|
|
|
|
Libertarian Party of Canada Convention 2008May 25, 2008 - Congratulations to New Libertarian Party of Canada Leader! I want to congratulate the new Libertarian Party of Canada leader, Dennis Young of Calgary, Alberta, on his win at the convention in Edmonton. I've included some links below that give details on the results of the leadership battle between us. Congratulations also to the new Deputy Leader, Savannah Linklater, and the new Board of Directors, which includes a lot of new volunteers. Thank you to the other convention organizers and volunteers who did such a great job. The convention was very eventful and we had help from a professional parliamentarian, Dan Lynch, who presided on Sunday. I was pleased that all the guest speakers I heard had a libertarian message to deliver. It appears that attitudes have shifted due to Ron Paul's influence, so there tends to be a clearer consensus now on critical policies such as the war and civil liberties. I think the party is gearing up for an activist media approach and that's another area of consensus too where there is broad agreement about strategy. Marc Emery made his influence felt at the convention. I believe Afghanistan, the drug war and free speech will be issues in the sights of the new leader, who is a veteran of the Bosnian conflict. All of these are critical issues for the Canadian freedom movement. There was intense discussion about party direction on Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon between the two main leadership contestants, myself and Dennis. None of it really had to do with policies at all as we're both fairly "radical" to be honest with you. The proposals I introduced to amend the Statement of Principles did not succeed although they had some support. The constitution has locked them in place and requires a 7/8 vote of delegates to change. I guess I should discuss that separately. Otherwise, I think people felt the convention was productive and they enjoyed it. It was definitely a full event. I think it became very emotional for different reasons. It really felt more real to hang out with people you actually agree with on so much and meet them in person. I think the leadership debates, Q&A's, and business sessions became fairly intense as delegates definitely took an interest in what was discussed. And I like to think they got their money's worth from the event. I wish I did have a transcript of the whole event, but I believe the LPC is planning to release footage of the guest speakers in any case. I'll be helping with transition but I decided to leave managing the party to new people because it just got to be too much. The workload needs to be spread among a group of people and I think the new group is very capable of helping the Libertarian Party of Canada make progress in becoming an effective activist organization. -Alan Mercer Event coverage:
Comments to Libertarian Party of Canada Members about Leadership Contest First of all, please come out to the Freedom Fair and Convention. The Freedom Fair on May 17 in Edmonton - go to www.libertarian.ca for details - is open to the public for $10 and is a great opportunity meet other libertarians. 11 AM - 5 PM. Guests and eligible members can register for all events for $65. Bio: I have been a director since May, 2005 and president of the Libertarian Party of Canada since February, 2006. I have a regular job in the software industry as a quality assurance software analyst. I have a BSc. in Mathematics from the University of Toronto. I'm married and live in Toronto, and have run provincially and federally in Scarborough--Rouge River. I have written press statements for the OLP and the LPC and an environmental platform for the OLP, and a platform for the LPC. My talents are more with writing. I can afford to pay for myself, as much as I have been able to afford being president part-time. As leader I would be prepared to make regular appearances, even weekly, but especially to focus on press releases. But it's true that I would not be able to afford air travel and I don't believe it is productive to make long trips and take up time and resources traveling. In fact, I disagree very much with the idea of "leaders" as being symbolic of the party and I think this is a lot of authoritarian baggage that the Canadian electorate is fooled into. I think a libertarian party should be a coalition of individual activists who represent their pro-liberty causes and that's what my leadership campaign will be representing. My leadership campaign (this week - whatever time I have for it) will be about the direction of the party and how we can grow and start pushing for reforms of attitudes and institutions in our society - withdrawing consent - levelling authoritarian institutions - appealing to the public to make these reforms. The party - and especially the main body of members - should be speaking out regularly on issues. I would like the public to pay attention to the Libertarian Party because it represents some of their real concerns and issues they don't even understand yet or aren't aware of. The Libertarian Party of Canada should be a vehicle for ordinary people to help push back the power of the State. I was libertarian-inclined since I was a teenager. I was supportive of the Conservative Party and followed the conservative movement. I read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged in the 90's and was inspired by that, and some of her other books. I was very religious but found I had to drop some of those beliefs as they were weighing down my life. I became agnostic. After Sept. 11, 2001, I was still a Bush supporter for a while and read National Review. But more and more I started detecting a lot of lies and secrecy from the U.S. government. I