Woodrow Wilson failed to accept the limitations and checks explicit in the American democratic system
When the Paris Peace Conference opened on Jan. 18, 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson seemed to be at the top of his game. America’s entry had played a critical role in ending the First World War and Wilson’s famous Fourteen Points were acclaimed as the blueprint for a just settlement and a future world where…
The large mass of scientific opinion tends to keep individual scientists in a conforming orbit. But what of the dissenting views?
Galileo wrote, “In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” The problem is the ideas and clout of that thousand make that single individual a rare and unappreciated gem. Copernicus defied thousands, if not millions, when he dared suggest the Earth was not the…
Pierre Trudeau lost favour with voters and ended up with a minority government. A similar fate may await his son
There are obvious similarities between the political situation of Justin Trudeau in 2019 and that of his father in 1972. In 1972, Pierre Trudeau’s personal magic wasn’t as alluring as during the heady days of 1968’s Trudeaumania. The same can be said for today’s prime minister vis-à-vis 2015. The 1972 election caught people by surprise.…
Consumers – including tourists visiting Whistler – and petroleum producers are co-conspirators in the emissions game
A common T-shirt reads: “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Whistler, B.C., Mayor Jack Crompton is wearing a neon version these days. Recently, Crompton infamously asked leading energy companies, including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., to ante up a chunk of change to help mitigate impact that Whistler is ostensibly experiencing as a…
The Eden-like public square was swiftly overrun by a cacophonic rabble dedicated to crushing ideas to which they’re opposed
The Internet may very well be the innovation that liberated access to ideas, but the social media it spawned is swiftly evolving into the jackboot that suppresses them. To put what’s happening today to an increasing number of editors into perspective – Ian Buruma of the New York Review of Books is just the latest…
The feminist war against men isn't only against bad men. It’s a war is against all men
It’s become a regular experience in Canada and the United States for a man to be accused of sexual misconduct and for an almost immediate pile-on of haters adding every accusation the mind can imagine. Contemporary feminists have done a brilliant job in their war against men. Unsubstantiated accusations are treated as proven guilt. Due…
Modern society doesn’t forgive. There’s no sense that a person’s life is always a mixture of light and darkness
In 1961, British War Minister John Profumo, a married man, had a brief, tawdry affair with teenage party girl Christine Keeler. Among Keeler’s other lovers was Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet military attaché and intelligence agent. When this potential threat to national security was raised in the House of Commons, Profumo did a foolish thing: he…
Allegations of a groping incident 18 years ago won't go away. The prime minister needs to be more definitive in his response
Is Justin Trudeau telling the truth about an alleged groping incident with a female reporter 18 years ago, or is the prime minister lying through his teeth? Yes, that’s a harsh way of laying it out. But there’s no point in sugarcoating this unusual story any longer, as some media organizations were doing up until…
It’s possible to favour conservative ideas without being depicted as bigoted, racist, intolerant, elitist and out-of-touch with reality
There’s long been a sense (or, in some camps, understanding) that the progressive movement suffers from continual bouts of smugness. Liberals have often dismissed this criticism as something akin to conservative kvetching. Nevertheless, they were forced to look in the proverbial mirror once more in, of all places, one of America’s foremost liberal publications. Gerard…
Energy Futures Network seeks to help navigate Canada’s challenges through open sharing of perspectives and processes
(This is the fourth in an occasional series profiling organizations committed to more productive energy talk.) Monologue versus dialogue. Anyone trapped by the former truly appreciates the latter. In Canada's energy sector, we have a general penchant for monologue; that is, for more telling than listening. True dialogue is more the exception than the rule. That…