I'm John Batchler. I welcome my good colleague, Conrad Black, distinguished biographer, writing his

National Post column, in praise of the oddest possible protagonist, the West. However, in detail,

the West involves Canada, United States, Mexico, and Europe, of course. But most importantly,

it meant it includes people who take up the style of the West, which is

transparency, capitalism, certainly democracy, fair play. And these days, it has to do with a sense

of grievance about how the West is misunderstood when it insists upon those virtues for all people,

not just for the people of the West.

I want to begin by praising Mark Carney, the new Prime Minister of Canada.

Why?

Because I was not generous to him during the campaign.

Because I suspect central bankers are not good politicians. But Mark Carney right now is on a path to do the right thing about

defense of North America. And that is a strong start, given what I understand, the opinion of the

several Trudeau governments have been these last

years, that Canada doesn't need a strong defense in the north, especially with the opening

of the Northwest Passage. Conrad, in praise of Mark Carney, I mentioned that he presents

himself as a liberal-minded man, and I'm sure he is. He's also a central banker

with his eye on the Canadian dollar and trade. What I'm taken about is the devotion of a big

portion of his budget to building national defense in the north. Is this uniformly praised in Canada or is their dissent?

Good evening to you.

Good evening to you, John.

I would say that that is a policy that has almost complete approval.

Most Canadians are certainly in favor of peace and going as far as we reasonably can to preserve peace.

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