Andrew Lawton A comedian with whom I worked on a project a while back once told me that there are no bad experiences in life – just good experiences and material. As a columnist and commentator, I’ve certainly tried to embrace this, and channel life’s unpleasantness into something constructive. That said, I must confess I could live with a bit less material than [...]
Andrew Lawton: When the Canadian government gave itself the authority to freeze its political critics’ bank accounts earlier this year, it should have rattled the confidence in the state held by the most trusting among us. You didn’t have to be a donor to the Freedom Convoy to realize the dangers of this sort of power. Though as is so often the [...]
Andrew Lawton: The minting of Pierre Poilievre as the new Conservative leader shouldn’t surprise anyone. From the time the firebrand Carleton MP launched his campaign, it has been clear that no one was going to catch up to him, or even come close. As always in the aftermath of a leadership race or nomination battle, two words became inescapable: “unity” and “pivot.” [...]
Andrew Lawton: Man does not live on Supreme Court decisions alone. The Kansas abortion referendum should serve as a reminder that culture matters far more than politics does. Last month, Kansans rejected a ballot measure that sought to affirm the Kansas state legislature’s right to restrict abortion access. The proposal was defeated 59 per cent to 41 per cent, which is about [...]
Andrew Lawton: I often lament how the mainstream media ignores stories that don’t fit whatever the official narrative of a particular subject is. This is, of course, short-sighted of me. With many of these stories, I wouldn’t want the mainstream media to pay attention only to add their trademark spin. One of this summer’s most-ignored stories was Canadian Armed Forces veteran James [...]
Andrew Lawton: Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked what seems like a simple question: “Can you provide a definition for the word woman?” Brown Jackson said she couldn’t, famously attributing it to the fact that she’s “not a biologist.” The question is a necessarily blunt one, because most people know full well what a woman is and are [...]
AndrewLawton: A silly old cartoon came across my social media feeds the other day for the bajillionth time. In it, two people stand at opposite sides of a number drawn on the ground. One thinks it’s a ‘6’ while the other thinks it’s a ‘9’. The moral is supposed to be that perspective matters (though some variations take the relativist view that [...]
By Andrew Lawton: Once again, the Conservatives are searching for a new leader, and once again it seems the party is rehashing the same fight over its identity and future. At the time I’m writing this, the Conservative leadership race has six candidates, including the scrappy frontrunner, the media favourite, the social conservative, the outsider, the renegade, and the “Who the heck [...]
AndrewLawton: Call them the honks heard ‘round the world. The convoy that rolled across Canada in January before making downtown Ottawa the freest spot in the country sent a message about much more than vaccine mandates. In a country whose pandemic restrictions have been defined by complacency and acceptance rather than resistance, the convoy was the moment at which Canadians decided they’d [...]
By Andrew Lawton: I hold a somewhat unique position in Canadian politics as the only candidate, to my knowledge, to have the support of both the Campaign Life Coalition and Marc Emery in the same campaign. When I ran for Ontario’s PC party in 2018, I was given a green light by the CLC for my on-record pro-life stance. Emery, the infamous ‘prince [...]
Andrew Lawton The ballots from September’s election weren’t even fully counted yet and the knives were already out for Conservative leader Erin O’Toole. As I wrote last month, there were ample reasons for conservatives – in particular social conservatives – to be displeased with O’Toole’s campaign. Beyond these specific and timely grievances, however, is an ongoing tug-of-war by factions of the party [...]
Andrew Lawton: I didn’t coin this bit of wisdom, but it bears repeating: when voters are given the choice between a Liberal and a Liberal-adjacent, they’ll go for the real deal. Such is the most apt way of summing up 2021’s controversial election, which gave the Liberals another mandate with nearly an identical power breakdown in the House of Commons to what they [...]
Andrew Lawton: As I and many others have written previously, the political left has been winning the culture war for years. Whatever little victories have been gained by social conservatives as of late have been dwarfed by a general backslide in society on a number of conscience issues. In my efforts to diagnose this problem, I’ve identified a chief attribute that makes [...]
Andrew Lawton: In our pluralistic society, it has become common to find some rights seemingly butt up against each other. Transgender rights and women’s rights, gay rights and religious freedoms, and so on. As these conflicts fit into the ongoing culture wars, I take comfort in knowing the two most important rights, those to life and to free speech, are never in [...]
Andrew Lawton: Earlier this year, Pastor Artur Pawlowski became something of a libertarian folk hero when he chased police and public health inspectors out of his Calgary church while barking that they were “Nazis” and “Gestapo.” After a year of the state’s heavy hand coming down hard on churches (and businesses, and families, and individuals), it was cathartic to see the little [...]