Heralding Charity

The Calgary Herald published an op-ed by yours truly on the subject of charitable giving. It concludes:

The next chapter in the future of Canadian civil society has yet to be written. Canadian society today thrives in large part because of the culture of giving and civic investment that is practised routinely by a small minority of the population who comprise Canada's civic core. If trends toward disengagement deepen and become entrenched, it will be much more difficult to reverse these patterns in the future. Strategic action is required now.

In case it hasn't become obvious to those who check this page regularly, the challenges facing our charitable sector are a present preoccupation for Cardus and we have various research and education initiatives in the pipe on this important theme.

Cardus Policy in Public Released Today

This morning an email went from my Cardus account to those on our Cardus Policy in Public list containing the following:

The people carrying the civic load in Canada—those giving to charity, volunteering, and voting—are getting tired, and are dwindling in number. In the next very few years, this is going to begin seriously affecting the organizations and institutions that form the backbone of our country.

In the Fall 2009 issue of Cardus Policy in Public —free, as always—we present excerpts from the recent Cardus report A Canadian Culture of Generosity. This paper asks the hard question: if we're living today off of the social capital cultivated by previous generations, how will we cope with the civic deficit facing the next generation? The policy paper makes nineteen recommendations for all spheres of society to bring attention to this problem.
Also in this issue:
1. David Stewart-Patterson, of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, responds to the Generosity paper by asking his own questions about Canada's overall demographic trend.
2. Peter Menzies reviews Brian Lee Crowley's new book Fearful Symmetry, and shows that the status quo in our work and family values is unsustainable.
3. We excerpt two essays from Cardus' recent collection Think Different, which wonders if urban religious communities are problem solvers or trouble makers.
4. Finally, this issue is closed out by our regular Think Tank Index. We include this to draw attention to the thoughtful and varied voices that constitute public discourse in Canada today.

Read the Fall 2009 Cardus Policy in Public now. As always, you're also invited to explore the breadth of Cardus at www.cardus.ca, www.cardus.ca/comment and www.cardus.ca/think.

My schedule includes a fairly hectic travel schedule over the next few weeks so keeping current on this page may or may not happen, as opportunity permits.

A Few things that amuse, confuse, and confound on a Saturday afternoon.....

- Stephane Dion's wife ends up being a bit too candid on Facebook, and it ends up as the lead item on National Newswatch. Is anyone really surprised that this is what she thinks?

- It seems that twitters cost several politicos (including MPs Dean delMastro, Michelle Simpson, and Stephen Carter, advisor to Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith)headaches this past week. It would seem that using twitters - which limit messages to 140 characters - end up being a temptation that ends up diminishing those who want to be taken seriously in politics. Its a medium whose risks outweigh its benefits, unless it is used simply as an information service (which admittedly is boring but effective - Politician X is entering Y building for a policy announcement today.)

- Ian MacDonald opines that Parliament will last for more than year; Thomas Walkom thinks that Mr. Harper is really changing things. Both provide additional arguments to those made on this page earlier in the week.

- This item is important enough to reprint entirely, and the implications of this ought to be carefully thought through by all Canadians.

The recession has kept Canadians from embracing their charitable side. Figures released by Statistics Canada this week reveal that charitable giving dropped 5.1% in 2008, from $8.65-billion to $8.19-billion -- the largest decline in 40 years. Manitobans were the most charitable Canadians -- 27% were donors -- followed by a three-way tie with Prince Edward Island, Ontario and Saskatchewan, with 26% donors. For the past three years, the national median donation has stayed the same at $240. Nunavut had the lowest percentage of donors (10%), but the highest median donation at $500. The median donor age was 53, unchanged from 2007. Of course, the numbers do not account for the hours of volunteer work donated to charities every year.

- I have been taking a fair bit of heat from friends (?) who suggest that the current performance of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I need to repost (before going to watch the Leafs find an ingenious way to lose again) my 2007 confession that some things in life are done out without rational explanation and that fan is shortform for fanatic.) When (if) they win in my lifetime, it will make the joys of victory sweet. Go Leafs Go.

Our Political Calling

Occasionally, I plan to make a few of my speeches / publications available on this site that are not readily accessible or well-known. This speech - "Irrigating in a Desert - Stewarding our Political Opportunities for Social Flourishing" -- was delivered in January at the "Living at the Crossroads" conference held at Redeemer College, celebrating the release of a book by that same title.

In the speech, I focussed on the "how" of day to day politics from a citizen, not neccesarily an activist, perspective. Realizing that many find politics unpleasant and distasteful, I tried to provide a positive perspective on what might be accomplished as well as a realistic description of the limits of politics. I used the metaphor of watering plants in a desert to make six basic points.

