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The quality that most distinguishes good government from bad, or a responsible electorate from an irresponsible one, is its ability and willingness to face up to unpleasant realities. Western Canadians [...]

When seven students from Calgary's Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School perished February 1 beneath an unpredictable avalanche in the Selkirk Mountains, it gave both of us an odd ache in the pit of [...]

There is a general assumption abroad these days that the way to bring people into a church is to be sweet, soft, accommodating, 'inclusive' and--above all--'non-judgmental.' The odd thing is, [...]

Two university education researchers who proposed putting video games and Pokemon cards into the schools because they would encourage boys to become literate received, as well they might, a pummelling [...]

Have pity for Tony Burman, the boss of CBC News. He has become, inadvertently or otherwise, the chief Canadian defender of a journalistic policy lately adopted by major news services [...]

All through our lives, from our distant youth onward, people of our generation were repeatedly warned of a dire circumstance threatening the world. It was called 'the population explosion,' and [...]

The New Year's messages of Western world leaders were uncharacteristically dire this year, notes a report in the National Post, because of the threat to world security posed by terrorism, [...]

We were favoured last month with yet another sociological report on the reluctance of males to embrace religion. This one came from Rodney Stark, a professor of sociology and comparative [...]

As the year 2002 winds down, it's interesting to look back and see what happened to the world generally, to Canada particularly, and to western Canada most particularly. The event [...]

'My dear Sebastian, you can't seriously believe it all.' 'Can't I?' 'No, I mean about Christmas, and the star, and the ox and the ass and the three kings.' 'Oh [...]

A poll of Albertans last month elicited a notable lack of response from anyone whatever in governmental authority at Ottawa. In early November, JMCK Polling put three options before 1,204 [...]

Remembrance Day commemorations this year presented an interesting, if unintended, portrait of the New Canada. The CBC featured an avalanche of coverage on the death, under 'friendly fire,' of four [...]

Our prime minister, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein observed last month, seems to have little, if any, grasp of the issues involved in the Kyoto treaty dispute. 'When I try to [...]

Ralph Goodale, Jean Chretien's public works minister, informed the nation last month that his government has been deficient in communicating with western Canada. 'I don't think we have been good [...]

The news story that appeared late last month in the National Post read like something out of Alice in Wonderland. Nipissing University in Ontario, it reported, is conducting an 'action [...]

Someone has to raise the question, so I will. Has our prime minister actually gone mad? Have Jean Chretien's various resentments, ambitions and yearning for historic acclaim finally carried him [...]

Peter Lougheed, premier of Alberta through 14 years of his province's fastest economic growth, made last month what can only be described as a confession of failure. 'I fouled up,' [...]

CORRECTION In our Orthodoxy column on July 8 it was stated inaccurately that the Royal Bank of Canada had denied a bank account to a Montreal parents' group opposing pro-gay [...]

The Greek word hubris, which (I'm told) means 'arrogance' or self-conceit, was considered to be the character flaw that would inevitably doom ancient rulers. The Christians call it in Latin [...]

As mentioned here last time out, fundamental human rights are on trial this summer in two court cases. In one of them, discussed in my last column, the Supreme Court [...]

The rights of parents are currently on trial in two Canadian courts. In an Ontario lower court their right to spank their children when necessary is at stake. In the [...]

One startling event overshadows all else in Canadian politics in the spring of the year 2002: namely, the downfall of Paul Martin, right? Not quite. I'd say there were two. [...]

A dozen years ago, when Ottawa was in the throes of its zeal to equalize the status of all Canadians, we were introduced to the concept of 'pay equity.' Too [...]

Twenty years ago this month, my wife and I reached a conclusion. The struggle then raging, and raging ever since, between what is diplomatically referred to as conservatism and liberalism, [...]

Whenever the luminaries of Canadian culture and the media begin worrying about freedom of the press, I begin worrying about it too--but not because I fear whatever ogres they may [...]

Dear Steve: Here's some more advice--not that you lack advice. It's coming at you from every quarter, I'm sure. However, this is further to my suggestion that you get the [...]

If there's anything Stephen Harper doesn't need right now, it's further advice on what to do as the new leader of the Canadian Alliance. He's had no end of advice, [...]