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Episodes

In my first broadcast of 2012 for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I argue that in any democracy worthy of the name, it is not merely the right, but the responsibility of every citizen to resist unjust laws.

Reflecting on my own experiences representing Canada in international sport, I argue that good sportsmanship and the virtues of sport are inextricably bound-up with the determined pursuit of sporting excellence, despite the scattered carping over the Own the Podium programme during the Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Of my many eccentricities, none is as improbable as my involvement in tent pegging. Often referred to as equestrian skill-at-arms, the sport has a mounted cavalier riding at a full gallop across a timed course, on the flat and over jumps, using sword and lance to smite a succession of ground and elevated targets. Yes, really... Like most tent peggers, I was introduced to the sport through service in a cavalry regiment. Seat a man on a horse, hand him a sword, and set him off at a gallop: any ability to resist tent pegging will immediately abandon him.

All horsemen know the proverb that for every rider there is one horse, and for every horse there is one rider. The death of Hickstead, the Canadian Equestrian Team's Olympic gold medallist stallion, has cast a pall not only over our team's prospects at the 2012 games, but more importantly still, left a void in his rider's life.

No one is more astonished by the results of the International Tent Pegging Championships than we are. My hope for the Championships had been to represent Canada with honour, and to serve the cause of the world's most vulnerable children. Having snatched victory from the jaws of rationality, our sense of dazed disbelief is unlikely ever to leave any of us.

On the final day of competition at the world equestrian skill-at-arms championships in Oman, my horse Shomool remained in a surly mood. The rider to our left is keeping a considered distance, as Shomool had just attempted to deliver a slaying kick to his horse; Shomool's rear hooves came within centimetres of the intended victim. The warhorse's wayward bloodlust would remain with Shomool for the rest of the competition, and he seemed dejected that I insisted on coming between him and his wrath. A full account of the games is at my March 2007 blog.

On the first day of group competition at the world equestrian skill-at-arms championships in the Gulf States, I was matched with riders from the Oman National Team, and we galloped four abreast through the course. Competing in UNICEF's colours, I am using a lance in my right hand to strike at a ground target, and using the reins in my left hand to restrain my horse Shomool from savaging the neighbouring rider. A full account of the games is at my March 2007 blog.

After an abysmal showing the previous day at the world equestrian skill-at-arms championships in Oman, my horse Shomool and I redeemed ourselves in the sword discipline, though not before galloping through a near-death experience involving a stone wall and a low-hanging tree. A full account of the games is at my March 2007 blog.

A photocast of the individual lance with ground targets discipline, at the world equestrian skill-at-arms championships in Oman. I am riding an assigned horse named Shomool, representing Canada, and wearing UNICEF's emblem. The lance is not my favoured weapon, and Shomool and I fared modestly in this discipline, on the first day of the championships. We would, however, redeem ourselves the following day. A full account of the games is at my March 2007 blog.

A photocast of my practice run with the lance at the world equestrian skill-at-arms championships in Oman. My horse, Shomool, is galloping through the course at a greater speed than I had ever experienced on horseback. I am holding the lance at a rather desperate distance from our bodies to stave off the obvious calamity, and I have lost the nearside stirrup. Miraculously, we both survived to repeat our folly mere minutes later. A full account of the games is at my March 2007 blog.

A photocast of the opening ceremonies of the world equestrian skill-at-arms championships. Riders from across the world gathered in the Sultante of Oman to represent our countries in this 2500 year-old cavalry sport of sword, lance, and horsemanship. I am the nearest rider, and carry the pennant of UNICEF from my lance, as I rode for both Canada and the United Nations Children's Fund. Other riders carry their respective regimental pennants, while our national flags flutter from the flagpoles in the background. A full account of the games is at my March 2007 blog.

In any democracy worthy of the name, it is not merely the right, but the responsibility of every citizen to resist unjust laws... but there is a contrast between making a scene, and making a difference. There is a choice between the comfort of self-righteous illusion, and the peril of self-sacrificing commitment. There is a hard journey between railing against unjust laws, and living out a life that models justice.

We will be able to hold our heads high before the judgement of history if we can reply that in our season, we held on to hope, we put aside our doubts, we came together believing in our better selves, and we remembered that we have always burned brightest as a nation during the darkest hours.

Over the past quarter century, political parties have too often lurched away from being mass movements of individual Canadians sharing a common vision of the public good, and towards being backdrops for individual party leaders who speak the language of democracy while wielding near-absolute power over their elected caucuses.

