The classical liberal John Stuart Mill once warned that “free institutions are next to impossible in a country made up of different nationalities.” He wrote that, without a “united public opinion,” representative government lacked the common sympathies and culture required for it to work properly. He added that even entities like the army would cease to identify with the people and become another branch of the state.

Liberty’s better theorists have always presumed a “we,” and Canada needs to find its “we” again.

The problem is, that essential premise collides with modern liberalism, which pretends that rights and markets are not dependent on culture. The sharpest classical liberal minds were formed within a thick cultural environment they presumed was permanent. They just rarely mentio

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