Liberty Summer Seminar is 10 years old

One of the things I regret about living outside of Canada, is it means missing this year's Liberty Summer Seminar.

Held every year in a beautiful, secluded estate, the Seminar is a must attend event for libertarians, conservatives or for anyone interested in the philosophy of freedom.

And this year is going to be special because the Seminar is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

From the looks of this year's agenda it's going to be a fun and informative event.

So my advice is register today .... and tell'em Gerry sent you!

Another Disaster

Did you hear about the latest ecological disaster?

Taxpayer dollars are spewing into Lake Harper!

A campaign on the move

Cool title, bad book

The left-wing media just won't let this "Harper is a scary so con" issue die.

And it's all because of Marci McDonald's book, The Armageddon Factor (which I gotta admit is a cool title.)

Anyway, for the last word on the matter, check out this posting by Paul Tuns, a social conservative/libertarian, who is also one of the smartest guys I know.

Writes Tuns:

Marci McDonald has said she just reports all the facts and letting people decide. That’s what journalists do, after all. But there has been plenty of evidence that many social conservatives either don’t trust Harper, don’t consider him one of their own, or are confused about his views on various moral issues. McDonald could have reported those facts, but doing so would have undermined her thesis that the Prime Minister is the Earthly saviour for Christian fundamentalists looking to recast Canada as a Christian nation welcoming to Jesus when he returns.

Libertarianism and religion

Paul McKeever, a libertarian's libertarian, discusses my recent National Post column.

Note the scary picture.

Media Alert

I am scheduled to be on the Roy Green Show this afternoon, with guest host Rob Breakenridge, at 4:20 PM to discuss politics and conservatism in Canada.

Mixing religion and politics

Check out my latest column in the National Post.

It's about Prime Minister Harper, so cons and politics.

Having fun with political ads

Ever wondered about the making of a political TV ad?

Well here's what an ad looks like when it's finished:



And here's the raw material that's used to make the ad:

Alan Hunter RIP

On April 6, Canada lost a true champion of freedom.

That's the day Alan Hunter died.

You probably never heard of Alan, he wasn't a journalist or a TV personality or a politician.

He was a Calgary laywer -- and a darned good one. In fact, he was one of Canada's leading constitutional experts -- but more than that he was my friend.

Alan and I worked together during my days at the National Citizens Coalition, when the NCC actually mattered.

He was our lead lawyer in our never-ending legal battles against election gag laws, laws which denied every Canadian the right to free election speech.

For Alan, this wasn't just a legal job -- it was a crusade. He believed the protection of free expression was vitally important to any democratic society.

And for more than 20 years, he fought against gag laws with a ferocity that was a wonder to behold.

He was always confident of victory. He believed our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and our British legal tradition would never allow gag laws to stand.

He was right -- for the most part.

Alan won countless cases against gag laws. He successfully convinced the courts to overturn a Trudeau gag law in 1983, a Murloney gag law twice - in 1993 and in 1996 --and a Chretien gag law in 2001.

Ulimtately, however, even Alan, with all his logic and all his eloquence, could not convince the Liberal-packed Supreme Court of Canada to defend free speech and hence the undemocratic gag law survives.

But win or lose, Alan was a remarkable man.

I am lucky and honoured to have known and worked with such a noble and great Canadian.

Visiting the Green Monster

Recently had a chance to realize a dream: watched a game in Fenway Park.

It was raining and cold and the Red Sox lost (twice!) but it was a great experience.

They don't make ballparks like that anymore.

Next on my list: new Yankee Stadium.

Report Magazine RIP

I was saddened to learn Report Magazine is ceasing publication.

It was a great magazine that provided a strong voice for Canadian conservatism.

I was honoured to have a regular column in Report for the past several years and always found working with editor Rodney Dietzman a true joy.

Canada's conservative movement will miss Report Magazine.

Helena's lesson

Whenever I criticize the federal Conservatives for being “Liberal clones” the government’s defenders will inevitably remind me that the defining difference between Tories and Liberals is corruption.

“The Liberals are all crooks, whereas we Conservatives are all angels,” is usually the point of the argument.

Well now the sad saga of Helena Guergis has blown some rather gaping holes in that narrative.

Turns out the Tory hamper might contain its share of dirty laundry.

And that shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The fact is corruption is non-partisan.

To quote Benjamin Rogge, who was paraphrasing Hayek, “honesty and integrity in government are not a function of which party is in power but of the power over economic decisions possessed
by those in government.”

In other words the Liberals were corrupt while in power, not because they were Liberals but because they succumbed to the corrupting influence of government.

My point is, the real bad guy is government, or rather the power of government.

As long as the government has the power to influence and direct our economy, corruption will be inevitable.

It doesn’t matter who is in power.

That’s why if the Tories truly want to bring about cleaner government they should first seek to reduce its scope and its power.

The less influence government has over our lives, the less temptation there will be to do wrong.

Free Speech CD

Here's the opening of a speech I delivered in December at a liberty and free speech symposium organized by the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies.



I am posting this for two reasons. First, I think it's cool how I figured out how to post an audio file; second just to let you know the CCPS is now selling a CD featuring all the speakers at the conference.

And given all the news about free speech these days, it would be a timely purchase.

You can order it here.

New Hampshire Fact

The federal government recently announced it was adding a bunch more seats to the House of Commons.

This brought to mind an interesting New Hampshire fact.

