The Pencil

Milton Friedman in his own words:

The power to declare war

In some way the International Energy Agency (IEA) announcement to release 60 million barrels of strategic oil reserves over a month is a tacit admission that the bombing of Libya is all about oil, and not much about protecting Libyan civilians as was stated originally in the Canadian House of Commons: "that the House deplores the ongoing use of violence by the Libyan regime against the Libyan people; acknowledges the demonstrable need, regional support and clear legal basis for urgent action to protect the people of Libya".

Canada has been involved in Libya since March 2011 and it recently extended the mission. Canada should not be involved, but at least the House of Commons was asked. Contrast that with what happened in the US care of Cato@Liberty:

Need a dose of freedom?

This looks promising, maybe.

Gerry Nicholls has announced "a new website......to promote and protect conservative values.....called www.freedomforum.ca ."  He writes: "I want freedomforum.ca to provide a principled, non-partisan voice for the conservative ideals of smaller government, free markets and individual liberty. My hope is this site will help win the war of ideas and mobilize Canadian conservatives to push our political parties in the right direction."

On the website the 'About us' says:

 "A strictly non-partisan site, Freedomforum.ca is dedicated to promoting, defending and celebrating our economic, political and individual freedoms. Its aim is to offset the anti-market bias so prevalent among the mainstream media, political parties and special interest groups and to raise awareness about the moral underpinnings and principles of democratic capitalism and individual liberty. In short, this site is for Canadians who believe our country needs less government and more freedom."

Sounds good right? Here is my problem: since when are smaller government, free markets and individual liberty conservative values?

The word "conservative" is liberally sprinkled all over this website, over and over again. I did a word search for "libertarian" and three articles came up, but none of them actually used the word libertarian, none. So what's up with that? Does strictly non-partisan mean strictly not libertarian, but conservative is OK? Don't words mean anything anymore? Does this new site advocate keeping the status quo? Isn't that what the non-partisan word 'conservative' means?

The dictionary definition of the adjective conservative as in the phrase "conservative values" where conservative modifies values is: conservative (adjective) - disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change. OK, maybe "restore traditional" values, that works, but who is there in Canada that remembers those values?  By the way the libertarian movement is all about limiting government not limiting change as conservative implies.

Yes, this website looks interesting, even promising. My advice to Gerry and any other writers on this site is that the word libertarian as an adjective actually means "advocating liberty or conforming to principles of liberty." Isn't that closer to the ideals of smaller government, free markets and individual liberty? I think so. Use the damn word!

More lessons from "Smilin' Jack"

Last weekend was the 50th Anniversary celebration of Canada's only openly declared and still socialist political party.
In my last posting I suggested that there is much to learn from the rise of the NDP to official opposition status. So continuing that thought, let me direct you to an interesting article in MacLean's magazine this week. The article, The making of Jack Layton by John Geddes, is way more than I ever wanted to know about Jack, but I found parts interesting and useful.
The article shows that Layton is a natural leader type, going back to his school days and is obviously related to his family's entanglements in the world of politics. Layton grew up in Quebec, in the politically volatile time period of the rise of Quebec Nationalism. His activism put him on the periphery of groups involved in the October Crisis in 1970. He eventually came to Toronto and became a politician in the municipal arena. Two lessons in the article, first this story from the article:    
"In 1985, a barbed joke in a bar prompted him to rethink his political style. He went to meet one of his younger brothers, then doing graduate work at the University of Toronto, at a downtown pub. “He’s introducing me to his buddies, and one of them—he’s had several beers—says, ‘Oh, you’re Jack Layton. I thought your name was But Jack Layton. You know, you read in the paper, ‘The mayor proposes this, but Jack Layton,’ or, ‘They want to do this, but Jack Layton . . . ’ ” The jibe stung. “I was opposing things,” he says."

Lesson one: criticize yes, but offer constructive alternatives, Layton took that to heart. Lesson two: Layton lost in a bid to become Toronto mayor in 1991, and in a Federal election in 1993. Learn from losing, yes it sucks, but it is the market telling you that your message needs improvement.