I blogged here recently about the way small magazines are challenging the pusillanimous acquiescence of mainstream media before the Internet onslaught. My post should have acknowledged that some of the big boys of print aren’t going down without a fight, … Continue reading →

Among the annoying foibles of our era is the tendency to forget the lessons of history. Even more annoying, however, is misusing them. Last week, the CRTC denied a request from Crossroads Television Systems (CTS) to amend its licence. Currently, … Continue reading →

We don’t prize artists like we prize scientists. Or, so it seems for much of society, and for much of the church. It seems that art is expression, but science is knowledge—expression is fun and all, and occasionally worthy of … Continue reading →

The Vatican is caught between the rock of the rich and the hard place of the poor, and between the work of theology and political advocacy. Its calls for global financial reform are taking on starker, more particular tones, to … Continue reading →

Canada’s unions are in trouble, but what is to be done? A discussion paper released by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Communications Energy and Paper Workers (CEP) suggests that unions are “fac[ing] an enormous and historic moment of … Continue reading →

On July 1, 2017, Canada will celebrate its 150th birthday. Yesterday, thirty prominent Calgarians gathered to discuss what a suitable gift for the occasion might look like. It’s not that these Calgarians had nothing else to do, given that the … Continue reading →

Presented (3:00 pm EST) February 14, 2012, to the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, Pre-Budget Consultations. The great issue of our day is whether we can order our world with flourishing institutions apart from government and markets. … Continue reading →

Even the best morning radio isn’t meant to be the wakey-wakey equivalent of the evening CBC show Ideas, or similar thought-provoking programming. So the crew at CBC Montreal’s Daybreak deserve a break for missing a genuinely important discovery hidden in … Continue reading →

Atop my bookshelf sits a stuffed hedgehog, in perpetual birthday euphoria, named Archilochus. Among the more fecund maxims of his namesake—a Greek poet of the seventh century B.C.—is the now famous: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows … Continue reading →

Fidel Castro is a thief and a murderer. And he may be returning to Christianity. The long-time Cuban president is responsible for the dispossession of millions of dollars worth of land, cars, cash, and other material goods once held privately … Continue reading →