Trudeau told us he wouldn’t be increasing taxes. He lied
By Aaron Wudrick Federal Director and Franco Terrazzano Alberta Director Canadian Taxpayers Federation Happy New Year taxpayers! Well, maybe not so happy after all. Courtesy of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, you can now expect higher home heating bills and gas prices. The Trudeau government recently rolled out new plans to massively increase the carbon tax…
Knowledge dies when starved of criticism
University administrators and student unions are tearing down something more important than statues. These self-appointed censors are dismantling the dialectic method bequeathed to us by Socrates and generations of scholars, triggering a brain drain away from academia. Neither arcane nor novel, the rigorous, timeless methodology at stake means examining, discussing, and arguing opposing ideas to…
Pandemics have a way of changing the world. The Plague of Justinian hit the Mediterranean area in the 500s, not only killing millions but crucially weakening the Byzantine Empire and helping ruin its plans to reconquer western Europe from the barbarians. The Black Death of the 1300s wiped out over 100 million people in Europe…
Far-left activists and politicians are recruiting and radicalizing in the same way far-right groups did back in the 2008 crash
COVID-19 lockdown measures are opening the door to extremists, not just because people are spending more time on the internet at home, but because of the huge impact lockdowns had on the economy and employment. Much like the 2008 stock market crash, which facilitated a substantial rise in far-right extremism, lockdown measures impacted low-wage workers…
As the world’s favoured search engine, dominant email service and most popular video provider, Google has immense power over public opinion
“The Google of today is a monopoly gatekeeper for the internet,” reads the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against the tech giant. The document filed on Oct. 20 alleges the company has used exclusionary agreements to block out competitors. Google accounts for 80 per cent of U.S. internet searches and 30 per cent of U.S.…
This obsession with identity can do nothing good for a society that values equality of treatment of all its people
On my desk is a commemorative plate honouring the 1966 Grey Cup champions, the Saskatchewan Roughriders. It includes the pictures of Canadian Football League legend Ronnie Lancaster and his teammates. A quick scan of these portraits reveals something odd: just three of the players are black. If one looks at the rosters of other CFL…
'Defund the police’ movement does nothing to address the root causes of criminality
The year is not yet over, and Calgary has already recorded more than 26 homicides, after 20 in 2019. Edmonton has witnessed a 90 per cent spike in assaults with weapons or causing bodily harm. Unbelievably, rather than tackling this escalating violence head-on, officials have joined a utopian crusade against police. Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson…
Violent extremism is not just a trait of Islamists or the far right
By now it should be abundantly clear that violent extremism is not just a trait of Islamists or the far right. Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots have resulted in dozens of deaths this year, multiple police officers wounded and blinded, and entire districts of American cities burned down in the name of racial justice.…
Life doesn't always go well for those who challenge the powerful
American intellectual and longtime social activist Noam Chomsky has been described by a term that’s deeply offensive: a self-hating Jew. There’s nothing hateful about Chomsky. He’s a sojourner of truth and a voice of reason. In a recent interview, Chomsky talked about the roots of his activism. He was brought up in an educated Jewish…
When did you last hear anyone complain “Where is a Women’s Studies professor when you need her?”
The academic world was all a-twitter a few weeks back with the enormously humorous idea of a “Scholars’ Strike.” The idea was that over two days, university professors would put down their intellectual tools. By doing nothing – or indulging in ever-so-intelligent talking about doing nothing – they would advance the cause of social justice.…
Let’s begin with a caveat: As of writing – Friday – the vote counting still isn’t finished in the U.S. So these observations are a tad provisional. That said, here are my takeaways of Tuesday’s United States election: The Democratic wave didn’t happen The anticipation was for a sweeping Democratic win on all three levels.…
Modern progressives see proof of social oppression around every corner. They believe society in general is to blame
The breaking point for me was Pittsburgh. This murderous act of anti-Semitic horror, when combined with the relentless breakdown in social civility, has made me face an unpalatable truth: something has gone very wrong with modern society. Our entire civilization is speeding to toward fragmentation and decay – Brexit, Donald Trump, warring political partisanship, rising…
The #MeToo movement has ushered in a revolution that discards hard-won concepts like the presumption of innocence and due process
If anyone doubted that the #MeToo movement has ushered in a revolution, the political execution of Patrick Brown should put those doubts to rest. As in all revolutions, not all the heads that fall into the basket deserve to be there – but the Madame Defarges of this world will gleefully stand by and watch.…
Emily Murphy should be celebrated for her accomplishments and how they changed Canadian society for the better, not reviled for her shortcomings
Decades ago, I remember my father complaining about “the new fashion for debunking.” But imbued with the certainty of a university freshman, I wasn’t particularly sympathetic. In retrospect, though, he had a point. I was reminded of this the other day when I came across my research notes for a decade-old historical journal essay on…
Patrick Brown, Kent Hehr and more – the cultural shift has finally reached Canadian politics
The Conservative MP shook his head. We were in a restaurant in Toronto, getting caught up. He’d just told me that a little-known federal Tory backbencher named Patrick Brown was going to seek the Ontario Progressive Conservative party leadership. I’d told him all I’d heard about Brown was that he “had a zipper problem.” The…