Overview for David Frum in Print

Price-fixing In The Name Of Equality

The market can't be wrong about wages 'OTTAWA, 1999 -- A federal agricultural tribunal today compensated Canada's dairy farmers for years of underpricing of milk. The tribunal found cow's milk has for decades been priced more cheaply than goat's milk, notwithstanding that both are equally high in …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Tuesday August 18, 1998

Ah, The Summertime Joys Of A Cold, Impersonal Roadside Motel

Who needs banana fritters and forced chit-chat at a cutesy-poo B&B? 'Click here for a note from Humphrey, the world's favorite inn cat.' That, I'm very sorry to say, is an actual link on the Web site of a bed and breakfast on the way to my in-laws' cottage. Every year around this time my wife …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Saturday August 1, 1998

Execu-mom Vs. House-husband

Modern morality tale A modern conundrum, from the New York Times: Alice Hector is a very successful lawyer at a high-powered firm in Miami. She had two children by her first marriage. After it broke up, she took the advice that feminists nowaday often give to older, richer women: she …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Tuesday July 21, 1998

How Millionaires Get That Way

DATELINE: WASHINGTON The millionaires next door? To me, Donald and Mildred Othmer -- the "unassuming" Brooklyn couple who recently left a staggering $800 million estate to charity -- were the millionaires in the basement. In the week since reports were published about the immense fortune …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Thursday July 16, 1998

Bill Gates -- A Rockefeller For The '90s

Parallels in competition practices are striking Two great powers are girding for war. No, not India and China; the U.S. and Microsoft. After years of threatening to do so, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft chieftain Bill Gates for monopolizing …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Tuesday May 19, 1998

In The Aftermath Of Monicagate Hillary Is Once Again Ascendant

Clinton pays a price for his wife's support First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is feeling frisky. Last Wednesday, she made news with a bold break from U.S. Middle East policy. Speaking by satellite to a gathering of young Israeli Jews and Arabs, she declared: 'It would be in the long-term …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Tuesday May 12, 1998

Subway Shovers Do Not Appear Out Of Nowhere

Mental Health Act keeps lunatics on Toronto's streets Last Friday, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, someone attempted to murder my wife. Quite literally. Danielle had just stepped off a westbound train at Toronto's St. George subway station and was walking toward the stairs. The train she …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Saturday March 28, 1998

What The Elephant Forgot

Four years ago, the Republicans won a major Congressional victory by promising large and important reforms in the operation of the Federal Government. Four years later, they are hoping to hold onto their majority by refraining from doing anything at all. A friend of mine recently ran for office on …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Monday March 23, 1998

Anthony Lewis: The President Must Go

Those of us who remember the stirring attacks on presidential lawlessness during Watergate have been startled by the silence from one-time upholders of the rule of law in the face of lawlessness by the Clinton administration. Has something changed between 1998 and 1973? Puzzled, we looked up some …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Wednesday March 18, 1998

Clinton's Personal Misconduct Behind Bungled Iraq Business

Another president in his situation could have rallied support for his cause The United Nations-brokered deal with Iraq is the worst catastrophe for U.S. foreign policy since the Iran hostage crisis of 1979. Over the past few months, Saddam Hussein has violated his sworn commitments and obstruct…

Read more

Written by David Frum on Saturday February 28, 1998

A Generation On Trial

Ninety years ago, Max Beerbohm drew a series of cartoons titled "The Young Self Meets the Old Self" about the strange twists in the lives of the famous and near-famous of his day. Max, we miss you now! A generation of young liberals who were jolted into political activism by presidential lying are …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Monday February 16, 1998

Our Taste For Saccharine-style Music Enough To Make You Cry

Candle in the Wind is the single most played song at British funerals Sometimes the small newspaper stories tell us more about reality than the big ones. Take this little news bulletin from London for example: According to a survey by the  Independent newspaper, Elton John's rewrite of 'Candle in …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Saturday January 31, 1998

How Roe Vs. Wade Changed Our Lives

U.S. case introduced a new approach to human rights Canada is like a jelly fish: its vital organs are outside its own body. Peter Brimelow made that observation in his great study of Canada,   The Patriot Game. What he meant was the most important events in Canada's intellectual and cultural …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Tuesday January 20, 1998

Israeli PM Unfairly Cast As Villain

Netanyahu's hands are clean DATELINE: Portugal. The first leader in the country's history to be chosen in a wide-open democratic election is fighting for his political life, after the chief of a small and notoriously patronage-hungry faction within the governing coalition resigned to protest …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Tuesday January 6, 1998

El Nino Just An Elaborate Plot Device

Cold, howling wind plays havoc with global warming theory DATELINE: Orange County, CA 'It never rains in California,' goes an old song, but even old songs get it wrong sometimes. For the past two weeks it has not only been raining in California, but the winds have been howling and the …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Tuesday December 16, 1997

Confessions Of An Indulgent Father

I grew up in the late 1960s, heyday of anticonsumerist sentiment. My parents held strong prejudices against any toy made of plastic, and had a rule (not quite a rule, more a mental reflex) against buying any plaything advertised on television. While I chafed against these attitudes at the time, …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Tuesday December 9, 1997

Veterans Are Aliens In Their Own Land

Soldiers' symbols have been systematically obliterated It's not every day it is insinuated that one's father-in-law is soft on Nazism. But as the controversy over the proposed Holocaust gallery in the national war museum in Ottawa has heated up, those responsible for the project are hurling ever …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Tuesday December 2, 1997

Unions Steer Democrats Off Course

Party chooses protectionist path Every president loses a few votes in Congress and no one loss usually matters very much. Usually. But U.S. President Bill Clinton's latest defeat is no ordinary loss. He had asked Congress to renew the authority granted to every other president to negotiate trade …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 11, 1997

Those Who Want To Avoid Confronting China Are Right

Trade with the Chinese will enrich the business class and be a force for liberalization. Chinese President Jiang Zemin is in Washington this week, and Americans are bitterly debating how he should be treated. On one side is the Establishment: foreign policy experts, corporate chieftains, the …

Read more

Written by David Frum on Saturday November 1, 1997