The 20th century began as the age of the dictator. It ended with liberalism having come of age as the ascendant political philosophy across the world. Yet liberal parties everywhere are in crisis. Can they grow with the success of liberalism, or have they been outgrown by the success of their own political philosophy?

Speaking on TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I make the case that separation of church and state is as much in the interests of the church as it is in the interests of the state. However, upholding the ideal of the secular state often demands more courage than we might expect.

In my broadcast essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I argue that despite our sometimes chequered history in the region, Western states have an obligation to enforce the Libyan no-fly zone, both to protect civilians and to ensure that the Arab Spring and the hopes for democracy in the region are not snuffed out in the killing fields of Libya.

Videocast of my televised essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, on Canada's role in Afghanistan: Our ability to successfully conclude the mission and effect an honourable departure is being prejudiced by an ignominious political retreat from the truth: the truth about why we went to Afghanistan in the first place and what we are actually trying to achieve there... I fear that the current government is unwilling to engage in an honest national debate about our objectives in Afghanistan, because it believes that Canadians prefer easy lies to hard truths. But Canadians are not the fools or the cowards that such politicians take us for.

In this, my second broadcast essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I argue that the efforts by the federal government to place emotion above reason and shut down Insite are unworthy of our country's better traditions and higher responsibilities. It is little more than an effort to purchase easy political popularity at the expense of a wretched and unpopular segment of society.

In this, my maiden broadcast essay for TVOntario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I argue that freedom of expression is too fundamental a right to be casually abridged, and that the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal must be stripped of its power to regulate public expression.

CBC Radio One's Fresh Air interviews me on whether Team Canada will be able to repeat our improbable dominance of tent pegging, the cavalry sport of horse, sword, sabre and lance, as I saddle-up to compete at the 2010 International Championships in New Delhi.

TV Ontario's The Agenda debates the question of how long Stephane Dion and the Liberal Party can, or should, endure the Conservative government's electoral brinksmanship. Steve Paikin moderates, as Professor Christine de Clercy, Dion biographer Linda Diebel, journalist John Ivison, lobbyist Robin Sears, and I grapple with one another's hyperbole.

With more than a year of minority government behind us, Steve Paikin and The Agenda assemble a national panel to ask if political power in Canada is still primarily a matter of the proverbial "who do you know in the PMO". With Jeffrey Simpson, Norman Spector, Janice MacKinnon, and myself.

A CBC Radio One national debate on the decline of civility in Canada's public discourse. More than a question of discourtesy, the decay of the tenor of political dialogue diminishes the dignity of the nation itself. Hosted by The Current and Avi Lewis, and including Heather Mallick, Lainey Lui, and myself

An interview with CBC Ontario Today's Rita Celli, on UNICEF Team Canada, the international equestrian skill-at-arms championships,and galloping hell for leather for honour and country

Andy Barrie tries, largely in vain, to restrain his mirth as we discuss the upcoming world equestrian skill-at-arms championships in Oman, at which I will represent the country as a member of UNICEF Team Canada. The segment was originally broadcast on CBC Radio One's Metro Morning.

CBC Television's The Hour canvasses Bob Rae, John Tory, Olivia Chow, and me on why Canada has yet to see a visible minority party leader. Ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, the programme included calls for "affirmative action" and more American football in Canadian politics.

Sarika Sehgal of CBC Newsworld interviews me on my support for Stephane Dion, and on how the Liberal Party can re-animate Canadians' passion for politics. With the convention behind us and the election before us, the question of civic engagment in the political process is more crucial than ever.

In the wake of the Quebecois Nation issue, TV Ontario's The Agenda asks if politics and principles are Canada's true twin solitudes. With Steve Paikin as moderator, Val Meredith for the Conservatives, Robin Sears for the NDP, and I for the Liberals.

Ottawa Morning, CBC Radio One's news and current affairs programme in the national capital, explores the question of why the field of candidates for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada appears to be contracting. Hallie Cotnam hosted in Ottawa and I participated from Toronto.

Host Alan Neal of CBC Radio One's Ontario Today and I take telephone calls from across Ontario on the people's choice for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Former Cabinet Minister Herb Dhaliwal and I review the long road for Paul Martin from his triumphal entry as Liberal leader to his humble departure after the general election.

A feature-length CBC Radio One national debate between Judy Rebick of the NDP, Adam Daifallah of the Conservative Party, and myself on visionary politics in Canada.

The CBC's Anna Maria Tremonti and I discuss the role or organisation, policy, and machine politics in the Liberal Party of Canada, in this nationally broadcast Radio One special.