Ontario Libertarian Party
BULLETIN

John Genser is our campaign director for the upcoming provincial election. The executive committee was so impressed by his credentials and commitment that he was unanimously elected at the February 13 executive meeting.

Genser, a 38-year-old freelance financial accountant served on the Liberals' election steering committee in the 1986 provincial election. In 1985, at the tender age of 24 he was nominated Liberal candidate in Etobicoke. Although his party won power at Queen's Park, Genser failed to win his riding. He became disillusioned with the Liberals when the Peterson government failed to return a budget surplus to taxpayers.

John's experience in electoral politics will serve him well in the upcoming campaign. He will have campaign kits ready for Party candidates by May 17 that include electoral maps, as well as registration and fund raising information. Welcome aboard!

We all know the drill. Everyone concerned about taxes must rally around a conservative party at election time to hold the free-spending liberals and social democrats at bay. We saw it in the federal free trade election of 1988 and the Ontario "Common Sense Revolution" election of 1995. Now, at last, a national columnist is citing the LP as one option for tax revolt supporters.

Jonathan Chevreau, a columnist for the National Post and leader of the paper's tax revolt campaign, writes in "Ottawa needs dose of homeowners' reality," (Mar. 13): "The free-spending, high-taxing Liberals admit it will take 20 years to grant even modest tax relief. If you can't wait that long, examine the platforms of rival parties, - not only the Reform and the Progressive Conservatives, but also the Libertarian Party," and includes our web site www.libertarian.ca for irate taxpayers to contact.

Judging from the bombardment of government funded propaganda it seems an Ontario provincial election is around the corner, probably in late May or early June.

As you may have gathered from my previous reports, I look upon elections as an opportunity to get out our message and strengthen our party. I have a limited objective for each of our candidates.

A successful campaign will be measured by the ability of each candidate to attract at least five other people to work for the party. An outstanding campaign will be one in which we have at least 10 new volunteers. This objective is realistic and the success of our candidates in achieving it will strengthen our organization enormously.

There will be no electoral victory for us until there is a shift in the people's judgement as to the proper role of government. This is what we party members and other libertarians are working to change. Once that happens we could possibly see several political parties competing in a libertarian context, each claiming to be applying the principles of freedom and liberty more consistently than the other, instead of the political wasteland we now must endure.

If all you have done up until now is to vote Libertarian whenever the opportunity arises, you are having no effect on the future. To make a difference, you have to go beyond that and contribute to what you believe in. Our party offers the opportunity to make an impact.

At the moment, we are looking for election candidates. If you wish to contact me at (416) 282-5779, I will be pleased to discuss your opportunities as a candidate or volunteer. People who have run in the past will invariably tell you that it was a rewarding experience.

We are continuing to make your party a more professional, effective and credible voice for libertarianism. If you are unable or unwilling to give your time, you can help by donating money.

Recently the tax credits for Ontario political donations have been increased so that you will receive a tax credit of 75% of the first $300 against your Ontario income tax otherwise payable. In short, for a $300 donation your out-of-pocket cost is only $75.

I appeal to you to be generous. We do not have one hundred million dollars seized from taxpayers for a promotional campaign such as the one the Ontario PC party is currently waging.

Our party is coming alive with more people becoming ever more involved and we need your donation to help nurture our growth and create the future you want to see.

I wish to take this opportunity to invite you to a barbecue hosted by the Party at John Genser's place on Sunday, May 16, 1999, between 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. Further details appear elsewhere in this bulletin. Everyone is welcome and we are making a special effort to have as many former party activists and contributors present to renew old friendships and generally find out how everybody is doing. I expect it to be a fun afternoon and look forward to seeing you there.

To smokers like me, anti-smoking legislation is a serious threat to our personal liberty and property rights. A prime example is the old Toronto bylaw banning smoking in restaurants. That law died quickly in the face of public and media criticism, restaurateur lobbying, and widespread civil disobedience, but is being revived under the new megacity's bylaw consolidation process.

