Friday, December 21, 2007

About This Blog

A constitutional republic is a state in which the power of government is limited to the protection of the individual rights of its citizens. A just constitution sets strict limits on governmental action and recognizes only those rights that can be logically inferred from the four basic rights of the individual: life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. This discounts the phony rights of the left (e.g. the right to a job, the right to a house, or the right not to be insulted) as well as those of the right (e.g. the “right to life” of an embryo, the right to keep homosexuals from marrying, or the right to incorporate religious doctrine into the running of a government).

The republican social structure stands in stark contrast to the "rule by consensus" standard that has come to define politics in modern Western democracies. The true spirit of republicanism leaves no room for large-scale collectivist notions like those of the socialist states of Europe or the despotisms of Iran or China. Nor does it permit the thousand tiny tyrannies of the welfare state to endure under the auspices of the public good. All forms of statism are anathema to the true republican.

It is in this context that I chose the title of this blog.

The title is not meant to suggest a burning desire on my part to eliminate the last vestiges of monarchism that exist in our Dominion. Rather, it is meant to point towards republicanism’s spirit of independence and moral fortitude. Nor should the title be considered as advocacy for the “Americanization” of the Canadian state. Although I greatly admire many facets of the Unites States and its history, the innumerable virtues of their Constitution have been overpowered over the past century by its unfortunate abundance of inconsistencies. Those inconsistencies have been allowed to flourish to the point that the country that once enjoyed more freedom than any other nation on earth now lies at the precipice of becoming the largest welfare state in the history of Western civilization.

Rather than emulate the American experience, I wish to learn from it. The Canadian constitution must be brought in line with the fundamental rights of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness to an extent that has never been achieved before. Not by Britain and not by America.

This is the Canadian Republic to which the title of this blog refers.

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