Freedom Party of Ontario

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The Freedom Party of Ontario is a provincial political party in Ontario, Canada. It was founded on January 1, 1984 in London, Ontario by Robert Metz and Marc Emery, as a successor to the Unparty.

The Freedom Party has fielded candidates in every provincial election since 1985, and well as in several by-elections. It has also participated in numerous public policy debates, often on contentious social issues.

Contents

[edit] Ideology

The Freedom Party is usually described as a party of the libertarian right, although it actually opposes libertarianism's tolerance for anarchism, and instead espouses political "freedom" in the sense that term is used by followers of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. The party refers to itself not as libertarian, but as capitalist. Instead of embracing the libertarian motto that "the government that governs least governs best", the Freedom Party asserts that "the purpose of government is to protect every individual's fundamental freedoms, not to restrict them."

[edit] History

[edit] 1980-1984: The Unparty

In 1980, some former members of the Ontario Libertarian Party (notably anarchist Marilou Gutscher) who had left that party after a disagreement over strategies founded the Unparty. The party was based in Toronto, and struggled until 1983, when the decision was made to end the project. Control of the organization was handed to two men who had had some success in organizing the Unparty in their electoral districts: Robert Metz and Marc Emery of London, Ontario. Metz and Emery gave the party a new name, a new political agenda, and a new head office in London, Ontario. On January 1, 1984, the new party was named the Freedom Party of Ontario.

[edit] 1984-2002

The FpO was best known during the 1980s for its campaigns against censorship and provincial laws that restricted Sunday shopping. Robert Metz, the party's first president, spoke for the FpO in 1987 when he argued that the Sunday shopping debate was fundamentally about freedom of choice for the retailer and consumer.[1] Leading FpO members also opposed legal restrictions on pornography and the private consumption of drugs, arguing that the state did not have the right to legislate in such matters.[2]

On economic issues, the FpO supported tax reductions and opposed provincial welfare programs.[3] It was also critical of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and of affirmative action programs.[4] Some prominent former members of Voice of Canadians, a now-defunct group that opposed official multiculturalism and official bilingualism, have affiliated with the FpO since the 1990s.[5]

Metz became the first official leader of the party in 1987, and served until 1994 when he was replaced by Jack Plant. Plant stepped down in 1997, and was replaced by Lloyd Walker. All of the party's leaders between 1987 and 2002 were from London, and the party's activities were organized primarily from that city. The party newsletter, Freedom Flyer, was published on an occasional basis, and back copies are now available online.

[edit] Free speech issues

The Freedom Party has opposed government restrictions on free speech and freedom of expression throughout its existence, arguing that the state has no right to intervene except in cases of defamation. Marc Emery frequently challenged Canada's censorship laws during his years as an FpO organizer, via the private bookstore he operated in London. He was convicted of selling obscene material in 1991 after selling controversial recordings by the rap group 2 Live Crew, and was given twelve months' probation.[6] He also sold the banned pro-cannabis journal High Times, and openly violated provincial restrictions against Sunday shopping.[7]

During its early years, the Freedom Party opposed section 177 of the Criminal Code of Canada, which made it a criminal offence to publish false statements. Although section 177 was rarely used, the government charged Ernst Zündel under that section in the 1980s for publishing false statements about the number of people killed in Germany's holocaust. Zündel was convicted at trial, but the conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada: that court held that a law against the publication of false news violates the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Freedom Party shared the Court's view that law against the spreading of false news violates freedom of expression and, for that reason, the conviction appeared in a Freedom Party calendar as a "Dark Day in Individual Freedom" (the calendar is available online here). It should be emphasized that the FpO did not endorse the substance of Zundel's message, but rather his right to propagate it without state interference.

A similar situation developed in 1999. In that year, Raphael Bergmann and Tyler Chilcott of London, Ontario received a letter from the city's police force alleging that they were members of the Northern Alliance, a group described as propagating "extreme right wing beliefs". The letter "required" that the two men appear at police headquarters to clarify their opinions (the full text of the document may be read online here). The recipients of this letter refused to comply, and instead went to the headquarters of the Freedom Party to speak with Robert Metz.

