Critical Perspectives and Reflections

  There is a quiet campaign circulating, on social and traditional media, pleading the case for delaying the advertising of Christmas events until after November 11th. This day has long been set aside for the observance of Remembrance for the price many men and women have paid over the years, as members of Canada’s armed services, who have either died, or been injured, whether physically, mentally or emotionally, from their involvement in one or the other of our military engagements. I’m not a big fan of the military (I came back to Canada to avoid the USA Draft in the 1960s) nor am I always happy with the way in which Observance Days have been shaped and presented. At the same time however, I understand the logic and need for a day to focus on the men and women who have suffered from their time in the services. They deserve some serious thought and consideration. Having the juggernaut, that is the Christmas season, intrude on that one special day seems needlessly thoughtless and h...

I have come to believe more firmly over the years that a history of family wealth and privilege results in the production of people, mostly men, who are a pretty unfit lot to have their hands on the levers of power. Anne Applebaum (2020) has outlined the rank corruption and incompetence of a number of leaders from the monied classes that, she believes, are part of the gradual destruction of democracy in various parts of Europe1. From Boris Johnson in Great Britain to Victor Orban in Hungary she paints a dismal picture of their self-absorbed personalities and their ripping and tearing at the fabric of democratic life in their respective countries. She mentions the poster boy for anti-democratic leaders, D.J. Trump of course, but her focus is much wider. I would like to briefly discuss examples much closer to home, of how the rich and privileged seem unfit to govern a democracy. Here in Canada, there was a rather funny and very truthful cartoon making the rounds which represents the cont...