A True North Stronger and Freer

The Mark Steyn Show
June 21, 2019

https://www.steynonline.com/9469/prescriptions-for-the-dominion

Mark Steyn and Conrad Black sit down to discuss Conrad's new book, The Canadian Manifesto, in this Mark Steyn Show special on the eve of Dominion Day.

Our Canadian readers will know that Dominion Day – or "Canada Day" – is around the corner, on which Mark's home and native land will celebrate its 152nd birthday. To mark the occasion, we bring you this special edition of The Mark Steyn Show, featuring Mark's friend and old boss Conrad Black, or as he's formally titled, The Rt Hon the Lord Black of Crossharbour.

Fresh off the heels of his presidential pardon, about which Mark wrote here, the two chat about Conrad's newest book, The Canadian Manifesto: How One Frozen Country Can Save the World.

The book spends a bit of time going through Canada's history, and the country's unique relationship with the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. Then Conrad lays out his prescriptions for Canada - some rooted in policy, others in shaking up the fundamental structure of Canadian democracy.

From the erasure of historic Canadian figures to what an ideal Canadian healthcare system would look like, to the annexation of the Turks and Caicos Islands, this wide-ranging chat has it all.

You can watch the episode on YouTube, though for convenience it's also embedded below:

The Mark Steyn Show is made possible by the support of members of the Mark Steyn Club, benefits of which are laid out here. Commenting is one of the privileges reserved for Club members, so do know what you think of this interview below. If you like what Conrad has to say, you may enjoy sailing through the Mediterranean with him aboard the 2020 Mark Steyn Cruise. Cabins are still available though are likely to sell out, so best to book soon.

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45 Reader Comments

Midwestern Tim • Jun 25, 2019 at 15:35

Mark, I would enjoy watching you interview Anthony Malcolm Daniels about the state of western civilization. He recently published a piece commenting on the overabundance of tattoos in the West, which set me to wondering if he thinks the West as it currently is is worth saving. You?

ed • Jun 24, 2019 at 08:25

Mark is a great interviewer. Frankly, given all that I've read I expected to feel much more sympathetic with Mr. Black. He seems a bit slippery and unwilling to commit to an actual belief... with a sort of Platonic idea that all countries are founded on some Noble Lie... and that he can see them.

Fran Lavery

ed • Jun 28, 2019 at 14:19

The conversation gave me good food for thought, ed, and led to some discussions I wouldn't otherwise have had with a close relative who is a retired college professor in American History, but I was thinking along your line, before I spoke with my relative. What was all the "rubbish" talk about? And about the alternative history, I think Lord Conrad did say "irrelevant" once but I would like to press him more about some of the other implications he made.

I just wonder if war could've been prevented. The perception I took away from my listening was that the colonists were a bunch of hotheads that couldn't be reasoned with and yet, I believe they tried to make their points known to the British government. I thought Ben Franklin was an emissary to the British but I was wrong, he was only an emissary for Pennsylvania for the trade purposes at that time. It seems to me that the colonists' petitions fell on deaf ears. They did have an Olive Branch Petition proffered but I think we all know how that was received. I need to do some more digging here.

Dan • Jun 24, 2019 at 00:36

Ottawa, Canada. Parent has blood test. Specialist calls to say " Drop everything - take parent to ER now or death imminent." Duly done. 12 hours - mostly waiting. Immigration - Conrad may be many things, but he is an idiot on this subject. Make Immigration zero - let him be a an average person seeking treatment and experience life's rich tapestry - his tune will change.

William Stroock • Jun 23, 2019 at 09:11

Hey, Mark, as to Conrad's idea about the Colonies running the empire and your use of the term Alternate History, about 20 years ago a novel was written about just that, called The Two Georges.

Chris Hall aka MCF • Jun 23, 2019 at 08:08

I just saw a podcast interview by the Australian IPA of Peter Ridd, the James Cook University geophysicist who was dismissed for the temerity of speaking truth to scientific power. His story is both compelling and depressing as it perfectly illustrates Mark's comments about the process being the punishment (tie in to both Mark and Lord Black). You can get links to the video from Joanne Nova's site as well as that of Anthony Watts.

