PEACE, ORDER & GOOD GOVERNMENT?

Hon. Jason Kenney On Government, Civil Society, and the Common Good

PEACE, ORDER & GOOD GOVERNMENT? Hon. Jason Kenney On Government, Civil Society, and the Common Good

With Jen Gerson, Pat Nixon, and Ray Pennings

May 17, 2018 | Glenbow Museum in Calgary, AB THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

We are grateful to the following people and organizations that made this conversation possible:

TIM HEARN

DALE & MERLEEN HODGSON Born from the Spirit of the West

Scale Date N/A 4/29/10

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Graphic Design, Photography and Illustration Drawing Name (Exhibit Name & Number) 169 Quigley Dr, Cochrane, Alberta, T4C 1R4 Cochrane Toyota - Version 4 Phone: (403)932-8944 • Fax: (403)932-8974 Web Site: www.krisdesign.ca • E-mail: [email protected] FOREWORD

MICHAEL VAN PELT, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CARDUS

CANADIANS HAVE QUESTIONS: big questions. Questions more enduring than the angst of a business cycle; questions greater than the ebb and flow of politics and policy; questions packing more meaning than the latest social media mania. In some ways, these questions hint at the big questions of life. Who am I? Who are we? For what purpose are we here? These big questions show up with more intensity and immediacy when we face complex social challenges, when the issues of the front pages of the news leap into our lives and knock on our own doors. Do my fellow citizens and I have the internal resilience to chart our future with grace and dignity? Is there a community that will rally to collective action to Can our citizenry, tackle our challenges and spur us to the good life? Should I place my you and I, build the confidence in my country, or more specifically, in the state to wrap its cuddly arms of security around me or just grant me freedom and the vibrant institutions justice due me? for tomorrow that This robust and compelling speech by the Honourable Jason Kenney prompts two questions of similar magnitude. The first: Does our 150- can solve our shared year Canadian federation have the vitality and durability to shape a promising future for our country? Can it endure and even flourish in challenges and our new world, with its major advances in technology and a shifting locus of direction and commitment; the present crisis of resource devel- mediate between opment and trade; the ever-increasing demands of a social welfare state the state and the and an aging population; new authorities, even those unauthorized, like social license; more complicated business structures; and, man, even the individual? sale of beer? Does the historic idea of subsidiarity that animated and inspired our founders to distribute powers and responsibilities still have credence today? The second question: Can our citizenry, you and I, build the vibrant institutions for tomorrow that can solve our shared challenges and me- diate between the state and the individual? There are indications that we can’t. Our dream of a civil society may be more fleeting today than ever before. Indications such as our willingness to love our neighbours as ourselves in the form of charitable giving is one example. The trend toward less social participation and more social isolation is another one. Deepening misunderstandings of the nature of faith and religion, our social contract, and public dialogue are other examples. We invited the Honorable Jason Kenney to set aside his day-to-day partisan and policy tasks and briefly suspend the rough-and-tumble of

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 5 political life to help us tackle these way that normal human beings questions. We invited Pat Nixon, like you and me can engage with one of Canada’s most respect- theses ideas in real policy, regula- ed civil society leaders, and Jen tory, political, and cultural life. Gerson, representing the fourth estate, journalism, to respond. My Permit me to close on a person- Cardus colleague Ray Pennings al note. I am the son of an im- moderated their spirited interac- migrant. My mother and father tion in Calgary. chose, of their own free will, not pressured by persecution or politi- It is said that when questions cal status in their mother country, are no longer asked, answers are to be Canadian. To this day, I am more readily given. Cardus is astounded by the gift they gave to deeply committed to advancing me and to my family. these kind of questions in the public square. We aim to be one That said, my son, Kenton, then of Canada’s most creative think a fifteen-year-old boy who unex- tanks, asking questions and mak- pectedly died five years ago, ar- ing arguments many others are gued that our family had made a unwilling to ask and to make. We major mistake in judgment by not argue that two thousand years of settling in Alberta. I often think Christian social thought really about why he thought this. It was does have something to offer us more than building fires under the and our current challenges today. Three Sisters overlooking Spray The two great directives, to love Lake. It was more than coveting God and to love your neighbour powerful trucks and hard guitar as yourself, have brought our strings. It was more than his rifle world and this country, Canada, beneath the cot outside under the some of the greatest human inven- open sky. tions ever: the rule of law, the dis- tribution of powers, democratic Kenton sensed a spirit, one of impulses, foundational freedoms, generosity, one of possibility, one and concern for human dignity. of endurance, a spirit of truth and clarity, and one of joy and hard The think tank, a lesser known work and creativity. What Kenton idea in Canada than the United sensed, our country needs. It may States, is a powerful intellectual be resisted as it surely is today, force in this country. It harnesses ladies and gentlemen, but it is the ideas of academics and intel- worth the fight. Our country will lectuals and hurls them into the become great because of it. public dialogue. It does so in a

