Doug Burn, Editor

Your "Party of Choice"

The Ontario Libertarian Party has a new motto, vision, mission and set of values. After a year of on-going discussion the party voted to accept the following motto, vision, mission and set of values at its Annual General Meeting on Saturday November 4, 2000 in Toronto. The Party's principles, typed on the membership application remains unchanged.

The motto of the Party shall be: "The Party of Choice."

The Vision of the Party shall be:  "Communities of freedom, harmony and abundance."

The Mission of the Party shall be: "To enable endless possibilities through recognition of, respect for and protection of individual liberty."

The Values of the Party shall be:

·        We stand for personal responsibility.

·        We stand for individual liberty, and controls and restrictions on government.

·        We recognize property rights.

·        We stand for free and voluntary associations.

·        We stand for freedom of expression.

·        Government must be limited to protecting the liberty and property of its citizens from domestic and foreign aggressors.

·        We believe in voluntary, not forced mutual aid.

·        We believe individual liberty promotes strength of character and integrity in a society.

·        Government may not grant monopoly privileges to any individual or organization, including itself.

·        We accept people as they are.

New Party Member Kicks Butt - Peter Jaworski  

Peter Jaworski

The Libertarian Party of Ontario has an exciting new member. Sean Morley of World Wrestling Federation fame, is now a card-carrying member of the 'Party of Choice.'

Inside the ring, Sean is Val Venis, former porn star and 'sinner,' who, having 'seen the light,' has joined a group called 'The Right To Censor.' These fellows are of the opinion that, "… selective censorship is a good thing, and that people should be told what they can and cannot do." (WWF.com)

Out of the ring, the irony of his alter ego's affiliation with that group becomes palpably clear. Not only is Sean a thorough-going libertarian, he also runs his own newsletter (Hardball) wherein he debunks left-wing battle cries, and we can look forward to much more from him.

While a guest on the Mike Bullard show, Sean was asked what he would be doing were he not a wrestler. Sean's response? "I'd be the leader of the Libertarian Party of Ontario."

Apparently Sam Apelbaum has more to concern himself with than merely Sean's 'Fishermen's Suplex.'

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US Election Browne Out? - John Shaw

Harry Browne

Harry Browne, Libertarian Party candidate for the US presidency, won 382,000 votes or 0.4% of those cast in the November 7 election. That's down 50% from pre-election polling results and off by a 100,000 from Browne's 1996 total. Browne said he was "disappointed" by the vote, and attributed it to the closeness of the presidential contest.

Browne explained, "This is a problem in every election, but it was especially so this year because the race was perceived in advance to be so close. If you look at Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan, both saw their vote percentages down dramatically from what polls had been predicting."

LP national director Steve Dasbach notes, however, that 31 of the 2,000 LP candidates were elected to local and state offices and the LP is now by far the largest third party in the US. Over 3.3 million Americans voted for Libertarian candidates. Carla Howell, for example, won about 12% in a six-way race for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts -- just one percentage point behind the Republican candidate, Jack E. Robinson, who won 13%. It was the highest percentage that any LP candidate for U.S. Senate has received in party history.

The LP's record-setting slate of U.S. House candidates won a combined 1.66 million votes -- the largest cumulative vote total ever won by third-party Congressional candidates.

"The Libertarian Party may be the only 'major' minor party left standing for the 2004 election"

As a result of both Buchanan and Nader failing to obtain enough votes to qualify for federal money, both the Reform and Green parties "are likely to have passed their high-water marks," predicted Browne campaign manager Perry Willis. He added, "As a result, the Libertarian Party may be the only 'major' minor party left standing for the 2004 election."

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Leader's Report – Sam Apelbaum  

Sam Apelbaum

Much ado about nothing is all that can be said about the federal election campaign in progress at this time of writing.  All major and minor parties contesting agree that victory accomplished through democratic means entitles the winning group to regulate and control each of us, to impede us in our peaceful pursuit of happiness, to confiscate our earnings and savings and give them to others, and generally to wield power over us in every imaginable way.

In short, all of them operate on socialist premises regardless of what they call themselves.  They differ only in the pretexts for and details of the power to be exercised.  For example, protection of the environment is a more recent pretext for forcing us to keep our lives small.  Although history tells us that the best safeguards for the environment are respect for private property and greater abundance, this is not where our political parties are planning to take us.

People who crave power are the most motivated to fight their way to the top.

Power is an attractive and addictive drug for many. Drug addicts will do and say almost anything to get more drugs.  Thus, people who crave power are the most motivated to fight their way to the top.  Just as with drugs, the feeling of well-being is fleeting.  Always being concerned with looking and sounding good to others is not an empowering way to lead one's life.

Most people demonstrate good sense by being repulsed by anything having to do with politics or politicians.  However, until they recognize that, when allowed to stray outside a very restricted zone of legitimacy, government is no longer a benefactor but becomes the enemy to all of life's possibilities, it is futile to hope that principled, high quality politicians will show up to lead us.

Through the medium of the Ontario Libertarian Party you have an opportunity to help move the political context away from power at all costs by introducing libertarian ideas to the public.  I invite your contribution of time and money to that end.

