Strauss and the sacking of Salutin

The question of the week seems to be: Did Leo Strauss get Rick Salutin fired? Perhaps a better question: Who is Leo Strauss?

“Odd as this may sound, we live in a world increasingly shaped by Leo Strauss,
a controversial philosopher who died in 1973,” media watcher Jeet Heer wrote back in 2003. He noted editors at the New York Times and Le Monde asked their journalists to study Strauss for clues to Bush’s inner circle. Strauss’s work is interpreted by many as an endorsement of deception as a valid political approach, along with calculated manipulation of nationalism and religion.

In Canada, Strauss has been linked to the Calgary School, a group of academics who have helped reshape Conservative policy, although its members deny the connection. The most widely published Strauss critic is Shadia Drury, currently at the University of Regina.

Now Salutin’s explusion from the pages of the Globe and Mail has left media watchers combing through Salutin’s last
words for clues to the decision, with suspicion zeroing in on the column Stephen
Harper: The Last Straussian. Outraged Salutin fans have launched a Reinstate Rick Salutin campaign, and a Supporters of Rick Salutin Facebook Page. In many memories, it hasn’t been long since
the departure of columnist Heather Mallick raised the question: Who’s next, Rick Salutin?” For some it’s the last straw: I will never buy another copy of the Globe and Mail again,
wrote one Facebook contributor. Surprisingly, the most nonplussed response came from Salutin
himself, who seemed neither shocked nor awed by his own sacking.