On a personal note, as someone who has peer reviewed over a hundred papers myself, Peter's take on the mystical reverence that many give to the process is spot on. He feels that science may recover, but that universities are too far gone to be able to come back from the brink as they are now run by ideologically driven administrators, with true scholars being in a purely subservient role.

If Peter is still at loose ends next year (likely), he'd make an excellent person to talk about free speech on the 2020 cruise.

Holly Birtwistle

Chris Hall aka MCF • Jun 23, 2019 at 21:47

Great idea to get Dr. Ridd on an MS cruise:))!

Kate Smyth • Jun 22, 2019 at 20:34

Excellent interview - and astonished to hear that Conrad Black is a republican who advocates doubling the current population (via immigration).

Whatever its defects, the "Crowned Republic" model of government has been remarkably stable the world over, as those with republican inclinations (myself included) have to concede. Canada as the test case for any change will make things interesting...

Marc Swerdloff • Jun 22, 2019 at 19:24

Two hundred years plus after the loyalists trucked north of the American border, we hear from a most prominent monarchist that "Farmer" King George wasn't such a bad fellow after all! That was rough on the ears of this second generation American.
Likewise, that the pessimism of Henry Kissinger should be attributed to his Rabbinic heritage was odd. The most visually identifiable Rabbinic culture today, the Hasidim, rank as the most religiously optimistic and joyful groups, in spite being decimated by the Shoah.
Nobody does the long form interview as well as Mark Steyn.

Chris Hall aka MCF

Marc Swerdloff • Jun 23, 2019 at 08:45

What Americans, including Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration, tend to gloss over is that even in the 1770s, the King did not really run the government, the PM and his ministers did. The structure of the "cabinet" was different, however as a certain amount of decentralization and delegation was necessary. The time needed for Trans-Atlantic communications definitely made negotiations with the British government by American representatives largely ineffective when tensions in MA started spiraling out of control.

I'm intrigued by Lord Black's "future history" speculation and I agree that if America had been the first Dominion, instead of Canada, the economic and political center of gravity of the Empire might have shifted to New York, away from London. Also, the push to end slavery in America might have occurred much earlier and although there may have been secessionist sentiments in the southern "provinces" (colonies? probably not states), the likelihood of selling that idea would have been much lower with the Royal Navy being able to help out with any Anaconda Plan. Britain would have been definitely against the idea of a Confederacy, i.e., no recognition, ever.

Where I disagree with Lord Black is his suggestion that if the American colonists were just a bit more reasonable, the Revolution could have been avoided. I'm afraid that the Seven Years War essentially made the Revolution inevitable because it removed the one threat that the Americans were really worried about, France. The battle on the Plains of Abraham eliminated that threat.

Mrs MCF is doing some research on an interesting British diplomat who came surprisingly close to preventing the Seven Years War, which would have had enormous consequences down the road. Unfortunately, his efforts were undone by a change in government in London. If he had succeeded, likely effects would have been no American Revolution, the survival of the French monarchy, no Napoleon and maybe no 1848. The muscular British Empire described by Lord Black might then have developed. I suspect that Canada (i.e., Quebec) would have eventually joined the British on its own accord as the French were hopeless when it came to running an economically viable colony. They just couldn't afford it and they didn't give the colony enough local autonomy to become a self-sustaining operation.

I was intrigued by the list of colonies that were invited by the attendees of the First Continental Congress to join them in the Second Congress. It included Quebec, Nova Scotia, Saint John's Island (now PEI), East Florida, West Florida and Georgia. Only Georgia said yes. But a wider Anglosphere confederation in North America was clearly on the minds of the American leadership in the 1770s.

Alan from Nova Scotia • Jun 22, 2019 at 16:50

Now that's what I call a conversation! Humorous, convivial, wide ranging and intellectually stimulating. It covers all the food groups! Thank you.

