Variety Programming Ahead

During the past few weeks, the Olympics have had such an everywhere presence in the media that they demanded attention (and truth be told, I don't mind the bi-annual two-week distraction, so was a willing consumer of the media force-feed.) For the past few months, Cardus' 29to42 campaign and its focus towards the upcoming federal budget has certainly been a preoccupation on my professional time, with the impacts also evident on my blogging entries which have disproportionately focused on related themes. Monday being March 1st marks a new month and a quite different pace for me as I have a range of speeches and responsibilities in the next few months which will undoubtedly impact what you might expect to find on this page. Consider today's blog entry a quick summary preview, with a bit of PR thrown in for the events in case you might want to incorporate some of these into your calender.

Federal Budget - For the past several years, I have been in the budget lock-up for the few hours preceding the budget release, drafting an analysis that Cardus releases shortly after the budget's release. (See here for last year's effort.) If you are not on our email distribution list and want to ensure that a copy of this analysis lands in your in-box with a few hours of the Minister of Finance standing to deliver his speech on Thursday, sign up for a free subscription to Cardus Policy In Public here. In addition to our own analysis on Thursday, a few days later you will receive our next complete issue of CPIP which will include an index of other thinktanks and how they have analyzed the budget.

Social Justice for Canadian Conservatives - The following week I will be back in Ottawa participating in a panel discussion at the Manning Centre's conference. Former Cabinet Minister Monte Solberg, Dave Quist from the Institute of Marriage and the Family, Jennifer Marshall from the Heritage Foundation and myself will present and debate this important issue.

Reformed Post=Secondary Education On Monday, March 22nd, I will be at Redeemer University engaging in a discussion with the Student Group Kuyper's Cafe regarding some of the challenges and opportunities that face those of us interested in the provision of a Reformed University Education in today's environment.

God and the Global Economy On April 16-17 I will be participating in a conference at Regent College in British Columbia addressing global economic issues. My focus will be labour issues and we will be discussing them in the context of and response to Pope Benedict's encyclical last year Caritas in Veritate.

Public Christianity in a Privatized Society - On May 4th, I am scheduled to deliver the second annual Hill lecture sponsored by ARPA on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. I don't see a link to the event yet on their website but if you are interested, contact their executive director Mark Penninga (info@arpacanada.com) for further information.

Puritan Conference in August - I am scheduled to deliver two keynotes and participate in a panel discussion at the second annual Puritan Reformed conference to be held in Grand Rapids in late August. I plan to speak on "Living Christ-centeredly in Everyday Life" based on Psalm 111 in one of my speeches and on "Christology: Calvin, Kuyper and Politics" in the other. These sessions were chosen within the overall conference theme "The Beauty and Glory of Christ."

Given that most of these speaking assignments have associated written assignments for publication purposes, it is quite self-evident that my free time reading will be focused around these topics over the months to come, with probably some spill-over making its way onto this page. Of course, we still have the regular Cardus projects relating work and economics, Christian education, stained glass urbanism, and cultural change which have my active engagement at various levels, so there will be undoubtedly some blog fodder produced there. Given the fact that part of the reason I blog is to help me stay disciplined in articulating (hopefully) coherent thoughts on the everyday issues of public life, expect some political analysis and reflections on the quirky and important items that pop up in the newspaper to make their way here as well.

Like the title says, variety programming ahead....