Why Thomas Should Not Doubt

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Why Catholics Pray Before Statues

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Gladu the Liberal

 

Gladu

Marilyn Gladu, previously known as a “far-right” Conservative member of parliament, has now crossed the floor to join the Liberals.

What this tells us is that politicians generally do not have principles. They only adopt the positions they think will win them power. They are all members of the same club. This floor crossing may be a watershed moment: the moment many Canadians gave up on the political system. It looks as though voting is just a con.

At the best of times, important change cannot be accomplished though politics. With few exceptions, politicians just follow the polls. The education system and academics are captive to those currently in command; change cannot come from there either.

A better future can only be done, if it can be done, either through private initiative, though business and engineering, and by changing the culture. Material progress can change the frame of reference. Songs, books, and movies can connect with people not only on a rational, but on an emotional and an imaginative level. This changes minds, which changes polls, which changes the positions of the politicians.

Trump might be an exception here—he is not a politician. Poilievre, the Conservative leader, however, although a fine rhetorician, in the end is a politician. There is talk that his leadership is now in trouble, due to floor crossing. If the Conservatives do want to replace him, they must pull in someone from outside politics to counter this growing public cynicism.

 

My Trump Derangement Syndrome

Tim Pool is scorning Megyn Kelly, MTG, and Alex Jones for recently contracting Trump derangement syndrome. The rest of us know how to tame Trump, right? Seriously, but not literally. It is all rhetoric and deal-making.

I’d scorn these turncoats too, except I think I could easily contract Trump Derangement Syndrome myself. Trump has always worried me. I did not support him for the Republican nomination in 2016 or in 2024. 

The left had and has been breaking all the rules and conventions of civil life. They have, quite literally, been denying being bound by reality itself. It became necessary to bring in someone tough enough to crack a few skulls in hopes of restoring order. Once one side in the discourse ignores the rules, the other side must as well, or be steamrolled. I remember saying to a leftist friend in 2016, that they on the left were primarily responsible for Trump. 

The danger is obvious. Once the rules are lost, and you have elected someone with a mandate to break the rules, there is nothing restraining this leader from going too far, from imposing his own will instead of the old rules. There is no predicting where he will stop. I therefore watch Trump warily.

Unfortunately, the parallel with Hitler is obvious. As in the woke postmodern West, things got out of hand in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s. It was social, economic, and moral chaos. A lot of German voters turned to Hitler because he seemed to have the strength of will to sort it all out, and some vague plan to do so. At first, like Trump, it seemed he was doing a great job. But that same strong will, unsurprisingly, turned out to know no bounds.

Trump is obviously interested in leaving a personal legacy. Harmless when it involves building a new White House East Wing, or a victory arch across the river in Arlington. Venezuela might have been reckless, but it turned out well. ICE may be acting a bit fast and loose, but something had to be done. Iran seems justified, but is a bigger gamble. I fear that Trump is just going to keep taking on bigger challenges and rolling the dice until he loses. And it may turn out to be costly for the US and the world.

We’re all between a rock and a hard place.

Turtle Island

Image from India of the world turtle

A pet peeve of mine is hearing people refer to Canada, or North America, as “Turtle Island.” This is supposed to be the traditional Indian name for it, and a nod to native people as the original owners of the land.

But this is absurd. The Indians would have had no concept of what a continent is. This is an arbitrary Greek geographical classification. They would not have known they were surrounded by seas. Nor, of course, would they have had any concept of Canada with its present boundaries.

Nor, as is often pointed out, did they have any concept of land ownership. Different bands roamed through the same territories, with no fixed address.

It is common around the world to imagine the ordered universe is borne on the back of a turtle—you see this in steles in China. The turtle with his hard shell, rising from the water, represents order, solidity, and life emerging from formless chaos. Not a geographical concept, a cosmological one.

Some native cultures may well have used this concept to explain the universe. But native cultures were diverse. There are other creation myths. For those who did, Europe and Europeans would have been just as much residents and owners of Turtle Island as the next tribe—or their own.

Dief Will Be Chief Again

I once saw Diefenbaker in person at a Grey Cup game. In high school, I wrote an essay on him. Yet like everyone around me, I thought he was a joke as Canadian prime minister. A blowhard, and a sophist as a speaker.

Yet it seems to me now that Diefenbaker was right about most things. And he would be just what Canada needs right now. In his day, like Trump, he fought against the bureaucracy, what we now call the Deep State or the blob. “Everyone is against me but the people.” In the end, the Deep State, along with the “Laurentian elite,” managed to beat him. They labelled him a “Renegade in Power,” just as they have tried to do with Trump. At the time, I bought the con. He was before his time. Had he won through then, things might be much better now. 

He spoke for the West, for just one thing. Western alienation has only gotten much worse since, for being ignored. It now threatens to end the country. 

He fought for human rights—now being critically lost in Canada. His Canadian Bill of Rights was far superior to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that superseded and largely subverted it. He led the charge for human rights internationally too. 

And he led the charge for human equality and against multiculturalism. His great final battle cry was for “One Canada” and “no hyphenated Canadians.” We went down the opposite path, and it was the wrong path.

Many, of course, are angry at him for cancelling the Avro Arrow. I think this is mostly a matter of myth. I suspect his was the right decision, that this project was a pipe dream.

Most significantly, Dief was a true leader. He did not go with the polls nor the cocktail circuit commentariat. He had principles. And, like Trump, he had the tools to lead: he was a great rhetorician. He was always entertaining to listen to. He kept things interesting.

We need his like again.

The Coming Death of Canada

 

Read it and weep. My SubStack.