Calgary and the Magna Carta

On September 12, 2026, I had the privilege of participating in the Capitalism and Morality Calgary 2026 Conference. The Conference was held in Calgary Alberta. Most of the attendees and organizers were in favor of the upcoming Alberta October 19 referendum on whether Alberta should remain a part of Canada or should separate and form its own country. I found myself among many like-minded conservatives.

My talk was to discuss “Our Common History”, which is the common history between Canada and the United States. Canada is still connected at the hip with England, whereas the United States’ history as an English Colony ended on July 4, 1776. But prior to July 4, 1776, the legal history of the USA is the same as the legal history of Canada. Given that the organizers didn’t give me a lot of time, I focused on just three documents, the Magna Carta from 1215, the 1628 Petition of Right and the 1689 Bill of Rights.

I began my talk by explaining that in my day job I listen to conservative talk radio 2 to 4 hours a day, almost every day. I explained that on June 11, 2015, I suddenly realized that the 800-year anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta was in four days. This didn’t ever come up during my daily diet of conservative talk radio. Conservatives forgot about the Magna Carta; a point I made to the Calgary audience.

The evening of June 11, 2015, I planned a big party to be held in just four days.

Fifteen years earlier, I explained to the Calgary group, I had a 24 hour layover at a London airport. I decided to use that time to visit the location of the signing of the Magna Carta. The last line of the Magna Carta reads, “Signed on the Meadow of Runnymede between Windsor and Staines, June 15, 1215.”

Back then I couldn’t find Runnymede on a map, but I did find Windsor and Staines. So, I rented a car and drove every road between Windsor and Staines. Eventually I found a meadow, which turned out to be Runnymede. However, there was no sign, no museum and only a low-profile private sector tea house next to the meadow with a display of the Magna Carta inside the tea house. I did find a monument at the site, built 770 years after the signing of Magna Carta, which was built by the American Bar Association! (See the above photo.) It seems that the English People had forgotten about Magna Carta too!!

But Magna Carta is the most significant legal document in our legal history prior to the Declaration of Independence. The Magna Carta laid the groundwork for trial by jury, for taxation only by representation, for Due Process of Law protecting life, liberty and property. The right of Habeas Corpus is first found in Magna Carta.

I explained that just like at the time of our Declaration of Independence, when the American Colonists had already been at war for 15 months, so were the Barons already at war with King John in 1215 at the time they demanded he sign and seal the Magna Carta. When the Barons showed up on the Meadow of Runnymede they were dressed for war, they were personally armed and had with them their implements of war. Had King John not signed the Magna Carta, they would have fought him that day. This is a perfect example of how an armed citizenry is better equipped to protect their rights.

Clause 61 of the Magna Carta required a committee of 25 Barons be formed to provide oversight over the King to ensure that the requirements of Magna Carta were actually implemented and respected. This was the first time there was a formal break in the so-called “Divine Right of Kings” where a king claimed he was God’s representative to the Kingdom and whatever the king did was authorized by God. It was also the beginning of a new branch of government that represented “We the People”.

Before my talk was over, I also referred to the 1628 Petition of Right and the 1689 Bill of Rights both of which restated many of the provisions of Magna Carta. This restatement was necessary as it is the nature of government officials, kings included, to abuse the people, expand their jurisdictions and be an all-around pain in the neck unless bound down by the “Chains of the Constitution” as Thomas Jefferson put it.

In 1215, immediately after signing and sealing Magna Carta, King John managed to get the Pope, Innocent the Third, to annul Magna Carta and to excommunicate the Barons who forced King John to sign it. The Barons ignored the Pope’s actions, King John died the next year, and Pope Innocent III died the year after that.

The next king, and the next pope, ratified Magna Carta and finally it was memorialized into English law for the benefit of both Americans and Canadians. But that benefit is only available to us today if we do what the people of England did in 1215, in 1628 and in 1689, continuously remind our leaders of our rights and liberties through their restatement and our activism as each generation must defend their own freedom.