Author Archives: Rainer Knopff

Oil and Gas+ but Not Coal: Thoughts on Alberta’s Mining Imbroglio

Originally published at the School of Public Policy on Apri 1, 2021.

Alberta’s coal-fired political conflagration has revealed a broad and deep anti-coal animus. Polling tells us that about 70 percent of Albertans oppose the Kenney government’s efforts to increase coal mining in the eastern slopes. Contributing to this alliance are those who dislike oil and gas as much as coal. More interesting are those who want Oil and Gas but Not Coal (OGNC) to help drive Alberta’s economy. From the OGNC viewpoint, it’s a matter of cost-benefit analysis: coal mining simply yields fewer economic benefits at higher environmental cost than oil-and-gas production.

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Here’s how Alberta can force the provinces to renegotiate equalization

Originally published in the Calgary Herald on February 1, 2020, based on a longer study for the Fraser Institute.

Premier Jason Kenney’s equalization gambit — his oft-repeated threat to seek the removal of equalization from the Constitution — is not as outlandish as his critics maintain, though it could use some rethinking and fine-tuning.

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Endings and Beginnings

Companion dogs, herding dogs, guard dogs, rescue dogs, guide dogs, law-enforcement dogs, and, of course, hunting dogs. All these and more attest to a unique (and marvellous) inter-species partnership. Humans and dogs have clearly co-evolved for close and loving mutual assistance.

The partnership is not symmetrical, however. Does anyone doubt that dogs are better at “reading” us than we are at reading them?  I didn’t think so. On the other hand, the average life span of a dog is much shorter than ours, which has both a downside and an upside.

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“In Defense of Liberal Democracy”: The Leitmotif of my Career

 

On May 30, 2016, about a year and half after I retired, an event was held in Calgary to celebrate my  work. That so many friends thought I merited this honour surprised and moved me. At the end of the day I tried, inadequately, to express my gratitude. In those concluding remarks, I also attempted a brief summary — reproduced below — of my academic preoccupation.


I want especially to thank Peter Russell for coming today, and for taking us all the way back to the beginning, to my PhD dissertation, In Defense of Liberal Democracy — which is also how I have entitled these concluding remarks. When Peter says he was more my student than my doctoral supervisor, he sells himself short. He taught me a lot then, and has continued to be a valued teacher and mentor ever since. He taught me especially — and certainly through his own character — the meaning of reasoned and reasonable disagreement. He has, in my eyes, always modelled the essential virtues of a liberal democrat.

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Courts and Character: Reflections on the Work of Walter Berns

Originally posted at the School of Public Policy’s blog on October 8, 2015.

In an earlier SPP post (also posted on this site) I paid tribute to Walter Berns and Harry Jaffa on the occasion of their almost simultaneous passing in January 2015. Subsequently, I was privileged to participate in a roundtable on the work and legacy of Walter Berns organized by the Claremont Institute for the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in San Francisco, Sept. 2-6, 2015. The following is the text of my remarks:

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Appointment Ironies

Originally published on October 5, 2015 in Policy Options as part of a series entitled “Stephen Harper and the Judiciary.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s appointment of seven of the Supreme Court’s nine judges has done his government little good. The high profile clashes between the “Harper Court” and the Harper government are the stuff of legend. But not to worry, the real action has reportedly occurred behind the scenes with the appointment of lower court judges.Roughly three-quarters of federally appointed trial and appeal court judges owe their positions to Harper’s government, and they might promote his conservative agenda in ways that the Supreme Court has not. These lower court appointments, we are told, “are Mr. Harper’s enduring legacy.” Continue reading →

Did the 2015 Alberta and PEI Elections Kill Fixed Election Dates?

Originally posted on the School of Public Policy blog, July 6, 2015.

The Alberta and PEI elections of 2015 were the first early elections called by Canadian majority governments in contravention of fixed-date legislation. Since British Columbia enacted such legislation in 2001, all Canadian jurisdictions except Nova Scotia, Nunavut and Yukon have followed suit. None of the Canadian laws are legally binding, and they were never expected to prevent early elections when minority governments lost the confidence of their elected legislative assemblies. The framers of fixed-date laws did, however, hope they would foster a convention against snap elections called by governments that continued to enjoy confidence. This hope was dashed in minority-government circumstances when the undefeated Harper government called the 2008 election, twelve months before the 2009 date set by its own fixed-date law. Has the hope now also been dashed for majority governments by the recent Alberta and PEI elections? Continue reading →

Walter Berns (1919-2015) and Harry Jaffa (1918-2015): A Canadian’s Appreciation

Originally posted at the School of Public Policy’s Blog on January 15, 2015.

Two intellectual giants died within hours of each other on January 10. Walter Berns and Harry Jaffa, both students of Leo Strauss, wrote prolifically and influentially over very long careers and on a wide range of subjects. This appreciation of their work focuses on their common, lifelong study of American political thought and constitutionalism. I will have somewhat more to say about Walter Berns, one of my teachers and mentors, than about Harry Jaffa, who I met a couple of times but know chiefly through his work on Abraham Lincoln. Continue reading →

Justin Trudeau’s use of Charter hyperbole

Now that Justin Trudeau is Canada’s prime minister, it might be worth revisiting his previous Charter-based critique of Stephen Harper. The op-ed below appeared in the National Post on April 17, 2012; it  is based on a more extended piece — Charter Hyperbole: the New Politics of Heresy — in the c2c Journal.

In 1982, Pierre Trudeau realized his dream of a constitutionally entrenched Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Thirty years later, Trudeau’s son Justin, Liberal MP for Papineau, excoriated Stephen Harper for turning his back on major policies wrought by Charter politics. If Harper had his way, Justin suggested, Canada would be “going against” abortion and same-sex marriage. Fortunately, the real Canada, the Canada defined in part by these policies, had thus far resisted Harper’s reactionary plans. “If I believed that Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper,” Justin declared, “I would think of wanting to make Quebec a country.” Continue reading →