So what I have for you today is not a messianic “Yes we can!”, but a more basic “love we must”. It doesn’t reduce to 15 point action plan or a pithy sound bite; rather it’s simply some elementary political gardening advice.
So, prepare for the reality of the desert.
Learn to see the beauty in the cactus, including its prickles.
Keep watering, even when it seems insignificant.
Keep your eyes open, and water those plants on your path that are most in need.
Observe the big picture – look at the sun and sky and keep the shrubs in proper perspective.
Refresh yourself with the good water that is in your bucket.
And keep focused on the other side. Beyond the desert is a garden.

You can read / download the entire speech (or at least a cleaned-up version of my speaking notes) here.

A More Conservative Canada?

On Tuesday, I noted that there was a new political landscape that necessitated new tactics for all of the parties in the upcoming year. Yesterday, several items caught my attention which seemed consistent with that theme.

Lawrence Martin's Globe column told a story of a "lost decade" for the Liberals and law and order, foreign policy, and free market sympathies that reflected a more Conservative Canada and an "imperilling" of the old Canadian consensus. In the National Post, Adam Daifallah wrote of "A record of Conservative achievement" in which he recounts a similar list, but notes Harper's most important achievement as "the way he changed official Canaidan discourse into one that is more politically conservative in nature."

Even the Liberals inadvertantly played to theme, releasing a list of 233 government appointees during the past year who were Conservative insiders, in most cases having donated to the Conservative party. The message clearly is that the broader machinery of government is being impacted by Conservatives. (I must note a certain irony in the Liberal release. Given the government makes about 3,000 appointments per year, finding only 233 with Conservative donor records actually makes the opposite point the Liberals headline in their release. Given that no allegations of incompetence were directed at any of the appointees, the implication is that simply donating to a political party disqualifies one from a political appointment.)

Not to beat a dead horse, but in our 2006 election analysis, Michael VanPelt and I noted that we were undergoing a period of significant change in Canada, a process that had started and would take a decade or so to sort through. I don't think the trends observed by Mr. Martin and Daifallah are indicative of any clear benchmark having been met -- in other words, this trend is still quite reversable and is hardly set in stone -- but it is an indication that Canada is continuing on a path that was in motion with the election of the Conservatives. I know that for many Conservatives, the journey is slow and causes them impatience. For some on the left, this is clearly a very worrisome trend that even elicits proposals that amount to "a radical subversion of democracy."

Interesting times indeed.,

Raising Thoughtful Questions....

Colin Jackson of Calgary has written various provocative pieces regarding the modern city. My attention was drawn today to a recent piece published in The Mark News in which, among other things, Jackson observes:

When the urge to create is supplanted by the drive to consume, we become toxic to ourselves, those around us, and to the planet. We need a new narrative of the good life based on the deep wisdoms that are our shared cultural inheritances. Human beings are meaning makers. Creating narratives, invention, taking joy in discovery, and being uplifted by the beautiful are in our DNA.

....

When the urge to create is supplanted by the drive to consume, we become toxic to ourselves, those around us, and to the planet. We need a new narrative of the good life based on the deep wisdoms that are our shared cultural inheritances. Human beings are meaning makers. Creating narratives, invention, taking joy in discovery, and being uplifted by the beautiful are in our DNA.

Not sure I would immediately sign onto everything Jackson implies in his article, but getting good answers requires asking good questions, and this article certainly does do that.

Charity and Its Fruits

(this blog is cross-posted at cardusafterhours - a blog that Cardus staff maintain for primarily internal purposes.) If you read it there, full links to the references are available. It uses different blogging software than this blog and I'm to lazy to look up all the links twice :).

My professional readings of late have immersed me in public policy documents regarding charity and how it contributes to society. In the context of Cardus’ recent release of A Canadian Culture of Generosity and our soon-to-be-publicly announced 29to42 campaign, I have been thinking about the next steps from a research perspective. There is lots of interesting work being done in the field. Linda Graff has done some fascinating work helping us understand the motives of volunteers, highlighting how mandating volunteer programs and utilizing volunteers simply for political ends up being another form of “genetic engineering.” Susan Phillips has done some interesting work on the nature of citizenship and the role of volunteers and volunteer organizations in public policy processes. In a recent publication entitled The Intersection of Governance and Citizenship in Canada: Not Quite the Third Way, she provocatively notes that the rhetoric and theory regarding citizen participation does not match the front-line reality, suggesting three reasons for this disconnect: a public policy focus on political accountability which has necessitated an emphasis on defined contractual relationships which limits collaboration; the fact that "Canada has not developed or remodeled the architecture that supports the capacity of voluntary organizations to collaborate effectively in governing"; and third, a perception of the voluntary sector as service providers with the consequence that it has not built its own policy capacity.

