The Houston Centre will welcome Preston Manning, author, founder of the Reform Party of Canada and the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance, and former member of Canadian Parliament, for a lecture on Thursday, November 30. Mr. Manning will discuss the different understandings of human flourishing found in secular politics and Christianity; the obstacles to the effort to bring political life and government fruitfully to bear on human flourishing; and alternative approaches to overcoming some of these obstacles, with an eye toward the political future of Canada.
Two respondents, Andrew Bennett (Program Director, Faith Communities, Cardus) and Leanne J. Smythe (Assistant Professor of Political Studies, Trinity Western University) will offer remarks on Mr. Manning’s lecture.
The lecture will be held at the UBC Sage Bistro Lecture Hall (6331 Crescent Road | Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2). Paid parking is available in the UBC Rose Garden Parkade.
***
The Honourable Preston Manning served as a Member of the Canadian Parliament from 1993 to 2001, and founded both the Reform Party of Canada and the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance. Since retirement from Parliament in 2002, he has written numerous books, and has spoken and taught on a range of issues, including democracy in the West, Canadian conservatism, and the interface between faith and politics.
Fr Dcn Andrew Bennett is Program Director for Faith Communities at Cardus, a non-partisan think tank reimagining institutional life for the common good. He is an ordained deacon in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in the Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada, served as Canada’s first Ambassador for Religious Freedom, and led Global Affairs Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom from 2013 to 2016.
Leanne J. Smythe is Sessional Assistant Professor of Political Studies at Trinity Western University. Her research focuses include global security and governance, military alliances, and Canadian national security and foreign policy, among other subjects. She earned her Ph.D in Political Science from UBC in 2013, and holds an MA in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent, Canterbury.