Leadership

  • Green Shoots of Humanity

    Green Shoots of Humanity

    Brian Dijkema

    March 18, 2013

    But, death is an awful thing, even if the departed is a machismo thug whose policies hollowed out a , dismantled its , and left its poor with little long-term stability or resources. Jesus grieved; in fact, Jesus wept. He wept because he knew that death was not the way it was meant to be. To grieve over the loss of good and life is not only human; it is a reflection of God—even if the rest of your life does not reflect this.

    I have very little love for Hugo Chavez, and even less love for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's embattled president.

    But, death is an awful thing, even if the departed is a machismo thug whose policies hollowed out a

    ...

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  • 'He Has No Longer the Strength'

    'He Has No Longer the Strength'

    Peter Stockland

    February 11, 2013

    Cardus: Ambassador Leahy, were you as shocked as the rest of the world seems to be by today's announcement of Pope Benedict XVI resigning, or were there signs you saw that the rest of missed? Cardus: What would Benedict's motivation have been for taking such an unusual step? We're told this hasn't happened for almost 600 years.

    [caption id="attachment_1789" align="alignright" width="199" caption="Ambassador Anne Leahy"] ...

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  • Needed for Rebooting Conservative Aid Policy: Less Fox, More Foxes

    Needed for Rebooting Conservative Aid Policy: Less Fox, More Foxes

    Robert Joustra

    January 11, 2013

    During the Cold War, the party of Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Reagan was strongly anticommunist, but these presidents took foreign policy seriously and executed their grand strategies with a healthy degree of tactical flexibility. Since 9/11, however, Republicans have known only one big thing—the "global war on terror"—and have remained stubbornly committed to a narrow militarized approach.

    "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing" -Archilochus

    American foreign policy rock star Dan Drezner ...

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  • Less than Exemplary

    Less than Exemplary

    Brian Dijkema

    January 10, 2013

    You'll be hearing a lot of this type of doublespeak in the next while, so I thought it would be helpful to clarify a few things.

    The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) wants to strike this Friday. Wait, I'm sorry, they want to stage an "action" that "is a political protest unless the Ontario Labour Relations Board determines o...

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  • Stealth Fighter Fever

    Stealth Fighter Fever

    Robert Joustra

    December 7, 2012

    First, it is a chance for Public Minister Rona Ambrose to showcase procurement done right. The fighter procurement process has been the responsibility of Minister Ambrose since last spring, following Ferguson's audit. Her handling, together with that of veteran senior bureaucrat Tom Ring, of the government's much-lauded ship-building contract process in the fall of 2011 has branded her as the key person to turn this procurement process around.

    Me thinks he doth protest too much. Pundits furiously tweeted at Andrew MacDougall in the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday night, as the government scrambled to ...

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  • Strength Isn't What it Seems

    Strength Isn't What it Seems

    Ray Pennings

    October 24, 2012

    Fans, it seems, would've felt better and had their jilted scratches itched had the Blue Jays punished Farrell and made him sit out the year. This would have made the Blue Jays appear strong, viable, and ready to attract top talent.

    This week, Toronto sports talk radio is dominated by baseball fans, foaming at the ...

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  • The Man the Hour Demands

    The Man the Hour Demands

    Peter Menzies

    September 7, 2012

    Forgive the cliché, but when it comes to American politics and Canada's idolatrous fascination with them, a dreadfully overused quote from an Englishman proved irresistible this week. What struck me was how so many of them are convinced that the character and the plan of a single human being can change the world, when most often it is the unanticipated challenges the world's events present that reveals our character, changes our lives, and even completely alters the mandate and the legacy of even the most powerful men on the planet.

    "Events, dear boy, events." —Harold Macmillan when asked what, as Britain's Prime Minister, he feared most

    Forgive the cliché, but when it comes to American...

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  • A Moderate Moment

    A Moderate Moment

    John Seel

    September 5, 2012

    And yet in this contested election, moderates are in control of the election. The Republicans moderated their Tea Party rhetoric during their Convention to appeal to the undecided independents or the "disappointed" Obama supporters—those with glue still on their car bumpers. It will be interesting to watch how the Democrats handle the same challenge this week as they hold their convention in North Carolina, a state that recently affirmed a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions.

    An oft-quoted adage in Washington is that "moderates have no mailing lists." Consequently, partisanship rules.

    And yet in this contested election, moderates are in control of the election. The Republicans moderated their Tea Party rhetoric during the...

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  • When sorry doesn't mean it . . .

    When sorry doesn't mean it . . .