The focus of each of these works is very different and yet there are lots of threads that intersect and warrant an interdisciplinary conversation. In the Cardus work, we mused about the connection between the declining civic core as we measured it in the context of volunteering, giving, and belonging and the concern about declining voter turnout and the democratic deficit in the political sphere. Graff's work focuses our attention on understanding the motivation for volunteerism and not blindly thinking we can conscript their efforts for whatever political ends suit us and link closely with the "otherness" syndrome that we -- borrowing from the work of Paul Reed - identified in our report.

Musing as I have been on how what sort of picture was being created by these intersecting threads, I could not help but be reminded of a book on my shelf entitled Charity and Its Fruits - a collection of sermons preached on I Corinthians 13 back in 1738 by Jonathan Edwards. Obviously it has a very different tone than any of the reports I just cited, given that these sermons were preached in a setting of religious revival in a relatively homogeneous Massachusetts small town almost three centuries ago. Yet these sermons in characteristically Edwardsian fashion (for my take and appreciation of this, I refer you to my recent Comment piece), insist on both the supernatural aspect of religion but take great pains to highlight the daily practices that should flow from this. "All true Christian grace tends to practice."

Dealing with the fruits of charity (or our present fear of the decline in charitable fruits, in the Canadian case) is a matter of culture and practice. The benefits of a policy change such as our proposal to change the charitable tax rate from 29 to 42 percent will probably be as much the focus and conversation that is brought to the subject of giving and what it means to be a citizen and a neighbour, than the tangible impact that will be measured by charitable dollars receipted and claimed on tax returns. But rather than to be lamented, this is I think an opportunity to be embraced. It is a means of engaging a diverse society with a multiple of belief systems having to sort out what it means to live civilly alongside each other. Such conversations require us to engage such questions as "Who is my neighbour?" and what I ought to do to help him or her. The answers may range from the trivial through the superficial to the profound, but engaging the question and seeking to consistently live out our answers provide each of a challenge.

New Political Landscape; New Tactics Required

So it would seem most pundits agree that the next election is probably a year or more away, and that we are -- for the first time in several years -- entering a stage in our political life where parties will focus on a longer term horizon. Yesterday's Power Play included pundits musing about how this would affect the tone of the House of Commons and whether some of the nastiness might subside.

In my October 3rd entry, I noted how if the combination of polls, Liberal infighting and an unexpected good showing in the by-elections might propel the Conservatives to become the "Natural Governing Party." These conditions have been met and I heard pundits talking about the Conservatives having "achieved a comfortable cruising speed in government." Even Craig Oliver was waxing eloquent of how the Conservatives have perfected the art of government spin such that previous governments look like amateurs.

Lawrence Martin this morning similarly points to Harper's craftiness. "The skill of the political leader lies in making the people feel good about what’s going on" Martin writes,going on to point out how things are really less good than they appear but Harper is winning the perception game. Yesterday I watched Question Period and it would seem the Liberals are utilizing the same strategy, making over the top allegations regarding the distribution of H1N1 vaccines, trying to make things appear as bad as they might be.

What to make of all of this? There is little doubt that the Prime Minister and his government are winning the perception of competence battle, as the polls confirm. For them, the trick is to remain scandal free and competent managers of the files that come up. Photo ops of the Prime Minister being well received on the international stage don't hurt either, although in truth, the government would prefer to stay out of the news.

For the opposition, an alternative narrative needs to be drawn. Where they can sully the competent image of the government, they need to but in reality, I would suspect they are better off waiting for the Conservative mistake rather than perpetually overblowing issues as they are the H1N1 crisis, lest they become ignored like the boy who cried wolf. The more significant challenge for the Liberals is to develop a new narrative and vision with which they can become identified with in the next election, remembering that their voter-accessible pool is a larger one than the Tories.

For those who watch politics, it is a new phase and set of tactics we get to watch for the next months. Different skills are required to play the long game than the short one, and it will be interesting to see how the different parties respond to the political landscape which has changed rather dramatically in the past year.

Saturday's National Post

I read several newspapers everyday, those that I can get my hands on in print format which is still preferred, but most on-line. Saturdays, however, are my favourite newspaper time. I can read more relaxed without feeling obliged to get to work. Besides Saturday newspaper editions are typically more meaty than others with a range of stories covering topics that I would ordinarily not pay much attention to but, as I page through the entire edition, catch my eye and broaden my horizons (even if that is only to sometimes conclude that I will never bother reading about a particular topic or author again.)

This morning I spent about 90 minutes paging through the National Post which was on my porch when I got up. I really enjoyed Conrad Black's piece from prison on the challenges and rewards of teaching fellow inmates literacy. I have followed the Black case quite carefully and while not convinced entirely of his innocence, hardly believe that his sentence represents justice. This piece reveals some his human and personal side in the midst of his challenging situation, while telling some truly "feel good" and even hopeful stories, from the midst of ugliness.

