Blog Posts by David Kilgour

  • Following a vigorous election campaign and probably the fastest turnaround in political fortunes in British Columbia’s history, the 50 Liberals, 33 NDP, one Green and single independent MLAs elected on May 14 leave little doubt in anyone’s mind as to whom voters want to govern in Victoria during the next four years.

    While losing her own seat (a minor problem she’ll solve in an early byelection when one of her personally-recruited successful candidates resigns), Christy Clark’s surprise win over Adrian Dix, leader of the official opposition NDP, has evoked much commentary across the province and country.

    Among the more interesting insights:

    • All nine opinion polling firms, most of whom predicted an easy NDP win, simply got it wrong. British Columbians, like many other Canadians, are so weary of being harassed by telephone callers about their political party preferences that it perhaps became a new provincial sport to fool them. Pollsters must in future also better factor in the reality that
    Read More »

  • Followers of Sufism, a mystical form of Islam that preaches tolerance and a search for understanding.

    Terrorism acts occur in many countries and occasionally close to home, such as the recent bombings at the Boston Marathon and the conspiracy to derail a New York-bound VIA Rail passenger train.

    The list of organizations designated as terrorist by various governments is lengthy. In the past, they included the Irish Republican Army, Basque Homeland and Freedom, Brigate Rosse , and the Baader-Meinhof Group. Current banned groups tend to be radical Islamic ones, such as Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Al Fatah, Hamas and Boko Haram. Like terrorist groups generally, they use violence against civilians uninvolved in their issues to address perceived wrongs.

    Islam is a religion of peace in many parts of the world. The Qur'an contains extracts of violence — as does the Old Testament, by the way — but does not incite violence as its first or only recourse. Patience, self-discipline, and forgiveness are attributes of the vast majority of the world’s Muslims. The actions of radicals will never symbolize what

    Read More »

  • Middle East: Despite obstacles, sustainable peace is feasible

    By David Kilgour | David vs. David – Thu, 18 Apr, 2013

    Despite obstacles, President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel last month offers real hope for a resuscitated and ultimately successful peace negotiation in the Middle East.

    There has already been a return to normal relations between Turkey and Israel, thanks to effective diplomacy by prime ministers Erdogan of Turkey and Netanyahu of Israel, urged on by Obama. The best reason for optimism about the wider region is that most affected peoples would benefit strongly from a sustainable peace, including victims of increasing lawlessness in Sinai.

    Realism is still needed more than ever, however, and first among the ongoing would-be spoilers of any peace agreement are Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, and several aspects of Israel itself.

    Hamas

    When Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, Hamas created bases there from which thousands of missiles and rockets have been fired at Israelis. Branded a terrorist organization by the European Union, U.S. and Israel, the Hamas web site remains full of

    Read More »

  • North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides over the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.

    NATO and the world’s democracies must be ready to respond immediately if the North were again to invade the South as it did in 1950. If Kim Jong-un and the small group of cronies in Pyongyang are convinced that outsiders will respond in kind to any large scale violence, they are highly unlikely to risk their survival and privileges in what is essentially a Soviet-style monarchy.

    How should the world respond to recent events on the Korean Peninsula?

    Korea was divided at the 38th parallel at the end of World War II, with the North being administered by Moscow, the South by Washington. Authors Acemoglu and Robinson of Why Nations Fail (2012) note that what two generations of Kim family absolutism did to the so-called People’s Republic of Korea includes:

    • living standards by the late 1990’s are about one-tenth of average ones in the South;
    • life expectancy is ten less years than in the South;
    • there are recurring famines because of a collapse in agricultural production, and
    • an

    Read More »

  • Any wow factor for the April 14 Liberal Party finale vanished on March 13th with the exit of retired astronaut Marc Garneau, setting the stage for Justin Trudeau to accept the party’s crown.

    The question now, of course, is whether the Liberals will be able to muster even mild interest in the leadership contest through to its inevitable conclusion. Because there isn’t a traditional convention, April 14th is being billed as a “results announcement event.” Don’t be surprised if the streets of Ottawa are empty for the non-event.