MICHAEL VAN PELT

6 | Cardus cardus.ca SPEECH

HON. JASON KENNEY ON GOVERNMENT, CIVIL SOCIETY, AND THE COMMON GOOD

THANK YOU VERY MUCH to our hosts at Cardus and to the spon- sors, and all of you for being here. Thank you for allowing us to think about some first principles together. I must say I’m a huge fan of Cardus and the good work that it does. Some of you will likely know that Cardus was originally known as the Work Research Foundation. Its impetus, its mode of force, comes out of Dutch immigrants to Canada who brought with them a particular passion for a strong civil society, for what they call sphere sovereignty, and an incredible work ethic to boot. Thank you for allowing the token Irishman up here to take the podium for a bit. I’m be honoured to share the podium with Jen Gerson and with Pat Nixon, a truly great Albertan who’s been honoured with both the Order of Canada and the Order of Alberta of Excellence for his ser- There is a vision here vice to the least fortunate in our society. that order does not I must say that after nearly two years of putting 150,000 kilometers on my Dodge Ram pickup, doing over a thousand events in every corner mean uniformity, but of the province—from La Crete with the good Mennonites up there to the Dutch reformers in Taber, from Milk River all the way over to rather makes room Rocky Mountain House with Pat’s son, Jason Nixon, and everywhere in between, in every range of Alberta society, and talking about current for differences that issues—I really do welcome the chance to speak about some of the first can and must be principles of our common life together. respected. Let me begin with the title I’ve been given, which is “Peace, Order, and Good Government.” Of course, this is the defining theme of theBritish North America Act, Canada’s original Constitution Act. You may be inter- ested to know that peace, order, and good government, or POGG, was used in the British Colonies beyond Canada, in New Zealand, Australia, in South Africa, and in Ireland. It was used as a term to confer general legislative authority. But in Canada in particular it has become some- thing more than that. It has come to typify or summarize our approach to statecraft. We read in that clause a tradition of moderation, a prefer- ence for ordered development rather than revolutionary change, and an acknowledgment that government is for the common good. We consid- er it a distinct advantage of our Canadian patrimony. The phrase “peace, order, and good government” belongs in the part of our Constitution dealing with the division of powers, section 91 in particular dealing with the powers of the federal government, and

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 7 section 92 enumerating the com- is not monolithic government. plementary provincial powers. As Good government favours plu- you well know, disputes between ralism. Canada’s federalism is an the federal and provincial govern- expression of the principle of plu- ments have been a mainstay of ralism in our constitutional order. Canadian political culture and, more recently, between provinces We should also understand how and provinces, but I won’t get into deeply this tradition of pluralism that. is rooted in our history. I’m con- cerned that we sometimes imag- Basically, the Quebec I wish to suggest that sections 91 ine our current discourse about and 92 are not just a matter of difference and diversity is com- Act said that Catholics technical assignation of jurisdic- pletely new or novel, that we are tion. Rather I think we can read somehow rejecting or cutting our- could take public here a vision of how to work to- selves off from our past. In fact, gether, of how to accommodate modern discourse about diversity office. They could differences and yet still, within is rooted in an eighteenth-centu- serve their fellow that diversity, to have a common ry conception of pluralism, and overarching vision. We can cap- in particular in the Quebec Act of citizens and the ture that vision of unity in diver- 1774. sity that characterized the United common good without Empire Loyalists who founded Following what our French English Canada at the end of Canadian friends called Le having to disavow the eighteenth century. There Conquete, the conquest of New is a vision here that order does France, the British Crown imposed their faith and their not mean uniformity, but rather through the Royal Proclamation makes room for differences that of 1763 an assimilationist policy, deepest convictions. can and must be respected. I speak an effort to rub out the differ- in my partisan language often of ences in the former French col- renewing the Alberta advantage, ony, to marginalize the exercise which means that we have the ca- of the Catholic faith, to prevent pacity to try something different Catholics from obtaining public in Alberta that we believe is ad- office, and to suppress the French vantageous for our people. Others civil code. This policy sought to may choose other approaches and remove all of those institutions of alternative policies. That’s the civil society that the church had beauty of a federation. That is created: The first school in North what the division of powers allows America, a result of the good us to do, to create a series of poli- works of Catholic nuns in Quebec cy laboratories to pursue our own City, Le Ursulines; the first hos- preferences and priorities. pital in North America founded by Catholic nuns, again, in the The Canadian constitutional vi- Quebec colony in Nouvelles- sion is, therefore, I submit, one France; the first social welfare pro- of pluralism. There is not just one grams starting the great tradition state actor, but several state actors, that Pat Nixon personifies, begun each with its own sphere of sov- by people of faith belonging to a ereign action. Good government church community.