Charles Lewis has a piece on the Prosperity Gospel, prompted by some British bankers trying to justify their salaries on the basis of Scripture. An interesting range of views are covered, although the piece suffers a bit from failing to make distinctions between capitalism as a system of wealth creation, and the responsible distribution of that wealth.

David Frum does an interesting take on Sarah Palin's upcoming book, quite rightly concluding that she is turning herself more into a Madonna than an Evita. The data provided on our uniquely Canadian way relating to the H1N1 crisis was informative background while summaries of reports by the BMO Retirement Group and CD Howe Institute - both studies which I read in their entirety yesterday as this is an area I am presently doing significant research in -- were accurate summaries although lacking in analysis. On the other hand, I suppose since they appeared in the news rather than the editorial pages that was a good thing.

I got some interesting background on the upcoming football games this weekend, views on what the NHL should do about headshots, a summary of Karen Armstrongs new book regarding "The Case For God" and even some practical financial advice relevant to my situation and a recommendation on which wines provide the greatest value for money. For the loonie or so it cost me (too lazy to look it up but we are subscribers - as I recall the newstand price for a Saturday edition is a toonie) I had 90 minutes of enjoyable company and leave it feeling somewhat enlightened, entertained, and current (although truthfully, I no longer count on the newspaper for that - it is quite rare to read anything significant in the newspaper that the internet had not already informed me of.) We no longer have a wood burning fireplace, or else it would now have great use as a firestarter. We don't need it for a bird cage either so the downside is now I have a thick bundle of newsprint to carry to the recycling box. I do so cheerfully, recognizing the value that good edition of a newspaper does bring to life.

Friday Catch-Up

Some quick thoughts on some loose ends as the work week draws to a close...

Rebranding Canada? - In yesterday's post, I mused about the possible reasons that there was an increased engagement regarding Remembrance Day. John Ivison in today's Post reflects on the new Citizenship Guide released by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney yesterday, which includes a more robust version of Canadian citizenship. Ivison suggests that this is part of the Conservatives "having a creeping victory in the brand war" rebranding Canada to be a conservative country, with the hope that it will reap electoral rewards. I don't doubt that partisan interests are at play but I suspect the reason the Conservatives are pursuing the promotion of these values is that they truly believe in them -- not just that they want to be reelected.

Ignatieff Starting Over - So the Liberal leader is cleaning house in his office, and basically starting over with a new team. Some critics will use this to say "if he can't hire right when he becomes leader, then is really ready to be Prime Minister." Others will give him credit for recognizing that things were not going well and having the courage to fire even long-time loyalists and hire experienced pros. Ignatieff is hardly the first leader to have substantially changed their teams when things were not going well. In the long run, if the new team performs well the downsides of this move will quickly be forgotten.

Airlines Customer Service? - I purchase in 75-100 airline tickets a year and try to be thrifty in the process. Hence, price, schedule convenience, airport (I prefer the small ones like Hamilton and Abbotsford to the Pearson and Vancouver alternatives) and (if all of the above are equal) friendliness of staff and in-air entertainment (I like live satellite TV as watching live news and sports becomes an option) are the deciding factors. I notice this morning that Air Canada is going to add a fee to the emergency exit and bulkhead rows. Although the criteria above has led to Air Canada already being my less preferred carrier (they used to be chosen for at least half of my flights, now it ends up being less than a third), this new twist is hardly going to help them win my business. I manage to get an emergency row seat more than 2/3 of my flights at no extra cost -- very unlikely to pay more to an airline I like less to get what I already got. Hint to the analyst who is charged with evaluating the success of this feature in six months - be sure to factor in the reduced general ticket revenue and market share factors as an offset to the "new found" revenue of extra seat premiums.

A Different Sort of Remembrance Service

Yesterday our family, as we try to do most years, attended a Remembrance Day Service. I expected the usual ritual. Military formalities around laying wreaths, saluting, and the colour guard protocol. Politicians trying hard to be noticed but not inappropriately so. A clergyman trying hard to say things that were at the same time religious but not offensive to those who don't share his religion and often ending up not saying much at all. A minute of silence that takes much less than a minute. I don't mean the foregoing to be dismissive. In fact, I appreciate the fact that there generally is a decent crowd with a mix of older people who sometimes show by their emotion a knowledge of war that my own generation does not know and younger people who bring along their kids, anxious to use the opportunity to provide a civics lesson. Still, there are times when I feel that at least I -- and it would seem many around me -- wear the poppy, do our duty, and leave the service without really having managed to be touched too deep inside of ourselves.





