The idea of the “Libertarian Flying Squad”, an elite group of political operatives, was secretively conceived from within the murky depths of a smoked-filled, behind closed doors executive meeting during what could best be described as the dark days of the pre-campaign blitz period…
Well, that’s the dramatic version. In reality, the idea of a Libertarian Flying Squad was developed at an earlier executive meeting held out in the open in a smoke-free restaurant.
The Libertarian Flying Squad (LFS) is a group of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers whose function is to support all candidates. The LFS will assist them in obtaining signatures for their nomination papers, setting up meetings, distributing literature, attending all-candidates meetings and being just being generally supportive. The idea was conceived as a response to the situation where some previous candidates felt they were left to fend for themselves, and to assist new candidates to get their start, both of which makes running an election campaign not much fun. And since our purpose as candidates is to deliver our Libertarian message and flush out other Libertarians in our ridings in the most positive way possible, we’re going to make sure it is fun. Otherwise, there’s not much point to it is there?
So far, our members consist of Adam Weber, Peter Cuff, Nunzio Venuto, and John Shaw. The executive are auxiliary members, serving candidates by answering questions, providing advice and policy direction, and ensuring legal requirements are met. To join our elite group of happy and enthusiastic campaign activists, please call the party at 416-283-7589, or send an email to
The federal government is allegedly considering decriminalizing marijuana. It's doing this in that unique government way, of course: advertising one thing, doing another. The law as it is being considered will reduce penalties for minor possession, and increase them for everything else: possessing more than a little, selling, and producing for sale.
In both
countries, a lot of people are in jail because of these laws, and in both
countries, of course, no actual reason is supplied for making them
illegal in the first place. In
The drug laws amount to legally imposed slavery - literally in the case of the many who are in jail because of them, and not quite so literally for the many who are compelled to live considerable portions of their lives in evasion and fear.
It does not matter whether you yourself take drugs. We all owe it to each other to get these criminal laws off the books. People who take drugs may be courting misery in their lives, just like people who drink too much, smoke enough to get lung cancer, or do all the other things that can lead to mishap but which we all have the right to try if we insist, and to take the consequences if things go wrong.
Top of the Libertarian agenda: repeal those laws!
We get together for dinner and/or drinks (your choice) the second Thursday of each month. It is a great opportunity to meet with fellow libertarians to discuss philosophy, current events, and maybe even politics (heaven forbid)!
Place: Scruffy Murphy's Irish Bar and Grill
Time:
Date: Thursday - June 12, July 10, August 12
This annual event, held in Orono (45 minutes east of Toronto) features a weekend spent listening to prominent liberty-minded speakers, enjoying the company of like-minded people, debating, swimming, golf-playing, horseshoe-tossing, tennis-playing, and on and on! Price, just $50 for students and $75 everyone else and that includes food and a place to park your car and pitch your tent,
Mark your calendar
The Conservatives call their new election platform “The Road Ahead.” Based on their leader’s performance to date, that may not be a long road for them; but it will be a winding one. In one year, Eves has already morphed from Mike Harris’s faithful disciple, to his polar opposite, and now back to Harris II: Ernie Eves, Taxfighter.
Libertarians are all for tax cuts; high taxes by all levels of government threaten both our freedom of choice and our prosperity. But there is less to these promised cuts than meets the eye. Two are simply recycled: the long-promised corporate tax break, on which Eves has already flipped (delaying it for a year), and the private school tax credits on which his party has already flopped (proposing them in last year’s Budget, then dropping them days later).
Even the one new promised cut - mortgage interest deductibility - is recycled. As Finance Minister, Eves proposed it to Harris, and (in his words) “he asked what drugs I was on. You can’t go there.” The new version is more modest: taxpayers will save only $100 from their income tax in its first year, and even when it is fully phased in - in five years, after the next election - just $500 (less than $45 a month) on an interest bill of $5,000 or more. But even this modest plan will cost anywhere from $700 million annually, according to the Tories, to $4 billion, according to Don Drummond, the TD Bank’s chief economist. Adds Drummond: “There’s no economic, no public finance rationale for doing it.”
