"How and where ideas have consequence is as much a matter of who uses them, as what they say."
—Michael Van Pelt and Robert Joustra, in Comment (2008)

Sure, sure. Cardus believes cities can be much better than they are now. We believe a more cooperative labour environment would seriously raise the dignity and fairness of our workplaces. We think private education is good for everyone.

But even good data and good ideas, with no leaders or institutions to champion them, are destined for the circular file. And we hope that Cardus's publications and reports find more use than entertaining the archivist's feather duster.

Ideas matter when they get legs.

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And so, like evil doctors, we're stitching light bulbs onto legs, trusting that in the right conditions good change may happen—in our cities and jobs and schools, yes, but elsewhere too.

Herein, a peek at the first part of our 2014 travelling road show.

• January 23, 2014: In Toronto, our work and economics director will play host to the major players in Canada's resource and construction sectors, working through the serious challenges and staggering opportunities ahead.
  
  
• February 13: Our education director will host our third California Table, a dialogue between business executives and those who design private education programs. How are graduates helping—or hurting—our large and mid-sized businesses that need leaders of virtue and integrity?
  
  
• February 28: We're proud to announce that we will host one of America's best writers, and the youngest-ever columnist of the New York Times, Ross Douthat. He'll speak to a crowd in Ottawa on how luxury and decadence feed cultural decay, and what institutions we can build to arrest it. Details to come.
  
  
• March 6: A few days later, we'll present another journalist icon, this time in Vancouver: the unrivalled Rex Murphy will chat with our own Peter Stockland, publisher of Convivium. Both Douthat and Cross Country Checkup's Murphy are presented by the Hill Family Lecture series.

If you live somewhere else and really want to put faces to the names you read so regularly at cardus.ca, take heart: our editors speak regularly across the continent, too. Comment editor James K.A. Smith is almost certainly in a state or province near you next year, and Convivium's Fr. Raymond de Souza pairs many speaking engagements with his weekly columns in several outlets.

Cardus's mission is the renewal of North American social architecture. We're not really evil doctors, I promise. We're just researchers and writers and administrators labouring in faith to preserve—and if we're lucky, augment—2,000 years of Christian social thought.

Come and see us, at our places or yours. We'd like to meet you.