Overview for David Frum in Print

Why Vote Tory?

How much power do you want the NDP to have? How much do you trust the Bloc Quebecois? Those are the urgent questions facing Canadian voters in this final week of the federal election campaign. The polls are telling us that Canadians will almost certainly elect a Stephen Harper government …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday January 17, 2006

Self-destruction

Sometimes Democratic politicians must just hate their party. Look at the hearings on US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. All but the most liberal Democratic senators understand that the smart thing to do is to confirm him as quickly as possible. Every day spent debating the Alito …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday January 11, 2006

The Real Threat To National Unity

According to last week's Liberal campaign ads, Stephen Harper wants to raise taxes to send your kids to Iraq. Either that, or else shoot them with handguns so he won't have to pay for their daycare. Alas for Liberal hopes, this line of attack does not seem to be working -- not if the opinion …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday January 10, 2006

Reaping What We Sow

After a spasm of heart-rending, frightening violence, Toronto's Mayor, David Miller, and its news media want Torontonians to remember one thing: The city is very, very safe. Really. "Chicago: 445 homicides. Washington D.C.: 195 homicides. Baltimore: 268 homicides. Toronto: 78 homicides." So …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday January 3, 2006

Letter To A European Friend

A European at this Christmas season must feel a little like a Roman enjoying one of the last Lupercals of the pagan era. The old religion still fills the public space of society. It still possesses its old wealth and the great temples in the centres of towns, and national leaders still profess …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday December 27, 2005

Goodbye Moderation

Today, Islamic religion doesn't allow space for Judaism, and neither do Islamic societies A European at this Christmas season must feel a little like a Roman enjoying one of the last Lupercals of the pagan era. The old religion still fills the public space of society. It still possesses its old …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday December 21, 2005

Paul Martin, Ham Actor

The Same PM The Same PM Who Says He Wants to "Defend Canada" Lets Our Army Fight with Rusting Guns You probably know the old Hollywood joke: "Sincerity is everything. When you can fake that, you've got it made." Paul Martin's problem is that sincerity is the one thing he cannot quite fake. He …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday December 20, 2005

Paul Martin's Selective Bravado

When in doubt, pander: That is Paul Martin's motto as prime minister, and it goes double during election campaigns. Last week was the Prime Minister's week to pander to anti-Americanism. On Wednesday, he delivered a speech to the UN conference on climate change in Montreal that pointedly …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday December 13, 2005

Will Oilsands Make Us A Player?

It's been a bad week for Finance Minister Ralph Goodale. Before that, it was a bad month, and before that, a bad year. Last week, he was accusing his parliamentary critics of "character assassination" for daring to suggest that the RCMP investigate whether some Bay Street traders were given …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday December 6, 2005

Bush's Doomed Immigration Gamble

You have to give George W. Bush this: Even when he is wrong, he is brave. Look at him on Monday: He has sunk below 40% in the polls, the lowest level in his presidency, depressed by the war in Iraq and high gasoline prices. So what does he do? He travels to Arizona, a state struggling …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday November 30, 2005

Here's How Harper Can Fight Back

We know how the Liberals will campaign against Stephen Harper. They will fill the airwaves with ads in which a concerned female voice talks of a "scary secret agenda" while the screen flashes grim, black-and-white photographs of the Conservative leader. The real question is: How will Harper …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 29, 2005

The Party Of Cut And Run?

At last, a little reality. On Thursday, Democratic congressman John P. Murtha delivered a dramatic, tearful denunciation of the Iraq war. The speech carried special force because Murtha is one of the more hawkish members of the Democratic caucus: a Vietnam vet, a former Marine, a past chairman of …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 22, 2005

Book'em, Jacques

The French must really like urban riots--because they are responding to the violence in their suburbs with new policies that will almost certainly invite more and worse violence in the future. Almost everybody agrees that the riots can be traced to two fundamental causes: 1. the failure …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 15, 2005

America The Just

American Myths, a five-part series aimed at addressing Canadian misapprehensions about our southern neighbour, is a joint project of the National Post, the Dominion Institute and the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. In this second installment, columnist David Frum writes on the myth …

Written by David Frum on Monday November 14, 2005

The Questions Gomery Didn't Answer

During the days when the Institutional Revolutionary Party ruled Mexico, the country would undergo a remarkable ritual every six years. A new president would take power in the one-party state. He would immediately order an investigation into his predecessor's abuses of power -- and would discover …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 8, 2005

Stop Coddling Iraq's Sunnis

Somewhere, T.E. Lawrence is smiling. The man now mythologized as "Lawrence of Arabia" was the British officer who helped recruit the sheiks of Arabia to the Allied side in the First World War. After the war, Lawrence accused the victorious British and French of breaking faith with the Arabs, …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday October 18, 2005

The Miers Revolution

"It's not a rebellion, sire: It's a revolution." With those words, the duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt broke the news to Louis XVI that the Bastille had fallen. Looking back on the events of the past eight days, I wonder whether the Bush White House does not feel the same way. The President…

Written by David Frum on Tuesday October 11, 2005

Divided They Stand

The only real debate over Iraq is among conservatives. It's no secret that conservatives have divided ferociously over the decision to go to war to topple Saddam. The dispute was evident early on, when the national security adviser to the first President Bush, Adm. Brent Scowcroft, published an …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday September 28, 2005

Bush Is Incurious And Dogmatic, But He Is Still The Right Leader

This has been a very bad month for the Bush presidency, maybe the worst to date: Hurricane Katrina, bad news from Iraq and grumbling from within the president's own party over spending and immigration. The man who once scored the highest approval numbers in the history of U.S. presidential polling …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday September 27, 2005

Marching Against War--and Jews

In Washington last weekend, tens of thousands of people gathered in the largest protest to date against the Iraq war. The tally has to be approximate: The National Park Service no longer provides estimates of attendees at rallies and demonstrations, and counts by the groups themselves are notorious…

Written by David Frum on Tuesday September 27, 2005