started hearing militaristic rhetoric and reading pro-draft articles. Fortunately, Jonah Goldberg started mentioning libertarianism in his columns and I switched over to a website called Antiwar.com where Justin Raimondo wrote up a storm of fascinating and politically incorrect material, challenging neo-conservative tenets. I read Lewrockwell.com and Joseph Schlomberg and I didn't have to be conflicted about bombing peoples' homes anymore. I knew I was against that and would never support invading other peoples' countries. And I could learn more about the history of propaganda and the secret history of modern imperialism. So I became free of all that and could think more clearly and in an open-minded way about history also. Of course I read a lot of Rothbard's articles and books and am basically inclined to his way of thinking about many things (and his ideas overlap with other writers). Life seems to be all about breaking free. And the concept of an external authority that's propped up by other people and elevated above us in order to rule over us needs to be removed. I think the party should pick the most qualified in general, and people should run themselves as leader if they believe they are more qualified. For our party, I think it's also important to reform the constitution and the Statement of Principles in order to grow. We need to allow for maximum tolerance in the party for libertarians of different views and priorities - and total decentralization. That means our members should be active making public statements that represent their beliefs and priorities and that are consistent with libertarianism, but that may conflict with statements that other groups or individuals in the party make. In every case, it helps promote the party without the forced unity that Canadian politics suffers from so much. I think it's shameful how MP's are subservient to their party leader in Canada. I think there has been a lot of tolerance from the current LP leadership, but we need to institutionalize tolerance. People do not need to agree with each other. I see the same conflicts in the U.S. LP about how LP members are embarrassed by other members' beliefs. Stop worrying so much about what others think and start arguing for your own beliefs and causes. That's how we need to promote a *libertarian party*. And that's what I mean by coalition of individuals. -Alan Mercer Libertarian Party of Canada Convention and Freedom Fair - Edmonton - May 17 - 11 AM - 5PM - Guest Speakers http://libertarian.ca/english/news/LPC_convention_agenda.html Libertarian Party of Canada 2008 Convention, Freedom Fair and Liberty Lectures Posted: May 8, 2008 Questions: info@libertarian.ca
Notify us in advance if you plan to register as an eligible voting member or guest. For details and registration fee, see http://www.libertarian.ca/english/news/convention_2008.html
Location: Holiday Inn Express, 10010 – 104 Street, Edmonton, Alberta Date: Saturday May 17 and 18, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
8:00 AM – 9:45 AM Convention Registration -- Meet & Greet Reception for registered members and guests. Holiday Inn Express, 10010 – 104 Street, Edmonton, Alberta
9:45 AM – 10:30 AM Opening remarks by LPC Leader Jean-Serge Brisson Registration issues Approval of agenda and rules Reports by LPC Officers Q&A Party business adjourns
10:30 AM – 11:00 AM Break
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM Freedom Fair and Liberty Lectures Open to the public. $10 ($5 with student card)
11:00 AM – 11:45 AM "Issues in the Libertarian Movement" Panel
Michael Wagner is the author of Standing on Guard for Thee: The Past, Present, and Future of Canada's Christian Right. Michael is a freelance writer and homeschooling father with a BA (Honours) and MA in Political Science from the University of Calgary, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Alberta. He lives in Edmonton with his wife and nine children.
Paul Geddes is a leading libertarian activist and regular political candidate in British Columbia. He has been an instructor of economics at Columbia College for twenty five years. He is married with two daughters.
11:45 AM Break for lunch
1:15 PM – 2:00 PM National Security Panel
Liberty vs. Security Speaker #1 – Lorne Gunter – National Post Speaker #2 – Dr. Moin Yahya – University of Alberta
Lorne Gunter is a columnist and editorial board member at the National Post and a columnist with the Edmonton Journal. He has been a commentator on political and social issues since 1995 and has published nearly 2,000 pieces in that time. He also maintains a blog at www.nationalpost.com
An occasional panelist on the CBC's The National, Lorne is also a frequent guest on Adler Online on the Corus Radio Network. He has published essays and opinion pieces in various newspapers and magazines, including Readers' Digest, National Review, the Weekly Standard, TechCentralStation and others.
In addition to his journalism, Lorne is the past-president of Civitas – a society for conservative and libertarian academics, think-tankers, lobbyists and journalists – and a former member of the advisory board of the Canadian Constitution Foundation.
Moin A. Yahya is an assistant professor of law at the University of Alberta, where he is also the associate dean for graduate studies and the acting associate dean for research. He has a B.A. (Hons) in Economics and a M.A. in economics from the University of Alberta; a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Toronto. He has a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and was the articles editor of the law review. He researches Corporate, Antitrust, Criminal, and Intellectual Property Law. Yahya is a libertarian and a director with the Canadian Constitution Foundation.
