Breaking Free from Polarization and Tribalism with Classical Liberalism | Bruce Pardy & Kate Wand

We are polarized between two political tribes, perhaps like never before: left vs right, liberal vs conservative, democrat vs republican. In ongoing culture wars, progressives are ascendant and conservatives fight to recover lost ground. But do these opposing camps have more in common than they care to admit? And is there a political philosophy that sees the world through a completely different lens?

To help us answer these questions, we're joined by Bruce Pardy, a professor of law and executive director of Rights Probe, a law and liberty think tank. He is a classically liberal legal academic who believes in equal treatment under the law, negative rights, private property, limited government, and the separation of powers, which are foundational to the Western legal tradition. He is a critic of legal progressivism, social justice, and the discretionary managerial state, and has written extensively on a range of pressing legal subjects that are at the forefront of the culture war inside the law.

Bruce has taught at law schools in Canada, the United States, and New Zealand, and has also served as a tribunal adjudicator and mediator. A prolific writer and figure in the public arena, he has worked with leading liberty-oriented think tanks in Canada, including the Fraser Institute and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and has published and commented widely in traditional and online media. He spearheaded resistance to and ultimate repeal of the Law Society of Ontario’s statement of principles policy that required Ontario lawyers to attest to their ideological purity to maintain their licence to practice. He is also one of the co-creators of the Free North Declaration, a public petition and movement to protect civil liberties from COVID-19 irrationality and overreach.

We began our discussion by highlighting the differences and similarities in prevailing ideologies, and how:

Bruce: “The political philosophies can be judged as much as what they say when they are in power, then when they are not in power.”