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The Popularity of Libertarian Principles

Back in September, Rasmussen Research had 822 American voters complete the World's Smallest Political Quiz and found that 16% self-identified as libertarians 32% as centrists, 14% as authoritarians; 13% as liberal, 7% as conservative and 17% border one or more categories.

·        59% agreed military service should be voluntary.

·        65% agreed government should not control radio, TV, the press, or the Internet.

·        35% agreed we should repeal regulations on sex for consenting adults.

·        28% agreed drug laws do more harm than good. Repeal them.

·        28% agreed people should be free to come and go across borders; to live and work where they choose.

·        42% agreed businesses and farms should operate without government subsidies.

·        50% agreed people are better off with free trade than with tariffs.

·        27% agreed minimum wage laws cause unemployment.

·        36% agreed we should end taxes. Pay for services with user fees.

·        30% agreed all foreign aid should be privately funded.

Chairman's Report – George Dance  

George Dance  

"The provincial Tories have lost their revolution"
Toronto Sun, November 26, 2000

A virtual blackout on provincial news, as a result of the federal election, was not all a bad thing for the Harris government.  It gave them an opportunity to draft legislation to raise MPPs' salaries by 42%, to over $110,000 a year. Even when that legislation was leaked, the public outcry was minimal; so much so that the Tories continued to push for the 42% increase for a week longer, before Harris finally shelved the plan.

Harris Tories are politicians, no different from what has come and gone before.

To the average working man, who (if lucky enough to not have lost his job or had his salary cut) has received 0-2% annual increases in this time, any pay hike of this size will look totally unjustified.   Expect an even larger public outcry next time, with no federal election to deflect attention from the issue.  This may be the issue that finally makes it plain, to one and all in the province, that the Harris Tories are politicians, no different from what has come and gone before.  All that the Common Sense Revolution has given us is politics as usual.

Even where the Revolution has tried new ideas, like privatization of services, the results have been those of traditional political boondoggles, cost overruns, and screw-ups.  A prime example came in last week's provincial auditor's report (also luckily for the Tories, almost completely blanked out by the election coverage).  Auditor Eric Peters tells the story of POLARIS -- the government's joint venture with a private company, Teranet, to computerize Ontario's land registry.

The bottom line:  while POLARIS was originally estimated to cost $275 million and be completed by 1999, the completion date has now been pushed back to 2010, while total costs could now be as high as  $1 billion.  Meanwhile, the land ministry's revenues (which POLARIS was to maintain) have dropped by almost two thirds since 1995, and Teranet itself is $44 million in debt.

Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose.  Or, as the Who put it:  "Meet the new boss ... same as the old boss."

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Upstart Marijuana Party Wins 0.52% of Federal Election Votes 

There were no Libertarian Party candidates on the ballot for the November 27 federal election but there were 73 candidates for the Marijuana Party and they did remarkably well. Among the 11 registered parties, the Marijuana Party came in sixth in the popular vote, ahead of the Canadian Action Party but behind the Green Party. The Party captured 66,361 votes or 0.52% of the vote. Candidates won an average 909 votes in the ridings they contested.

Party leader Marc St-Maurice was the most successful candidate, winning 2,156 votes or 4.85% of the ballots cast in the Montreal riding of Laurier St-Marie against Bloc Party leader Gilles Duceppe. The 31-year old candidate is best known for his comment, "The state has no place in the nation's greenhouses." Can't argue with that.

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Treasurer's Report - Jim McIntosh  

Jim McIntosh  

The following is the financial results to the end of October, compared to the same period last year.

Contributions during an election year are higher then normal, as indicated above.  During 1999 we had 79 donors who contributed $13,667.  To date we have received donations from 41 supporters, 10 of whom did not contribute last year, so we should expect another $8,000 to $10,000 before the end of the year.  There are also some 40 donors who last contributed in 1997 or 1996. 

The $2,800 in contributed services is the work done by our auditors, Bruni Valente in London for the 1999 audit.  Other Income includes bank interest, membership fees for out-of-province members (no tax credit) and the surplus from Sam Apelbaum's election campaign. 

Professional Fees are for our Web Site, supported by Michal Zeithammel (financially and professionally) of AMB Inc. in Ottawa. 

Office Rent has decreased again;  our sublease was terminated when the lessor moved out.  Since we made almost no use of the office, we have been able to find a less expensive place to store our 3 filing cabinets. 

 Bulletin is our other major expense.  We mail about 475 copies of each issue at a cost of about $500 per issue in printing, postage, and envelopes.

'Meetings Hosted' is the expense for our Dinner Meetings.  We must guarantee 20 people to get the room and usually have about 15 paying attendees. 

So far we are well within our budget.

Our expense budget for 2000 was just under $16,000.  So far we are well within our budget.  We should expect an additional $2,200 in expenses, plus this year's audit expense of $2,800, for a total of about $12,000.

