Concepts with Shawn Whatley

Conservatism is experiencing a renaissance in the West. It is gaining a new self image beyond its historic passion for economics. Dimpee Brar has entered the scene in high gear. Over the last few months she has written provocative pieces at a rate of roughly one every two weeks. She's been on panels, podcasts, and interviews. I hope she can maintain her output! A few of her articles include: Why I...

Most civilizations prioritize space or time. They either choose empire and expansion (space) or permanence (time).  Durable civilizations choose both. Harold Innis was a giant in Canadian academia in the early 20th century, but most people have never heard of him. He offers deep and helpful insights on civilization, progress, and culture. Professor John Bonnett wrote his thesis on Innis and introd...

Christine Van Geyn captured the central debate around freedom of expression vs state control and put it into a children's book.  As Interim Executive Director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, Van Geyn has the deep knowledge and experience required to explain the essential elements of free expression in a short book titled, Maple's Garden: A Canadian Freedom of Speech Story . We also discus...

How do we unify the very different voices on the non-Left? Do our differences mean we are doomed to a soft tyranny of centralized messaging? Josh Lewis has been wrestling with this, and many other issues, for the last 9 years on his podcast, Saving Elephants . He's hosted many of the biggest influencers in American conservatism, including a number of voices from Canada and Europe. The conservative...

Professor Joshua Mitchell is courageous. He argues for his positions even when they go against the grain of politically acceptable thought. Mitchell says conservatives have done a good job at addressing the debt and tradition economies. We are strong on fiscal policy, and we stand up for the debts we owe to our fathers. But we are almost completely blind to the more profound, urgent, and critical...

Professor Elizabeth Corey says conservatism is about far more than fighting. In fact, its major emphasis lies outside politics altogether. Corey offers a thick view of intellectual conservatism. She invites us into something challenging and deep.  I tried to push her on whether she was asking too much. Was her approach practicable? Should we never ever fight? What role does conflict play in a cons...

Tim Haggstrom doesn't just promote theory. He bears the personal scars of legal practice. He leads an organization focussed on legal theory, while fighting (personally) for free speech. This caught me off guard. I thought Tim was simply an exemplary leader of a noteworthy organization. I had no idea that he was also personally up to his neck in litigation about the legitimacy of race-based scholar...

Update on the quest to define conservatism! After almost 100 episodes, I see a way to articulate conservatism coming into view. I hope to capture it all into a short book/long essay later this year. In the meantime, I offer a recap of liberalism and contrast it with conservatism. I also touch on inheritance, myth, and experience as themes within conservatism. I also tackle a summary of neoconserva...

Jodi Bruhn offers a sobering take on Canada. Professor Bruhn is an expert on governance and constitutional thought. She says we might not appreciate the significance and potential fallout from the Supreme Court wading in the Notwithstanding Clause. We discuss civics education and whether there's an increased appetite for first principles. Thanks for checking this out! I look forward to your commen...

Tom Flanagan explains why we need Hayek's ideas about spontaneous order, institutions, and the limits of state control. Hayek will frustrate central planners and also anarchists. Libertarians can't depend on Hayek; he's too supportive of traditional institutions. Professor Flanagan has taught a generation of political science students at the University of Calgary. He's informed so much of what the...

Evan Menzies shows why Albertans should be furious. As an Albertan himself, he understands. And as a political consultant, he sees even more reasons to be upset than most Albertans have heard of. He is frustrated and doesn't hide it. In spite of powerful reasons to be upset, he still thinks Alberta should stay. The rest of Canada isn't paying enough attention to this. Alberta separation wouldn't b...

Ashley Moyse is a bioethicist and theologian at Baylor University. In America, he hails from the political left. If he was in his native Saskatchewan, he'd be centre-left or perhaps even right-wing to some people.  Our conversation tackled technology, ethics, and humanity in professional education. How we can keep clinicians human and prevent them from becoming robots? Although we situate the conv...