    Garneau decided to withdraw his candidacy after an internal poll of 50,000 Liberals — to which just 6,000 had responded — gave Trudeau 72% support, Garneau 15%, Joyce Murray 7.4% and Martha Hall Findlay 5.2%. With Garneau gone, the mantle of challenger now falls to B.C. MP Joyce Murray, whose spirited campaign to unite the centre-left (even though Tom Mulcair is dead-set against electoral co-operation) has made her a sentimental favourite among Harper

    Read More »

  • In his 2011 book, Civilization: The West and the Rest, Niall Ferguson, the Harvard historian, quotes an anonymous Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, “In the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. The Christian moral foundation of social and and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.”

    Many other spiritual communities in Canada and beyond have also had major roles, but the focus here will be on Christianity, partly because according to the census a decade ago fully seven out of ten Canadians were identified as Catholic (about 13 million) or Protestant (8.7 million). Another 784,000 self-identified simply as "Christian."

    There have been some major conflicts between our two largest faith communities. One was the outrageous Manitoba School Act of 1890, which in effect seized Catholic

    Read More »

  • Recent news reports about three members of the Senate appear to have diverted Canadians from more important issues about the institution. What is its purpose? Is it relevant to a modern democracy? Should it be abolished?

    Quite correctly in a parliamentary democracy, the House of Commons reflects Canada’s majority will on a representation by population basis. In practice, few MPs today provide effective regional voices — at least in House votes — because since about 1900 all MPs usually vote in uniform party blocs under one of the tightest party disciplines imposed in any democratically-elected assembly in the world.

    This political culture and the fact that Ontario and Quebec still hold almost two-thirds of our national population are the main reasons why Canada needs an elected second chamber. Virtually all other federal democracies entrench legislative protection for smaller provinces in an upper house. For most of our history, the House of Commons has been dominated both

    Read More »

  • NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair speaks to the media outside the New Democratic Party caucus strategy session on Parliament Hill.

    In politics, money can often buy attention, support and organization. In 2011, the Conservatives received $22.7 million in contributions from about 100,000 donors — far beyond the amounts received by all other political parties. A similar disparity in donations could win the 2015 election for the Tories, too.

    In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper attempted unsuccessfully to end the annual federal subsidy for political parties, claiming it would save taxpayers’ money and end continuous campaigning by then cash-rich parties. By 2015, the subsidy will be completely eliminated and the other parties will be feeling the pinch of dried-up tax dollars. The Conservatives, however, might well be flush with cash in that election year.

    Harper’s Conservatives will no doubt use donations raised before the election is called to continue what they have done successfully in recent years: spending money to sell their message and build their brand. In the past, this began with media attack

    Read More »

  • CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier sailed into the port of Victoria after a four month deployment in the Arctic.

    Canada’s military seeks to be future-oriented, adapting to advancing technologies, changing political dynamics and global economic shifts. Predictions about its future are currently difficult, partly because the March 29 federal budget is expected to cut $2.5 billion from defence spending.

    Prime Minister Harper confirmed last May that Canada’s military role in Afghanistan will end once the current training mission concludes in March 2014. Our country will contribute $110 million per year over three years (2015-2017) to help sustain the Afghanistan National Security Forces.

    Problems with the planned purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft have worsened with the latest controversy over its capacity for in-flight refueling. Confirmation of the multi-billion dollar purchase is still months away, but the new issue is particularly sensitive due to the earlier serious cost underestimates. Overall, buying the F-35 fighter appears to enjoy little support among Canadians.

    In

    Read More »

  • Smoking chimneys and cooling tower of a coal-burning power plant are seen on a hazy day in Wuhan, China.

    Facing serious world economic problems as the year begins, Canadians can take comfort in a recent Angus Reid opinion survey conducted in Canada, the U.S. and Britain. It found that three in five Canadians rate the current economic conditions in our country as “very good” or “good,” compared to only 23 per cent of respondents in the U.S. and 11 per cent in Britain. Unemployment among household members, however, remains many Canadians’ weightiest concern. Our related problems include record household debt, continuing weak demand for exports from the U.S., and an uncertain housing market.

    Most European countries expect little or no economic growth this year. Whether the Canada-European Union free trade negotiations, now in their third round, can produce an agreement that benefits economies on both sides of the Atlantic remains to be demonstrated to Canadians.

    In America, Congress has approved a compromise, which should ultimately avoid more than $600-billion (U.S.) in tax

    Read More »

Pagination

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
(25 Stories)