Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
I'm back!
If anyone is still reading this blog, I'm still here and will be resuming regular blogging shortly. For now, please see this article which appeared in today's National Post.
"I had to polish their shoes ... for Miss Ruby and her brother," Alvarez said in an interview from western Canada, where she is now living and working. "She has a lot of shoes, downstairs and upstairs."
If there's still anyone out there reading ... sorry for the lack of posts, which some of you have commented on. My current employment situation just doesn't allow time for this. I am still following news and current events, but just can't blog. I hope this is a temporary situation and that I can get back to more regular posting soon. In the meantime, I don't have too much to say. I hope Tim Hudak wins the Ontario PC leadership race. I think he's the best candidate in the race. I've known him for a while and I'm confident he will re-instill conservative principles to the party. There should be an awfully good chance to win the 2011 election if things keep on as they are and Hudak would make a terrific premier. The Oliphant Inquiry is turning out to be an even bigger waste of taxpayer dollars than could have been imagined. The success of Ezra Levant's new book on human rights commissions is very good to see. Back soon.
The question often comes up in political discussions as to whether conservatism is actually making any headway in Canada. Conservatives are split on the issue. There are those who see improvements and others who see us falling further and further behind.
The Harper government has made some strides, especially when it comes to tone (emphasis on the military, for example -- and when was the last time you heard anyone talking about the Charter of Rights?). In the the North American context, there have been so many victories over the past four decades it is hard to count them, which is what has led (in part) to the current crisis of faith in the Republican Party.
The Cold War has been won and communism is a marginal force. Tax cuts are accepted as mainstream even in some centre-left parties. Income taxes are so low millions of people don't even pay them in the US and Canada. Welfare rates remain low. Crime is so small an issue it barely registers in polling. And until the last few months with the onset of the global credit meltdown, no one would have ever thought of nationalizing private enterprise anymore. Recent events have dealt conservatism a blow. There is little doubt about that. It will recover, but it may take time. (The debate over the root causes of this crisis has also been totally lost by the right, due in large part to unilateral withdrawal from the intellectual battlefield, but that's for another day.) The immediacy with which governments around the world coalesced around the idea of state intervention to "solve" this crisis was nothing short of breathtaking. To get an idea of how bad it has been, consider that more than one commentator is saying that the Harper government has managed the crisis the most conservatively of all Western nations. Scary.
But where conservatism is definitely losing the battle and has for many years without any sign of push back is on what I would call the "nanny state" issues -- the gradual encroachment of state involvement into more and more areas of our lives through regulation. Smoking by-laws, banning this and that behaviour, boating licenses, gun registration, etc... are all rampant and there's no sign of it slowing down. And now this:
Edmonton — Mayor Stephen Mandel is calling for regulations around the sale of dangerous knives after an innocent city man was stabbed to death.
The man in his 20s was attacked early Saturday by a group of men, all of whom had been patrons at a west-end bar.
He was stabbed and left for dead behind a strip mall near 182 Street and 89 Avenue around 3:45 a.m.
“Like any citizen, I’m abhorred that this could happen to (anyone) whether it was someone innocent or not,” Mandel told Sun Media today. “It’s even more horrific when it’s someone innocent.”
The sale of large knives capable of inflicting fatal wounds should be controlled, he said.
I would be surprised if anything were to ever be done on this issue, but you never know. I thought we would have metal detectors at bus and train stations by now after that decapitation incident in Manitoba -- so far we don't, but we're heading in that direction. The battle against this kind of senselessness is being lost, in part because too few people are actually fighting it. Let's help those that are.
Can anyone explain to me why the most important nugget of information in this story is contained in its very last paragraph?
Inside Mr. Bulphred's apartment, hidden inside a box of Q-tips, police found a computer diskette. On it, the court heard, where bomb-making instructions, details on how to make TNT, details on the Via Rail train station and on Gentilly-2, Quebec's only nuclear plant.
That's not the kind of tidbit that's only worth a passing mention.
If you would like to watch the video of a recent appearance I did on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, click here. The topic was President Obama and his potential effect on Canadian identity. As is usual for Paikin, the debate was quite lively and interesting.
Back in February, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about the arrival of what he called OCS -- Obama Comedown Syndrome. This phenomenon, Brooks prophesized, would afflict the legions of worshippers who view the President-elect as some sort of saviour. Hopes are so high, he is bound to disappoint large swaths of fans.
This is likely true, although we have no signs of it yet. No one seems able to remember a presidential transition that has gone as smoothly as this one. Yes, the media continues to be effusive and fairly uncritical, but Obama and his staff deserve a great deal of credit here. Consider the much-hyped dinner Obama had with a few conservative pundits the other day at the home of George Will. +1 for Obama. More drooling media coverage, he's willing to break bread with enemies, etc. Despite the fact that it is a purely made-for-media gimmick, it looks great in the public eye because he appears to be swallowing a bit of pride.
Ronald Reagan did something similar by courting Katherine Graham of the Washington Post and other liberal Washington establishmentarians when he arrived in Washington in 1981. It worked well for him. Despite the Reagan example, it's amazing how often conservatives make the mistake of ignoring opponents, or worse, treating them with scorn. It is misguided.
Kudos to David Lazarus of The Canadian Jewish News, the only reporter who apparently saw it fit to track down Dion-ite MP Marlene Jennings and get her views on the negotiations that led to the Liberal-NDP coalition in December.
Jennings informs us that she personally kiboshed having the Bloc Québécois' pet cause of having Bill 101 apply to federal workplaces inside Quebec -- red-flagged here during the heat of the moment -- adopted as part of a coalition deal:
The Bloc Québécois were prepared to keep a Liberal-led coalition government alive for two years, if the coalition allowed Bill 101 to apply to federally regulated companies in Quebec.
But Marlene Jennings, left, the veteran Liberal MP in charge of negotiating the coalition deal for the Liberals, said “no way” to the Bloc.
The proposed change to the province’s French language law would have allowed employees of federally regulated companies, including post offices and banks, to conduct business in French only.
“I said no. Never. Not while I have a breath in my body,” Jennings told a recent breakfast gathering at Shaare Zedek Congregation.
And the result, said the 11-year Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Lachine MP, was that the Liberals settled for the Bloc pledging to prop up the Liberal-NDP coalition during confidence votes for 18 months, not two years.
Marlene Jennings may be a fierce partisan and an over-the-top heckler, but she did the right thing here.
Peter Pocklington, the infamous ex-owner of the Edmonton Oilers and ex-Conservative Party leadership candidate, is heard from. Good article here, with a complete picture of what Pocklington has been up to since he left Canada a decade ago. Turns out he is in a bit of trouble with the law.
Support Tim Mak for CBC's Next Great Prime Minister
The CBC's annual Next Great Prime Minister competition is on, and the candidate who has my support is Tim Mak. Tim is a solid conservative from McGill University and he has some good ideas for the future of the country. I encourage everyone to visit Tim's contest site and vote for him!