The service I attended this morning was quite different than that. Held indoors at the Okotoks Foothills Centennial Arena, we arrived 20 minutes before the advertised 10 a.m. start time to find most of the 1200 chairs already filled. My guess is that more than 1500 people were crowded into the room, a surprising number wearing suits and "Sunday best" on this mid-week holiday. The Calgary Fire Departments "Cappy Smart" band was already playing and to segue to the formal proceedings, St. James Children's Choir performed a number. The program lasted one hour and forty minutes and contained the usual bevy of greetings from officials (who all kept their remarks very brief), three hymns sung by the audience, the involvement of five local pastors, and a thought-provoking message from Pastor Don Hall of Okotoks Ministerial. Based on a reading of Joshua 2:1-15 where we have the account of the spies going into Jericho and obtaining intelligence Rahab, Pastor Hall made practical remarks on the intelligence side of war, providing a helpful civic education lesson for all of us. He then segued into a more spiritual message, focusing on the doctrine of providence. Just as one cannot understand military operations without the behind the scenes intelligence operations that inform it, so life itself cannot be understood without realizing what God is doing "behind the scenes." The service included several numbers by the Big Rock Singers and the Okotoks Mens Chorus.

So what was different? All of the elements were the same as I was accustomed to yet there was an intensity about the gathering that was different. Part of it is the location I am sure. I have noticed from the reception that the soldiers receive each year as they march in the Stampede Parade through general conversations that the greater Calgary population expresses its appreciation for the military more openly than I was accustomed to in Ontario. There was also a more explicitly Christian focus to the assembly, and there is little doubt that the crowd was much less multicultural and ethnically (and one presumes religiously) diverse than similar gatherings in the Greater Toronto region. The "Calgary is not Toronto" factor is certainly part of it.

But I wonder if there is more. Is the fact that Canada is at war, with soldiers dying with too great a frequency, having an impact on our national conversation? Is the fact that even soldiers on a military base can get killed by a fellow soldier, heightening our awareness in a post 9/11 era that evil is real, very close to home, and cannot be ignored or wished away? Is the fact that that the Canadian government has invested significantly in the military in recent years, that Canada is once again taking its historic place in the midst of the battle on the side of the good guys fighting the bad guys, restoring a greater degree of national pride?

I don't have answers to these questions and I am sure that there is a complicated mix of things going on, but I for one was humbled and thankful to take part in a service which did more than simply the go through the rituals but managed to capture the audience that had gathered, responsibly educate them on the significance of war without glorifying it, while honouring the brave men and women who stand up for our freedom every day.

Lest We Forget.....

Remembrance Day is an under-appreciated day on our national calendar. I say this not because I am fond of guns and military stuff. Quite the opposite. As I noted last year on this date, I really am a gutless wimp when it comes to soldierly things, with neither the stomach or interest in matters military.

But Remembrance Day isn't about soldiers. It is about freedom, standing up for what is right, and believing that there are some things in life that are worth dying for. Thankfully, there are soldiers who are prepared to do that and I am proud of them. Commemorating Remembrance Day is a way of acknowledging their courage, of saying thanks, but also of recognizing the importance of the things they have and are fighting for.

Lee Greenwood has produced a "Proud to Be in Canada" version of his more famous US version of this song, to recognize the significant contribution Canadian troops are making today. Someone has put this version to a video showing some of our fallen soldiers being returned to Canada along the Highway of Heroes. It is worth a reflective listen.....



I just re-read my post from last year and repeat its conclusion as it reflects what I think ought to be a sentiment not just on November 11th, but all the year through....

I will celebrate Remembrance Day 2009 mindful that the contribution I feel too gutless to make, is being made every day by men and women representing me and my country. I will stop to reflect on the price of the freedom I enjoy, and realize that it is a gift to be used in a way that recognizes the significant price tag with which it comes. I will pray for the families of those who have loved ones who are fighting today for my security and to make the world a safer place. And I will pray that He who is the Prince of Peace, will come quickly and bring peace to a world that without Him, finds itself continually at war.

Public Good of Christian Education

In an article I wrote for Christian Week and which I notice is now available on-line as part of their Focus on Higher Education Supplement, I try to emphasize why it is important for us to view Christian education not simply as something private belonging to the Christian community, but rather as something of value for all of society.

Contributing to the public good
The importance of Christian education to society

Ray Pennings
Special to ChristianWeek

Why is Christian education both viable and necessary? I prefer to invert the order of this question: Christian education is necessary, and therefore we must find ways to make it viable.

Typically, discussions regarding Christian education start from the premise that education is primarily the responsibility of parents. Therefore parent-controlled education is better than state-controlled education. Throw in an analysis of a secular agenda which dominates state education, a concern about the declining moral standards which govern youth and teenage behaviour, the benefits of a school system complementing a religious education program, and the argument for Christian education is considered made.

There is validity in this. For me, however, there are more convincing arguments. Education not only involves the content pumped into our brains, but also impacts our hearts, hands and feet. “Whole person” education is not a pedagogical fad but, properly understood, a description of how all education works. To borrow an apt phrase from James Smith’s recent book, education is more about formation than information (Desiring the Kingdom, Baker, 2009).

