Jun 171985
 

1985-06-17.jelinek-thumbContents:
Freedom Party’s campaign against taxpayer funding for the 1991 Pan Am Games met with success in June of 1985. Otto Jelinek, Canada’s Minister of State, Fitness, and Amateur Sport, announced that the federal government would not fund the 1991 Pan Am Games. Without federal tax funding, the London bid committee’s bid to host the 1991 Pan Am Games would fail.

Freedom Party’s No Tax for Pan Am Committee had distributed cards to Londoners which they could sign and send to Jelinek, asking that the games not be funded with federal tax revenues. Jelinek replied Robert Metz’s card with this letter, advising that there would be no federal funding for the games. Continue reading »

Jun 141985
 

1985-fpo-radio-thumbAUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
According to notes taken by Lloyd Walker, this call-in to Wayne McLean’s talk radio program on Radio 98 (London, Ontario) by Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery occurred in the summer of 1985. It concerns what should be done about hostage takers in Beirut, Lebanon. Quite probably – given the content of the discussion – it concerns the June 14, 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847 by members of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad shortly after take off from Athens. Marc argues that force must be met with force when the hostage takers will not respond to rational discourse.

Complete Recording
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Jun 121985
 

1985-xx-xx.mood-peterson-thumbAUDIO – DESCRIPTION:

On June 12, 1985, David Peterson (then leader of the Ontario Liberal Party and premier-in-waiting) was a guest of the Wayne McLean talk show. Topics covered: taxpayer funding for the Pan-Am Games; facilities for women; contracts with hospital workers; extra-billing for health care services; Ontario Hydro debt; funding for Catholic high schools; de-indexing of pensions; beer and wine in corner stores; a bill on status Indians; difference between the Liberals and NDP; minimum wage laws; tuition fees and high grades needed to attend university; and a domed stadium for Toronto.

At the 36:15 point in the recording, Freedom Party of Ontario’s Gord Mood calls in and asks for difference between Liberals and NDP. Peterson says that the NDP are socialists and the Liberals are not. He then asks Gord the difference between the socialists and Premier Miller. Mood replies that Miller apparently has caved-in to the radical left within and without of his party. Gord then asks about wanting to work for less than the minimum wage: is it better for him not to work than to work at less than the minimum? Peterson says that Gord seems to be trying to catch him in a logical trap.

Gord Mood Excerpt:
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Jun 071985
 

1985-fpo-radio-thumbAUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
Following Freedom Party’s successful effort to oppose taxpayer funding for London’s bid to host the 1991 Pan Am Games, the London Bid Committee met with the Mayor of London to canvas ways in which to save the bid. Among the options proposed by the Bid Committee was to have the federal government commit to contribute $37M after the end of the federal government’s five-year games-funding moratorium.

Wayne McLean, host of AM980’s show Hotline, asked his listeners if they want the Bid Committee to continue its efforts to host the 1991 Pan Am Games. McLean invited Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery for his view on the question. Thereafter, McLean had Bid Committee Chair Gord Hume in-studio to discuss the status of the Bid Committee’s effort and to field calls from listeners. One of those callers was Freedom Party president Robert Metz, who also was Chair of the No Tax for Pan Am Committee. After pointing out to Hume the large number of polls in London indicating that the taxpayer does not want to fund the games, Hume played the smear card, saying that Metz is president of a “radical right wing” political party, as though that were an answer to the public’s condemnation of the Bid Committee’s aims. Metz’s point was reinforced at the end of the show, when listeners were polled: 20 of the 29 people who called in said that the Bid Committee did not have their support. Ultimately, the Bid Committee failed to get the government money that it wanted.

Marc Emery Excerpt

Robert Metz Excerpt

Complete Recording
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Jun 051985
 

1985-06-xx.ntfpan-thumbContents:
Victory!; Thanks!; More-Tax for Pan-Am committee launching own door-to-door campaign; Indianapolis taxpayers association defeates taxes for 1987 Pan-Am games; No-Tax for Pan-Am Committee receives over 1,000 cards and letters of support; Our Pan-Am phone survey finds 70% opposed to tax financing for games; We were right!; More-tax for Games lobby opens booth in City Centre Mall; Controller Ron Annis suggests way for Bid Committee to deal with “ignorant, misinformed” opposition; The disease is spreading; Names and contact information of local politicians who voted in favour of Pan-Am 1991 tax funding; We finally make a convert!; The Mayor responds to one of our supporters…and we respond to him; Pan-Am Games could be held in London southwestern Ontario without building expensive white elephants; Some interesting facts on the 1988 Calgary Olympics; Effects of the Pan-Am Games; Expo disaster after Expo disaster.