No-smoking bylaws rest on the rationale that ETS - Environmental Tobacco Smoke (second-hand smoke) is a threat to nonsmokers. A typical claim is the oft-repeated one that ETS causes 3,060 cases of lung cancer per year in the United States each year - a claim that originated with a 1992 summary report by the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).

That report has often been challenged. Critics have charged the EPA with violating scientific procedure, and manipulating and suppressing data, to reach a prejudged conclusion. This past July, Judge Osteen of North Carolina's Middle Court agreed, ruling that the EPA had acted unscientifically and therefore illegally under its mandate, and ordered the report nullified.

The Osteen decision, and the evidence on which it was based, are dealt with in a new book from Vancouver's Fraser Institute, Passive Smoke: The EPA's Betrayal of Science and Policy. In a clear and readable style the authors, biologist Gio Gori and philosopher John Luik, make a convincing case that the EPA report was "corrupt science" and dangerous for public policy.

Smokers in particular will welcome the scientific discussion. The authors give all the details of how the EPA misrepresented research data, cherry-picking supportive studies and suppressing unfavourable ones. But they do much more. They explain why such studies are never, and can never, be scientific.

They then review the known scientific facts about ETS to show that "smokers cannot be accused of posing a significant risk to non-smokers" . The argument that smoking endangers others collapses, and with it the case for governments' involvement.

Non-smokers, too, will appreciate the public policy chapters. The authors present a chilling portrait of a government agency engaging in deceit to further its own political agenda, and of the threat that agenda poses to "the democratic values of autonomy, diversity, and respect".

The myth of the impartial bureaucracy, serving only the public good, dies hard. The facts presented in Passive Smoke are a welcome new nail in the coffin.

The Ontario Libertarian Party has a limited number of copies of Passive Smoke, and is offering them on a first-come basis to contributors of $100 or more between now and the election. For Ontario residents only, a $100 contribution qualifies for a 1999 provincial income tax credit, leaving you with a net cost of as little as $25.00 (roughly the book's list price, plus mailing.)

Write to me personally (32 Craigton Dr. #108, Scarborough ON M1L 2N7) to request your copy of Passive Smoke. Please allow for the normal post office speed of delivery. (But that bureaucracy is another story!)

The collectivist history taught in Canadian schools (women's, labour, ethnic, etc.) has all but exorcised any hint that Canadians ever sought individual liberty. A new book by Mary Soderstrom., The Words on the Wall: Lower Canada's forgotten hero in the 1837 Rebellion, tells a different story.

Writing in his "View from Quebec" column in The Guardian (Charlottetown), Peter Black, cites Soderstrom's thesis that "Boiled down to its essentials, the fight was about democratic freedom -- the right of a duly elected assembly to make decisions without them being overturned by a privileged bunch of appointees (the Chateau Clique) in cahoots with the church and the mercantile establishment."

Although current history tells us that this was a revolution by the French against their English overlords, Black notes that "the initial movement was enthusiastically enjoined by many English Quebeckers whose rights were just as infringed by the Chateau Clique as their French-speaking neighbours. The uprising had the backing of groups from the Loyalist Eastern Townships."

Dr. Robert Nelson (a relative of Lord Horatio of Trafalgar fame), and his older brother Dr. Wolfred, were two of the central figures of the Rebellion. Robert was, according to Soderstrom, "a passionate libertarian."

Black contrasts Soderstrom's version of the revolution to the contemporary view embraced in a new film by Michel Brault, "Quand je serai parti, vous vivrez encore (When I'm gone, you'll live on) financed with $1.6 million from Telefilm Canada. Needless to say, Brault sees the revolution as a collectivist struggle.

We've all heard the story of Lady Godiva, the woman who dared to ride a horse naked through the marketplace of Coventry England in or about 1000 AD. But, in the retelling of the story, we tend to focus on the nudity and not the purpose of her ride. Godiva was a one woman tax protest.

