Alexander Kirss’ recent article publish on War on the Rocks caused quite the stir in the foreign policy circles in the last days: apart from being a flamboyant example of insubordination from a fellow to it’s think thank, it added fuel to the fire of what some now call the “realist civil war”. It focused on why Trump is not going to be a boon for foreign policy realists, but it was also loaded with other assessments on realism’s “failures” which I think are probably more important than the piece’s main thesis. While denouncing the Center for National Interest’s (CNI) increasingly lenient stance on Trump’s wishy-washy idea of a foreign policy agenda, he lambasts realists for shirking policy-making and staying within the comfort of academia, failing to provide a compelling narrative for America’s role in the world, and not being sufficiently organized in ways that can  influence policy. The take-away is that because they fail at implementing policy, realists tend to flock to strong-men like Donald Trump to “save” them.

When I first joined the libertarian camp through my membership and subsequent candidacy in Trois-Rivières for the Libertarian Party of Canada, I had low expectations as to quality of the philosophical discourse I would be hearing. In terms of political philosophy, I had read mostly classical and post-war liberals (those usual suspects in English, and French anti-totalitarians: Camus, Aron et al), which had a great influence on me. Comforted in what I thought to be a solid position on the ethical justification of the free-market in the wider context of the attainment of a free society, I came to be skeptical of other extremes, on both sides of the spectrum. I despised the left, which held no coherent idea of what freedom really meant and believed in concepts like the social contract and social determinism, which I abhorred. On the other side of the spectrum, the radical right’s economics-based justification of the free-market model, with it’s utilitarian leitmotiv implying that it aught to be adopted because it would work better, seemed just as empty as the left’s constant referencing of the socialistic Scandinavian model as an empirical success to be emulated. To be sure, a lot of the discussion of libertarianism I have encountered through my contact with like-minded folks both inside and outside of the party remains either very technical or heavily reliant on moral facts deemed objective, but I was pleased to have discussions that went far beyond that at times. Metaphysics, ontology, epistemology often came to be mentioned.

Libertarian discussion groups on Facebook are filled with vitriol, and that’s putting it lightly. Our reputation for infighting precedes us, but I believe that the same thing could be said about ideology-based communities; if the Marxist meme pages I following on social media are any indication, we’re not alone in bickering about doctrinal purity and the criteria for evaluating political actors and their policies.

Le chat est sorti du sac: après plusieurs mois d’inactions, le ministre des transports a enfin déposé à l’assemblée nationale un projet de loi pour clarifier le statut légal des services de transports comme Uber. Sans grande surprise, le projet de loi réitère “l’ancien régime” de transport par taxi réglementé par le fédéral, rendant ainsi des services alternatifs comme Über formellement illégal. Par contre, le projet accompli beaucoup plus que de simplement renforcer le régime en place: il arroge au gouvernement plusieurs autres pouvoirs en matière de transport par taxi, en modifiant certains structures en place et en instaurant d’autre. Voici donc un résumé des points saillants du projet de loi dans sa forme actuelle, avec chaque article ou alinéa pertinent  cité et commenté.

Aux dernières élections provinciales, j’ai voté pour la CAQ pour protester les deux autres partis. Le nationalisme québécois dans sa forme institutionnalisée chez les grands partis me puent au nez, avec leur culture d’État dictée à coup de loi 101. De plus, je suis de droite, la vraie droite, pas celle des boomers qui veulent garder le beurre et l’argent du beurre; je veut, au pire, la réingénierie de l’État promise par Charest à son premier mandat, au mieux, une réduction substantielle de la taille de celle-ci, pour le plus grand bien de tous. La CAQ, n’est-ce pas l’ADQ sous un autre nom? Face aux politiciens véreux du Parti Libéral du Québec et aux lubies nationalistes et socialistes du Parti Québecois, voter pour la CAQ me semblais être la moins pire de plusieurs mauvaises décisions. Aujourd’hui, j’ai déchanter.