2011‑2022, and is preserved here for archival purposes.
Publisher Peter Stockland offers a compelling defence of how faith is inextricably tied to his identity and vocation as a journalist, thereby illuminating the public sphere and his place in it.
In a recent iPolitics column, veteran journalist Paul Adams argues persuasively that reporters should definitely pay attention to new Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s Christian faith.
However, Adams insists such reporting should be well informed a...
Have you been following the long Conservative leadership race? Convivium contributor David Parker reports on the Conservative Convention this past weekend that crowned former Speaker of the House of Commons and longtime Member of Parliament Andrew Scheer new leader of the Official Opposition.
For those involved in politics, leadership conventions are like overtime in game seven of the National Hockey League Conference Finals. The only event more exciting than a leadership convention (and potentially more devastating) is Election Day, when gover...
Editor in Chief, Father Raymond J. de Souza reflects on the Masters and the legacy of Tiger Woods.
The big news this week at the Masters is that the world’s top-ranked golfer, Dustin Johnson, had to withdraw before play even began Thursday. He injured his back after falling down the stairs on Wednesday. The other news is that due to chronic back injuries...
Editor in Chief Father Raymond J de Souza writes a profound tribute to one of Canada's greatest citizens, General Georges Philias Vanier, Canada’s 19th Governor General.
The fiftieth anniversary of the death of General Georges Philias Vanier, Canada’s 19th Governor General, fell earlier this week. Having lived the great Canadian life, he died in Canada’s centennial year. He has lessons to teach us in this year of...
Editor in Chief Father Raymond J de Souza reflects on the launch of Convivium as an online publication and examines the matter of multiple answers, and questions.
When we planned our launch for the new digital Convivium at our Cardus office in Ottawa, we sought a conversation about how faith plays its part in various aspects of our common life: the arts, the press, politics and the relations between faiths t...
Andrew Bennett, Canada’s former Ambassador for Religious Freedom and now Cardus Senior Fellow, argues for the need to recognise the foundational nature of freedom of religion and conscience in our society and its link to our common life.
If we are to share a common life in Canada, freedom of religion and conscience must be foundational. It is the freedom that enables us to live fully as we are, and as we are called to be. It bears witness to the truth that human beings have a metaphysical...
Given that, I have long advocated the caveat-couched triad – competence, character and convictions – as a test by which to evaluate electoral options. Even those who are competent are more competent at some parts of the job than others. The public character of candidates is often a carefully marketed persona quite different from real character, but I know I have voted for those whose personal lifestyle choices and integrity are very different from that I would agree with. And when it comes to convictions, core beliefs and the manifestation of those in policy, I have disagreed with some aspects of every candidate’s policy proposals.
There have never been perfect candidates in any election that I’ve ever voted in. The U.S. presidential campaign, now winding down toward November 8, only emphasizes the impossibility of perfectibility – and perhaps adds the rider that some are more imperfe...
“Who lobbies for the lobbyists? Should we credit the Association of Good People Who Just Want to Serve? People for the Ethical Treatment of Former Hill Staffers?” I won’t lobby for lobbyists. But I will take issue with Andrew Coyne, in the National Post...
In the express aisle checkout at my local independent grocer in Ottawa, a sign popped up this week asking for donations to the Red Cross to help with the Fort McMurray catastrophe. Facebook, now the universal street corner/pool room/beauty salon for the exc...
Showing the pride and impenetrably thick hide of the best political performers, NDP leader Tom Mulcair ignored his own deep wounds to savage the Liberal government in the Commons this week. He was fresh from crippling betrayal by his party at a weekend conv...
Redefining Responsible Government. Open Government was the theme of the Canada2020 conference, and constitutes a base of the new progressive agenda. Few can dispute the good of measured transparency, data sharing, and advanced use of technology to engage citizens in public processes. But as one participant insightfully noted near the end of the conference, it is one thing to value openness as part of transparency and providing modern quality service to the citizenry.
Progressive politics is clearly on a roll in Canada. In fact, some pundits say it has already “run the table,” and question whether it has run out of new places to go. That is a matter for those who scan the political heavens to decide. Here on earth, New D...
At the recent Broadbent Institute conference in Ottawa, progressive icon Gloria Steinem dropped a clanger that rates high among the fatuous pensées of this addled decade. “The power of the State,” Steinem opined, “stops at the skin.” Even in this moment of ...