Todd Lewis • Jun 22, 2019 at 11:58

This was a fascinating discussion. So many things about history to speculate on. The trouble with history is that it doesn't really allow for do-overs.

The part about the bizarre genuflecting of the Canadian intelligentsia toward the mystical idea of the aboriginal native peoples I thought had great relevance for our present cultural warfare though. This business, it seems to me, is part and parcel of an array of ideological memes for which the zealously explicit purpose is the destruction of the concept of Christian Civilization. This is a very obvious example of the ideological meme of the "Noble Savage", the greatest oxymoron in the history of language. The concept, I believe, is rooted in human nature. It is part of the effort to return society historically to "year zero" in order to remake the world free of all Christian assumptions and moral imperatives. Every assault on free speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of assembly, life, liberty, property, or any other right we might call "unalienable" finds it's roots in this kind of thinking. I'm sure Hitler, Castro, Mao, Lenin, Mussolini, Islam in general, and on down the rogue's list all had or have a form of noble savage thinking and self-identification. We are supposed to return to some theoretical "state of nature" from which we can remake ourselves in our own image supposedly freely and prosperously in any way we please. Noble Savagery vs. Christian Civilization, I believe, is the exact nature of the bipolar conflict we are in and always will be in. This concept of noble savagery is deeply appealing to many people either intuitively or explicitly and I think is a fundamental explanation of the motives that have moved men throughout history.

Sol

Todd Lewis • Jun 22, 2019 at 14:38

Noble savage exploitation is a mud puddle trying to displace a lake. It's not much to look at, but there is little else left. What counts is who sees what reflection in it. The public charmed by the native talisman can splash themselves with a little mud. Cutthroat capitalists see their own reflections, with wavy dollar signs in their eyes. The "noble savage" construct is what you say, but can also be tantalizingly lucrative when used as a highly profitable cover story to avoid unfair competition rules. The noble savage is a grand mirage from which Las Vegas casinos, for example, partner with natives reviving ancient slot-machine rituals out-of-state; leveling not the playing field, but any other players.

Kate Smyth

Todd Lewis • Jun 22, 2019 at 20:52

"It is part of the effort to return society historically to "year zero" in order to remake the world free of all Christian assumptions and moral imperatives."

The Ahmari (vs French) discussion was underpinned by a view of what conservativism is (or should be). Interestingly, Ahmari's rejection of limitless individual autonomy was widely interpreted as a challenge by the "religious right" to America's founding values. (For example: Cathy Young's "The Rise if the Illiberal Right", Quillette, 11/6/19.) Apparently, only uptight authoritarian Catholics would have a problem with "Drag Queen Story Hour" for children at the local library.

Sandy Bottom of Boodjidup Beach

Kate Smyth • Jun 22, 2019 at 22:45

Communists are anti capital of all types and anti the values that produces that capital - personal, family and societal. Christianity is about capital of all types. Hence the big schism. Communism confuses money with wealth. Money is not wealth, capital is. So communism impoverishes. Christianity enriches.

Personally I think we're turning the big ship around. It will take a lot of time and effort but we have to steer it clear of the rocks. And I agree it's quality, not quantity, that counts. However the situation is a lot bigger than that.

Sol

Kate Smyth • Jun 22, 2019 at 23:54

"Limitless individual autonomy" from the right could be worse than the "radical individualism" of the left, because the left twins "radical individualism" with the negating ideal of "radical egalitarianism" (see Slouching Towards Gomorrah). The right's unchecked version amounts to libertinism and where we are today: a phony conservatism that is part of the self-serving establishment.

Kate Smyth

Sandy Bottom of Boodjidup Beach • Jun 23, 2019 at 05:50

I'd like to be as optimistic about the slow turn around of the ship, but the problem is compounded by the unseen icebergs: Ahmari's point was that (faux-) conservatives are very accepting of the radical left's ever more extreme incursions on established institutions and cultural norms. There are very few conservatives pushing back (other than to attack Ahmari and co as "illiberal").