The Annual General Meeting held November 4, 1999, cost $622 for the room and lunch.  Fees from attendees and proxies was $615.  There were additional expenses of $450 for printing and mailing the regis­trat­ion forms and proposed By-law amendments.  A portion of this income and expenses are included above

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Queen's Park Gives Green Light to Asset Seizures

Attorney General Jim Flaherty is expected to introduce a bill before Christmas that will give police the power to seize any assets believed to result from criminal activity. The proposed legislation is modeled on the American Racketeer­ing Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act [RICO].

The provincial government began developing ideas for this legislation last fall and set aside $4 million to pay for the initiative in last May's budget. The Ontario initiative, like RICO, is ostensibly aimed at organized crime. American governments and special interests, however, have used RICO to seize the assets of tobacco companies, landlords, gun owners and anti-abortion groups.

The government is considering a civil rather than a criminal approach for handling cases. Under the civil approach, police, with the permission of the courts, could seize any assets believed to result from criminal activity.  The Crown would only have to prove its case on the balance of probabilities, rather than beyond the reasonable doubt that characterizes criminal proceedings.

Don't worry though. We can trust the courts that wrongly convicted Guy Paul Morin on the strength of hearsay.  Or, maybe not.

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A Martyr's Death - Peter Jaworski

Peter McWilliams said, "the Drug War doesn't need another martyr - it has too many already." Then he promptly died a martyr's death.

Peter McWilliams died on June 14 of this year by choking on his own vomit. The medication he was taking for his AIDS would make him rather nauseous and he had to come up with ways to keep from gagging it up. You see, it takes a couple of minutes for the drug to take any effect, if he threw it up before that time it would be entirely useless. After testing various different things to prevent nausea, he found one that worked - marijuana.

Peter McWilliams was a New York Times bestseller and author of the libertarian classic Ain't Nobodies Business if You Do. At some point his 'do-what-you-want-without-harming-others' motto came into sharp conflict with the governmental 'we-are-much-smarter-than-you-are-so-you-should-do-what-we-say' motto.

California had a medical marijuana type of idea in place. The judge somehow decided that McWilliams' medical condition, his attempts at using herbal alternates to pot for sublimating the nausea, and the vast evidence for the anti-nauseous qualities of pot, would not be allowed as defense.

"Any 5 year-old can understand this."

What is it, exactly, about our leaders that makes them such wonderful judges as to what constitutes your best interests? And by what right do they get to tell you what you can or cannot inject, ingest, inhale or do to your own body?  I leave you with a quote from McWilliams:

"Morality is based on free choice. You have a series of choices, and you make the right choice. Any 5 year-old can understand this. Don't mess with their stuff, they won't mess with your stuff... The catch is, you have to tolerate what they're doing over there with their toys, and they get to tolerate what you're doing over here with your toys. So with our tolerance, we buy our freedom."

Peter Jaworski is a philosophy student at Queen's University, a columnist for the Queen's Journal and a Libertarian Party member who is currently organizing an LP chapter on campus. The above was excerpted from Jaworski's column in the Oct. 10 issue of the Queen's Journal.

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AGM Report - Nunzio Venuto  

Nunzio Venuto

 The Annual General Meeting of the Ontario Libertarian Party was held on Saturday, November 4 at the Triumph Sheraton Hotel in Toronto. After the 2000 executive completed its last executive meeting of the year, new party members were introduced and the executive presented their annual reports. The reports of the treasurer and webmaster are reported here separately. Dr. Paddy McQuade, member-at-large, addressed the issue of race and racism in a dinner speech.

The afternoon session focused on fine tuning and approving the Party's proposed motto, vision, mission and values, the product of yearlong discussion among the executive and the membership. The approved statements are reported separately.

Elections were held for two vacancies on the executive and two on the ethics committee. The position of campaign director, recently resigned by Gord Martin, remains vacant. The executive committee invites party members interested in filling this position to contact party leader Sam Apelbaum.

Two members-at-large -- John Shaw and Doug Burn -- were elected unanimously. Helmut Kurmis and Alwyn Weiss were also elected unanimously to fulfill three-year terms on the six-member Ethics Committee.

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Webmaster Q&A - John Shaw  

John Shaw

Is the website used?  Yes!   Average number of sessions is 683 per month this year; in October it was 1310.  November projects even higher as the federal election causes a lot of people to go searching the term "libertarian."  Last May's usage went up 5 times over April in the run-up to the provincial election.

Do they just pass through?  No!  In October the average session involved over 10 hits.  This is less than the longer term average of 21, but methinks this is skewed by those looking for the federal party; they need only two clicks.

How do they get here?  Eighty per cent came directly. Search engines lead the pack with Google as the #1 guide.  Few referrals are from linked sites, something high on my list of items to fix!

When do people browse?  Traffic peaks late on Friday and Saturday nights – as expected - but there is a strong secondary trend of people who check in the afternoon between two and four o'clock, apparently from work.

My goal is to double the traffic by this May as compared to now.  Given the current peak due to the election this is not trivial.  The way to do this is to provide more useful and topical content. We still have a ways to go.  Despite Sam's objections the guy with the jackhammer stays till it reaches a critical mass of content.  Yes, this is a hint to those who understand the libertarian idea and want to publish it.

Note November 99 is not a valid stat, there was a server change in that month.

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