Avoiding Extremes

History is about the past, and The Right Balance: Canada’s Conservative Tradition is not only about Canadian politics in the past, but it was written and published in the past—that is, before the upheaval of the recent election. It has to be read and reviewed in that light, even if the old battles with which it is much concerned have since been won and lost, and all perspectives have changed.

Senator Hugh Segal, a well-known Red Tory, once wrote a cover plug for a book in which I argued Canada had become a social democracy. How very agreeable of him, but Segal was like that, progressive while firmly Conservative, advisor to premiers and prime ministers, unsuccessful candidate for the House of Commons and for the leadership of his party, a prolific writer on political affairs, appointed to the Senate by a Liberal prime minister. I wish I could now return the favour he granted...