AUDIO – 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.
Audio Details:
Radio Program: Hotline
Host: Wayne McLean
Guests: Marc Emery (Freedom Party Action Director), Gord Hume (Chair, London Bid Committee)
Notable Caller: Robert Metz (Freedom Party president)
Aired: June 7, 1985
Radio Station: CFPL 980 AM, London, Ontario
Recorded: June 7, 1985
File Format: MP3
URL (Marc Emery Excerpt – 13.5 MB – 5 mins: 33 secs) – https://freedomparty.on.ca/archive/audio/tape-84.1985-06-07.Radio98-mclean.pan-am-defeated.emery-excerpt.mp3
URL (Robert Metz Excerpt – 16.5 MB – 6 mins: 48 secs) – https://freedomparty.on.ca/archive/audio/tape-84.1985-06-07.Radio98-mclean.pan-am-defeated.metz-excerpt.mp3
URL (Complete Recording – 192.5 MB – 1 hr: 20 mins: 12 secs) – https://freedomparty.on.ca/archive/audio/tape-84.1985-06-07.Radio98-mclean.emery-hume.pan-am-defeated.complete.mp3