Neil Seeman, writing in the March 15 National Post, (referring to the recent case of a woman who rode her bicycle nude through the streets of Winnipeg), writes that this " is just the latest homage to the libertarian gentlewoman from Coventry." He cites the earliest known source for the story to the Chronica (in 1057) of Roger of Wendover. The Chronica recounts how Godiva's husband, exasperated over her pestering that he reduce Coventry's onerous taxes, declared he would do so if she rode naked through the busy marketplace."

Although the story is considered a myth, Coventry is embarked upon a Millennium project to unearth the city's Benedictine cathedral that may have been founded by Godiva nine centuries ago and is named in her honour. At last, a place of pilgrimage for libertarians.

American political pundits laughed at Jesse "The Body" Ventura last summer and his third party campaign for the governorship of Minnesota. The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) wrestler and Minneapolis radio talk jock was dismissed as an also-ran in the November gubernatorial contest between strong Republican and Democrat rivals - until election night.

Ventura, running under Ross Perot's Reform Party banner, "beat not only the Republican but the day's most self-promoting paternalist, Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III, who had used his attorney general post to crusade nationally against cigarettes and Internet gambling," wrote Virginia Postrel, editor, Reason Magazine.

Reuters News Service called Ventura's political philosophy "anti-tax, anti-establishment and libertarian." Washington Post referred to it as a "down-with-government, libertarian view."

During his 1998 campaign, Ventura said abortion should be a personal decision for women and that he was open to the idea of legalizing prostitution and drugs.

Although Ventura holds some views that are not libertarian, he considers himself one. He noted in an interview with Catherine Crier (Dec. 14) on Fox News' Crier Report that he had scored "perfect" on the World's Smallest Political Quiz.

[Reason Magazine's Jacob Sullum attributes Ventura's popularity among libertarians to his courage in candidly supporting libertarian issues. Sullum, noting Ventura's endorsement of legalizing cannabis in High Times magazine (before the election) comments, "It's hard to imagine a politician with the courage to do that, but perhaps there's hope in Minnesota."]

Exit polls on election day indicated that Ventura got over half of the under-30 vote in the three-way race. About 12% of his votes came from people who normally don't vote.

Shortly after the election, Ventura was asked on the "Today show" if he was capable of governing the people of Minnesota. He shot back, "In America we govern ourselves. We don't need to be governed." Sounds libertarian, eh?

In his December 14 column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bill McClellan disputes a Fox News poll that showed a majority of Americans thought Santa Claus was a Democrat, rather than a Republican. McClellan wryly observed that "Santa is far too judgmental to be a Democrat. Santa pays close attention to who's been naughty and nice and Santa is big on personal responsibility. Absolutely not a Democrat."

McClellan suggests that Santa used to be a Republican but began feeling uncomfortable when the Grand Old Party turned mean. "There's no room in the party for jolly people," he writes.

So, writes McClellan, "he gave the Libertarians a try. They're not as mean as Republicans, and not as amoral as the Democrats. The party fits him like a red suit."

Last issue we profiled two perennial libertarian candidates, Paul Barker and Jean Serge Brisson. This time we feature two first time candidates for the Party, Gayle Remisch and Party campaign director John Genser.

She's an entrepreneur, a community volunteer, a frequent guest on radio call-in shows and the founder of the Canadian Alliance for the Separation of School and State.

Gayle Remisch joined the Party at our dinner meeting in June but was already a committed libertarian through her work with the US-based Separation of School and State Alliance. Marshall Fritz, the director of the Alliance is a prominent Libertarian and the founder of Advocates for Self Government.

Remisch was born in England and raised in Brazil and Montreal where she learned Portuguese and French. She is an autodidact (self-taught person), mastered American Sign Language at Sheridan College and studied Theatre Arts at Niagara College. She came to London in 1988, got married, had a child and subsequently separated. She recalls, with a laugh that when she announced her intentions to run in the election, her ex-husband said, "Change your name."