Where will Eves cut spending to pay for this? “The Road Ahead” proposes no such cuts. Instead, it is full of promises to increase spending: to hire more nurses for our ailing health-care system, and more police to “crack down” on the homeless, illegal immigrants, and telemarketers; to extend GO Transit and Highways 404 and 427; to buy municipal bridges; to build more government information kiosks; to repair rural hockey rinks; and the list goes on...
Eves also promises to repay $5 billion of Ontario Hydro debt, and to keep subsidizing consumers’ hydro bills that exceed 4.3cents/kwh “at least” until 2006. Who knows what this will end up costing?
Similarly, who knows what his plan to ban school strikes and lockouts, replacing them with more expensive arbitration, will cost? Eves argues, against all experience, that it will cost nothing; but he appears to have given the matter little thought. For instance, he also proposes to ban ‘work-to-rule’. In ‘work-to-rule’ actions, teachers do just what they are contractually obligated to do - how can the Tories sensibly, much less constitutionally, make that illegal?
Yet Eves claims that the whole package will cost under $700 million a year, to be covered through unstated “efficiencies”. Which is an astonishing admission: After 8 years of Conservative government - most of that with Eves as Finance Minister - there is still that much inefficiency to cut.
Even Marilyn Churley of the free-spending NDP claims of “The Road Ahead” that: “Everything they are proposing will bankrupt the province.”
Hypocritical, maybe; but not inaccurate. For those who want tax cuts and increased spending - to have their cake and eat it, too - this will be an attractive platform. But it is no blueprint for governing. Fortunately, there is no reason to think that Eves will do what he says in it: or even that he will have a chance to, after this election.
The Ontario Conservatives are far behind in the opinion polls at this time of writing and are engaged in campaigning and advertising in the hope their standing will rise. If successful, they will attempt to ride any favourable wave by calling a fast election. If not, they will proclaim it is imperative they continue governing. I expect they will continue with this strategy until the end of their mandate, which could extend as long as almost one year from now.
We must be ready for an election at any time between now and then. To this end your party executive continues to procure candidates and do other work in preparation. Elections present opportunities to advance our great cause. Libertarians are few in number, but if we each contribute in our own way, much can be accomplished.
I have
been encouraged by the help and offers of help we have recently received from
various new sources. Our election
kickoff meeting in April was successful and well attended. The annual May barbeque was the best ever and
we had lots of fun on a glorious spring day.
Mark down the first Sunday in May for next year’s event. A Christmas event is already being
arranged. It may be some time before
socialist
On a more somber note, prevalent socialism in Western nations will lead within the next few years to a prolonged and severe world economic downturn. Government fiat currencies will be the most proximate cause. Notwithstanding their pretensions, central bankers appointed by governments are unable to determine the proper quantity of money to be produced. By monopolizing and controlling money creation and supply, governments have caused massive financial and economic distortions, which will ultimately unwind. It is this disturbing event that will undermine democratic socialism and make our victory possible, though not assured. A collapse of such magnitude could not occur in a libertarian world of privately controlled and produced currencies. Unfortunately, our libertarian ship will sail best in conditions of hardship and ideological danger which earlier acceptance of libertarian ideas would have avoided.
While waiting for the future to unfold, we will endeavour to achieve those objectives attainable in the current environment. Although votes are pleasing to the ego, our election success will not be measured by vote counts. Our goal is to attract new libertarian activists through election activities. Thus, any candidate who succeeds in attracting two such activists to work with us afterwards will have been thoroughly successful. One such activist attracted will also be deemed a success. Failure to attract any activists will not signify failure. Every candidate representing our party will make a positive difference in ways not always immediately apparent.
From 1943 to 1985, the Progressive Conservative Party (The PCs) ruled Ontario with a succession of premiers; George Drew 1943 to 1948, Thomas L. Kennedy 1948 to 1949, Leslie Frost 1949 to 1961, John P. Robarts 1961 to 1971, William G. Davis 1971 to 1985, and Frank Miller who served a mere four months in 1985 before his government was defeated in the May 2 election (Miller resigned and Larry Grossman was elected party leader in August)
Although the PCs won 52 of the 125 seats in the legislature to the Liberals’ 48, Liberal leader David Peterson signed an accord with New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Bob Rae to implement a list of NDP policies in exchange for the support of Rae and the other 24 NDP and thereby formed a minority government.