I asked Dr. Matthew Rowley for help with questions on political theology. It turns out he's another big supporter of independence for Alberta.  The current Supreme Court hearings last week are pouring fuel on the Alberta separatist movement. The Mark Carney Liberals are intervenors on the SCC hearing about Quebec's Bill 21 and use of the notwithstanding clause (s.33). Carney is asking the Supreme...

Can AI replace teachers? Would students benefit? Should classical schools -- great books curricula -- use AI?  I tried very hard to get Dr. Grant Havers into trouble in this episode. But he was too smart to say anything that would offend school administrators. Instead of picking a side in the pro- vs anti-AI debate, Dr. Havers worked to bring out issues and objectives. If we trust AI to think for...

Dr. Paul Gottfried packages his writing in dynamite and grit. He uses an academic style which is now almost extinct on the political right. No one tries to provoke in order to make a point anymore. The Left still uses it all the time, but not the Right. You cannot listen to Gottfried with modern antennae tuned to gasp at every offence. If you do, you will miss the impact of his next three punches....

Sam Duncan has worked in government for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Doug Ford. He is current VP at Wellington Advocacy. We discuss a powerful article Sam wrote titled: Toward a conservative counter-elite. Sam's article almost has enough content to outline a whole book. He diagnosed Canada's problems, uncovers the causes, and offers a detailed list of almost a dozen solutions....

Professor Barry Cooper is an Albertan. This fact transcends location. It speaks to a prairie self-understanding, a prairie myth, that stands apart and distinct from the Laurentian myth. For example, Cooper says bilingual Canada is a "huge myth outside Laurentian Canada." Professor Cooper argues that George Grant did not understand the prairie mindset. He was a Laurentian, and as such, Grant was cl...

Ron Dart seems to embody generosity. It's hard to find a hard edge in him. Even when he states an opinion strongly, he always works to understand your side of the issue.  Ron and I approach things from different angles, but we both try to embody the same method. Of course, his is far more honed and nuanced, educated and articulate. But I think our conversations reflect a genuine desire to understa...

Mia Hughes has no qualms about saying the Emperor has no clothes. She says what the rest of us cannot say, because we must stay within the boundaries of what our licences require. Transgender medicine strikes at the core of what medicine is; at what it means to care for patients. Should doctors do whatever patients want, or should doctors do whatever saves life and limb? There could not be a great...

Professor von Heyking just left Lethbridge Alberta and moved to Arizona to help lead the Civics program at ASU. Our discussion pivoted around differences between USA and Canada, civics education, and how constitutions differ on each side of the border. This episode ran more like a visit between friends. We jumped between topics too much, laughed too much, and were probably too open about our opini...

Do ideas determine elections? Or should we forget about ideas and focus on issues? Dan Pitt has experience with both theory and practice. He teaches and writes books about political theory. And he's been involved with several election campaigns, including serving as a candidate in a recent by-election. Power rests with ideas. Unless we shape ideas, forming government can mean you are simply in off...

We return to a persistent challenge for conservatives. What do we do with intellectuals? Can politicians trust them? What role, if any, do intellectuals play in conservative politics? Dr. Ferenc Hörcher argues that intellectuals have a different job than politicians, but each can benefit from the other. In the ideal case, intellectuals avoid telling politicians what do, and politicians foster an a...

Franco Terrazzano knows taxes. As Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, he's the one in front of media calling on government for accountability on tax spending. But behind the pizzaz lies a deep thinker. Franco loves the nerdy arguments buried in books few people read. They inform his tirades on social media. So don't be fooled, he's not just a talking head. I kept trying to pull our disc...

Barry Bussey has spent decades thinking about freedom and working around the legal edges of it. Most people don't think about freedom until it's compromised. Barry thinks about it all the time. Canada has led the world as a test case on the limits of freedom with our MAiD (euthanasia) legislation, approach to COVID, and the Emergency Measure's Act. These are complex legal issues. I always learn so...

Barbara Kay has written professionally about issues on the non left since the 1960s. We might want to say she had a 'front-row seat', but that would be wrong. Her writing went beyond simple observation. She helped shape conservative opinion in Canada for half a century. Barb wrote a piece on Norman Podhoretz, when he passed in December. She mentions reading everything he had ever written: books an...