8 | Cardus cardus.ca The new British regime following This all happened in 1774, when the conquest saw in those institu- in Britain itself and in its closest tions a threat to their dominance colonies, like where my Irish an- of North America. And so, sad- cestors lived, the penal laws still ly, they tried to rub those things prevailed and Catholics could out. They tried to create, instead not take public office and their of a pluralistic approach to soci- faith was formally suppressed. ety, a monistic approach, with an oath of allegiance not only to the As former premier Jean Charest sovereign, the king, but also to said about the Quebec Act, the king’s Protestant faith, which “Canadians made a decision very meant excluding 90 percent of early in their history, a choice the population of what we now that over time has come to de- call Quebec. fine the very essence of who we are. Our ancestors decided right But thanks to the enlightened ad- from the start, to build a coun- vice of Guy Carleton, the British try based on the right to speak a Parliament in 1774 adopted the different language, to pray in a Quebec Act, which was a com- different way, to apply a different plete reversal and was in many legal system, to belong to a dif- ways one of the most enlightened ferent culture and to enable that and “small-l” liberal expressions culture to flourish.” He went on of British liberalism and plural- to say, “The Quebec Act of 1774, ism in the history of the empire. passed into law more than two Basically, the Quebec Act said that centuries ago, almost a hundred Catholics could take public of- years before Confederation, is fice. They could be local notaries. in this respect the most funda- They could be magistrates. They mental document in Canadian could serve the state. They could history. It is the foundation upon serve their fellow citizens and the which the Canadian partnership common good without having was originally built. Its spirit to disavow their faith and their defined this country from its in- deepest convictions. ception. It represents one of the most enlightened decisions ever It said that Quebec could re- made in Canada.” tain the civil code and maintain a pluralism in the legal system, Interestingly, that very same act, with a binary system of the because of its embrace of plu- British common law and the ralism, was rejected by the thir- French civil code. It said that all teen American colonies and was of those institutions of civil soci- one of the efficient causes of the ety—the university, the schools, American Revolution. It led di- the Catholic hospitals—could rectly to the First Continental all function in cooperation with Congress and is listed to this the state, and they did not have day in the American Declaration to choose between their con- of Independence as “danger- science, their faith, and their ous to an extreme degree to the ability to serve the public good. civil rights and liberties of all VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 9 America,” because it allowed government. Rather, we must “popery” into North America. recognize that there are spheres of social action independent of That has a ring of intolerance. I the state. They have their own have to ask whether we are hear- essential contribution that they ing echoes of that kind of intol- make to the common good. For erance in our political culture Kuyper, the government could today. Would the same people only satisfy the common good on who could not serve the common its own if it were true that all that good prior to 1774 in Quebec we had in common as people was because they would not take an that we were subject to the same oath renouncing the faith quali- government. But no. Citizens, all fy today for the Canada Summer of us, have many higher and pri- Jobs Program? Rachel Harder, or ties and duties to the commu- MP for Lethbridge, was barred nity, to multiple communities, from chairing a parliamentary beginning with “the first com- committee because of her con- munity,” as Aristotle called it, the victions rooted in her faith. . . . family, and to communities of Is her treatment a return to the faith, of commerce, of culture, of sentiments that governed the common purpose. northern half of North America prior to the Quebec Act in 1774? Another term perhaps more com- I’ll let you answer that question monly used that describes this no- for yourself. I think, though, that tion is “civil society.” Civil society these are indications that we can addresses the bonds that people never take for granted the gener- form around common missions osity of spirit of our historically and common goals. These soci- grounded pluralism. eties are what constitute society writ large. Indeed, society writ Now, I have to pause to say I’m large is not something that we aware that when I speak at a encounter as often as the numer- Cardus event, it’s obligatory to ous societies in which we live, refer to the Dutch Reformed tra- our families, schools, companies, dition of Abraham Kuyper (many faith communities, sports teams, good students of which I can see music groups, fraternal associa- here), who spoke of the great no- tions, social clubs, charitable ven- tion of the spheres of sovereign tures. Edmund Burke famous- action. The Dutch Reformed ly called these “little platoons” tradition identified with Kuyper, when he said in his Reflections on who was both a theologian and a the Revolution in France, “To be prime minister, speaks of sphere attached to the subdivision, to sovereignty to describe that same love the little platoon we belong principle of pluralism, not as a to in society, is the first principle vision of government alone, but (the germ as it were) of public af- of the entire social order. It’s fection. It is the first link in the not enough to have the princi- series by which we proceed to- ple of pluralism reflected in the wards a love of our country, and existence of multiple levels of towards a love of mankind.” FORT AMHERST, ST. JOHNS, NEWFOUNDLAND

10 | Cardus cardus.ca With that in mind, as the leader that happen. To put it another of a new conservative party, I’m way, government is at the service aware, very aware, of what I think of, should be at the service of, a is a false caricature of how mod- flourishing civil society. That does ern conservatives think about so- not mean no role for government, ciety. Namely, that creativity, ini- but it means rethinking that role. tiative, and responsibility lie only and exclusively in the market, and I might point out that our host that government is a threat to all tonight, Cardus, devotes consid- Canadians made a of that. This, I believe, is a kind of erable energy to thinking creative- thin, libertarian misconception of ly about how government policy decision very early in government as, at best, a necessary might lift up rather than displace evil. This is often caricatured by civil society. To take one exam- their history, a choice reference to a distorted quotation ple, their research on child-care that over time has attributed to Margaret Thatcher options focuses on what parents that “society does not exist.” really desire in contrast to what come to define the very politicians and bureaucrats are de- That’s not my vision, nor is it the termined to provide. I’ll mention essence of who we are. vision of the renewed conserva- another example of recent Cardus tism that I and many of my col- research. They looked at the pay- Our ancestors decided leagues are proposing for Alberta. day loan industry. I point that out Our vision is not one of a great because I think conservatives need right from the start, to mass of individuals living between to be reminded that markets too the market on the one hand and can fail to serve people well and build a country based the state on the other. That vision can lead to exploitation. Policy on the right to speak a only takes into account three as- instruments need to respond to pects of society, the individual, the such exploitation, especially of different language, to market, and the state. Therefore, the vulnerable. if the market fails, the state must pray in a different way, act, and if the state fails, individu- The research that Cardus under- als are left to fend for themselves. takes points us in a particular to apply a different It completely leaves out all civil way toward the contribution that society does. communities of faith can make to legal system, to belong our common life. I would recom- Now for someone in government mend that you look at the work to a different culture or someone who aspires to govern, that they’ve done on the Social and to enable that it’s easy to begin with the ques- Cities Project, which argues per- tion, What should government suasively that urban planning culture to flourish. do and what should government needs to take account of the in- not do? But I think that’s the stitutions of civil society, particu- wrong question. The better ques- larly houses of faith. The Cardus – Jean Charest tion is this: What is the best way Halo Project has tried to quantify for civil society to flourish, and to the contribution of faith groups. in turn enable human flourish- (They didn’t ask me for those ad- ing, especially so that those who vertisements by the way.) are most vulnerable are cared for? Then we can ask what the gov- Yet we know that the deepest con- ernment might do to help make tribution of faith groups cannot