As you mentioned on another thread, the response has to be at the grassroots, everyday level: "The mores of society were offended therefore something was done" (Quote?). I only wish that happened more often.

Kate Smyth

Sol • Jun 23, 2019 at 05:56

Yes, the author of the Quillette piece makes a similar point, somewhat obliquely: that the radical left is about identity politics (of groups, not individuals). Essentially an identity collectivism, which is different to (though has features in common with) libertinism.

Sandy Bottom of Boodjidup Beach

Kate Smyth • Jun 23, 2019 at 06:11

My experience is international but a lot of it is Down Under. Here Conservatives do what they can when they can like in the last election. If I had sprogs I would be concerned about their exposure to deviant sexuality etc. and I would take action to prevent that - I would have options. Mates do complain about the attacks on the middle ground. They talk about people being a little bit left and a little bit right and about that being more difficult. However most of the crap can be avoided. Our local state government knows full well that if they push things too far (which they are inclined to do) that people wouldn't accept it. There is a fundamental rule in Australia - "don't f$%k things up for other people and expect of them to not f$%k things up for you" and not forgetting "look after your mates". The left attack those but as long as the center ground uphold them the left can be mitigated. I find generally in my everyday interactions the left don't impinge on me. It's only things like bin wars that cause problems. However even with that the local council and the state government know full well that they can only push things so far. I think a huge thing that I can do is giving example and strength to other people by the quality and strength of my character. By that they can see that there are options.

Sandy Bottom of Boodjidup Beach

Sandy Bottom of Boodjidup Beach • Jun 23, 2019 at 06:31

PS: the rise of all the alternate sites and platforms is heartening. And all the contributors. There is substance, momentum and value there.

Todd Lewis

Kate Smyth • Jun 23, 2019 at 09:26

Limitless individual autonomy is certainly the antithesis of Christian thinking. It is the very definition of sin. However, secularist types cannot seem to recognize the difference between supposedly "uptight, authoritarian" Christian belief and something miserable like Sharia law. Christian freedom is the desire, the ability, and the latitude to do what is right. It does not need regulatory authorities except to constrain the more egregious acts of the reprobate. Real Christianity requires the genuine internalization of moral goodness. "Against such there is no law". Sermonette for a Sunday morning.

Kate Smyth

Todd Lewis • Jun 23, 2019 at 19:06

"Christian freedom is the desire, the ability, and the latitude to do what is right. It does not need regulatory authorities..."

Which is why it's so reviled by the left. It's interesting that the mass protests in Hong Kong are largely an organised Christian (mainly Catholic) movement.

Ahmari was actually accused of wanting to impose a form of "Catholic Sharia" - with respect to his opposition to the transgender indoctrination of children etc - which he found pretty amusing.

Sermonettes always appreciated!

Holly Birtwistle

Todd Lewis • Jun 23, 2019 at 22:59

I agree with you Todd, human nature is the driving force behind the assault on Western Civilization and it's values, but I don't believe it's explicit purpose is the destruction of Christian Civilization. It's purpose is to destroy and replace Western Civilization, of which Christianity was the fundamental Social System at it's inception - with Globalism. Globalism, or the Globalist Ideal, which justifies it's aims by declaring human beings are the enemy of the planet, and free and prosperous nations (citizens) must be dis-empowered, and the World run by a central World Government (the UN). Western Civilization today has evolved to be largely non-religious, mainly due to the influence and progress of science. My view is that Globalism today is just a default to Tyranny, of which our entire human history has rested, as dictatorships, monarchies, empires, regions - before the invention and and practise of Freedom and Democracy. Human history is a long saga of one group rising to power and conquering another group, or groups. Still in it's infancy, Freedom and Democracy is constantly under attack, because it thwarts that human instinct and desire for power by a new rising group (at present Globalists like Merkel, Pelosi, Schumer, Macron, Trudeau AOC, and many others.

