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“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

What Pierre Poilievre Doesn’t Get About His Economic Hero

Pierre Poilievre wants you to believe Adam Smith was a conservative. He wasn’t.

This year is the 250th anniversary of Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, one of the most influential books ever. Smith, an 18th-century Scottish moral philosopher, is considered one of history’s great thinkers, and the ideas in his writings have shaped not just modern economics but modern debates about what a just society owes its members.

Pierre Poilievre has marked the occasion with a National Post op-ed arguing that “free markets are moral” and invoking Smith as the patron saint of Conservative tax cuts, deregulation and fossil fuel expansion.

I’d like to offer a different reading, one that is more grounded in what Smith actually wrote ...

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