down, I am really not that stupid!”

I’m thinking that those who chose Naomi Klein as a world-class deep thinker may, perhaps, have mistaken deep thinking for thinking in the depths.

SRC/CBC

Ms. Jean, a well-known media personality in Quebec, became the Queen’s representative in Canada on the same day a freshly published poll suggested she is a more popular pick among Quebecers than among other Canadians. The poll, conducted for CTV, said 71 per cent of Quebecers think Ms. Jean is a good choice to succeed Adrienne Clarkson. The figure was only 38 per cent in the rest of Canada.

David Dingwall, president of the Royal Canadian Mint, has quit his job in the middle of the controversy over his expenses.

…given the profile that these stories have, I certainly do not want to detract in any way from the important work of the Mint. So, rather than wait the few months to make the move to the next stage of my life, I am taking this opportunity to leave. I do so with pride in the work we have achieved together.

UPDATE: Busy day today. I’ll come back tomorrow, if not a little later.

Michaelle Jean claims that her office will “give a voice to all Canadians.” So far the touchy-feely dribble of her first speech as Governor General does not seem to speak to me, or for me –and I am Canadian. I found the G&M’s idealised picture of the girl refugee who made good in Canada to be pathetic and over the top. There are plenty of us who have lived similar or worse experiences coming to this country, and yet consistently refuse to embrace the myth-building propaganda of being so special because of it. If people who’ve suffered the pain of violence and tyranny are so deserving, why have we done nothing about the victims of Air India?

In addition, Jean’s speech seemed out of touch with Canadian reality. Her dismissal of the “two solitudes” as the political reality of Canada is probably correct, but wrong to evoke a time reborn for a single nation in harmony. There are more solitudes in this country today than two, but Jean chooses to be oblivious to that.

The “voice of all” rhetoric clearly reflects that Jean’s CBC background is a permanent feature of her character. She’s a company gal! The “voice of all” is a widely used dogma to justify the CBC, always insinuating itself as a necessity for the very existence of an imagined community, Canada. Given that Jean is all like Mother Corp, I am not expecting her to be too willing to give a voice to Albertans. Make belief and reality don’t always mix very well.

Le Figaro (en francais) reports about raids around Paris that nabbed 9 suspected terrorists who were preparing a series of attacks, including the French security forces headquarters, suburban trains or an airport. Police supposes that the leader of the group is Moroccan Safé Bourada, who was freed in 2003. He had been tried and condemned in 1998 for attacks in July 1995 that left eight dead and 250 injured.

I thought I might get 1,000 people to sign this petition by the end of the month, but it seems that I have set my sights too high, so I’ll settle for 900 supporters. We’re almost there.

BTW: Someone named Mark Steyn has supported it. I wonder if it’s the same Mark Steyn who calls himself Mark Steyn for real.

This is a huge deal!!! A shocker of a new book launched in France trashes the myth that Chilean president Salvador Allende was killeded by Pinochet’s forces or by CIA operatives during the coup against Allende’s Unidad Popular government on September 11, 1973. Allende’s Cuban bodyguard, Patricio de la Guardia shot Allende in the head when he heard Allende say that he wanted to surrender, reports Eduardo McKenzie (in Spanish). De la Guardia also killed Allende’s Chilean bodyguard, and then left the burning building for the Cuban Embassy with some other Cuban buddies.

The book (written in French) is entitled Cuba Nostra: The State Secrets of Fidel Castro, and is authored by Alain Ammar, a French journalist with experience in Latin American affairs, with the collaboration of two Cubans: Jacobo Machover and Juan Vivés, a former Castro agent. The publisher promises that the book will explain the trail of bodies that line up Castro’s path (his own comrades) and expose Castro’s “universe,” calling it “mafioso, corrupt and sanguinary.”

Hugo Chavez, who also boasts Cuban bodyguards, better take notice of this book quickly.

A fair translation of McKenzie’s entry is provided here by Luà ­s Afonso Assumpà §ÃƒÆ’ £o from Porto Alegre, Brazil at Swimming Against the Red Tide, from whom I learned about the new book.

Via Fighting for Taxpayers, Canadian Business Magazine has found Toronto to be not very hospitable to business. Actually, that’s sugar coating it a bit. The appellation is “worst city in Canada for business.”

The best? St. John’s, Nfld.

Via Tom at thepolitic and Damian at Daimnation, a story from the Winnipeg Sun regarding Alan Rock’s Gun Registry. Sheila Fraser, the Auditor General, is preparing a report to be issued in February. It is expected to paint a picture of rampant, scandalous spending. Peter McKay, the Conservative MP expects that the Registry will make AdScam look like peanuts.