BallBounces in PEI • Jun 22, 2019 at 09:27

Canadian healthcare: The current wait-time on PEI to be assigned a family physician (PCP) is 4-5 years. The longest time a family member waited to see a pain specialist was eight years. Emergency treatment remains very good...

Fran Lavery

BallBounces in PEI • Jun 22, 2019 at 10:19

I'll let my one Manitoban friend know, Ball Bounces. She says she thinks Canadians are happier in general with their health care system. She says she can't afford for her family to get sick here. If I get sick I can get in to see the doc unusually the next day, but it's pay as you go. We have catastrophic insurance since most of the time I'm only mildly sick. That, or about to die.

Sol • Jun 22, 2019 at 08:59

Based on this lively and erudite interview, the book could be called Make Canada's Destiny Manifest, Please: An appeal to a people frozen in the headlights of their heritage

Michael Sirks • Jun 22, 2019 at 07:33

I am not a big fan of alternative histories(what if). It very often shows the prejudices of the maker of these alternative histories. It also reminds me of my father who believed that Indonesia should have stayed part of the Netherlands and that together they would have prospered. The love for Indonesia blinded him for the facts that the majority of the Indonesians didn't want to stay part of the Netherlands, the cultural difference between the Netherlands and Indonesia and the geographical distance between these to countries would have resulted in different priorities and goals which in turn would result in conflict. And this leads to the question "what makes a stable, prosperous and peaceful country" (I don't know if I can use the term nation nowadays?)
of the top of my head;
- a population which identifies with with this country
- this country must have a geographical area in which population lives
- the subgroups of the population must accept that they are part of this country
- the subgroups of the population must accept other subgroups as part of the population
- there must be a political system to peacefully change the government is population want this

If you look at the EU and its aspirations to be a country you can have your doubts. And maybe you can say the same for the USA.

A now the word national is a contaminated word, can it get any more absurd. Here are some of the persons who have to be labeled fascist retrospectively;
Nelson Mandela member of the African National Congress
Mahatma Gandhi member of the Indian National Congress( Indian Nationalist party)
Soekarno member of Partai Nasional Indonesia (Indonesian National Party)
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein father of the pan-arab nationalism
Charles de Gaule president of France ( french unashamed nationalist)
etc.etc.

Sandy Bottom of Boodjidup Beach • Jun 22, 2019 at 01:29

On the theme of each of the 5 Anglo countries being different and wrt Australia - Australia is very prone to an invasion by the Chinese and there's not a huge amount that can be done from an external military point of view. Other options, however, would be of more use. Big problem would be what the Progressives - the troglodytes - would do. They would be a presently non supporting \ opposing column in an invaded country. What side would they side on? And how convenient for the Chinese that they are there.

Fran Lavery • Jun 21, 2019 at 22:18

It's interesting listening to Mark and Lord Conrad Black discuss alternative histories of Canada and the USA. I've thought about our northern neighbors a lot, so close and yet seemingly so separated. I only think I've met a half dozen face to face, and I've had the good fortune to meet two famous Canadians: Sir William Stephenson and Mark Steyn. I met Andrew Lawton at this year's Adorable Deplorable show and I've been getting acquainted with a lovely friend from Manitoba here in my town. It's quality, not quantity, that matters to me.

As Conrad stated, the USA hasn't interfered and we've been good neighbors. How many nations can say that? There doesn't seem to me to be much difference between the people of Toronto and the people of Detroit. If we consider our separate histories, of course, we realize different events that made us who we are, but for many of the major events we collaborated when it really mattered, and here we are today in the twenty-first century and we face many similar problems. Joining forces to solve them makes good common sense to me. Happy Canada Day to Mark and my new friends here at the club. I look forward to meeting some of you face to face one day.

Andrew Lawton

Fran Lavery • Jun 22, 2019 at 07:18

You flatter me, Fran! Was great meeting you as well.

