Autor: Mike Krupa

Wegierski: Whither Québec? Past, Present, and Future (II)

Mike Krupa

In the case of a long-serving Liberal Prime Minister like Mackenzie King, and a Liberal Party that could be called “centre-traditionalist” or “traditionalist-centrist” – the consequences of Liberal government were more-or-less salubrious for most Canadians, and did not imply the revolutionary transformations of “regime-change”. However, from 1963 forward, the federal Liberal Party came under the spell of revolutionary-transformative ideas. Indeed, some have argued that Trudeau largely “hijacked” a “centre-traditionalist” Liberal Party as a vehicle for his agenda of radical, total transformation. In the years 1968 […]

Wegierski: Whither Québec? Past, Present, and Future (I)

Mike Krupa

The October 1, 2018 provincial election in Quebec recorded a historical result. The centre-right Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) won an amazing 74 of 125 seats. The Liberals were reduced to 32 seats. The very left-wing Quebec solidaire, with 10 seats, came ahead of the Parti Quebecois, which was reduced to 9 seats – one of their worst results ever. The results of the provincial election in Quebec on April 7, 2014, had also been somewhat unexpected. It was a huge win for the Liberals, led […]

Wegierski: Dark Futures and Cyberpunk: Subgenres of Critique of Current-Day Society

Mike Krupa

The term “dark future” is similar to “dystopia”, for which it is often a synonym. This refers to any work where the hypothesized future of mankind is in some sense “dark” – rather than bright, cheery, or optimistic. Typical “dark futures” are those shown in the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a highly ironic twist on the bright, cheery and optimistic future, so while it can be called a dystopia, it is not really a “dark future”. George Orwell’s […]

Wegierski: Regionalism and Nationalism in Canada

Mike Krupa

Historical Context The problem of center-periphery relations in a society, and of how a geographically extensive country extending beyond the confines of a city-state, is to be effectively governed, are some of the most pressing problems in political theory. One of the failures of the Ancient Greeks was that they found it difficult to extend their political units beyond the city-state. One of the reasons for the prominence of Athens was that the surrounding area, Attica, had been forged into a quite unified entity, a […]

Wegierski: Fiftieth anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey and ten years since the death of Arthur C. Clarke

Mike Krupa

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) arose out of the collaboration of Stanley Kubrick, clearly one of the most accomplished directors of the American cinema, and Arthur C. Clarke, one of the most renowned science fiction writers of our time (who passed away on March 19, 2008, at 90 years of age). Arthur Charles Clarke was born in Minehead, western England, on December 16, 1917, the son of a farmer. Among Clarke’s main influences were H. G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon (the author of long cosmic […]

Wegierski: Separatist tendencies in Canada — their origins, development, and future

Mike Krupa

(This article is partially based on an English-language text that appeared in Polish translation under the title, “Tendencje separatystyczne w Kanadzie.” (Separatist tendencies in Canada) trans. Olaf Swolkien, Nowe Sprawy Polityczne (New Political Affairs) (Wolomin, Poland) no 30 (2004-2005), pp. 77-81.) Canada was founded as a State by the act of Confederation in 1867 (formally known as the British North America (BNA) Act, which was passed by the Parliament of Westminster in London) — out of the union of four pre-existent historical regions — Ontario, […]

Wegierski: Polish language knowledge and Polish-Canadian identity

Mike Krupa

Mark Wegierski asks, can there exist a Polish-Canadian identity with declining Polish language knowledge in Canada?   In the statistics of the Canada Census, over the last few decades, the percentage of persons of Polish descent who claim knowledge of the Polish language, is not particularly large (around a third). Indeed, it can be seen that knowledge of the Polish language is declining among the generations of Polish descent born in Canada. In my opinion, this places the Polish-Canadian newspapers, most of which appear almost […]

Wegierski: Looking at the annual rankings of Polish universities and colleges, 2003-2015 — Polish college rankings reveal a lot

Mike Krupa

In 2003, I first became aware of the annual rankings of Polish universities and colleges put out jointly by the mass-circulation newspaper Rzeczpospolita and the student/education magazine, Perspektywy ( perspektywy.pl ). Of course, there are a number of college rankings in Poland put out by different publications and institutions, but this one seemed to be among the most rigorous and comprehensive. It should be noted, that in a 2013 survey, Perspektywy was chosen as “the most opinion-forming monthly publication” in Poland. It was also identified […]

Will there ever be a conservative uprising in liberal, post-Sixties’ Canada?

Mike Krupa

Donald Trump is currently renegotiating Free Trade with Canada, a country where over 80% of its trade is with the United States; and where probably over 80% of the population detests him. Canada’s armed forces are notoriously underfunded, and Canada’s contribution to NATO has been ridiculously small. Canada is quite happy with being a „free rider” on U.S. military defense spending, spending next to nothing on its own military. It is also to some extent a „free rider” on the U.S. healthcare system, making use […]

Wegierski: Canada – a country without a Right?

Mike Krupa

On October 15, 2003, the prospects of the broader Right in Canada brightened somewhat for the first time in decades. Overcoming years of negativity, the Canadian Alliance (which had emerged from the Reform Party of Canada in 1998-2000), and the federal Progressive Conservative party agreed to unite themselves (pending the approval of their memberships by December 12, 2003), as the Conservative Party of Canada (the former name of the Progressive Conservatives from several decades ago). Under the leadership of Stephen Harper, this Conservative Party was […]