The idea is sound. As noted in a recent report by Cardus, Banking on the Margins, payday lenders and the loans themselves are structured in such a way as to encourage their customers to become dependent. The loans, while quick and easy, do not build credit, and they require customers to pay back the original amount borrowed plus substantial interest in one lump sum. Too often this results in adding a significant deluge of spending for people who are already struggling to maintain a responsible cash-flow. An unemployed construction worker from Fort McMurray who has trouble making ends meet one week can be crippled by the automatic withdrawal of his previous week’s shortage plus interest rates that, in Alberta at an annual rate of 839% on a ten-day term, are the second highest in the country. And, as our research suggests, the struggle doesn’t stay with the individual. The lack of funds and the increase in debt are linked to mounting costs to families, significant physical and mental health problems, increased criminal activity, and a host of other problems which ultimately strain society – and often the government.
In the throne speech this month, Lieutenant Governor Lois Mitchell announced the Notley government’s intention to “protect Albertans who are experiencing economic d...
This article first appeared on providencemag.com, the website of Providence: A Journal of Christianity & American Foreign Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
According to recent polls, more than a third of self-identified white evangelical voters currently support a presidential candidate, Donald Trump, who ...
Saying “government should not” is as simplistic as saying “government should” if there is nothing else that follows. Yes, conservatives believe in limited government. But this requires more than arithmetic requiring the size of government. What government should do, it should do well and enough resources need to be dedicated to those tasks.
Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland examines the link between current U.S. President Donald Trump and WWE.
On April Fool’s Day in 2...
Or there soon might be, the executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association told a joint Senate-Commons committee this week. The committee is studying legislative responses to replace the Criminal Code prohibition on helping someone end his or her life. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association led in the battle to have the old law struck down. Not surprisingly, BCCLA representatives argued in front of the joint committee that any new law should be as minimalist as possible. By no means, executive director Josh Patterson contended, should there even be a requirement for a second medical opinion when a patient asks a doctor to end life prematurely.
Euthanasia? Assisted suicide? There’s an app for that.
Or there soon might be, the executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association told a joint Senate-Commons committee this week. The committee is studying legislative responses to replace ...
Our prime minister’s oration this week to the world’s richest at their annual gathering in Switzerland was top heavy with platitudes, Robson notes, while substance was left cold, curled and alone on the cutting room floor. It strikes me as an assessment that might be considered accurate without being fully fair.
Waggish Ottawa columnist John Robson observes in the National Post that Prime Minister Trudeau’s maiden speech to the Davos Economic Forum left out much while not leaving out nearly enough.
Our prime minister’s oration this week to the world’s riches...
Even minus the inspiration of Trudeau père in spiritus, however, Canadians who care at all about our constitutional democracy, and about the rule of law, should be deeply alarmed by what was done to push forward physician assisted suicide in this country. Whatever side of the assisted suicide debate you might be on, the abuse of process that occurred has foundational implications for our continuity as a Confederation as envisaged by the British North America Act and by the Constitution Act of 1982.
An early surprise of 2016 has to be the failure of Pierre Elliott Trudeau's ghost to streak across the sky ululating at the damage done last week to his beloved Canadian constitution.
Even minus the inspiration of Trudeau père in spiritus, how...
Whether it was in the work that I have done in various organizations or as a consultant, my experience has been as a kind of “effectiveness engineer,” as one colleague called me. But at some point I realized that I wasn’t just performing a function inside an organization—my focus had shifted to developing others. Leadership development became the handmaiden of innovation. Helping people find new and better ways to access more of the influence that’s there for them to hold creates opportunities to fulfill what they’ve been called and gifted to do.
In a generation inclined to shrink away from leadership, can change and innovation take place? How can we help Millennials become the kind of authentic leaders that not only achieve results, but also build up others to multiply their influence?
Wheth...
"That is an excellent question," he said. "I have absolutely no idea what the answer is." We were standing at the corner of Metcalfe and Albert streets in Ottawa, a few hundred metres south from where a gunman was shot dead in the Hall of Honour of Canada's Parliament and a few blocks west of the War Memorial, where Hamilton-based soldier Nathan Cirillo had just been murdered by that same gunman. Because of the location of the Liberals' weekly caucus meeting room, McKay and his colleagues were able to exit the building, unlike their Conservative and New Democrat counterparts who barricaded themselves inside rooms that flank the entrance hallway where the shooting occurred.
Toronto Liberal MP John McKay was, at that moment, the admirable embodiment of the honest politicians who lead us.
"That is an excellent question," he said. "I have absolutely no idea what the answer is."
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Earlier this month, Robert George offered a bit of advice to young scholars. That advice, in a nutshell, is to be very wary of applause. "In the end," he says, "wh...