Cultivating passion, inspiring vocation
This has far-reaching implications. A Christian education is not simply about sussing out the worldview implications underlying various ideas. It is about cultivating students’ passions, opening up for them the possibilities of the world and stimulating in them a sense of vocation.

For this we must pay attention to more than curriculum, academic standards or learning strategies. We need to consider carefully both the role of the teacher as mentor and role model and the community of learning in which this education occurs.

Thinking through Christian education means something more than parents and students entering into some private transaction with an educational institution. The pieces of paper they get on graduation day are not the essence of a good education. A good education provides a context for students to understand their world and how to be citizens and neighbors, economic contributors and partakers of social goods, culture-makers as well as God-glorifying creatures.

Viable and available
My wife and I are keen supporters of Christian education. Between us, we have served on boards and committees for more years than we’ve been married. As members of a community we contribute to the existence of Christian education because we see it as a social good.

But Canada’s public policy framework is unfriendly (to various degrees) to the good that Christian education provides. The availability of Christian education requires a supportive constituency with adequate resources. Christian education providers ought to be motivated to offer an excellent quality education, not simply because of our ambitions for our children, but because doing everything to the best of our abilities is part of our worldview. Excellence is an essential characteristic of a Christian education, not a utilitarian end.

This is where prudence and judgment come into play. We need the resources of the state to support Christian education in Canada or we face challenging choices when comparing Christian education options with the publicly funded ones. Excellence is not determined by money and resources alone. An excellent Christian education is often provided with limited resources, but many Christian school communities also suffer from a lack of resources.

Christian schooling comes with its own unique set of challenges. There are important questions to explore regarding the academic and spiritual outcomes, cultural influence and teaching pedagogy within Christian education. Pointing out the inadequacies of other systems of education is not enough; those in the Christian education sector need to subject themselves to rigourous examination with a view to continuously improving our schools.

Contributing to the public good
It can be tempting to yield to the public perception that Christian education is a fringe matter to be discussed only within the Christian community. After all, Christian schools in Canada educate just five per cent of the countries’ elementary and secondary school children and an even smaller percentage of university students.

Resist this line of reasoning. The graduates of Christian education serve society as much as those who graduate from publicly funded education systems do. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Christian schools are equipping their graduates for participatory citizenship, family and church leadership and to be valuable economic and cultural contributors. These are not private goods but public goods. Christian education needs to be defended and promoted as something to be recognized and valued by all citizens.

A vibrant alternative education system also pressures the public school system to constantly improve. A healthy competition is good and improves performance in education as well.
We cannot be naïve about the challenges that face Christian education in Canada today but neither should we be shy about its importance and benefits. If we understand education in a holistic way—as a process of formation rather than simply dispensing information—Christian education is not really an option but a necessity.

Ray Pennings is a Senior Fellow with Cardus and chairs the Board of Governors of Redeemer University in Hamilton.

ByElections like a Tim Hortons Coffee

So the Conservatives win two ridings they did not win in the last election. The Bloc and NDP each hold onto one riding they did have in the last election. Does it mean anything? In a limited sense, yes -- just like the aroma and taste of your morning coffee makes you feel good. In the long run, No. Twenty minutes later you roll up the rim, discover that the only carry forward of the coffee is a "Play Again" and you carry on with the day's business.

A quick analysis of the numbers (with the current totals based on the Election Canada website reporting all but eight polls in the BC race) compared with the previous election (for which I relied on the numbers prepared by punditsguide.ca) and it would appear that all of the parties except the Conservatives declined their percentage of the overall vote compared with the last federal election.


Conservative% 41.92 2008 %: 22.6 Difference 19.31558534
Liberal% 5.94 2008 %: 14.1 Difference -8.159797687
Bloc % 20.47 2008 %: 24.1 Difference -3.626538084
NDP % 18.36 2008 %: 19.3 Difference -0.943292305


The significant increase in the Conservative vote has to be discounted by virtue of the fact that the Nova Scotia riding was one by an ex-Conservative Bill Casey, votes which did not count last time in the Conservative column even if they were basically Conservative voters. That being said, winning back such a riding -- especially in a bielection -- is an accomplishment. Winning another riding in Quebec is always a feather in the cap. None of the opposition parties can escape the fact that their share of the popular vote in these ridings went down (however slightly in the case of the NDP, but it is still a negative sign) in the year gone by. Governments are not supposed to do well in by-elections. Hard to see, however, how to spin this in any other way than favourably for the Conservatives.

Still, that being said, I am not sure it really means that much in the longer term. Like a favourable poll, it is a snapshot of a situation today, but given that the next election is not being called today, and even if it was, the campaign between the election call and the votes cast will still be determinative.

