Jodi Bruhn offers a sobering take on Canada. Professor Bruhn is an expert on governance and constitutional thought. She says we might not appreciate the significance and potential fallout from the Supreme Court wading in the Notwithstanding Clause.
We discuss civics education and whether there's an increased appetite for first principles.
Thanks for checking this out!
I look forward to your comments.
Shawn
Chapters and AI summary:
Host Shawn Whatley interviews Dr. Jodi Bruhn about renewed interest in first principles, civics, and regime analysis in her University of Lethbridge courses, contrasting first-year and fourth-year students’ ability to identify clashing political principles behind current events. They discuss political science versus political philosophy, including critiques of Straussian textualism, and consider thinkers such as Aristotle, Voegelin, Bergson, and Carl Schmitt. Bruhn warns that the Supreme Court of Canada hearing cases involving the notwithstanding clause signals a misunderstanding of legislative supremacy and could provoke a political showdown with provinces like Quebec and Alberta, potentially risking Canada’s dissolution. They examine constitutional change constraints, separatism’s uncertain outcomes, leadership and ethical decay under unwritten constitutional conventions, demagoguery, and Bruhn’s account of Tamara Lich’s University of Calgary talk about the trucker convoy.
00:00 Supreme Court Warning
00:52 Meet the Guest
02:52 Teaching First Principles
05:26 Civics and Regimes
07:37 Political Science vs Philosophy
15:31 Teasing Out Principles
18:03 Notwithstanding Clause Clash
21:14 Charter and Judicial Review
23:34 Can Canada Rewind
25:26 Alberta Separation Scenarios
28:41 Schmitt and Conflict Horizon
29:57 Friendship Course Spectrum
31:29 Canadian Founding Enmities
33:27 Hooker and English Middle Way
35:42 Ideology and First Principles
37:31 Alberta Separation and Reconfederation
39:47 Constitutional Mismatch and Corruption
44:51 Demagoguery and Vital Breakthrough
47:33 Reading Bergson and Courage
49:10 Tamara Lich at University
51:11 Teaching Critical Thinking Finale