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 11 be measured. It is possible to mea- still did not understand. At that sure the value of the meals served time, HIV had not been identi- to the poor, but that meal could fied. Some people still thought it be delivered in other ways. Is not was commonly contagious, and the real value the social connec- yet these nuns who grew up in tion, the personal touch, the bond some of the poorest communities of solidarity that comes with that on earth flew to one of the rich- meal? It is not a criticism of gov- est communities on earth to do ernment to say that it cannot do something that no government that, that it cannot serve a meal. began, and why did they do it? It is simply an acknowledgment Well, it was summarized in the that we need more than govern- name of their home, the Gift of ment to truly flourish as human Love. I was transformed watching beings together. these humble, simple, often un- educated women from the Third Government is at the Let me share with you a very per- World giving their all to men sonal example. Ray mentioned I who had often been abandoned service of, should studied at a Jesuit university in by their families and their friends, San Francisco. It happened to who were alienated personally and be at the service of, be in the late 1980s, during the spiritually, filled with anxiety and a flourishing civil AIDS crisis in that city. Through depression and a terrible disease. a friend of mine, I heard about a I saw many of these men come society. That does remarkable place that had been to be reconciled with themselves, established by a woman we in with their families, and spiritual- not mean no role for the Catholic tradition now call ly reconciled as well, not through St. Teresa of Calcutta, Mother any kind of proselytization, but government, but it Teresa. She established the first simply with the witness of com- AIDS hospice in North America, pletely transformative, uncondi- means rethinking the Gift of Love Hospice in South tional love. There is no govern- San Francisco. Through my ment program and nothing in the that role. friend, I began to volunteer there market that can be a substitute for periodically and then semi-reg- that love and what I witnessed. It ularly on weekends, when we’d changed me. go down and do menial chores, doing the laundry and cleaning What compelled Mother Teresa to the floors, doing janitorial work, establish that place—not in moral cleaning the dishes, just trying to judgment of what lives those guys help out these humble little nuns might’ve led but with uncondi- who Mother Teresa had flown in tional love for them? What moved from India and Africa. those young nuns from India and Africa to join her in that work? It A few reflections about this. Now was simply this: As Mother Teresa first of all, this was the first AIDS said: “I see Jesus in every human hospice in North America. It was being. I say to myself, this is hun- established at the height of the gry Jesus, I must feed him. This crisis, when men in particular is sick Jesus. This one has lepro- were dying by the thousands ev- sy or gangrene; I must wash him ery year of a disease that people and tend to him. I serve him,

12 | Cardus cardus.ca because I love Jesus.” The simplic- were dying as refugees. Through ity of a mission of love. I suspect their initiative, a great former im- an AIDS hospice like that would migration minister, Ron Atkey, not receive Canada Summer Jobs responded by creating what we Program funding today. now call the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. If those By the way, a little interesting local churches raised enough Alberta note, did you know that money to cover the costs, and if Mother Teresa, St. Teresa, vis- they undertook to provide settle- ited St. Paul, Alberta, in 1984, ment and integration support to just three years before I ended those families, the government up down there in San Francisco? would approve their resettlement The local community raised some to Canada. In nine months, we money to help her work abroad, welcomed sixty thousand Indo- and so she returned their favour Chinese Vietnamese boat people with a visit. They said that there as new Canadians. They’ve gone were particular needs in the com- on to flourish in every area of munity with our First Nations Canadian society. people who were living in pov- erty and alienation. She ordered I was proud as immigration three of the nuns who were trav- minister to expand the Private elling with her to stay behind in Sponsorship of Refugees St. Paul, Alberta. They still have a Program. It’s a perfect example home there that cares for the ab- of what I’m talking about: the original community in St. Paul. power of civil society to produce good social outcomes versus Let me give you some other per- overly bureaucratic programs. sonal experiences of how people Government goes and interviews moved by faith have done so people. Then the United Nations much to allow for human flour- tells us where to select from, and ishing in our pluralistic society. they refer cases to us and they go In 1978, the world saw the crisis through the bureaucratic system. of the Indo-Chinese boat people They come to Canada. They’re fleeing Communist Vietnam by put in public housing units, of- the hundreds of thousands. Tens ten away from employment, of thousands died in the high often in what become de facto seas. Piracy, unsafe marine pas- ghettos. Often these people have sage, and Canadians were moved no English- or French-language deeply. The government didn’t proficiency, and they’re left with- have the capacity on its own to out employment. They’re left on resettle large numbers of people. their own. This has created huge They just didn’t. social challenges in parts of ur- ban Canada and elsewhere. It was faith communities, local congregations of every tradition, But the Private Sponsorship of that stepped up to the plate and Refugees Program opened up said that something must be the doors to twenty-five thou- done to help these people who sand Middle Eastern ethnic and OTTAWA, ONTARIO

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 13 religious minorities, many of of spiritual vision that motivated them Christians facing genocide Mother Teresa. in their home countries. They were brought to Canada and set- I’m not here this evening to an- tled here by faith communities nounce new policies in child who enveloped them with love care or payday loans or any and with true charity. The out- other subject. I’ve just come comes with those people, I can from a party convention where tell you: the data is very clear. we’re working on how to flesh The refugees resettled through these ideas out into a platform. the private sponsorship program I will look at taking the com- and civil society have remark- mon good ideas that Cardus has ably higher levels of income brought forward. But now is a and employment and education good time for all Canadians to outcomes than those who come think about first principles. through the bureaucratic govern- ment program. Let me add one other reflection on tonight’s theme of peace, Another example of a better kind order, and good government. of partnership is the International Some wrongly believe this idea Day Against Homophobia. I can is a recipe for an authoritari- mention one program I estab- an, meddling, or all-supervising lished that initially involved only government, especially from a government action. But then I in- federal government. But as one vited groups in the gay commu- of our great constitutional schol- nity to partner with us to resettle ars, Donald Creighton, demon- gay Iranians who were facing po- strated in his 1939 submission tential execution in their country to the Royal Commission on of origin. I went to eastern Turkey Dominion-Provincial Relations, to meet with these men who were the phrase “peace, order, and living underground facing per- good government” encompassed secution and helped to set up a not merely the limited modern discreet program to resettle hun- idea of government as the state, dreds of them to safety and free- but also of good governance, dom here in Canada. which includes the healthy divi- sion of responsibilities between Another good example of the the state and civil society, the power of partnership and civ- latter of which has an important, il society is Pat Nixon and the even essential, role to play in a Mustard Seed. He’s going to well functioning, well-ordered share that with us, I’m sure, but society. this is something he started in a basement that flourished into Creighton concluded that “good one of the largest social agencies government referred to good in this province. Through Pat public administration, on the and Mustard Seed’s work hun- one hand, but also had echoes of dreds of lives have been saved what we now talk of as good gov- and restored by the same kind ernance, which incorporates the MORAINE LAKE, ALBERTA