“It will be like dime-store shoplifting when one starts to compare the money that was involved in this gun registry that’s unaccounted for,” MacKay told Sun Media.

The brainchild of Allan Rock, then Minister of Justice, the Gun Registry was introduced under the false pretence of saving lives. It has been a fiasco of enormous proportions almost since its inception, even among Liberals. It is said that the Registry cost Rock the leadership bid in 2003.

Allan Rock is also the minister under whose watch Andrei Knyazev, a Russian Embassy Secretary, had been caught driving drunk by Ottawa police twice before he struck two women joggers in an Ottawa neighbourhood in January 2001, killing one (Catherine MacLean) and horribly maiming the other (Catherine Dore).

Knyazev had a history of car accidents and was known to Ottawa police.

Ottawa police say they caught Andrei Knyazev driving drunk on two previous occasions. The federal government ensured no charges were laid and even apologized to the Russians for asking Knyazev to take a breathalyzer test.

Under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Ottawa police could not detain Knyazev nor demand evidence from him, but the incidents were reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Such reports also go to the Justice minister’s desk. Both times the drunken diplomat was granted dispensation. Under the circumstances, Rock should have evicted Knyazev from Canada long before he killed at the wheel –instead Canada apologised to Knyazev. By the time of the fatal accident in 2001, Rock was already out of the Justice portfolio and taken over Health’s, where having done nothing memorable he improved on his record significantly.

Rock’s record in policy and decision-making in Canada is so impressive that it caught Paul Martin’s attention. In early 2004, Paul Martin appointed Rock Canada’s permanent Ambassador to the United Nations, where he’ll be able to propagate his skills among his new diplomatic peers. The federal government website boasts that Rock

has a decade of experience in government and policy-making. A member of Canada's parliament from 1993-2003, he served in the federal cabinet as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, as Minister of Health, and most recently as Minister of Industry.

Of course, Rock is not the first Liberal crony who gets strongly rewarded with a posh life in Manhattan and gets to exalt Canada’s name with his outstanding public and personal record. But in this instance, Rock’s apologetic disposition toward Russian diplomats in Canada (He’s never apologised to Canadians) made him a perfect fit to land the job in New York.

If you would like to contact our illustrious Ambassador in New York City to congratulate him on his great job, or to thank him for his contributions in the protection of the citizens of our country, please go here.

Crossposted to thepolitic.com

Paul Martin did say that Michaelle Jean was going to impress us. This is the first thing that has made sense about Michaelle Jean since she was designated Governor General. I’m impressed by her ability to learn as she goes. Pas mal du tout! Paul has kept a promise.

h/t: CBC Watch

There may not be all that many republicans in Canada, but the few that there are may become more vocal. Misguidedly, they protest against personalities, Michaelle Jean and a future Charles III, and against the bogey-man colonists, for example. They dislike that we do not choose. They assume that the Monarchy is not a part of the Canadian identity. How French of them.

“If something were to - heaven forbid - happen to the Queen today and Canadians woke up tomorrow, we would have King Charles III as head of state, whether Canadians like it or not.”

The Monarchy is an institution, not a person. Eventually, like it or not, HRH the Queen will one day pass, and we don’t get to choose who succeeds her; she doesn’t get to choose who succeeds her. That granted, even as the monarchist that I am, I can relate to the frustration. As an Albertan, I have had the same frustrating experience the day after every Canadian federal election for the last two decades (but that doesn’t make me want to get rid of the institution of Parliament).

Picking names out of a CBC hat to name Governors General has not elevated Canadians’ respect for the Crown. It seems to have done the opposite. Considering the strong republican sentiments among the federal Liberal brass in this country, it may not be a coincidence that Liberal prime ministers keep picking the same sort of people to represent the Crown. But, it will take a virtual miracle to overcome the hurdle of altering the formal executive in Canada: it requires the unanimity rule in our written constitution. And I like that.

G-d Save the Queen!

An interesting article on the Tar Sands by Fortune (via instapundit) can be found here. The environmentalist slant is a little worrisome, but worth a look nonetheless.

It would appear that we can’t even trust Cardinals to keep their word anymore.

Convicted justice-obstructionist Martha Stewart seems to be working hard on becoming Brigitte Bardot’s replacement in a new campaign against fur. Stewart is PeTA’s spokesperson in an anti-fur propaganda video (Warning: not for the faint of heart).

Prison experience must have been traumatic.