About all you can say about these results is that these, in combination with a loonie and change, will buy you a cup of Tim Horton's coffee in the morning - nothing more. A few sips and the coffee is gone, and a few days, and these by-elections will also be forgotten. Still, enjoyable while it lasts and there is little doubt that the Conservatives are enjoying their coffee a bit more than their opponents this morning, whatever spin they may be putting on it.

The Fall of the Wall....

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I remember the day well. While news of the challenges facing governments behind the Iron Curtain was daily, no one really expected the wall to come down in the way it did. By Christmas, the governments of the entire communist bloc of countries were being changed. The way we viewed the world and our place in it changed faster than we could realize what it all meant.

I have frequently mentioned in speeches my conviction that students of history, a few centuries from now, will include 1989 as one of the key transition points of history, just as we remember the Protestant Reformation and 1517 or the French Revolution of 1789. While there are symbolic acts that define these events, in reality it is a series of changes that take place over a few decades that need to be understood. In fact, just twenty years out from this event, I am not sure we are in a position today to evaluate the full significance of this event. It is still sorting itself out.

Living in the midst of a significant time in history is like being in the midst of the forest -- all you see is trees and the shape of the landscape is hard to make out. But the trees of freedom and the decline of communism, represented by the events of November 9, 2009, are trees worth celebrating and remembering.



A portion of the levelled Berlin Wall, with five copper remembrance plaques. The photo was taken this summer during our family trip to Berlin. For those who did not catch my reflections on Berlin, I wrote an op-ed in the Calgary Herald at that time.

Time Horizons....

In the Hamilton airport lounge, waiting for my flight to take me home to Calgary after spending the past few days at Redeemer University College. We had a successful annual meeting last evening (followed by faculty artists concert with Valerie Tryon and Paul Thorlakson on the pianos) and an orientation day for new board members today. Reflecting on these events causes me to think of the significance of time frames and horizons.

Annual meetings take place, by definition, annually. As the Chair of a Board of Governors, I am very conscious that the authority we exercise as a board is on behalf of, and as a trust from, the membership and so the annual meeting -- seen by some as a legalistic pro forma exercise, is actually a very important event. Thankfully we had a good meeting in which the only comments raised from the floor were affirming and supportive ones. That however, does not minimize but rather accentuates the importance of the meeting, as a barometer of the trust between the board and the membership and an affirmation that we are leading the institution in a manner is that is consistent with membership expectations. Receiving confirmation of that (at least) annually is a very important part of maintaining a healthy relationship -- no less so than hearing the "I love you" from my wife is important even though I was not questioning that fact.

Today in our orientation session for new board members, we reviewed various aspects of the organization, going back to our founding documents (which re-reading in terms of purpose and objectives are always a useful reminder) as well as reviewing the current issues before us. What struck me was one comment regarding how time frames affect how we see things. Commenting on our environmental initiative, one board member indicated that when we look at things with short term objectives (as in balancing the budget this year), investing in environmental intiatives may not pay but in the longer term it may. Yet, we can only look long term to the extent that we are capitalized and able to sustain ourselves between now and then in order to realize those rewards.

That issue of time horizons that we use in evaluating things is worthy of further reflection. Visionary long-term analysis sometimes seems out of touch with the immediate problem of solving next month's fiscal challenge. Yet, without such a longer-term vision constantly re articulated, we would never have the vision to invest what was required to build and organization.

This summer I was in Europe and visited various castles and cathedrals which took centuries to build. The visionaries that started the projects had long passed on before the buildings were completed. Still, they did their part. As someone involved in various Christian organizations, I am conscious of the fact that short term objectives and goals can become more defining than the long-term vision. We need both. The short-term without the long-term vision results in an activism without direction; the long-term without the short-term results in worthy ideas that die a premature death. Thankfully in most organizations I am involved in, we are blessed with a healthy mix of people and skill sets that provide the range of perspectives, and time horizons of thinking, that provide for a healthy tension and, I think as a consequence, healthier organizations.

The opposite of civility is.... being blunt?

Having made my last entry on the civility of politics, I suppose balance requires me to comment on perhaps one of the most direct exchanges I have witnessed in some time. NDP member Peter Stoffer issued a press release yesterday trying to make some hay at the expense of Conservative-appointed senators. What is not mentioned is that the Conservatives made several attempts at Senate reform -- make whatever you want of the motives for those attempts, the fact of these attempts cannot be denied -- and when they were blocked by the Liberals, the Prime Minister relented and appointed a number of senators.

The NDPs commitment to abolishing the Senate is enough of a defining policy to warrant inclusing on the NDPs wikipedia entry but I must admit it seems a bit over the top to critique Conservative Senators for what seems to be ordinary amounts of parliamentary spending among those newly appointed Senators. It appears from the video that Mr. Stoffer was not quite ready for the bluntness of Senator Mike Duffy's response, who called him an "actor" and a "fake" in a CBC inteiew on the question. Hardly the civility I highlighted the other day, but you must admit, it does make for entertaining TV.