14 | Cardus cardus.ca notion of appropriate self-gover- must restore local government nance by civil-society actors, since and individual self-government. one element of good government was thought to be its limitation As Michael Novak wrote in his to its appropriate sphere of re- brilliant The Spirit of Democratic sponsibility.” As Edmund Burke Capitalism, which had a huge observed, “Society cannot exist, influence on me: “Human flour- unless a controlling power upon ishing requires at least liberty will and appetite be placed some- from torture and tyranny in the where; and the less of it there is political order, liberty from the within, the more of it there will prison of poverty and hunger in be without.” the economic order, and in the civic, cultural and moral order, Good self-government through liberties of conscience, thought, a robust and active civil society word, inquiry, science, the arts is the form of good government and association. A free society most compatible with individual consists of three independent liberty and human flourishing. systems, the political, the eco- The stronger these institutions nomic and the moral, each aimed are, the freer the people. They at securing one of these kinds of create habits of self-discipline natural liberties.” and organic order. When they THE HON. JASON KENNEY disappear either through neglect To close with a last reflection, is the leader of the United or deliberate undermining, their peace, order, and good govern- Conservative Party in Alberta role is replaced by the less feeling ment is often characterized as and was the last leader of and often more callous hand of being a kind of mundane con- the Progressive Conservative the state, which is by turns ne- stitutional vision as compared Association of Alberta. He was glectful and over-generous, in- to the US Declaration’s, life, a Member of Parliament from sensitive and unresponsive, as a liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 1997–2106 and during this distant authority must be. piness. But that’s not the end of time served as the Minister for the story, because in 1982 when Citizenship, Immigration and The removal of local responsibili- Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau Multiculturalism, the Minister ty and the dismantling or wither- and Parliament adopted the New of Employment and Social ing of civil society mean the end Constitution Act, they wrote into Development, and the Minister of the practice of self-govern- it a new preamble, that Canada of National Defense. ment by free men and women. is founded on principles that rec- We lose the habit and the ability ognize the supremacy of God and Kenney currently resides in to organize our society ourselves. the rule of law. I think this is a Calgary, Alberta. The form of democracy is re- transcendent vision, not a mun- tained in the casting of one vote dane one. It is a vision that mo- among millions, but the habits tivates millions of Canadians to of a democratic people, the true do good every day, urged by the spirit of democracy, of rule by promptings of their heart to serve the people, for the people, and God by serving their neighbours. of the people as Lincoln wrote is Let us honor those Canadians, lost. To restore the constitutional not marginalize them. Thank you promise of good government, we very much.

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 15 DISCUSSION

RAY PENNINGS, MODERATOR Co-Founder and Executive Vice-President of Cardus

HON. JASON KENNEY Leader of the United Conservative Party of Alberta

JEN GERSON Journalist-in-Residence, University of Calgary

PATRICK R. NIXON, AOE, CM Executive Director of Oxford House

RAY PENNINGS: Thank you very much, Jason, for your speech. We have a lot there to engage. Pat, I’m going to start with you. You’ve had a distinguished forty-year career in civil society, as a commu- nity and institution leader, those little platoons that Jason talked about. Looking back, how has Canadian civil society evolved? Is it stronger than it used to be? Where are some of the tension points? Just an introductory reflection from your particular perch.

PAT NIXON: Forty years ago I was on the street trying my best to bum some money in order to put some more alcohol in my system. I was fortunate enough to have four men come walking down that street. I thought they were going to punch my lights out, but when they got close I said, “You know, I’m kind of hungry. Think you could give me some money for something to eat?” And they said, “No, we won’t give you any money. We’ll buy you something to eat.” That was my first experience with what I would call “civil society.” The common good was very real to me that day, and it never ended there. When I found out that they were people from a church, I thought, “Oh, no. They’re probably going to make me pray and do something that I don’t understand.” To make a long story short, what they did is they took me home. They didn’t give me a garage, which would have been an upgrade in my life. They actually gave me a bedroom and they gave me a pillow and they fed me. The next morning, they encouraged me to take a shower. One of them cut the mats out of my hair. Looking back, they gave me a chance to be able to have a life again. When you talk about the common good, this is the common good in all practicality. It’s what we need to preserve. Speaking on behalf of people of faith, we have a responsibility to worship God through

16 | Cardus cardus.ca love and kindness in whatever GERSON: The broader global sto- community that we’re in. ry about Christian persecution is not really at the forefront of PENNINGS: Jen, you’re here on the narrative right now. And behalf of the media. It’s a lot we can have an argument easier covering government about whether that should be, than it is civil society. Can but that’s just the reality; that’s you give us a journalist’s per- not a decision being made by spective on why the media of- one single force. I would go ten has a hard time capturing further and say the media’s not these things and communi- doing so well. The media is cating them. struggling on the whole. The number of journalists even JEN GERSON: The first issue is here in Alberta has dramati- that the media doesn’t tend to cally dropped off, even since I like good news stories. In jour- came here ten years ago. With nalism school, the first day of limited resources, I think class, we’re told, “If it bleeds, most journalists see covering it leads.” It’s an old-fashioned government as our primary phrase that means the things role; it’s not necessarily our that are ugly and violent make primary role to cover civil so- the top of the news. ciety. So, if we just don’t have the bodies to cover it, then it That is not to say that we don’t will get lost. cover good news stories; often we do. However, when we cover PENNINGS: Jason, critics of civ- a news story, typically we would il-society policy ideas often want it to fit into some kind of say that one of the challeng- broader narrative or larger sto- es is an inherent inequality. ry. So, for example, one type Whereas a government pro- of good news story that I think gram deals with every citizen the media did cover quite a lot and has a responsibility to was Syrian refugees being reset- every citizen in an equal way, tled through civil society. That civil society has groups here got a lot of coverage. Why was and there. Not everyone is that? It fit into broader stories included. People fall through about what was happening with the cracks. How can govern- the Syrian war and the refugee ment and civil society work program. The majority of the together so goods can be media focused on the Syrian shared by all Canadians and refugees, and not many stories not just by those with social focused on the Yazidi refugees. ties, say to a church commu- I think there was a reason for nity, for example? There are that, right? many today who don’t have that. Twelve percent of peo- JASON KENNEY: And I couldn’t ple attended a place of wor- get any coverage of my Iraqi ship in the last seven days. It refugees or my Iranians. means 88 percent did not. PAT NIXON