    Dani Shaw

    April 24, 2012

    Needless to say, this exasperated my mother, who tried to teach us lessons about decency, civility, and compassion. Both insincere apologies and petty repudiations of heartfelt ones stood in the way of true reconciliation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    My brother and I had an expression growing up that was usually invoked when my mother asked one of us to apologize to the other for saying or doing something hurtful: "Sorry doesn't mean it." It was a brilliant if grammatically incorrect expression that ser...

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  • Sit down. Shut up. You lost.

    Sit down. Shut up. You lost.

    Peter Stockland

    April 17, 2012

    Given her stellar record of journalistic good work, then, it seems borderline churlish then to pick nine words from today's column as evidence of what is wrong with the world. Yet it must be done. If the greatest poet of the day walks into a bank and says the four small words "this is a stickup", his flowing yards of iambic pentameter will not save him when the flatfoots arrive.

    Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente writes thousands of excellent words a month. Almost all bring the fresh scent of common sense. Many are contrarian in a way the makes me wonder how they ever became the contrary rather than the norm.

    Giv...

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  • Does Canada have Social Conservatives?

    Does Canada have Social Conservatives?

    Robert Joustra

    March 30, 2012

    The term social conservative is beginning to lose integrity in Canada, if it ever had any. In many ways, like evangelical and conservative, it's a term which is coloured almost beyond utility by the American context. None of these labels mean the same things across the border. Or across many borders, as The Economist wrote recently about Rick Santorum's social conservatism.

    With Ontario's provincial, and now Canada's federal budget tabled, there is the inexorable rush of commentary, lobbyist posturing, and interest group press releases. At least some of those will fit into the mould of what many have come to call social con...

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  • Socialists and so-cons in same boat now

    Socialists and so-cons in same boat now

    Ray Pennings

    March 28, 2012

    Was it a choice between power over principle, or was it an acknowledgment that the politics of incrementalism is the only way to implement principle in our post-ideological age? Was it perhaps an implicit recognition of the limits of politics and the fact that our political leaders can only work within the framework of a cultural consensus?

    The election of Thomas Mulcair as NDP leader (and leader of Canada's official opposition) this past weekend has been rightly observed by most as a preference for power over principle. Brian Dijkema has already ...

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  • Centrist politics: the problem, not the solution

    Centrist politics: the problem, not the solution

    Brian Dijkema

    March 26, 2012

    It is generally acknowledged among the punditry, and apparently among the NDP's leadership as well, that the election of Thomas Mulcair was a move to the mushy middle. Mulcair, who flirted with the federal Tories and served as a Liberal cabinet minister in Quebec before winning a seat for, and then the leadership of, the NDP, campaigned openly for the NDP to "modernize," and has maintained this position in the wake of his election. His pro-middle agenda was opposed by members of the NDP's principled elite, including Ed Broadbent, and was set against Brian Topp, whose position on matters of party principle could not be clearer. Topp wanted an NDP which found its "fundamental identity as a social democratic/democratic socialist party."

    The most interesting thing about this weekend's NDP leadership election is not that Thomas Mulcair won and that Brian Topp lost. No, what will last longest is the weakening of principle—call it ideology if you want—as a driving factor in Canadian pol...

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  • Union Metaphors

    Union Metaphors

    Robert Joustra

    January 25, 2012

    In closing: "When you're marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails. When you're in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one nation, leaving no one behind." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    President Obama opened and closed last night's State of the Union with a series of auspicious military metaphors. In opening, "These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness and teamwork of America's Armed Forces. At a time when too many of...

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  • Unlikely Mentors for the Occupiers

    Unlikely Mentors for the Occupiers

    John Stackhouse Jr.

    December 20, 2011

    But the Occupiers wouldn't seem to settle for such incremental particular changes. Now, as the chaotic movement begins to hibernate or fade away, perhaps it's helpful to offer a concrete suggestion to those seeking large-scale political upheaval to rearrange the whole system: talk to people who know about such things.

    Seeing the incoherence of the Occupy movement, some recommended that the Occupiers each pick a particular, pointed concern (banking reform, sexual trafficking, environmental protection, native land rights) and join, or start, a focused organization that mig...

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  • How to Tax the Rich

    How to Tax the Rich

    Robert Joustra

    October 28, 2011

    What and where to cut is for another day, but the best tax to raise in Canada—and to create in America—is one on consumption. It's not as insane as it sounds: Washington wonks are starting to pull out Canadian strategies for the deficit. But if it does happen, history teaches us that the blowback will probably unseat whoever has the temerity to enact it.

    In the decades to come, taxes in most developed countries will go up and services will go down. This is the hard logic of years of overspending, coupled with economic recession and crippling personal and corporate debt. So far the cuts in countries like Ame...

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