2:15 PM – 3:00 PM
Speaker #1 – Peter Jaworski – Western Standard Speaker #2 – Scott Hennig – Canadian Taxpayers Federation
3:15 PM – 4:00 PM Environment Panel
Speaker #1 – Global warming politics - Prof. Jan Narveson Speaker #2 – Global warming politics - Lorne Gunter
Philosopher Jan Narveson is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. His publications include The Libertarian Idea and Respecting Persons in Theory and in Practice. In 1989 he was elected to membership in the Royal Society of Canada and in 2004 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. http://philosophy.uwaterloo.ca/people/narveson.html http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~jnarveso/biographical.html
4:15 PM – 5:00 PM Justice Panel
Speaker #1 – Dr. Grant Brown – philosopher, author Speaker #2 – Marc Emery – Cannabis Culture
Grant A. Brown has a B.A. and an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Waterloo. The title of his D.Phil. thesis at Oxford University is "Functional Libertarianism." He taught at the University of Lethbridge from 1990 until 1999. He obtained his LL.B. from the University of Alberta in 2002, and since then has practiced law in Alberta. He recently quit the practice of law and is writing a book on his experiences as a family-law lawyer called Deadbeat Judges: How Courts Disenfranchise Fathers.
Marc Emery is a successful entrepreneur based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He's also an outspoken libertarian, an activist for the legalization of cannabis and the bane of law enforcement in Canada and the U.S. Emery, also known as the Prince of Pot, has earned millions over the years in his many pot-related ventures, including his website, www.emeryseeds.com, which sold 350 varieties of marijuana seeds before being shut down by the US DEA; his magazine, Cannabis Culture; his online Pot TV network and the BC Marijuana Party Bookstore in downtown Vancouver. Emery has been featured by CNN, ABC, Rolling Stone, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The National Post, The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun and the Toronto Star. He currently faces extradition to the US on charges related to selling marijuana seeds. 5:00 PM End of Freedom Fair / Liberty Lectures Break for dinner
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Leadership Contestant & Member Presentations / Q&A 15 minute speeches from each candidate / 15 minutes of moderated Q&A. Also scheduled: R. Bussières, T. Audain
Sunday, May 18, 2008 Libertarian Party of Canada Business Open also to registered guests as observers.
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Opening remarks by officers and all registered members as to their views and suggestions for strategy and priorities. Q&A about party structure.
10:00 AM – 10:15 AM Break
10:15 AM – 12:00 Proposed Amendments to Constitution, Statement of Principles, Bylaws
12:00 - 1:15 PM Lunch
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Proposed Amendments to Statement of Objectives
2:15 PM – 2:30 PM Break
2:30 PM - 5:00 PM Nominations and elections for party offices · Party Leader (15 min limit each candidate) · Deputy Leader (15 min limit each candidate) · Board of Directors - 8 positions (5 min limit) · Ethics Committee - 9 positions (5 min limit) Concluding remarks by newly-elected Party Leader
5:00 PM – 5:15 PM Meeting of new Directors
May 2, 2008 Libertarian Party of Canada website and info on May 17-18 convention: www.libertarian.ca
More information on guest speakers at the May 17 freedom Fair in Edmonton: Prof. Jan Narveson and more info on the event Also includes information on another leadership contestant, anti-interventionist (like myself) Dennis Young, from Calgary, a veteran of the Bosnian conflict. Comment section includes some neocon smear attacks on the LPC and Ron Paul. Neocons love their taxes, their wars and seatbelt regulations :) because it's all about obedience and believing propaganda. Those who don't go along are called "kooks".
Other guests: May 2, 2008 For the next 10 days or so, I'm going to promote the Libertarian Party of Canada 2008 Convention (as president) in parallel with my leadership policies as one of the leadership contestants. Anybody who is able to attend both days of the convention in Edmonton on May 17, 18 as a guest/observer, is welcome to register ($65 fee). Eligible voting members (signed up Feb. 16) can still register to vote or vote by proxy as we dropped the April deadline, although proxies will be subject to a lot of scrutiny if they arrive without notice. Details on registering and other information is here: The agenda should be posted soon, but there are some hints below. Part of the first day, May 17, 11 AM to 5 PM is our Freedom Fair, and is open to the public for a low admission fee, $10. I really appreciate the work the other organizers are doing and their choice of guest speakers is really very interesting, and I think it represents a diversity of views, some of which I might even agree with. -Alan Mercer
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2008/04/have-libertaria.html |
|
|
|
||