Saturday, September 22, 2007

The Freedom Party of Ontario

This party certainly has a neat website that is easy to move around in. The party platform is posted on the site both in PDF and HTML. They have candidates running in well over a dozen constituencies. I am not sure why they exist as a separate party in that they seem to share a lot of the same sort of policies as would the Libertarian Party but perhaps it is a bit more practical in relation to free market ideology. They reject the property tax for example but would consider replacing it with a type of sales tax and consumption taxes. Here is a brief description of the party philosophy but it is better to read their policy platform for 2007 election---issued in 2005!

The party website is here.

ABOUT FREEDOM PARTY OF ONTARIO

The Freedom Party of Ontario ("FPO") is an officially registered political party in the province of Ontario. You might think of an FPO government as one that will be socially "liberal" and fiscally "conservative".

Fiscally, an FPO government will provide a level playing field by making sure that nobody resorts to coercion, fraud, cheating, or other forms of wrong-doing in their efforts to pursue a better standard of living. An FPO government will greatly lower your tax burden. It will also give you more power, control, and choice over your health care, education, auto insurance and electricity needs.

Socially, an FPO government will draw the line at consent: what consenting adults of sound mind choose to do with one another, at their own expense, is not something with which an FPO government will concern itself. At the same time, because we believe that children and the mentally infirm lack the ability to consent, an FPO government will protect them from violations of their life, liberty or property. Freedom Party MPPs will oppose laws that discriminate on the basis of genetic make-up or peaceful lifestyle choice.

An FPO government will be pro-freedom: we believe that government does not have the right to violate your life, your liberty, or your property when you have done nothing wrong. Government's duty is to protect your freedom by protecting your life, your liberty, and your property from those who would resort to violence and other forms of coercion.

An FPO government will be pro-democracy: we believe that government's authority comes only from the governed, and that the actions of government should be judged by the same ethical yard-stick as the actions of the governed.

We believe that FPO is well-suited for the values held by Ontarians. We encourage you to read our election platform, The Right Direction, and to tell your friends that you will be voting for your local Freedom Party candidate on October 4, 2007.

1 comment:

Alan Mercer - canadianliberty.com said...

Hi Ken. I like your blog!

The more libertarians the better. Some of it's history and structural differences and some of it is real ideological difference.

The Libertarian Party is more like a typical political party in having a democratic structure.

Marc Emery was one of the founders of the Freedom Party and moved on to other types of strategies.

Nowadays I think the real differences are going to show up in a strong antiwar, pro-civil liberties ideology that people will find among many or most Libertarian Party members who back the pro-peace and pro-freedom messages of Marc Emery and Ron Paul.

I hope the Freedom Party someday gets with the program and doesn't persist in defending the aggressive interventionist actions of *Western* governments just because they're Western.

Ontario Libertarian Party candidates you can support:
http://www.libertarian.on.ca

You can read more about my views at the same site and at:
http://www.thestar.com/ontarioelection/ridings/candidateprofile/252984


Alan Mercer
Ontario Libertarian Party Candidate, Scarborough--Rouge River
President, Libertarian Party of Canada
Email: alanjm@idirect.com
Phone: (416) 724-5525
Cell: (416) 629-0764
Fax: (416) 286-0345
www.libertarian.on.ca
www.libertarian.ca
www.canadianliberty.com


More on Marc Emery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi7C0EHa_5w

More on Ron Paul:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/