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 17 KENNEY: Regarding equality, at there’s an indifference. I don’t the extreme, powerful states know about you, but I drive motivated by achieving equal- home, I drive into my garage, ity have been tried repeatedly I go into my house. When I in modern history and have leave, I get into my car, I open been a catastrophic failure. If my garage, and sometimes, es- omnipotent states focused on pecially in the winter, I don’t redistribution and equality, even speak to my neighbour prevented people from falling for that whole period of time. between the cracks, then we would have seen great pros- When we think of the church perity and human flourishing in the community in the past, in the Soviet Union or in to- we saw the steeple in the mid- day’s Cuba or in any of those dle of a community and we systems characterized by that knew it was the centre of a philosophy. We tried that, we community and it actually got the T-shirt, and it was not knocked down those fences. a success. I think it was very But more and more that stee- clear in my remarks, there is a ple has been knocked down, role for the state to help with and knocked down, and we’ve human flourishing. The state been less and less able to get to can do certain things more ef- know our neighbour. That was ficiently than civil society. But a real part of our social fabric, ultimately, you can’t touch the how we cared for neighbours, heart of people in the ways that even child welfare. If I had people like Pat Nixon have trouble with my dad sixty-sev- done. If I’m not mistaken, Pat, en years ago, I’d walk out the you very purposefully refused back gate, take a left at the ap- to accept government funding ple tree, and go see my Uncle for your program. You took Frank and say, “Dad’s really some maybe for infrastructure, frustrating me, I don’t know but you didn’t want strings at- what to do” and he’d give me tached to change the way that a little advice and help me fig- you approached it. ure out what to do with my troubles. NIXON: Well, we did get some government funding in the Family units were closer togeth- end for what we were do- er, fences were designed to keep ing, but the teeter-totter was the dog in as opposed to keep very solid on the private side your neighbour out in privacy in order to give our neigh- so you could have a barbecue bours an opportunity to be all by yourself. We have to fig- good neighbours. One of the ure out how we’re gonna knock things that we’ve seen over down those fences that actually the years is that the fences in cause indifference in our com- our communities have gotten munity. I think government can taller and taller. We’ve be- play a part in helping us with come more private people and JEN GERSON

18 | Cardus cardus.ca that, but ultimately, we need to If people have lost trust in take responsibility for it. mainstream media to deliver them the news, they’ve also PENNINGS: Pat just described lost trust in the church to be the positive side, the role of the single arbiter of the moral strong families and also the good in society, right? That’s negative side, with today’s so- the breakdown that we’re cial isolation. Studies today starting to see. Hope? On link that kind of social isola- the media side, I think that tion and a lack of meaningful we’re going through a period connections to mental health of transition. I think there is issues and some major pub- going to be an end to the tun- lic health concerns, and even nel, but I think it’s going to be Civil society and the economic challenges. Jen, as a generation coming. I think you poke around with your there are going to be broader church seem to have journalistic lens, where do consequences for society as a you see signs of hope? result of that breakdown. this salutary effect on

GERSON: I’m the wrong person When we were talking about societies. They seem to ask on this panel for signs this panel beforehand, I was of hope. I am the anti-hope like, “Just so you’re clear, I’m to create communities person on this panel. When an atheist.” I’m not really part that stay together we talk about social isolation, of this tribe, and I’m may- I see parallels between that (a be not the right person to be and help one another. decline in church attendance here, and you’re like, “No, and social isolation), and a no that’s good, be an atheist, And how do societies concurrent decline in trust in that’s good.” But I would de- the media, right? The result- scribe myself as a bad atheist flourish absent that? As ing atomization of communi- or a poor atheist. The reason ties and individuals in the so- why is this; this is the stum- an atheist, I don’t have cial sphere is mirrored in the bling block that I really hit ideological silos and polariza- upon: The role of civil society an answer. tion of our media outlets. Not and the role of church seem only do we go into our own to have this salutary effect on – Jen Gerson garages and not talk to our societies. They seem to create neighbours, but now we’re communities that stay togeth- not even sharing the same er and help one another. And newspaper. We go to our own how do societies flourish ab- individual websites that cater sent that? As an atheist, I don’t to our particular ideological have an answer. That’s what interests, that only furthers I’m thinking through. I don’t that breakdown. I don’t think see the state as a replacement that those are correlations, I for that. I think that the state think that those are parallel would be really bad at that. I issues. But I think they have also don’t see my fellow atheists a similar cause, and that is the stepping up to the plate to cre- decline in the influence of in- ate secular versions of this. I see stitutions, right? people my own age losing trust