Two years later, with the political polls in his favour, Peterson called an election and won a sweeping majority in September 1987. The Liberals elected 95 MPPs (Members of the Provincial Parliament). The PC’s were reduced to a rump of 16 MPPS (the fewest they had elected in the previous 50 years) and the NDP held on to almost all their seats (19 in ’87 vs. 25 in ’85).
Peterson, perhaps stricken with hubris, called an early election just three years after his earlier win. Despite polls favouring them in the summer of 1990, the Liberals’ lead faded and then collapsed on election day September 6. To just about everyone’s surprise, including that of Bob Rae, the NDP swept to power with 74 seats to the Liberals 36 and PCs’ 20.
The Rae government became progressively (sic) more unpopular with first business and then the middle class as Rae sought to spend his way out of a recession and finally with his union allies as he implemented ‘Rae Days’ (unpaid time off for Ontario civil servants and teachers). He clung to power for three months short of the maximum five-year deadline for an election and was swept from power in the June 1995 election.
Mike Harris, written off by the pundits as a rube from North Bay surprised everyone by sweeping to victory on perhaps the most overtly right wing agenda (the “Common Sense Revolution”) in Ontario history. The NDP lost 57 of its 74 seats in the legislature as traditional NDP voters stayed home or voted Liberal. The Liberals lost six. On election night the PC’s won 82 seats to the Liberals’ 30 and the NDP’s 17.
Harris’ first term was as turbulent as Rae’s, accompanied by widespread strikes, particularly among the teachers’ unions. These ‘Days of Action’ were misread by the pundits as indicating a groundswell of dissatisfaction among the public at large. Wrong. Harris called an election four years to the week after his 1995 victory and won another majority. Many ‘progressives’ advocated ‘strategic voting’ to ensure that votes on the left were not split between the Liberal Party and the NDP. The strategy failed. The PCs won 82 of the 103 seats (reduced from 130 as a result of the ‘Fewer Politicians Act’) to the Liberal’s 35 and the NDP’s nine.
Three years into his second term, Harris announced his retirement and Ernie Eves - his former finance minister – won the leadership on policies generally considered to be more compromising than those of his mostly right-wing rivals. But, Eves’ leadership was a continuation of Harris’ second term malaise. The ‘Common Sense Revolution’ had run out of steam and lacked new goals to energize its supporters.
The high water mark for the
Ontario Libertarian Party (OLP), since its founding in 1974, was the
Three years earlier (see Brief History) the 43-year reign of the PC party had ended with the election of a minority government headed by Peterson and libertarians were energized by the possibility of their own political breakthrough.
Libertarians were not alone in seizing this opportunity. The number of small party candidates and independents in the 1990 election totaled 225, more than double the number of the 1987 election. The combined votes won by the 45 OLP, 69 Family Coalition Party, 32 Confederation of Regions Party (COR), 40 Green Party, 11 Freedom Party, 5 Communist Party, and 23 independent candidates totaled 262,000 or 6.5% of the 4.0 million votes cast.
The OLP candidates won 24,613 votes or 0.61% of the vote. In the 45 ridings where the OLP ran candidates the party averaged 547 votes or 1.76% of the total. In eight of the election races, OLP candidates came in fourth behind the PC, Liberal and NDP candidates. Top OLP vote getters were Shapton, 5.1% of the vote in Dufferin-Peel; Galster, 4.5% in Scarborough-Agincourt; McLean, 3.4% in Simcoe East; and Hunt, 3.0% of the vote in Riverdale.
The elections of ’95 and ’99 were good for neither the OLP nor other minor parties because voters were inspired by or frightened of the ideologically hard line PC’s under Mike Harris’ leadership. They voted PC to preserve the Common Sense Revolution or Liberal and NDP to end it in ’95 and especially in ’99. The combined vote of the small party candidates and independents fell 44% in the 1995 election and a further 23% in the 1999 election.