Fran Lavery

Andrew Lawton • Jun 22, 2019 at 08:46

I'm still pinching myself I was there that evening, Andrew. It seems like a dream. I almost missed the event, too, because wouldn't you know I had to go sightseeing in Rochester before showtime, not anywhere near the theater. I passed the theater on my way back to my airport hotel forty minutes to show time in the thick of rush hour and my driver said, "you're probably going to miss the show." I started sweating buckets thinking my husband will kill me if he finds I left for the weekend to meet Mark and Dennis and attend the Adorable Deplorable show and didn't make it but went sightseeing instead. In Rochester, of all towns! (Hey, I don't get out of New Mexico often).

Ken Costa

Fran Lavery • Jun 22, 2019 at 15:19

That's amazing, Fran. I read "A Man Called Intrepid" as a teenager and William Stephenson is somewhat of a personal hero of mine. How did you ever get to meet him? Come to think of it, how did you even know it was him?

Fran Lavery

Ken Costa • Jun 22, 2019 at 23:19

Ken, it was really one of the neatest things that happened to us as a young couple. My husband had a small scholarly publishing company in Chevy Chase, Maryland on Connecticut Avenue in the seventies. I was a proofreader there and also laid out the galleys by pages to go to the printer in days of publishing before the digital era.

One of our authors was Mr. Tom Troy, CIA historian. He wrote a book about Bill Donovan and the CIA and so it was published. Tom was friends with Sir William Stephenson and he had to visit him at his home in Bermuda to get some details for his book. We used to vacation in Bermuda now and then so we asked Tom Troy if he could arrange a meeting next time we went and Sir William Stephenson was gracious enough to have us over to his house for iced tea. It was under an hour we spent with him in his sunny, cheerful library, overlooking a lush tree edged green lawn with a vista out to a deep blue ocean, and I never forgot how special it was.

It seemed to me he was super gracious to have us there and while mostly the men talked, we exchanged a few words at the end. He was inquisitive about our young children, how many, their ages and that sort of thing. It was short but splendid to meet him and he was just about the nicest gentleman I ever met in my life. It was the highlight of all of our vacations, to be sure. He is somewhat of a personal hero to me, too. We had to thank Tom for making it happen.

Ken Costa

Fran Lavery • Jun 23, 2019 at 12:31

Wow, what a great story. We live not too far from the town of Whitby, Ontario, the location of the WW2 secret agent training school known as Camp X, which Stephenson built and oversaw and where people like Roald Dahl, Paul Dehn (the screenwriter for Goldfinger and the Spy Who Came In From the Cold), and possibly Ian Fleming learned their craft. (It is claimed by some that Fleming modeled James Bond after Stephenson himself and even named his character after St. James-Bond United Church in Toronto, although as with many stories about Stephenson, very little hard evidence is available to separate fact from conjecture).

Sadly, there's not much left of the camp aside from a small memorial, although several of the streets nearby have names like Stephenson and Overlord, and the Camp X site itself is now a park called Intrepid. It's a great place to go on Remembrance Day, and it is an excellent place to go and snoop around with a metal detector. People have founds all kinds of interesting things: mortar and shell casings, bullets, daggers, and the wires which led to demolition charges. Recently, some archeologists uncovered the remains of what used to be the highly fortified telecommunications relay apparatus known as Hydra which ferried coded messages between Great Britain and the United States.

Fran Lavery

Ken Costa • Jun 23, 2019 at 15:21

Cool information, Ken! I'll put it there at the top of my bucket list. I've been wanting to return to Canada soon, anyway.

