A group of Ontario Libertarian Party candidates met today for the campaign kick-off party.  There are several new people.  I finished some mailing for the federal party so I can start the campaign now with a clearer slate.  The following speech is my first effort for this campaign.  It was twice as long as it should have been and I started getting bored with it myself towards the end.  It may be helpful in explaining some points about libertarianism from my point of view.  It explains my motivation in an emotional way and at least one person liked it.

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I’m going to tell you why you see a Libertarian running for office and why you’re going to hear more from us and more about the freedom message.

First of all, I’m here because I’m doing what I personally can to disrupt the agenda of the bureaucratic and political class – the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP, Greens – these are the parties of the ruling class –who literally rule over our lives.

If some of you think the same way I do, if you believe in liberty, you should be speaking out also.

All I’m here to do is interrupt the same old conversation that goes on among those who deny personal and economic CHOICE to all – the ruling-class conversation of the main political parties.

If you have a problem with the smoking legislation, with the social engineering agenda, with your freedoms and property rights being violated by a centrally-planned state, who is going to stop it if you don’t speak out now yourself?

If you have a problem with the rights-destroying state interference of the Greenbelt Act and similar legislation, the mainstream parties aren’t going to stop it. The other parties entrench the power of the bureaucratic RULING CLASS, they entrench the system of privileges and subsidies and protectionist professional associations.

What motivated me?   I joined the Libertarian Party because I don’t want to be forced to place my fingerprints on my drivers’ license like I’m a slave or criminal.   This idea was floated by the Ontario Liberal government just a few years ago.   I’ll never accept that.  I don’t care if they already do that in the United States and if they already have their national ID system.   I won’t accept it here.    The idea of DNA databanks is being floated by CFRB and the established corporatist media.   I don’t care if they have it in Britain.  I don’t want it here.  Special rights-violating emergency powers were introduced in case of a flu pandemic.  These things I won’t accept.    I won’t accept increased police surveillance cameras.

I won’t accept kids being forced to stay in school against their will until they’re 18 – which is what the Liberals have done.  I won’t accept central planning and “smart growth” agendas.

It’s true that we were born into this system and we get used to the unjust property tax system and the controls on education and health care.   But I discovered the principles of liberty and realized that our government – which is supposedly our servant – forces us to pay taxes –and regulates us and forces us to pay for licenses and forces us to ask permission to do many things.

And I learned about how are choices are restricted in so many ways.  I realized how we have become used to this system, and how we have learned not to notice it or question it.

Instead we always bow to authority, and we hand over our entire lives to a ruling bureaucracy.

I believe in the principles of individual rights, in self-ownership, and by extension the right to control my property, my privacy, the right to decide how I spend my money, the right not to be taxed and regulated into submission.

I believe in the right to make my own health care and educational and other choices that don’t hurt my neighbour, to live in a society based on voluntary choice and contract, and not to use government power to INTERFERE with my neighbour’s life.

So this is why you see me up here – because it’s my responsibility  as a citizen to say no to this system which is trying to control every last thing we do with our lives –and this is what it’s doing.   And it’s getting worse.

If you don’t agree with what is happening to your freedoms, the ones you still have or the ones you never had, then speak up now and get involved with the Libertarian Party.

Authorized by the Alan Mercer Campaign.

September 10th, 2007