Book review – The Right Balance

Book cover courtesy Douglas & McIntyre

Just in time for the Canadian federal election, Conservative Senator and party loyalist, Hugh Segal, has written a book about the joys of conservative politics.

In The Right Balance, Mr. Segal provides Canadians with a thoughtful and detailed account of the origins of Canadian conservatism and its raison d’être.

"These thousands of American Empire Loyalists, who emigrated from the colonies to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, southern Québec and Ontario, did more than simply leave one idea of society behind to embrace another," writes Mr. Segal. "Their preference for the British Crown and Empire over the new republicanism of the colonies was also an embrace of a specific social order, a specific construct of society itself. Their migration to the Canadian colonies not only shaped a core element of our national and historical identity, but also established the very nature of English-Canadian conservatism."

Mr. Segal gives examples of prominent Canadians who moved the conservative movement forward and helped shape the country we have today: Sir John A. Macdonald, R.B. Bennett, John Diefenbaker, Brian Mulroney.

He also argues that Canadian conservatism is different from conservative movements in other countries in that it has been able to walk the line between private enterprise and public involvement.

"The right balance here is the very essence of a distinctly Canadian approach to communitarian conservatism and national enterprise. It is a clear Canadian rebalancing of the traditional relationship between free enterprise and private capital on one side versus public interest and social responsibility on the other," writes Mr. Segal.

To be fair to left of centre readers, Liberal governments have, of course, been in power many times since Canada became a nation and their supporters will tell you that Liberals are equally responsible for the great country we have today.

In the end, finding the right balance is neither left wing nor right wing, it is simply the correct thing to do.

Armenian-Canadians march on Parliament Hill

Hundreds of Armenian-Canadians rallied on Parliament Hill in Ottawa today, to commemorate the 96th anniversary of what has been called the Armenian genocide.

To learn more about it and why it is controversial, please click here.

Campaigners call for more resolve in dealing with the landmine problem

Defused antipersonnel landmines in Cambodia

On the International Day for Mine Awareness, campaigners from around the world gathered in Cambodia to call for the international community to commit itself to a mine-free world.

More countries need to sign the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT) and implement all of its requirements, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).

Civil society groups are calling on governments to commit adequate and sustained multi-year funding and do more to support landmine survivors.

In addition to marking mine awareness day, campaigners launched the road to the 11th Meeting of States Parties to the MBT, which will take place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in November 2011.

“When governments meet in Phnom Penh this November, we do not want to hear rhetoric or platitudes, but rather what concrete actions they are taking to create a mine-free world,” said Tun Channareth, ICBL ambassador and a landmine survivor from Cambodia.

There are four key areas where the ICBL expects to see progress from states at the November 2011 meeting: clearing mined areas, assisting victims, providing the necessary funding and resources, and ensuring universal adherence to the MBT.

The 1997 MBT currently has 156 States Parties. The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) has 108 signatories, of which 55 have already ratified.

In addition to comprehensively banning landmines and cluster munitions, both treaties require states to clear all their contaminated areas, destroy their stockpiles of the weapons, and provide assistance to survivors, their families and communities.