Document Details:

Document: No-tax for Pan-Am Games Newsletter (Issue #5) – Victory Edition
Document Dated: March-June 1985
Publisher: Freedom Party of Ontario (No-tax for Pan-am Committee)
Written by: Marc Emery
Edited by: Robert Metz
Document Type: Party Newsletter
Number of Pages: 16
Page dimensions: 8.5″ x 11″
Color/BW: Full colour

.pdf (10.7 MB) – Internet Quick Download (Searchable): https://freedomparty.on.ca/archive/documents/between-elections-campaigns/no-tax-for-pan-am-games/no-tax-for-pan-am-games-newsletter/1985-03-to-06-xx.ntfpag.no-5.internet-quick-download.pdf

.pdf (29.4 MB) – Archive Quality (Searchable Exact): https://freedomparty.on.ca/archive/documents/between-elections-campaigns/no-tax-for-pan-am-games/no-tax-for-pan-am-games-newsletter/1985-03-to-06-xx.ntfpag.no-5.pdf

Jun 051985
 

1985-fpo-radio-thumbAUDIO – DESCRIPTION:
On June 5, 1985, the Canadian federal government announced that there would be no more federal funding of organized sports events until at least 1990. Freedom Party Action Director Marc Emery and Robert Metz’s No Tax for Pan Am Committee (a committee formed by Freedom Party) had steadily opposed taxpayer funding for London’s bid to host the 1991 Pan Am Games. Flyers and newsletters had been distributed throughout London, and numerous radio and TV appearances of Emery, Metz, and other No Tax for Pan Am activists had tipped popular opinion against taxpayer funding for the games. The federal decision effectively killed the London Bid Committee’s bid to have London host the 1991 Pan Am Games (the London bid committee was comprised largely of local business owners and building contractors who hoped to make a lot of money as a result of taxpayer funding for such things as the building of sports arenas).

On the evening of June 5, 1985, AM980’s Sports Call program interviewed three pro-bid individuals (London East Member of Parliment Jim Jepson; Darwin Semotiuk of the London Bid Committee; and London City Controller Joe Fontana who later would be a London MP, and a London Mayor*), followed by Marc Emery. During their respective interviews, Fontana predicted that the federal government’s decision would be very unpopular, but Emery predicted it would be popular. Thereafter, the program asked listeners to call in and indicate whether they were for or against the federal government’s decision not to fund the games. Emery was right: 74% of callers supported the federal government’s decision not to fund the games with taxpayer money.

*NOTE: In 2014, Joe Fontana resigned as City Mayor after he was found guilty of three fraud-related offences for forging an expense document in 2005 that resulted in a $1,700 government fraud

Marc Emery Excerpt

Complete Recording
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Jun 011985
 

Contents:
Issue #5: First half of 1985 – Freedom in Action; Front Page, Marc Emery, FP Action Director guest on open-line radio; Robert Metz audio tapes on election 1985; Pan-Am update; (Openers) Metz discusses multiple topics from current political events to community involvement; Hear the Voice of Freedom Party, cassette tapes of debates and radio talk shows; No Tax for Pan-Am games campaign successful; Excerpts from Pan-Am newspaper articles (London Free Press); Pan-Am related political cartoons (London Free Press); Excerpts from newspaper articles Pan-Am Games, Capital Gains, Bob Rae on Income Tax (Globe & Mail); Eaton’s Unionization Strike a Failure; Eaton’s Strike a Scam, Garth Turner, Excerpts from newspaper article (Toronto Sun); Freedom and Responsibility in Ontario’s Educational System, details and proposals on education.

Issue #6: Election 1985, Creating a Choice, Political cartoon (London Free Press); Article, FP Campaign Director, Marc Emery; Fringe Parties don’t go anywhere – FP election activities – newspaper excerpts (London Free Press); Freedom Party Candidates 1985; Feminists Avoid Freedom Party; More, No Tax for Pan-Am Victory, history of the campaign, flyer, document and newsletter reprints.

NOTE: Issue 5 of the No Tax for Pan Am Committee Newsletter was included, as an insert, in this double issue. Continue reading »