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Is a Pym Fortuyn-type liberalism arising in Canada?
Islamists who do not respect women’s rights do not belong in Canada and should stay in their own countries, says a Quebec minister, Monique Gagnon-Tremblay. This is big news. Like Pym Fortuyn, Gagnon-Tremblay, along with other Quebec Liberals who are saying similar things, is at least being a consistent liberal, that is, she is willing to exclude from her country people who openly threaten the liberal order. We might describe this type of liberalism as “social-contract” liberalism, since it holds that newcomers are welcome to join a liberal society, if they respect its liberal social contract.
Unfortunately, most liberals today, including President Bush and many of his “conservative” followers, are not even “social-contract” liberals, but “openness” liberals. They want to include foreigners in our society, not on the basis that those foreigners assent to the social contract that is the basis of our society, but on the basis that the foreigners are human. Email entry |