This new party has a leader who wasn't elected and few members. It appears intended simply to soothe Bernier’s fragile ego
When Maxime Bernier, a former Conservative cabinet minister and federal leadership candidate, abruptly quit the party last month, he announced he would be starting a new political party. Well, the nameless entity with one public face was finally given an identity on Sept. 14: the People’s Party of Canada. He couldn’t have made a worse…
The American president's loathing for nuclear weapons and his desire to see new freedoms in the Soviet Union framed his trip
Late in his presidency, Ronald Reagan went to Moscow for a visit that generated some dramatic images and memorable moments. If you’d predicted this when he was elected in 1980, most people – pundits and experts especially – would’ve scoffed at you. Reagan, so the narrative went, was a dangerous cowboy, a warmonger and a…
The stronger the application of communist ideologies and practices, the worse the outcomes
Many in the world were sadly compelled recently to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. He was indeed a major figure in shaping history but definitely not for the good. Marx, along with his patron, Friedrich Engels, created the political-economic philosophy (perhaps a religion) commonly called communism. Its essential tenet is…
Transitioning from a communist economy to a free-market system is no simple task
Transition economies describes those eastern European countries that were under the grip of the Soviet Union until 1991 and subsequently moved away from a centrally-planned communist economic system toward a free-enterprise market economy. An invitation from the LCC International University in Lithuania to spend three months there as a visiting professor gave me the opportunity…
A visiting professor to Lithuania discovers a generation of bright, committed and principled students who aspire to change their world
University professors have a unique, daunting and exciting responsibility. They’re tasked with educating, empowering and inspiring the next generation of leaders. And not just our next political leaders. I’m also referring to the next generation of leaders in all fields of human endeavour. In the arts and sciences, in business and technology, in agriculture and…
China is conquering the world by creating money when it needs it and simply absorbing debt. Perhaps we should be copying them
The United States military believes we're losing the Third World War to China. According to U.S. Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer, not only has that war started, but it’s unlike any conflict in history. “When it comes to China, the bottom line there is the chequebook,” he says. According to military leaders, this…
The eagerness of western intellectuals to justify the Moscow show trials of the late '30s was what was truly frightening about them
The infamous Moscow show trials ended 80 years ago this month. Based on fabricated charges of treason, Josef Stalin systematically eliminated virtually all of the remaining Old Bolsheviks, clearing away potential rivals and consolidating his power in the Soviet Union. The first trial began in August 1936, the second in January 1937 and the third…
The parallels between Russia more than 20 years ago and the United States today are deeply disturbing
When the horrible first reports of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., began hitting my smartphone feed, I somehow involuntarily reconnected with feelings that I associate with the societal chaos I experienced working in Russia more than 20 years ago. It was the post-Mikhail Gorbachev era, when communism had…
Brutal communist societies did advance economic equality, although what was shared equally was poverty rather than prosperity
Western civilization and liberal democracy are under siege. This isn’t new. We’ve been challenged just in the last century by fascism and communism, by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Soviet Russia and Red China. One might have expected – and many did– that the ideology of these failed societies would remain in its grave. But,…
Is it feasible to separate political views and private behaviour from artistic merit? George Bernard Shaw is a perfect case study
To most Canadians, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) may be a quaint figure whose primary distinction is having a popular southern Ontario theatre festival named after him. However, he was a big wheel during the first half of the 20th century. A self-described “downstart,” Shaw was born into an impecunious Protestant Ascendancy family in Dublin, Ireland. Leaving…
When Maxime Bernier, a former Conservative cabinet minister and federal leadership candidate, abruptly quit the party last month, he announced he would be starting a new political party. Well, the nameless entity with one public face was finally given an identity on Sept. 14: the People’s Party of Canada. He couldn’t have made a worse…