All that may change this year because 2003 is shaping as another 1990. Another two-term administration that started out fresh and became complacent is up for re-election. Then as now the risks of ‘wasting a vote’ on a small party or independent candidate is minimized because the major parties have moderated their policies, making them less distinguishable from one another and hence less attractive to their traditional supporters. At the same time, as they become more alike, voters are much less likely to vote for a lesser-of-two-evils to prevent the election or re-election of the PC, Liberal or New Democratic parties.
Libertarian candidates and their supporters are likely to encounter some problems in pitching their message to voters in the upcoming election campaign due to the prevalence of various myths, so it is useful to have the facts handy.
MYTH 1: The Harris and Eves governments have so dramatically slashed spending that there is no room for dramatic spending cuts.
FACT:
MYTH 2: Getting the government out of healthcare and education would be totally irresponsible given the dramatic budget cuts to these sectors.
FACT: While Harris cut healthcare spending by 2% and education spending by 11% in his first budget, spending per capita in 2003 dollars over the next eight years rose by 20% for healthcare and 17% for education. The government’s proposed 2003-04 budget will raise healthcare spending a further 3% to $2,229 per Ontarian and education spending a further 5% to $1,121. Bob Rae was a tight fisted fiscal conservative by comparison. He spent 10% less on education per capita in 1995 and 23% less on healthcare. Hmmm, wonder if the teachers unions really want education budgets restored to Rae’s lower levels?
MYTH 3: Tax cuts are a wonderful idea but Harris has already done as much as anyone could.
FACT: Actually, adjusted for inflation and population
growth, the
You can tell an election is on the way when governments ramp up spending especially for those ribbon cutting photo opportunities at hospitals and community centers. Capital expenditures will soar by 31% for 2003-2004. This is also the time when those dependent on government cheques get a boost. Support for children and seniors will more than double in the coming year.
Income taxes, on the other hand, must be reduced or held in check so governments make up the shortfall with fee hikes. Stock up on booze now because the government expects the LCBO to deliver an additional 18% in revenues. Don’t wait to renew your vehicle or drivers license because these ‘other revenues’ are expected to jump by 40%.
Personal income tax: $18.8 billion, + 6%
Retail sales tax: $14.1 billion, + 6%
Corporation tax: $6.5 billion, +5%
Employer health tax: $3.6 billion, +6%
Gasoline tax: $2.3 billion, +3%
Fuel tax: $0.7 billion, +4%
Tobacco tax: $1.2 billion, +4%
Land transfer tax: $0.8 billion, -5%
Other taxation: $0.4 billion, -48%
Total taxation: $48.4 billion, +5%
Plus Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST): $7.4 billion, -3%
Plus new CHST supplements: $1.0 billion, -20%
Plus other revenues from Government of Canada: $1.3 billion, +69%
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation: $2.3 billion, +6%
Liquor
Control Board of
Ontario Power Generation Inc. and Hydro One Inc.: $0.6 billion, +36%
Total income from government enterprises: $3.9 billion, +14%
Vehicle and driver registration, liquor licenses, fees and licenses and other revenues: $4.4 billion, +41%
Total Revenues – All sources: $66.4 billion, +8%
Health and Long Term Care: $25.9 billion, +7%
Community, Family and Social Services: $8.0 billion, +4%
Education: $9.1 billion, +7%
Training, Colleges and Universities: $3.5 billion, +16%
Finance - Public Debt Interest: $8.2 billion, +/- 0%
Finance – Support for Children and Seniors and Community Reinvestment Fund: $0.8 billion, + 65%
Public Safety and Security: $1.8 billion, -20%
Other 21 Ministries: $6.8 billion, +1%
Net Capital Expenditures: $1.9 billion, +31%
Total Expenditure: $64.0 billion, +7%
Population
of
Total private
dwellings: 4,556,240 (2001)
Proportion of
Proportion of eligible voters that voted in
1999: 58%
Number of provincial ridings in
Average number of dwellings per riding: 44,235
PC Party’s share of 1999 vote: 45.1%
Liberal Party’s share of 1999 vote: 39.9%
New Democratic Party’s share of 1999 vote:
12.6%
Other parties’ and independents’ share of 1999
vote: 2.4%
Seats won by PC Party in 1999: 59
Seats won by Liberal Party in 1999: 35
Seats won by New Democratic Party in 1999: 9