Conservative. Academic. “A monk who works is troubled by only one devil, while an idle monk is troubled by many.” St. John Cassian (Banner, Alex Norris)
Rossdale, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Joined July 2012
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Craig Monk retweeted
I must say that I’m more invested in the success of the incoming Doerkson government than I’ve been in any goverment in nearly a decade.
What interests me most is the potential fecundity of the premier-elect’s back-to-basics, normie conservatism. Doerkson isn’t offering political dopamine. His whole pitch is about competent government, economic growth, and public institutions that fulfill their basic purposes. The magnitude of his victory is a sign of how broadly that proposition can appeal.
The story, in a nutshell, is a guy from Williams Lake offered a recognizable conservatism that could win in Vancouver-Yaletown. His temperament helped bring together rural communities, suburban families, and urban voters around some straightforward expectations about how their province should work.
Schools should teach. The justice system should protect the public. Hospitals should treat patients. The civil service should deliver services competently and impartially. These institutions have important yet bounded missions. They should discharge them effectively and resist the temptation to become vehicles for every passing political or ideological cause.
The same practical instinct should guide economic policy: make it possible to build homes, grow businesses, develop resources, and attract investment. Give people reasons to believe that hard work and initiative can produce a better life here.
This is the politics of normalcy in practice. And even if its rhetoric is moderate, its ambitions are considerable. Restoring focus and competence to institutions that have lost them will require conviction, persistence, and capable people.
That’s another reason for optimism: the quality of the candidates and potential front bench, along with the talented people Doerkson’s leadership drew to the campaign. @gavindew is someone to watch in particular. His interest in both economic growth and making government more productive—including through AI—could make him an important contributor to this governing agenda.
The test now is governing. There will be hard choices and inevitable disappointments along the way. But this is a conservatism that I want to see succeed—and an unusually promising opportunity to show what it can accomplish.
Craig Monk retweeted
Progressives blaming Eby’s defeat in the election timing are totally missing the point. The whole purpose of the early election was to try to overcome the government’s unpopularity rooted in its poor outcomes.
The real problem was the cumulative cost of Eby’s ideological agenda. His government was the last holdout of the failures of Trudeauian progressivism: a subordination of economic growth in favour of deficit financed welfare spending, a dogmatic commitment to climate change and its anti-development effects, excessive identity politics and an overly self critical posture towards Canadian history, and its radical experiment with the harm reduction model.
Election timing and campaign choices didn’t defeat the Eby government. A broad cross-section of British Columbians—from rural parts of the province to downtown Vancouver—rejected it based on the self-evident failure of its ideas.
Craig Monk retweeted
B.C.’s premier-designate says supporting new pipeline is first order of business ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article…
“O dread and silent Mount! I gazed upon thee, til thou, still present to the bodily sense, Didst vanish from my thought…”
Craig Monk retweeted
“Canada has become a progressive country, Alberta is not a progressive province.” Why some disgruntled conservatives are moving to Alberta as a refuge from a country they no longer recognize. Alberta has led the country in interprovincial migration. thefp.com/p/this-week-in-can…
You’d expect just a little more from someone with whom you’ve shared such intimacy. 😂 Finding a new family physician is equal parts terrifying and frustrating.
Craig Monk retweeted
Today I learned about the All Souls examination, which is reputed to be the hardest exam in the world.
To even be considered, you need to have a degree from, or be a current graduate student of Oxford.
Hundreds of people sit and only two people pass every year.
Attached is last year's general exam.
Before I saw it, I wondered, how hard could it be.
Well, it turns out…it's "Defend ghosting.", "Does a pope matter?", and "Is body language a language?" hard:
Craig Monk retweeted
“Nobody has a right to freeze a neighbourhood in time.”
Not even the residents? Why not?
If by “freeze” we mean “don’t radically change its character, flow, and feel in a matter of a few years” and instead let it develope gradually and organically, that is the definition of what makes attractive old neighbourhoods attractive.
Instead of a Plan Voisin for every heritage neighbhourhood, why not build more future heritage neighbourhoods like Garrison Woods in Calgary or Clamart near Paris?
Edmonton needs more housing. But more density and better planning are not necessarily the same thing.
I live in Glenora. Behind our home, neighbours are challenging a proposed eightplex on a street originally built for single-family homes. Elsewhere in Edmonton, residents have described a single residential property being subdivided to accommodate two eightplexes. Sixteen units where one home once stood.
Where do the vehicles park? Can the streets and alleys accommodate the additional traffic? What about waste collection, drainage, privacy, mature trees and the impact on neighbouring property values?
These aren’t objections to growth. They’re fundamental planning questions.
And then there’s the question of public trust.
Before Council approved Edmonton’s sweeping 2023 zoning overhaul, a Pollara survey of 300 residents found that 62% had never heard of the proposed changes. Only 3% felt capable of explaining them.
Yes, the City conducted public consultations. But consultation and meaningful public understanding are not the same thing.
Every Edmonton homeowner pays property taxes based substantially on assessed property value. Whether someone owns a modest bungalow or a multimillion-dollar home, shouldn’t they reasonably expect the City to consider the financial consequences of fundamentally changing the planning rules around them?
Nobody has a right to freeze a neighbourhood in time. But residents should be able to expect thoughtful planning, transparent decisions and respect for the investments they’ve made in their communities.
I’m not opposed to infill. Next door stands a remarkable 1958 Modernist home that was facing redevelopment. I spoke with the developer, who listened, and the property was subsequently offered for preservation through renovation rather than demolition.
That’s what constructive engagement can accomplish.
Edmonton needs more homes, more investment and more opportunities for people to live in established neighbourhoods. We can pursue those goals while respecting architectural heritage, neighbourhood character and existing residents.
These objectives are not mutually exclusive.
Council had the authority to change the zoning rules. That doesn’t settle whether it exercised that authority wisely.
Good planning considers not just how many units can fit on a lot, but the long-term consequences for the people, infrastructure and communities around it.
Edmontonians deserve growth that makes the whole city stronger.
AI helped me research (I was lazy but still mad tonight) and sharpen this post. The views are mine. The real work belongs to the dedicated Edmontonians fighting to be heard. Credit where it’s due. #yegcc #yeginfill
Craig Monk retweeted
“Success and growth are impossible without motion.”
President Trimbee on why #MacEwanU is in perpetual motion.
Watch her full 2026 State of the University address now: ow.ly/55VH50ZW1jI
Craig Monk retweeted
An audience member asks Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy how he can claim conservatives aren't discriminated against in academia, after she had to lie about her political views on papers to graduate college and fears being passed over for promotions because of her politics.
Craig Monk retweeted
Today is the final day without scheduled NFL or Division I football for two straight months. When you wake up Thursday, a stretch of 61 straight days with at least one football game await, until there is nothing on the calendar Dec. 1 or 2.
Craig Monk retweeted
Virtue signalling substitutes applause for action. By turning conviction into costume, it cheapens the cause, alienates the unconvinced, and leaves the real work to those too busy doing it to pose for the cameras.
Touched down in St. John’s and received this text from Bell. I wondered if I had missed some important geopolitical news in the couple of hours it took to travel from Montreal.
Craig Monk retweeted
Our approach to spending has been so ridiculously unstable and unsustainable for so long that A.I. ending the world is a solution.
Craig Monk retweeted
Cool to have Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells review my new book “The Game.” I stand by his criticism-turned-compliment: The story is God. Preorder the book: tr.ee/TheGamePKX