We’re coming to the two week mark since Pierre Pettigrew, the Quebec Liberal MP and Minister of Foreign Affairs, made several contradicting claims about Bruno Labonte. Labonte has been Pettigrew’s personal companion, also doubling as a driver, security advisor and political counsellor. So far, neither the media nor the Opposition have kept much attention on the minister’s inconsistencies in regards to Labonte’s role as an object of state expenses. It’s a dead horse, and we can be sure that Pettigrew is not going to return to the subject voluntarily.

It’s only about $10,000 worth of abuse, the Windsor Star wrote, not wanting to excuse it. Just simply saying that it’s small potatoes.

There is an inescapable sense of the frog in the boiling pot. Ministers abuse their expenses in small (thousands) amounts, and the press and the public let go because they are small amounts. Too much energy to follow up on such small thing. When the abuse turns to greater (medium) amounts: millions, a few days of indignation and calls for prosecutions conclude in lecture circuits for the perpetrators because judges are moved by contrived contrition. It would be safe to call billions of dollars large amounts. Allan Rock poured a couple of those down the drain with the gun registry, and most Canadians don’t even flinch. It’s really not about the amounts, is it?

Yeah, $10,000 is not a lot of money. But neither are a million and a billion. No amount of public money is enough money being defrauded, misused, or stolen once the principles have gone out of the window.

For another angle on the same issue see here.

Chuck Strahl, Conservative MP for Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon in BC has been diagnosed with lung cancer, as you all know by now. I haven’t thought much of Chuck Strahl since the summer of 2001. On the surface, he originally was an MP like all others. He first stood out to my attention as party whip for the Alliance. A bright but modest man, it seems. The bio page on his website lists, still today, some of his best accomplishments in an understated manner. Since becoming Deputy Speaker of the Commons, he has become more visible, but it has been his newly-announced illness that has raised his visibility even more. Despite his lung cancer, he has vowed to continue serving the public for as long as he can. It’s a courageous thing to do.

Strahl was not always so. In what was to me the lowest point of his career, he was chief mutineer against Stockwell Day, organised a separate caucus whose strings may or may not have originated at Preston Manning’s feet, and which would rather be politicly subservient to Joe Clark than to close ranks with his fellow Alliance members and their leader. However many failures Day’s leadership may have had, they were only aggravated by Strahl and the mutineers. He hurt the party. It was somewhat fitting that he would end up taking cues from Joe Clark. Strahl was afflicted with the Tory syndrome of turning against leader and colleagues. He was a Joe Clark Tory more than he was an Alliance man. Whatever Clark’s shortcomings, though, Clark always publicly respected Mulroney’s leadership (even if he did not invite the PM for dinner once). Strahl seemed oblivious to that lesson then, but he seems to have picked it up now.

Fundamentally, as an instrument of Preston Manning’s bitterness and in his convenient political romance with Joe Clark, Strahl showed a side of him that I could not come to trust, however rooted in personal conviction it may have been. He baulked the will of the party, much like in a Banana Republic, because he did not like the new leader. Two thirds of the membership had just elected Day and rejected Manning, but in the summer of 2001 Strahl arrogantly refused the party members’ decision, declared himself unable to deal with Day, refused to recognise the party’s constitution, and in what seemed to be a tantrum he left caucus to form his own ring of MPs (The Democratic Representative Caucus. It was a kind of a caucus, but it was neither representative nor democratic, which is why they had to hammer people twice with the very similar ideas of representation and democracy in their name). Mostly, Monte Solberg being the exception, the DRC was a ring of lacklustre Prestonista MPs. Strahl’s rebellion against Day might have survived its mutinous image if Strahl had not made an attempt (albeit failed) to capture the party leadership after forcing Day out. Over all, it’s the lack of loyalty to the membership’s democratic will that sticks in my mind right along all of Strahl’s good accomplishments in public life.

Strahl’s judgement seems to have improved since. He has become a more prudent man and a respected Deputy Speaker. I pray that his health will be restored. I wish him many years of success ahead, in good health.

Let’s all rush at once to the pumps to buy gasoline, and, to be truly efficient, take advantage that we’re all there and at the same time to hold demonstrations against the increasing gasoline prices (Failing that, we can always abuse the drivers ahead of us). Let’s send the prices up by a dollar a litre in order to save $0.40. How does that make sense?

People can blame what happened in Ontario yesterday on Hurricane Rita, but some MSM geniuses may be responsible for some of the panic.

“There’s consumers going crazy, lined up down the street," said one official with the firm, adding that she believes the broadcast media created the panic by telling drivers to fill up now to avoid a spike in prices that could come if hurricane Rita wreaks further havoc with the oil industry in the southern United States.