Her only concern is finding the time to campaign. She is headmistress of the Banyan Tree Private School which helps families who want to design and direct their children's curriculum, a part-time customer service representative with an Internet Service Provider, a freelance interpreter and a theatrical make-up artist.

Remisch is equally busy as a volunteer. She does some public speaking on home schooling, vouchers and charter schools, has counselled victims at the Sexual Assault Centre of London, chaperones teen dances at the South London Community Centre, entertains at children's parties, and until the impending birth of her daughter, chaired the London chapter of Child Find. Remisch has joint custody of her seven year old daughter and when she can find a spare moment spins wool.

So why did this busy woman agree to be a candidate? "I see this election as an opportunity to help people realize that they have choices" says Remisch, adding "I'll be happy if I get just one vote."

Our new campaign director (See "Party Appoints Campaign Director," p.1) is running for the party in York Region, a riding northwest of Toronto that includes his hometown of Schomberg.

Genser says, "I've always been a libertarian, but when I was younger I thought it was the liberals who could best protect our individual rights and freedoms." After working with the Liberals from 1979 to 1985 he discovered that, "I was actually working against what I believe in." When his party formed the government in 1985 and policies didn't change he realized that, "there really is no difference between the three major parties."

"A change in the party at Queen's Park was like the 'changing of the guard' at Buckingham Palace, the Queen is still the Queen and the government, not our government was still the government. So I left politics but still I was determined to send governments a message so I stopped paying taxes, to the best of my ability, in 1991."

Genser became more disillusioned when the government took him to court in 1996. "I got my first look at our 'justice' system and it has been a real eye opener. We may be 'a country of laws', but we should be a country of justice".

The case is now heading to the Supreme Court of Canada and then to the UN. The hearings and trials have re-energized Genser, caused him to reexamine his life and brought him to the Libertarian party. "The Libertarian party alone is the party that will put government in its proper place in society. We do need some government but it must be 'our government, the people's government,' not 'the' government," says Genser, and adds, "The Libertarians have the only plan that can deliver that."

As campaign director and candidate Genser concludes, "We've got quite the task ahead of us but it certainly feels good to be on the right side at last."

Last issue, many readers had trouble identifying the authors of the quotes in "Who Said That?" We had a few choice quotes left over and since they didn't require any effort to cut and paste, we'll spare you the effort of identifying the famous writers. Enjoy!

"Any society that denies the concept of individual responsibility must either perish in a chaos of criminal and vigilante lawlessness or end up denying all of its citizens any individual freedom." Barbara Amiel, Canadian journalist, "In Defense of Vengeance," Saturday Night, September 1975

"Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt." H.L. Menken, 1880 - 1956, US editor, satirist and "Sage of Baltimore."

"A politician who commends himself as 'caring' and 'sensitive' because he wants to expand the government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's willing to try to do good with other people's money. Who isn't? A voter who takes pride in supporting such programs is telling us he'll do good with his own money - if a gun is held to his head." P.J. O'Rourke, 1947 to present - American humourist and writer for National Lampoon.

"The welfare state... is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else." Henry Hazlitt 1894 - 1993, economist and journalist and a key critic of Galbraith.

"Utopia always seems to me to mean regimentation rather than emancipation; repression rather than expansion. It is generally called a republic and it always is a monarchy... because it is really ruled by one man; the author of the book. His ideal world is always the world that he wants; and not the world that the world wants." G.K. Chesterton 1974 - 1938, English journalist and writer.

"A Progressive is one who is in favor of more taxes instead of less, more bureaus and jobholders, more paternalism and meddling, more regulation of private affairs and less liberty. In general, he would be inclined to regard the repeal of any tax as outrageous." HL Menken.

For more information write or phone:

Doug Burn, Editor
Libertarian Bulletin
Ontario Libertarian Party,
202-4599 Kingston Road
Scarborough, ON, M1E 2P3
(416) 283-7589