On Being Albertan

A wee nugget from the Ottawa Citizen's David Warren on Wild Rose Country. Alberta is

where all the sane people seem to have congregated for a last stand.

A wise man from the east. And to think that it's Epiphanytide. All here.

My Man of the Year for 2008…

…is David Warren, Ottawa Citizen columnist, for this:

My selection for "Man of the Year 2008" is: Sarah Palin.

The citation reads: "For a politician of real accomplishment and promise, who has somehow managed, for the first time since Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, to cut through the verbiage and posturing of an election campaign, and look an electorate in the eye; a politician whose policy instincts are sound, whose wits are sharp, and whose moral vision is unclouded -- who drives all the right people crazy, across party lines."

Amen. Bravo, David. All here.

Being Right

A wise man's heart inclines him to the right; but a fools heart to the left. (Ecc. 10:2)

There we are. I've always felt something very right about being a conservative.

Hugh Segal and the Conservative Party

I've just read Hugh Segal's new book, The Long Road Back: The Conservative Journey, 1993-2006, (HarperCollins, 2006).

Segal was deeply moved by a speech given by then Prime Minister Diefenbaker who spoke at Segal's high school. That speech began Segal's long association with the conservative movement in Canada.

I was taken with this statement from Diefenbaker's speech:

I am a Canadian, a free Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship God in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong...

I'm afraid the freedom to oppose what we believe wrong is now being eroded in our church and nation.

This is my favourite quote:

Liberals are deeply unburdened by conviction. p28

Segal comes across as an urbanite (as opposed to a country fellow). He makes the point that for Conservatives to regain the government, they will have to prevail in the big cities, which means being moderate and morally liberal. He likes Diefenbaker and Harper. He doesn't seem to care for Preston Manning and the more right-wing folk.

An interesting read.

David Warren: The Great Divide—Liberals, Conservatives, Criminals and Victims

On the difference between liberals and conservatives from The Ottawa Citizen...

the most obvious contemporary way to distinguish between a “liberal” and a “conservative” is in their views on any passing spectacle of crime and punishment. The “liberal” instinctively identifies with the criminal, the “conservative” instinctively identifies with the victim. The liberal instinctively accuses the conservative of lacking compassion, or of wanting vengeance against the criminal, with whom the liberal has identified. The conservative instinctively remembers that the criminal showed no compassion to the victim with whom he identified.

Read it all.