After the Quebec Conference, at a gala dinner hosted by George-Etienne Cartier, Canada’s Fathers of Confederation held a toast; it was offered as encouragement to face the difficulties still before them in forming a nation, but the verse stands today as encouragement for us to face the difficulties in now
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The Scott Ross: Atheist For Christmas, Christian For St.Paddy’s
Most atheists are as irrational as those who believe in religion. And perhaps even more hypocritical. There’s no greater example of this than those vocal opponents of religion who criticize Christmas but in just a few months time celebrate St.Patrick’s Day and other religious holidays with unrivaled enthusiasm. St.Patrick’s Day
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Liberals Should Blame Trudeau For Few Supporters
If Justin Trudeau was more concerned about winning the Liberal leadership than winning the next election, not only would his party have more registered supporters, but 2015 would almost certainly look more rouge. It may seem counter-intuitive to blame the ever-popular Justin Trudeau for the Liberal Party’s lower than expected
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: How A Bad Economy Is Not Harper’s Fault
Canada’s economy is set to grow less than the government thought, but it’s not our Prime Minister’s fault. True under Stephen Harper the World Bank has downgraded Canada from being the 4th most Business Friendly country in 2006 to 17th in 2013, but, as most Conservatives know, businesses have nothing
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why Justin Trudeau Shouldn’t Lead The Liberals
For the very same reason why so many Liberals want him to win, Justin Trudeau shouldn’t become Liberal Leader. If 150,000 people only supported Justin Trudeau because of substance then there would be no argument against the 41 year-old MP for Papineau. A Trudeau only made popular by policy would
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Dehumanizing Humanity
The more we call a murderer an animal or treat a hero like a god, we not only dehumanize them, we dehumanize ourselves. What differentiates us from animals is our higher consciousness, treating any other person like a wild animal to be put down or a deity to be worshiped
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Real Problem For BC Liberals
It’s not the low poll numbers or the ethnic voter outreach controversy, the real problem for the BC Liberals is that there are BC Liberals who want a problem. Considering it was just 2011 when the federal Conservatives’ ethnic voter strategy made headlines it’s more than obvious that the current
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why Health Care Should Be Privatized
It would be a risky claim to suggest health care should be privatized while education, from preschool to post-secondary, should be fully publicly provided, but considering the importance of education, what’s really risky is that currently we have it the other way around. To compare the importance of health care
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Defence Of Tom Flanagan
To a calm and rational observer, the statement “viewing child pornography is victimless” is true. To an emotional person prone to sensationalism, for writing that first line, I should be reported to the RCMP. On Wednesday night Tom Flanagan, a former adviser to Stephen Harper, spoke to a small crowd
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Public Health Care Is Our White Whale
The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them, till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung. – Herman Melville, Moby Dick Perhaps if the revenge-obsessed Captain Ahab had access
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: How The US Used Pussy Riot And You Liked It
Why were you outraged over Russia locking up Pussy Riot but ambivalent over America bringing its full weight down on open access activist Aaron Swartz? Simple, because hating a Russian government is easier than improving your own. When Russian punk band Pussy Riot received 2 years for “hooliganism motivated by
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: US Gen. McChrystal Warns Against Drones
This is quite shocking. This statement might appear to be commonsense, but it is a radical divergence from the standard view that terrorism against the US government is never justified or deserved. In essence this is a warning from a four-star US General to his government about the use of
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why Canada Needs An Elected Senate Just Like America’s
“Washington is broken.” – Barack Obama Looking at the Canadian Senate in isolation might motivate many to question it, but compared to the American Senate, Canadians should be proud of their upper chamber. Besides the fact that googling “Ottawa is broken” brings zero related results, the American Senate is so
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Canada’s Missing Founding Fathers
Children who have an absent father are more likely to have low self esteem, to abuse substances, exhibit anti-social behaviour, and engage in criminal activity. That is the personal impact of a missing father, but what of the political and social impact on our nation of the absence, even in
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: A Devil Of A Valentine
On the face of it Saint Valentine is a pretty odd fellow, after all how many saints have days promoting procreation named after them? There really is only one other figure who shares such a dichotomy, who like St.Valentine had one of the most holiest of titles yet himself was
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Penny Wise, World Foolish: Pennies Never Cost A Cent
All the attention focused on how costly it is to make pennies is worth less than any piece of copper. For much of last year the most popular cited reason, the go-to justification for scrapping the penny was that making one costs more than what it’s worth. Simple economics, or
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: A More Democratic Senate Is Less So
Canadians certainly are no Nero, but they do have at least one thing in common with the late Roman emperor. In 64 AD it is said that while Rome burned its emperor Nero fiddled. That while his city suffered calamity he amused himself with music. Today Canadians are doing something
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why Liberals Should Fear Gerrymandering
Recently Saskatchewan MP Ralph Goodale wrote a post echoing a sentiment surprisingly popular among what’s left of the Liberal Party membership, and that is, this Conservative government is going to use its influence to gerrymander ridings to maximize support to guarantee future victories. But Liberals shouldn’t be worried that
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Powerful Women Shouldn’t Be News
Kathleen Wynne becoming our sixth female premier isn’t newsworthy, what will be, is when a premier’s gender doesn’t make headlines. It’s of course understandable why newspapers should report on Ontario’s first female premier, it is historic, but ultimately what will determine progress on gender equality is whether the media and
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