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 19 in the church to be arbiters of PENNINGS: That highlights, the moral good. What are you Jason, one of the often un- left with? Well, you’re left with seen contributions of just being alone in your house with one of Canada’s diverse faith your TV. communities, the Sikh com- munity. It also takes us to the KENNEY: This is where you pluralism question you raised throw in the obligatory ref- in your speech. Those good erence to Robert Putnam’s works that benefit society Bowling Alone and his import- and the common good come ant work as one of America’s out of the particular religious leading sociologists on what commitments and ways of he termed “social capital.” He life these communities con- associated that very closely tribute to this country. As the with levels of religious obser- examples from your speech vance and practice. I do have showed, those contributions a sign of hope: immigration. are public as well as private. I was on the playing field of They also represent real dif- immigration for five years as ferences of conviction and be- a minister and ten years as a lief between Canadians. We multiculturalism minister in don’t like to emphasize that the government. The highest side, the disagreement. And levels of religious observance, the challenge of pluralism and I believe the thickest so- is that we have to find ways cial capital in Canada, are of living with our differenc- found in communities of new es, especially deep ones. You Canadians. Sometimes they appealed in your talk back to are in cultural silos as they the Quebec Act of 1774 and become more integrated into contrasted the Canadian his- Canadian society. tory of pluralism with that south of the border. How do That may be a good thing, ac- we reach a sense of a common tually, because they preserve good when we have very di- those reciprocal loyalties from verse communities and also their countries and cultures a lot of isolated individuals? of origin. Often their faith is Who’s job is that? Where central to that. They take care does that come from? of the widows and orphans. You can go to any Sikh temple KENNEY: Well, I’ll answer this or gurdwara and 24/7 there by rejecting the claim of is a free kitchen. Like a “soup my friend, Prime Minister kitchen,” it is called a “lan- Trudeau, that Canada has no gar,” operating in the house of core identity, no core values, worship. This is an example of and is a post-national state. I the social capital motivated by don’t believe we are just some faith that is being renewed be- random collection of individu- cause of immigration. als. That’s a depressing, atom- ized conception of society in JASON KENNEY

20 | Cardus cardus.ca my opinion. No! The reason understanding of a moral or- immigrants want to come here der and a good. Somewhere and stay is because they find in that has to be created. Do this country something very you have any thoughts in the valuable, habits of life, a social midst of all of the brokenness order, the rule of law, equality where we are today? How do of opportunities. These things we recover an aspirational did not happen by accident. sense of the common good as They are grounded in our insti- citizens together? tutions and our history. How do we reinforce that? How NIXON: Let’s go back to liber- about by teaching it in our ty. We talked about liberty. I schools? How about teaching thought that was a fantastic the next generation about this word. I think whenever we inheritance? How about in- have liberty, we have power. stead of saying that the history Both come together. People of the formation of Canada is without liberty have no pow- one primarily of rejecting colo- er. It’s taken away from them. nialism and it’s all terrible in- I’m a father of six sons. Every justice in the past, how about time one of them was born, I teaching the enlightened idea would pick him up, put him of the Quebec Act and how it in my arms, and say to my- shaped the development of self, “I’m gonna provide and Canadian pluralism? So, I’m I’m gonna protect this child.” not talking about some dumb, Another thing that I found jingoistic nationalism, but a myself saying over time was, ”I modicum of civic literacy in want to give them purpose and our schools as a grounding of prestige.” common identity. When we’re working with PENNINGS: Patrick, in his people who are coming out of speech, Jason said that orga- those vulnerable spots in life, nizations like the Mustard it’s easy to say, “Okay, I’m gon- Seed can do things that gov- na feed you, I’m gonna provide ernment can’t do to help peo- for you, I’m gonna protect you ple. Many of the people you by giving you a warm place to served most closely knew the be.” But you also say, “Come pain of human brokenness on. I have hope for you. I be- first-hand. Broken families, lieve that you can stand up and broken lives, failing institu- walk. And I want to walk with tions. Bad choices and also you.” That’s a purpose, to say bad circumstances. There are that there’s a vision and op- two sides to dealing with that. portunity for them to claim. One is the love and compas- “Here’s prestige, you can stand sion and the hugs and all of tall instead of having shame the support that is provided. anymore.” I think that all of us, On the other hand, there’s no matter where we are, in gov- still a vacuum in terms of an ernment, in the bureaucracy,

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 21 or if we’re neighbour-to-neigh- other is far more effective when bour, or in the media, we have we’re doing it that way. an opportunity to help each other grab a sense of vision for PENNINGS: So, this has conse- our country, of what civil soci- quences for individuals and ety is about. for all the institutions we talk- ed about. Yuval Levin from When I started Mustard Seed, Washington, DC, wrote a I did not have a clue what I was book two years ago called The doing. Not a clue, They said, Fractured Republic. He high- “Will you start this little street lights that a liberal society as ministry in Calgary?” And I we have it today requires a went, “Okay, I have nothing certain set of virtues that his- else to do.” So I walked down- torically have been created in town and I found twelve street illiberal institutions, like fam- people. I sat them down, peo- ilies and churches. ple I knew quite well, and I said to them, “This church KENNEY: I was quoting Michael Whenever we have over here is asking me to come Novak in my speech making a over there and start this thing, similar point. liberty, we have power. do you want to help me?” They Both come together. went, “Yeah, we got nothing PENNINGS: Jen, you’ve been else to do!” And we all went very open about your own People without liberty down there and we started a faith perspective as an athe- place that eventually reached ist in terms of how you see have no power. out to over one thousand peo- the world. In your view, does ple a day and eleven thousand the decline of virtue and civil volunteers. It started because society actually threaten de- – Pat Nixon we gave people opportuni- mocracy itself? Where do we ty. When we communicate a get our virtue from for de- need in church, I’m amazed mocracy to continue? at how quickly they say, “Hey, what can I do?” I think that GERSON: I think that’s a big we need to open up those lines question and I think it would of communication again to be a long answer. Where do say, “Let’s talk about this, and we get our virtue from? I do I see how we can help.” think it’s a threat to democra- cy, the decline of civil society. So, right now I think we’ve Yes, if you look at any rise of come to the point we allow any totalitarian regime, that’s bureaucracy to actually care one of the first things they for everything. I’m not against do. They destroy civil society. social workers doing their job. That’s not a coincidence. Or We need their help to figure they co-op civil society and out how to build communi- bring it into the political party ty. But I really believe that we apparatus. So, when you start need to give this back to soci- to see a decline of civil society, ety. I feel like the care of each that’s a warning sign.