Holly Birtwistle

Fran Lavery • Jun 23, 2019 at 22:24

You never cease to surprise and delight me Fran. You have had lead an interesting life! As typical Canadians, my husband and I would have been far too shy to ask to meet Sir William Stephanson.
Recently I attended a fund-raising dinner and speaker event for the PPC Party here in Kelowna (Peoples Party of Canada), a new, genuinely Conservative party in Canada lead by Maxime Bernier. I would have liked to have spoken with him and maybe had a pic taken - but I didn't want 'to bother' him. I did however, speak at length to Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, at the event:)))

Fran Lavery

Holly Birtwistle • Jun 24, 2019 at 03:01

Not any more interesting than any other person's here, Holly. Talking about good memories maybe magnifies them into bigger deals than they are but hey, it's better than talking about bad memories. Who wants to hear them? Bummers for everyone. As much as I've heard about Bernier, I like him. I would like to see Canada get on a solid path and get saner. If he's the most capable leader, then I hope he can win and accomplish the goals of the voters. We're up against some serious problems. We're heading down the wrong path with these expanded plans for renewables. People have no idea how bad it's going to get.

Holly Birtwistle

Fran Lavery • Jun 24, 2019 at 13:13

Being leader of a brand new party, the PPC, Bernier is very unlikely to get much traction. And he is always painted as a racist, Islamaphobe, hater, climate denier in the media. Hopefully Andrew Scheer , leader of the Conservative party will win the election in October. He is better than Trudeau, but a weak conservative in some respects.

Fran Lavery

Holly Birtwistle • Jun 24, 2019 at 13:39

Well, yes, aren't we all, painted as racists and the rest, Holly? These terms are flung around so often that if we're all this, none of us are this and neither is he, so there he will have his instant concentrated base, just add pure glacier spring water. Bernier needs to wake people up to the way these renewable energy sources are going to waste hundreds of billions of dollars, a lot of bankrupting of peoples's business and high unemployment and homelessness will follow. Maybe that will turn the tables on the other candidates. He should be the candidate who is has the people's backs. Racism and the other terms will be irrelevant when people see their cash ebbing in the green energy effluvium. Smart comment to Todd Lewis, btw!!

Holly Birtwistle

Fran Lavery • Jun 24, 2019 at 13:59

Yup. In the end, as far as citizens are concerned, it's always the state of the economy and how citizens lives are impacted by policy. If their take-home pay goes down, the citizens will make a change in government. Peoples' standard of living and quality of life is the bottom line, particularly when they intuitively know the climate and the environment are fine.

Fran Lavery

Holly Birtwistle • Jun 24, 2019 at 15:19

It's about to change in such a very big way, too! Ask those poor people who live in the shadow of those huge wind turbine farms in Ontario how they sleep at night. Some have had physical ailments from the loud humming noise. Those turbines have a life span of what, seven years, and what will be done with all of those dead turbine blades? How long will it take for those to disintegrate? Heck, we're worried about straws clogging up the works and cigarette butts needing twenty years to decompose. The Green Energy Leftists obviously haven't consulted with the Environmentalists. They're much more of an immovable group. Yes, I would've loved to meet Dr. Patrick Moore, too. Good for you!!

Fran Lavery

Fran Lavery • Jul 1, 2019 at 15:30

Correction: Happy Dominion Day, Canada Day, today, July 1st! (I think I got it now). Every day at the Mark Steyn Club is a day of continuing education for me:)

Nicola Timmerman • Jun 21, 2019 at 17:44

Dominion Day came from Psalm 72:8 "And he shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the rivers unto the ends of the earth". The motto on our coat of arms is "From Sea to Sea" but in latin (though Trudeau has taken to saying Canada from coast to coast to coast). The changing of the name of the national holiday was sneaked through the House of Commons without debate by the Liberals, with only 13 members present on a Friday afternoon in 1982. So we are stuck with the banal Canada Day. (Confederation Day would have been better though in French the holiday is often called Le Jour de la Confederation.)
Curses on Sir Robert Borden our eighth prime minister who presided over our country during WWI and wasn't interested in obtaining some Caribbean English island for Canada. After the incredibly long and cold winter we just had with no global warming to be felt, we sure could have used such a refuge.

Edmond Watson • Jun 21, 2019 at 16:17

Thank you for acquainting me (us) with the brilliant mind and ideas of Sir Black. I'll be sure to get the book, even though I'm from the U. S. What a fascinating interview.

Brian W. • Jun 21, 2019 at 15:22

What a splendid discussion of ideas!