Did you know New Hampshire's legislature has 424 members, making it the fourth-largest parliamentary body in the world, behind only the U.S. Congress and the Parliaments of Britain and India?

Told you it was interesting.

Frum, conservatives and free speech

I consider David Frum a friend, so I was saddened by the news that his relationship with the American Enterprise Institute had been abruptly terminated.

And even though David is not coming out and saying so directly, it seems his termination was politically motivated ---the AEI didn’t like his attacks on the Republican Party.

Certainly, I can identify with all this.

After all, I was fired from my job at the National Citizens Coalition a few weeks after I had criticized the Conservative Party.

So it seems that in both Canada and the United States speaking out against politicians can be a risky career move for conservatives.

What a sad state of affairs for our movement.

Now don’t get me wrong. I vehemently disagree with many of David’s contentions concerning the Republican Party and conservatism.

In my view, he concedes far too much to the left and promotes a wishy-washy, watered down ideology that as a conservative I find completely unappealing and ultimately self-defeating.

But at the same time, I respect the intellectual power of his arguments.

And more than that, by raising legitimate and thoughtful questions, David forces us as conservatives to look in the mirror and to defend our beliefs and our tactics.

This makes our movement stronger.

Indeed, as conservatives we must and should welcome the ideological combat that takes place in a free market place of ideas.

It keeps us vibrant, it keeps us growing intellectually.

That’s why organizations like the AEI and the NCC should allow and even encourage criticism of the political powers that be.

Yes, standing up to a political party can take a little courage, but at the end of the day aren’t these groups supposed to be about ideas?

And one idea conservatives must always embrace is the importance of free speech.

The Final straw

Anybody out there still believe Prime Minister Stephen Harper is actually a conservative?

If so, check out this news report.

It says the Prime Minister slammed a Fraser Institute report, which suggested the Conservative government's recent spending binge had not really created much in the way of economic growth or jobs.

And in doing so Stephen Harper -- former president of the National Citizens Coalition -- uttered these words:

"Economic theory and history is clear, governments must … make sure [funds] are put to productive use in the economy to create jobs."

For him to say something so absurd, has got to be the final straw for anyone still harboring illusions that the Prime Minister has one conservative fibre left in his body.

I mean could you imagine Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher or Mike Harris making such a statement?

But then again they were conservatives and conservatives believe only the free market can create real economic growth and real jobs.

For conservatives, the government is just an anchor to economic productivity. It's part of the problem not part of the solution.

Stephen used to believe that too. In fact, back in his NCC days, Stephen was a disciple of Hayek; today it seems he is a disciple of Jack Layton.

Anyway, I suppose we can expect the sharks in the PMO to go into full attack mode against the Fraser Institute.

Hope nobody loses their job.

Flatten that tax

I don't like taxes of any sort, but if we can't slash them the next best thing to do is flatten them.

That's my clever way of introducing this column I wrote on the idea of a Flat Tax. It's posted over at Libertas Post.

NCC Creates Worst Video of all time

Sometimes I am critical of my old friends at the National Citizens Coalition, mainly because since I left the group it has done nothing but go down hill.

But I have to admit they recently accomplished something quite spectacular: they have managed to produce the worst political video of all time.

I mean it. This video is the Plan 9 from Outer Space of political videos.

It's so bad, it's hard to single out its worst feature.

Is it NCC president Peter Coleman's hilariously speedy yet monotone delivery; is it the odd edits; is it the "man on the street" interview with a lunatic; is it the completely fake interaction between the "anchor" and the "street reporter," is it the letters from "Doug", "John" and "Dave", or is it the fact that the video starts out talking about the Alberta budget but ends up interviewing people in downtown Toronto?

You decide.

Loyal to the Core among Best Books of 2009

This just in ... OK it may have been in for a while, but I just found about it.

The Hill Times has listed my book, Loyal to the Core, as one of the Best Books of 2009.

So if you have been putting off purchasing my masterpiece, now is the time to buy!!

The problem with the NCC

Watching my old employer the National Citizens Coalition from afar I have reached two conclusions.

First, they try too hard to curry favour with the Conservative government.

Second, even when they do criticize the government they sometimes do so for the wrong ideological reasons.

Author and blogger, Paul Tuns recently picked up on this. Here's what Paul wrote about the NCC's response to the federal budget:

I couldn't help but notice the similarity between the National Citizen's Coalition and the Canadian Auto Workers:

CAW: "This budget does little to help Canadian workers secure their footing during a period of severe economic instability..."

NCC: "Instead of fixing the job crisis as it promised in yesterday’s Throne Speech, the Harper government appears to be coasting on last year’s stimulus budget, offering no meaningful new initiatives to get Canadians working again."

To be fair, the CAW veers further left and the NCC then goes to contradict themselves by calling for less government spending after indicating its displeasure that the government faltered in some way by "coasting" off last year's stimulus.

I'm just saying that the messaging from the NCC would have been clearer five or ten years ago; the NCC isn't supposed to be worried about job creation except as a talking point about lower taxes and less government.

Paul's comment reflects the weakness with the current NCC leadership. They have no clear understanding of true conservatism.

Sure they know that deficits are bad and that taxes are too high, but beyond that basic knowledge their grasp of ideology is weak.

Hence they often make statements which contradict conservative values (and sometimes long-held NCC positions).

Too bad.

Canada's conservative movement needs all the strong voices it can get.