Dalton McGuinty, that trusted voice in Ontario, is now calling for calm. He wants courtesy and composure, but the day before he contributed to the perception that oil companies/gasoline distributors are out to get everyone when he declared that oil companies should be called to account for their pricing.
Duh!

One more thing about those $400 per person that Ralph is going to send to all Alberta residents. It seems that “people who move to the province this year could also be eligible.” Millions are not going to come to Alberta just to collect $400, of course, but if someone was already thinking about moving to Alberta in the near future, the next few months will be the right time to do it.

h/t: Maple Leaf Blog: “And please, next time you talk about Albertans, how about saying something nice?”

The Globe and Mail’s Lawrence Martin, prompted by Peter Newman’s new book on Mulroney, bemoans the decline of finesse and intellectual virtue among Canadian politicians. Martin exalts Pierre Trudeau as a paragon of culture in the field of Canadian politicians.

One achievement that few deny Pierre Trudeau was his enormous cultural impact. With his savoir-vivre and aura of erudition, he embodied a new intellectualism. He dragged the country out of its cultural backwater. He was our renaissance man.

Count me, please Mr. Martin, among the few. Publicly disrespecting the Monarch with his much-rehearsed childish pirouette, lifting his middle-finger to western Canadians, and f***ing swearing on the floor of the House were national cultural heights and real marks of Trudeau’s intellectual prowess and savoir-vivre, were they not? What a load of rubbish.

Via Small Dead Animals, here is one big dead animal. I wonder what my friends at PeTA would say about this.

Don Martin writes this morning in the NP and the Calgary Herald about Klein’s doling out money in Alberta. It’s worth the read here (subscription required). Martin makes a few good points. One is that Klein’s timing could not be worse in light of the rising prices of gasoline in parts of the country. In some areas of Ontario on Tuesday gasoline hit $2.24 a litre.

In that light, the $400 per person provincial gift will appear, Martin says, as Alberta rubbing their noses in it.

…his plan to cut a $400-per-person cheque just in time for the Christmas shopping season is different. It has captured Canada’s eye — and triggered its envy.

Klein’s populist distribution is also criticised for being imprudent. Attracting that kind of attention and the envious feelings of some Canadians elsewhere might fuel Ottawa’s desire to make the cash grab that it has been considering. He contrasts it to Peter Lougheed’s more careful view:

You have to keep your head down and not be too high profile about it and convince the rest of Canada and Alberta you’re managing a depleting resource well for the rainy day.

Reading the letters section of the NP this morning, some figure that Ralph is buying votes. But that’s a strange charge against a man who is on his way out of office. Ralph is not running for anything, and has become a lame duck premier with wacky ideas. It seems more likely that he is desperately looking for one extra reason to be remembered in the history books. Politicians like to be liked; populists politicians need to be liked. It’s more likely that Klein is simply buying affection as he leaves public life. It’s not the Alberta “prosperity” dividend; it’s the Ralph “posterity” expense.

Sixteen hundred dollars per household. That’s the estimated amount that Ralph Klein expects to hand out to Albertans as a means to distribute Alberta’s surplus this year. By year’s end, it is announced, people will receive this money.

I could use $1,600. It would cost about that much to retrieve my data from my recently-crashed hard disk, so I am pleased with that. Thanks, Ralph. You’re a life-saver!

But we need to wonder whether $400 per capita is the best way to give Albertans some of the economic benefits of the province’s fortunes. At the risk of sounding ungrateful, I think not. While I understand that Ralph wants to keep the envious from getting at the province’s wealth and at the same time appear to be doing something productive with the money, giving money away to everyone with a pulse is not the most productive means to do it. I am sure that Ralph’s allowance will be spent on a variety of good uses. It may help with people’s heating and gasoline bills, dental bills, paint their living rooms, savings, or give some of it to charity. There is never a shortage of things to do with a few hundred dollars. That much money pumped into the Alberta economy will provide greater stimulus in some economic areas.

But that much money being launched into Alberta’s economy all at once may also spark a spike in inflation. Potentially it might cost all of us in the province, collectively and individually, more than $400 dollars just to deal with that consequence. And then what?

As a classical liberal, I am not big on large state programmes designed to cure all social ills. Nothing costs nothing. So I would not want to see more programme spending just because. I am not keen on the free health premiums that some have suggested. That’s likely to lure more people into thinking that all is well with health care; it might make it ungrateful to demand better because it’s free. We certainly don’t need more state involvement in the health business.