As the two men were not charged with anything, Lloyd Walker, then leader of the FpO, requested that Solicitor-General David Tsubouchi provide a list of "extreme" political beliefs that could result in such police action. No response was provided by the government, and nothing more came of the matter. The Freedom Party's account of the situation may be viewed online here. It should again be emphasized that the FpO did not endorse the opinions of Bergmann and Chilcott.[8]

[edit] Since 2002

The party has been partly restructured since 2002, when Oshawa lawyer Paul McKeever replaced Walker as party leader. McKeever argues that the FpO is now targeted toward building an electoral base and that a new organization, Freedom Party International, has taken on its prior advocacy role. FPI now publishes the former FpO journal, Consent.

McKeever has criticized the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario for its movement toward the political centre since Mike Harris's retirement as party leader in 2002. He argues that the FpO has the ability to win over voters who formerly supported the "Harris Tories" but who have been disappointed by the party's direction under Ernie Eves and John Tory. The FpO promoted an electoral platform entitled "The Right Direction" for the 2003 election, arguing that with the PCs turning away from Harris's Common Sense Revolution, the FpO was the only remaining party with "common sense".[9]

On October 4, 2005, the Freedom Party released its 2007 election platform. It focuses on privatization in health care and education, deregulation of the electricity market, the replacement of property taxes with consumption taxes, and the elimination of the provincial income tax.[10]

The FpO is affiliated with the Freedom Party of Canada, an unregistered political party which was founded by Paul McKeever and Robert Metz on July 20, 2001.

[edit] Election results

Election Candidates Candidates elected Total votes % of popular vote
1985 3 - 1,583 -
1987 9 - 4,735 -
1990 10 - 6,015 0.2%
1995 12 - 4,532 0.1%
1999 14 - 4,806 0.1%
2003 24 - 8,376 0.2%

[edit] Party leaders

  1. Robert Metz (1987-1994)
  2. Jack Plant (1994-1997)
  3. Lloyd Walker (1997-2002)
  4. Paul McKeever (2002-)

(Note: The party did not have an official leader from 1984 to 1987. Robert Metz was its president during this period. Lloyd Walker was initially chosen as leader on an interim basis.)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Ontario Political Parties
Represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:
PC Liberal NDP
Other parties recognized by Elections Ontario:
Green Freedom COR Family Communist Libertarian

Provincial Elections

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ William Walker, "'Intolerance' blamed for Sunday law", Toronto Star, 26 February 1987, A4.
  2. ^ David Helwig, "Garbage means votes, political party decides", Globe and Mail, 8 May 1987, N13 and Salem Alaton, "Canada Customs officials ship U.S. drug magazine back south", Globe and Mail, 1 November 1988.
  3. ^ William Frampton, "GST makes us bigger slaves", Toronto Star, 21 March 1991, E4 and Diane Francis, "Cutting costs with Dutch clocks, sunset clauses", Financial Post, 29 September 1994, p. 15.
  4. ^ Timothy Bloedow, "Human rights commission likened to Gestapo", Ottawa Times, December 1995 (referenced here) and Burt Dowsett, "Equity policy "racist, sexist," trustee says", London Free Press, 17 May 1995 (here)
  5. ^ One of the VoC members to join the FpO was group chair Dick Field. The FpO endorsed the VoC's "Mark Me Canadian" drive in the 1996 national census. "'Mark me Canadian', says Voice of Canadians Committees", Freedom Flyer, March 1996.
  6. ^ Christopher Harris, "2 Live Crew album ruled obscene", Globe and Mail, 17 July 1991, C1.
  7. ^ Paula Adamick, "Rebel bookseller defies drug law", Toronto Star, 21 October 1991, A8.
  8. ^ See also Paul Gallant, "Just because they're crazy doesn't mean they're powerless", Xtra!, 29 June 2000.
  9. ^ The document is available online here.
  10. ^ The document is available online here.
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