Glen's Blog

Liberalism – The Disconnected
Yesterday, 7:25 AM by Glen Pearson

As far back as 1956, Edward Shils, in his The Torment of Secrecy, reasoned that, “both the love of public liberty and the preference for the common good dominate the action of only a minority.”  He believed he detected even in those early years that the growing middle class was moving away from citizenship and [...]

Liberalism – The Disenchanted
29 Jul 2010, 6:03 AM by Glen Pearson

Americans woke up this week to some troubling news from the Rockefeller Foundation, showing that citizens are more economically insecure now than they have been in a quarter of a century, and the trend lines suggest the worst is still to come.  That life so painstakingly put together by the Great Generation following World War [...]

Liberalism – The Discomfited
28 Jul 2010, 7:21 AM by Glen Pearson

The ancient Cicero claimed: “The good of the people is the chief law.”  Tough to, disagree because it sounds eminently liberal.  Canadians today would concur easily, but we would have to follow up with, “which people?” This is a question that will be frequently asked of Canada, as our form of democracy grows a little [...]

Liberalism – The Comfortable
27 Jul 2010, 7:46 AM by Glen Pearson

We merely mock ourselves when thinking we are like our grandparents in their industriousness and commitment to the strengthening of Canada.  This is a hard truth but becoming more readily apparent with each passing year. Liberalism was necessity born out of affliction and authoritarianism.  While the noble ideals of democracy found their origins in ancient [...]

Liberalism – Sidebar #2
25 Jul 2010, 8:51 PM by Glen Pearson

Putting together these blog postings on liberalism hasn’t been without its challenges.  When the idea first occurred to me near the end of June, I brought a number of key young people together to solicit their opinions and to discern how they saw the liberal spirit being effective in the coming years.  They responded with [...]

Liberalism – The Retreat of the Elites
23 Jul 2010, 6:30 AM by Glen Pearson

David Cameron from Britain gave his “Big Society” speech this week, in which he concluded, “Of course there is not one lever you can simply pull to create a big society.  We should not be naïve enough to think that simply if government rolls back and does less, then miraculously society will spring up and [...]

Liberalism – The Citizen Departure
22 Jul 2010, 6:25 AM by Glen Pearson

Two weeks prior to his death, Albert Einstein told a friend it was his liberal spirit that prepared the path for him to achieve something of greatness.  He then went on to say that when he was provided the option of going into mathematics or physics, he chose the latter because he “didn’t want to [...]

Liberalism – The Big Things
21 Jul 2010, 7:38 AM by Glen Pearson

When Peggy Noonan, staffer and memoirist of Ronald Reagan, wrote in the Wall Street Journal last year that, “Something new was happening in America.  It is the imminent arrival of a new liberal moment,” what did she mean?  She dreaded the arrival of the Obama juggernaut and its inevitable emphasis on health care for all, [...]

Liberalism – The Scatterlings (2)
20 Jul 2010, 8:46 AM by Glen Pearson

As a rule of thumb, liberals prefer leaders possessing a certain sophistication regarding the world and its complexities (Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Pearson, Trudeau, Kennedy, Clinton, Tony Blair).  Conservative temperaments prefer the rugged and tough leaders with backbone (Teddy Roosevelt, John Diefenbaker, Ronald Reagan, Stephen Harper, George Bush).  Owing to its historical relationship within the British [...]

Liberalism – The Scatterlings
19 Jul 2010, 8:41 AM by Glen Pearson

Franklin Delano Roosevelt likely oversaw the greatest liberal renaissance in recent history.  Prior to his first election he referred to himself as a liberal waiting for the opportunity to set the country aright.  Everyone presumed he meant the economic fiasco that had a stranglehold on the United States; they were wrong.  The nation was burdened [...]