There are a great deal of issues where Alberta can improve: Health and education are but two areas. But a great deal of issues important to Albertans’ hearts are not directly related to money: institutional reform and the protection of Alberta’s constitutional integrity, are good examples. Fostering innovation and unleashing it is more important than indiscriminately throwing money at all issues, let alone every single breathing body in the province. That kind of populist move seems more designed to cover the exiting path of the premier with the rose petals of popular good will. Ralph deserves to be thanked for what he has done for the province in the last dozen years, but handing out more than a billion for it is far too great a price just to display our gratitude.

Albertans do need to decide what to do with their wealth. That’s a given. What is needed for that task, however, more than a one-time $400 gift, is leadership and innovative ideas. Alas, Ralph’s all out of those.

I am not moderating comments as a matter of policy. I am not screening posts for content. But in an attempt to block the hundreds of casino advertisers who are trying to spam, the WordPress programme seems to be sending some legitimate comments to me to be “approved.” I will try to deal with the issue, but if in the meantime, you post comments and they do not immediately appear on the page, please be patient. Many thanks.

If anyone of us was hoping that AdScammers would get jail sentences, it must have been a private hope, unspoken, concealed. Saying it out loud might have brought sneers and laughter: How naive! The Alternative would have been, at the opposite end, the cynic’s view. No one will get significant punishment, and no one will see the inside of a jail cell. This is, first of all, Canada. We hardly find it in the kind collective Canadian heart to convict and jail murderers and rapists like we mean it (There are always Charter cases and the endless appeals, not to mention the teams of lawyers at the public expense). Never mind someone stealing money from the government, which by Canadian thinking amounts to stealing from no one specific, so it’s not so bad. Paul Coffin held no gun, he threatened no life. We’re Canadian, eh?

The cynic will also remind us of one crucial point: These folks who defrauded the public are going to be tried and sentenced by the same pool of judges mentioned by Benoit Corbeil during the Gomery Inquiry (and about whom no RCMP investigation was ever started). You know the ones. The would-be judges whose names made it to judicial nomination lists and were named to the Bench by Liberal Prime Ministers on account of their generous contributions in money and time to the federal Liberals. It’s the Judicial version of AdScam, but in reverse: Liberals give you a plumb job, and you make donations to the party ahead of time. It’s a rich Liberal retirement fund.

Is it any surprise to see that Paul Coffin received but a strong reprimand from a contrite and daring judge, who assured us that Coffin will never do it again? How can a judge give such assurances, one has to wonder? Whose contrition should really be on display here? Justice Jean-Guy Boilard impresses easily. Because Coffin “returned” 2/3 of the defrauded monies –two thirds of the amount we found out he took, in any case, we should be nice to him. Does it matter that he returned what he returned only after being caught? Boilard sounds more like Coffin’s defence attorney than a sentencing judge:

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The Wisdom of D’Arcy McGee

Thomas D’Arcy McGee is one of the founding fathers of this Dominion. An animated and eloquent Irish immigrant, he settled in Montreal after living in New England for a while. In 1857 he became a parliamentary representative for Montreal, and worked hard to bring the Canadian federation into life. He was killed by the bullets of a Fenian assassin in Ottawa in 1868. His words in the House of Commons on 9 February 1865, remind me of Alberta today:

We have here no traditions and ancient venerable institutions; here, there are no aristocratic elements hallowed by time or bright deeds; here, every man is the first settler of the land, or removed from the first settler one or two generations at the furthest; here, we have no architectural monuments calling up old associations; here, we have none of those old popular legends and stories which, in other countries, have exercised a powerful share in the government; here every man is the son of his own works. We have none of those influences about us which, elsewhere, have their effect upon government just as much as the invisible atmosphere itself tends to influence life, and animal and vegetable existence. This is a new land –a land of pretension because it is new; because classes and systems have not had that time to grow here naturally. We have no aristocracy but of virtue and talent, which is the only true aristocracy, and is the old and true meaning of the term.

The new aristocrats in the Canadas have forgotten quite a bit, it seems, in their adoption of what to them have now become venerable traditions. To my knowledge, D’Arcy McGee never came to Alberta but over here his words ring true still.

I think that the one who made the test categorised some libertarian issues with liberalism, especially on “Ethics,” but as Bernard Shapiro informs us, ethics and politics are all about perception. Nothing real there! One could be a crook or an entrepreneur; it all depends on the colour of the glass through which you look at things.

The day after Iran defiantly announced that it will continue its development of nuclear technology for “peaceful purposes,” North Korea has pledged to terminate its nuclear programme, welcome international inspections, and return to the fold of non-proliferation countries.