Name: New Normal, New Problems - Insights Feb 8 2025 by Cardus Insights
Duration: 10 min 15 s
Description: U.S. President Donald Trump hasn’t imposed his tariffs on Canada yet. His last-minute, 30-day reprieve (four days of which are now gone) gives us time to catch our collective breath and take stock. While this is forcing Canada to do some of the things it should've been doing anyway, it's also changing international norms of behaviour in very unhealthy ways.

U.S. President Donald Trump hasn’t imposed his tariffs on Canada yet. His last-minute, 30-day reprieve (four days of which are now gone) gives us time to catch our collective breath and take stock. While this is forcing Canada to do some of the things it should've been doing anyway, it's also changing international norms of behaviour in very unhealthy ways.

New Normal, New Problems - Insights Feb 8 2025

“Build, baby, build” has become shorthand for the Carney government's economic ambitions. The June 2 meeting in Regina with the prime minister and the premiers had been advertised as a pivotal step in implementing the federal agenda. But the ultimate success of Monday’s first ministers' meeting will be how the politicians translate noble words into improved government functioning to change both our reputation and the reality of Canada as a good place to do business.

Mixing Politics and Markets - Insights Jun 7, 2025

Protest, it seems, is in the air. News coverage from the streets of Los Angeles shows protestors vandalizing property, looting businesses, and throwing projectiles to express their displeasure with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and arrests of alleged illegal immigrants.

I couldn’t help but notice this week the lack of a coherent understanding of the function of democratic protest. This week we saw more than our fair share of ineffective government and ineffective protest, reinforcing each other to produce conditions that are the opposite of common good flourishing.

Protesting the Protests - Insights Jun 14 2025

Fifteen world leaders—representing member states of the G7, along with several other countries and international organizations—gathered in beautiful Kananaskis, Alberta this week. I don’t doubt that they accomplished some important things at their summit and other meetings on the sidelines. Still, the G7 Summit ends amid worsening challenges of our disordered world and less clarity about what might come next.

Leading in a Disordered World - Insights Jun 21 2025

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If Christians want to be taken seriously on spiritual, political, or other matters, then they need to start acting more prudently in public, especially on social media platforms. This all comes to mind in the wake of competing claims about the effectiveness of American airstrikes in Iran a few weeks ago.

Coming to a confident assessment of exactly what is happening on the ground in Iran will always be complicated. So, I don’t expect those of us in North America to get it right with confidence every time. However, it does seem reasonable to expect North American Christians to communicate about all issues, but especially ones as significant as a war that is taking the lives of fellow image-bearers of God, with a level of prudence that makes their perspectives plausible.

Prudential Opinions in a Fact-free Context - Insights Jul 5, 2025

Living with the sin of omission for an extended period of time welcomes an insidious trouble into our lives. It creates emotional distress, it strains relationships, and as it festers, it creates a corrosive sense of guilt. Worse yet, it often allows real injustice to persist. 

I fear that Canadian Christians may be well on their way to committing such a sin as we observe the rise of antisemitism in Canada.

Michael Van Pelt, CEO and co-fonder of Cardus, provides this guest post for Insights.

Antisemitism and the Sin of Omission - Insights 12 July 2025

How much do we really believe in the dignity of every person? The limit of that belief is the A commitment to due process is an expression of a belief in the dignity of the human person. For those of us committed to that principle because of our theology—the belief that human beings are created image-bearers of God—this is especially weighty. A willingness to set aside due process for reasons of efficiency and political expediency undermines our witness and erodes our credibility when appealing to that core principle in other issues.

Giving Due Process Its Due - Insights Jul 19 2025

Defining a good rest or vacation usually involves how long we were able to go without thinking about work. We might say something like this: “I was away for two weeks and didn’t think about work even once.” We celebrate the opportunity for a time of refreshment that allows us to tackle our work with new energy. And there’s something to that. But I wonder if it is also helpful during that “time off” to ask different questions about our work that lead to insights about purpose and meaning. That thought occurred to me after three very different and unconnected experiences from the past week.

New Normal, New Problems - Insights Feb 8 2025

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