BY PAUL TUNS The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do it Again by Robert D. Putnam (Simon & Schuster, $44, 465 pages) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam (Simon & Schuster, $27, 580 pages) Twenty years ago, Harvard professor Robert Putnam made a splash with an essay and [...]
The Interim invited a number of pro-life leaders and contributors to the paper to suggest a book or two that would make a great Christmas gift. Joe Campbell When, as a student, I told an aging priest that I had never read anything by G.K. Chesterton, he declared, “If I had tears, I would cry for you.” I was so impressed by [...]
What is essential Good news for once. The Wall Street Journal reported that churches in America and Europe are pushing back against restrictions on worship services during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that they are not the locus of spreading the coronavirus. In other words, they are arguing that churches are safe as long as certain protocols (namely masking, [...]
Welcome to the new website for The Interim, Canada’s life and family newspaper. As a newspaper printed on dead tree and mailed to subscribers, we’ve been around since 1983. Our original website was launched in the 1990s and updated in 2008. That is decades ago in internet time and our overhaul is long overdue. Better late than never is not a phrase [...]
Low fertility rates, not over-population, present challenge “Demography is destiny,” the French sociologist Auguste Comte reportedly said. Population trends – fertility rates, infant survival, ageing, and other facts that are literally about life and death – greatly influence the economy, politics, culture, and world affairs. Demography may not be destiny, but it is nonetheless a powerful force and one that often seems [...]
Paul Tuns, Editor of The Interim Newspaper By Paul Tuns A parable of Saint Matthew’s Gospel describes a master who, before going on a journey, entrusts his property to three servants. Their charge is not a light one. They have, after all, been entrusted with the wealth — the very substance — of their lord. The talents imparted to them [...]
We are working to bring more graphics and make the paper more pleasing to read, and that process is underway as you will see in our centerspread story on our ageing global population. We are also going to have a redesign in the new year to make the paper a little easier to read. But the downside of making the paper more [...]
By Paul Tuns Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World by Tara Isabella Burton (PublicAffairs, $35, 320 pages). We are told, by pundits and polling data, that fewer people are practicing any religion in the West, and the secularization of America is happening at an ever-quickening pace. Recent surveys show that “religious Nones” — those who do not adhere to any [...]
By Paul Tuns One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger by Matthew Yglesias (Portfolio, $37, 267 pages) Matthew Yglesias is a policy wonk and political commentator for the left-wing Vox website. His new book, One Billion Americans, could have been a good and important contribution to American discourse, adding to the dearth of serious, or at least ambitious, ideas. Yglesias makes [...]
By Paul Tuns The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties by Christopher Caldwell (Simon & Schuster, 2020, $37, 342 pages) Christopher Caldwell should not be anyone’s idea of a right-wing extremist. He is a columnist for the centrist Financial Times and has contributed to the right-of-center Wall Street Journal and increasing left-wing New York Times. His c.v. includes titled positions at [...]
A few months ago, I informed readers that The Interim offices were moving from Toronto to Hamilton. While some of my colleagues at Campaign Life Coalition still come into the Hamilton office regularly, some are working at home either part- or full-time. I fall into the former category, taking the GO bus twice a week, nearly two hours each way. Jim Hughes, [...]
The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite by Michael Lind (Portfolio, $34, 203 pages) In 1941, James Burnham wrote an international bestseller, The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World. Even then, Burnham found that the age of capitalism and bureaucracy was being replaced by a group of managers. Michael Lind, a conservative (early 1990s) turned liberal (mid-1990s) [...]
By Paul TunsDr. Robert Walley passed away on June 22, at the age of 81, following a battle with cancer.Dr. Walley, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, and his wife Susan moved to Canada in 1973 after a London teaching hospital gave him a choice: do abortions, change his specialization, or leave the country. He moved to Toronto, earned a Masters of International Public [...]
The federally funded Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights has hinted it is time to shut down Campaign Life Coalition’s annual National March for Life. Sandeep Prasad, executive director of Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, and Rev. Alba Onofrio, director of Soulforce, co-wrote at rabble.ca, a left-wing website that the National March for Life is “the largest demonstration against [...]
Rona Ambrose, interim leader of the Conservative Party The Interim has learned that a last minute intervention by interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose will prevent any debate on the party’s abortion policy at the upcoming convention in Vancouver May 26-28. This past Thursday, at Ambrose’s request, the National Policy Committee of the CPC voted to block a resolution that would have [...]