22 | Cardus cardus.ca I would say there is a grow- GERSON: Even within my own ing vision about a unified journalistic sphere, we can’t Canadian virtue. My concern have a debate anymore. I can’t is that it’s in a liberal vision. be like, “Hey, you know, let’s One of the things I’m noticing consider Doug Ford. Let’s especially about social media— think of the pros and cons of and don’t get me started on Doug Ford.” No, because if Twitter and how much I hate you even consider Doug Ford, that. But one of the things that you’re a racist. That’s where this I get concerned about is that is going, and I don’t see how when the civil sphere abandons you have a democratic society the moral sphere, what enti- when that is how starkly the ty takes it up? Well, the state lines are drawn. takes it up, and that means that debates about policy cease to KENNEY: Isn’t this particular- be good-natured, good-willed ly true in university culture debates between people who now? Everybody is aware of disagree on an outcome or an Dr. Suzuki getting his honor- objective. ary doctorate from University of Alberta, but what you may We can’t just have a debate not have heard is in the same anymore about whether the tranche of honorary degree re- tax rate should be 10 or 12 cipients are Helen Clark, the or 20 percent. Now these be- former Socialist Labor Prime come moral issues. You want to Minister in New Zealand; know something that started to Roger Penner, the former circulate on Twitter the other NDP Leader in Alberta; and day that freaked me right out? Nettie Wiebe, the former It was a tweet gaining popu- International Farmers Union larity that said that the use of President and four time NDP the word “taxpayer” was racist. candidate. I’m sure all very Why? Listen to the chain of good worthwhile recipients. logic. Because using the word But when you have everyone “taxpayer” is tapping into no- receiving an honorary degree tions of “white grievance.” from a prestigious university Complex debates are magically all being from the political made simple through politi- left, nobody from the centre, cally correct ideology. How do centre-right, or any other per- you have a policy debate with spective, does that really reflect someone who thinks that re- the contemporary virtue of di- ducing taxpayers’ taxes is rac- versity? Could we please also ist? Where do you even begin? have a diversity that includes You can’t have a civil debate some diversity of thought and or disagreement anymore, be- opinion? cause for me to disagree with you is heresy. GERSON: I would push back a little. I’m not entirely sure that KENNEY: That says it all. universities matter enough for

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 23 that to be much of an influence. GERSON: I think many of the Increasingly, universities are challenges we discussed re- just credentialing institutions. volve around a loss of trust and That’s all they are now. I don’t credibility. Whether it is the think that universities actually government, the media, or the foster debate or thought at all. church, we seem to be, as a so- So I’m not sure that they’re sig- ciety, going through this tran- nificant enough anymore. sition where we have a mas- sive breakdown of trust and PENNINGS: The clock is one of credibility. I don’t know how those non-fake-news things to begin to address that, much that truly exists. And we less rebuild it. But I think the have sadly reached the end transition is going to be a gen- of our time. So let me ask eration coming. How did we each of you for a final reflec- lose trust? How did that hap- tion, a final word. Is there’s pen and why? How do we find a question you would like ways to reconnect with people people to think about as we and rebuild that trust? Because conclude? Pat? I think that’s the core bedrock of many of these problems. NIXON: Communication is re- ally important. We’re talking KENNEY: Ditto. I would just, in about the government and the closing, emphasize the impor- front line of caring for com- tance of education. I referred munity. We do have this bu- to this before you asked, “How reaucracy in the middle that do we find some common can block the communica- grounding on our increasingly tion flowing back and forth. I atomized post-modern soci- think that we need politicians, ety?” And I said, “Well, how MLAs, and MPs who are will- about we teach a bit of civ- ing to come to the front line ics?” I did that as Minister of and listen and talk together. Immigration and Citizenship. I had that experience over I looked at how new citizens the years. Ralph Klein would are supposed to demonstrate come to my office and say, to the government a basic “Pat, what’s this all about?” knowledge of Canada. When And off we’d have a chit-chat. I became minister, I discovered We would not always agree, there was this test that was ri- but we had the chance to talk. diculously thin and included I think coming to the front virtually nothing of our histo- line did influence some of the ry or political institutions. So, decisions he made. So I would we thickened that up, we were just really encourage people ambitious for them to inte- in all positions of authority grate, to be proud of this coun- to knock down the walls and try, to understand better where come meet us in those places their institutions, where the where we are trying to care for prosperity we’ve created, where one another. it has all come from.

24 | Cardus cardus.ca Some of the bureaucrats said the first schools and hospi- to me, “Oh, you’re getting to a tals being founded by people level that many new Canadians of faith as well. How about won’t understand.” And I said, a balanced and robust pre- “Rubbish.” People are eager to sentation of our history and learn and to become Canadian. identity? And let’s begin re- So, we upgraded the content connecting the next gener- and the difficulty of the test. ation with a shared sense of Eighty-five percent pass on Canadian identity. the first try. And the rest, they go back and study a little bit PENNINGS: Every journey be- more. We actually raised the gins with a first step. And to- bar on civic literacy. Now new night isn’t going to suddenly Canadians know more about transform everything. But I Canada than some kids finish- think the conversation we ing high school. have just had between three leaders from different insti- So, I think one critical thing tutions does show that civil we could do is to present the conversation is still possible. vision of good government It’s possible to push beyond and our tradition of plu- the headlines and be frank ralism. To be honest about and candid. For that, we the tragedies of residential thank each of you for shar- schools involving church- ing with us and for being es, but also the successes of with us this evening.

Peace, Order, and Good Government? | 25 Canada is founded on principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law. This is a transcendent vision, not a mundane one. It is a vision that motivates millions of Canadians to do good every day, urged by the promptings of their heart to serve God by serving their neighbours. –Jason Kenney ABOUT CARDUS Cardus is a think tank dedicated to the renewal of North American social architecture. Headquartered in Hamilton, ON, Cardus has a track record of delivering original research, quality events, and thoughtful publications which explore the complex and complementary relationships between vir- tues, social structures, education, markets, and a strong society. Cardus is a registered charity.

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