Politics - Civility and Relationships Do Matter

Regular readers of this page will have gathered by now that my idealism regarding politics has long passed. My analysis of what is going on frequently highlights the self-interested and cut-throat tactics that characterize day-to-day political life. While I fully believe that the vast majority of those who involve themselves in politics do so for noble reasons, the system pushes them towards behaviour that few of them are all that proud of, but feel is an inevitable part of the job.

Those who are not near the game are sometimes surprised at the personal relationships and cooperative spirit that does develop between MPs of different political stripes, even as the public sniping continues. A blog posting by Liberal MP Glen Pearson from earlier this week captures some of this. Click the link and take a read -- it helps humanize our politicians and show another side from the regular newsclips.

John Calvin in Calgary Herald

William McKenzie has an article in the November 1st Calgary Herald, reprinted from the Dallas Morning News, which highlights the legacy of John Calvin. The aspects of Calvin's legacy which McKenzie highlights include:
- Calvin's radical view of education who "had a psassion for children learning to read and going to school";
- Calvin's embracing of the intellect, including the publication of his Institutes which are considered "one of the world's 10 most influential works" and "must-read theolgoical works.";
- Calvin's practical mind, which included a closed sewer system in Geneva which he considered one of his great accomplishments;
- Calvin's views of governance which "certainly influenced our democratic form of government.";
- Calvin's view of work which "reshaped the way people approached labour".

Hit the link and read the whole thing.

Ambitious Tim Challies

Tim Challies is a blogger who is on my "daily check" list - his regular entries cover a wide spectrum of topics and helps keep me current. Yesterday, he noted that in addition to his regular blog, he is commencing a new blog entitled 10 million Words. On it, he hopes to read and review all of the non-fiction bestsellers on the New York Times list, with a view to finding lessons on worldview and culture. I applaud his ambition and look forward to following along.

Monday morning catch-up

In favour of Partisanship - Last Thursday, I opined how partisanship is understood to be an inevitable part of politics, and therefore we ought not be surprised that the cheque scandal was not gaining traction with voters. In Friday's Star, McMaster Professor John Varty went a bit further in his op-ed "I'm biased in favour of partisan politics." A few interesting excerpts:

I want no part of any politician who claims to be non-partisan. Not because I love partisanship per se, but because as a historian I know too well that nothing comes from nothing. There is no view from nowhere; yet politicians still clamour to convince us of their superhuman powers of disinterest and aloofness. All it really reveals is their collective capacity for hubris.

...

Of course, the idea/ideal of jettisoning partisanship is nothing terribly new; it is built into the nature of post-Enlightenment western political culture. No legitimate claim to truth and objectivity since the 19th century has managed to survive except via parallel claims of disinterest. It is astonishing, the extent to which appearing to have no position at all is now a dynamic feature of the very process of position formation. If you want, politics is largely about demonstrating the presence of absence. The whole discourse of partisanship has become too vapid for my taste and it is Canadians who are being played for fools.

Well put.

Trudeau on Diversity - Angelo Perischilli has an interesting interview with Justin Trudeau . While the whole piece is interesting from a political junkie perspective, I found the following quote on page 4 most intriguing:

Q How far do we have to accept diversity? “In terms of accepting a different custom or habit or culture or way of dress, I believe that we have to be very open to that. But one thing we shouldn’t be open to is anything that goes against any values that define us as Canadians. A simple thing: the right of freedom of expression, freedom of religion, the right of equality of men and women. These issues are not negotiable. So, yes, we are more than welcoming to someone coming from other parts of the world, and practice their religion, set up their temples and their mosque and practise the way they want, as long as they are abiding by our common values and principles around equality between men and women, respect about other people’s beliefs and religion.There is a classic line that is my freedom to swing my arm about ends where your nose begins. There is a set core of values that anyone who comes to this country needs to respect and abide to. And it has nothing to do with your religion, creed, colour of your skin, or the way you look. It has everything to do with the kind of values you live by.”

Trudeau rightly raises an important issue: if you want to retain freedom, there are limits in giving freedom to people who will use that freedom to take away freedom. Yet, there is a challenge in limiting freedom since in our times when "Canadian values" are seen to be relative and subject to constant redefinition, it is possible to use this argument to take away freedoms from those who use them to take positions we disagree with (even profoundly), but are not in themselves a threat to freedom. That line is a delicate and challenging one to draw.

Sad for St. Thomas - I was raised on a farm about 10 kilometers from the St. Thomas Ford Assembly Plant and it was the dominant employer in the community in which I grew up. Imagining the economy of the community without Ford was not in the realm of realism growing up. So news on the weekend that the plant is closing serves as a reminder that the times are indeed changing. I know from family and friends living in the community that it already faces economic challenges and this is only going to add to these.