Tag: mark wegierski

Wegierski: Looking at the structural problems of Canadian conservatism at the close of 2022

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A conservative infrastructure is definitely lacking, says Mark Wegierski It must be said that Canadian conservatism has not made too many extensive and discernible advances in Canada, despite the winning of a majority government in the federal Parliament, by the Harper-led Conservative Party, in the federal election of May 2, 2011. The Conservatives ended up routed in the federal election of October 19, 2015. They had manifestly failed to create some kind of independent conservative infrastructures during the propitious time of their majority government. The […]

Wegierski: Some notes on higher education in Poland, based partially on some personal memories from twenty years ago

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Mark Wegierski looks at post-secondary education in Poland, based partially on some personal experiences from twenty years ago. The number of students attending public and private universities and colleges in Poland has been reaching ever-higher levels with every year. There has been an incredible boom in private colleges since the 1990s. Also, there have been numerous State Higher Schools of Vocational Learning established. However, the ever-higher tuition costs for some studies (as well as the high costs of living in the major university towns), and […]

Wegierski: Alternative History

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Mark Wegierski looks at the science fiction subgenre of uchronia or “counterfactual history” and its possible conservative/traditionalist aspects. Alternative history (popularly called “alternate history”) is sometimes termed “uchronia” or counterfactual history. It is important to remember that alternative history pertains to events that are in the past at the time when the narrative is being written. So, for example, the 1920s projections of Hugo Gernsback about the 1980s cannot be properly termed as being alternative history – even though his vision of the world of […]

Fifteen years since the Dziekanski tragedy: Mark Wegierski reflects on the incident from October 14, 2007

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Fifteen years ago, on October 14, 2007, Robert Dziekanski, a forty-year-old Polish immigrant to Canada, met a tragic death at Vancouver Airport. Having arrived at the airport, he waited in the airport’s enclosed baggage area. His mother was in another part of the airport, and was erroneously told that he hadn’t arrived, and she then left the airport. After waiting for over ten hours, Robert understandably became angry, and started to make a ruckus. The over-zealous RCMP airport police rushed in and Tasered him a […]

“Third parties” in Canada – updated to 2022 (Part Four): Mark Wegierski looks mainly at the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP)

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In the 2011 federal election, the NDP won 103 seats, thus becoming a “second party” – the so-called Official Opposition. The Liberals were reduced to 34 seats, about the lowest number they have ever held in the federal Parliament. However, in the 2015 federal election, the Liberals came roaring back with a majority, and the NDP were reduced to 44 seats. In the 2019 federal election, they won 24 seats, and in the 2021 federal election, they won 25 seats. In 2022, the NDP announced […]

Wegierski “Third parties” in Canada – updated to 2022 (Part Three): Mark Wegierski looks mainly at “third parties” in Western Canada

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“Third parties” in Canada – updated to 2022 (Part Three) Western Canada has also been an area where many third parties have arisen. The Green Party, which has contested more recent federal elections, finally elected its first MP in the 2011 election. The leader of the federal Green Party, Elizabeth May, won the British Columbia riding she was running in. She also won again in the 2015 election. The federal Green Party had won about 4 percent of the vote in successive elections. However, under […]

Wegierski: “Third parties” in Canada – updated to 2022 (Part Two): Mark Wegierski looks mainly at “third parties” in Quebec

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“Third parties” in Canada – updated to 2022 (Part Two) Interestingly enough, some of the most significant “third parties” have existed in Quebec. A major Quebec-nationalist (but also Catholic-traditionalist) party that flourished on the provincial level in Quebec before 1960 was the Union Nationale. The party and the province was led for decades by Maurice Duplessis – a figure somewhat similar to U.S. “strongman” Huey Long – who was called “Le Chef”. Duplessis had (in 1948) given Quebec its distinctive, traditional-looking flag – the blue […]

“Third parties” in Canada – updated to 2022 (Part One): Mark Wegierski looks mainly at the Reform Party of Canada

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“Third parties” are an endlessly fascinating topic of study for political theorists. The notion of “third party” arises in polities characterized by “first-past-the-post” voting systems, where there are usually only two major parties. Polities characterized by proportional representation (PR) voting systems, tend to have a multiplicity of parties. Particular popular attention – although scant electoral support — is given to “third parties” in the U.S. – where the “two-party” system is so strongly entrenched. Since the 1850s, with the rise of the Republican Party, there […]

Wegierski: On the 45th anniversary of Star Wars (1977): A retrospective review of this great space opera film

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Star Wars (original theatre-version length 121 minutes) is the George Lucas masterpiece that has led to the emergence of one of the most salient of the current-day pop-culture mega-franchises. One tribute to the movie series is that tens of thousands of people in surveys of religious belief in (for example) Great Britain, have stated their religious affiliation as “Jedi Knight”.  The mystical martial order of the Jedi is one of the main elements around which the whole Star Wars universe revolves. The archetypal weapon of […]

Wegierski: What should the legacy of Vimy Ridge, be for Canadians?

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Mark Wegierski meditates on the possible meaning of the battle of Vimy Ridge for Canada, 105 years later. To many current-day observers, Canada’s participation in the First World War, and the great victory at Vimy Ridge in April 1917, may often seem like events that happened several centuries ago. The battle of Vimy Ridge was indeed one of the few bright spots in a grinding, bitter conflict. The roaring tide of change in Canada has been so massive, that it could appear that the events […]