Although the press coverage below may initially not seem flattering, the positive response generated by the half-page article in the London Free Press proved that the first stop towards attaining credibility in the political marketplace is to develop a realistic self-image. The second stop is to promote realistic expectations. Like it or not, Freedom Party IS a "fringe party." As a very recent entrant in the political marketplace, it is only natural to assume that we are on the "fringe" of the public's awareness and that as a consequence, our electoral expectations had best be tempered to coincide with that reality. As to the claim that fringe parties "don't go anywhere," one's perspective must also be tempered by the knowledge of knowing where one is going. And we got there. |
Fringe parties don't go anywhere - or expect to
Premier Robert Metz? Don't count on it.
Not even Metz, the leader of the London-based Freedom Party of Ontario, is predicting more than 200 votes for himself in London South or for any other Freedom candidate in the provincial election.
Fringe parties rarely go anywhere in Ontario provincial politics and the 1985 election should not be an exception, particularly in the ridings in and around London.
While eight political parties have gained official registration in Ontario by submitting petitions signed by 10.000 voters - thereby gaining the ability to issue tax receipts for political contributions and use the party name on election ballots - it looks as though it will be strictly the Tories, Liberals and New Democrats divvying up office space at Queen's Park again.
The Freedoms expect to run candidates in the three London ridings and as many as seven in Toronto, but the Libertarians will have no more than two in Southwestern Ontario and the Green part will not likely field anyone close to London.
The Communist Party of Canada hasn't any plans for the London area and the Northern Ontario Heritage party, formed in 1977 to campaign for provincial status for Northern Ontario, has never run a candidate anywhere and has virtually no members.
If the Rhinoceros party, Marxist-Leninists, Social Credit party - none has sought official recognition in Ontario - or any other group runs candidates, they'll be listed as independents.
The Freedom party started in London last year, rising from the ashes of Toronto's Unparty, itself an offshoot of the Libertarians. The Unparty had obtained official status but was going down the tubes when its power base shifted to London and underwent a name change, retaining the coveted official party registration.
Metz - party president, leader and London South candidate - and campaign director Marc Emery acknowledge they're not putting together a transition team to form the government at Queen's Park. What they're doing in their third-floor walkup above a music store on Richmond Street is laying the groundwork to attract more people for a real run at power in a decade or so.
"Realistically, we expect our candidates to get between 100 and 200 votes," said Metz.
Metz, 32, is a self-employed accountant. Emery, 27, operates the City Lights book store. A former federal and municipal candidate, he became a controversial figure through his opposition to paying a business levy for the downtown business improvement area.
Emery doesn't make any secret of the fact he intends to run in November's municipal election and many of the Freedom Party's issues spill into the municipal field. He will not run provincially this time.
The Freedoms will campaign on anti-censorship, freedom-of-choice in any government-related activity, keeping tax money out of London's bid for the 1991 Pan-Am Games and generally keeping government out of the economy.
They even consider Consumer and Commercial Relations Minister Gord Walker a left-winger because of government intrusion in the marketplace and private citizens' freedom-of-choice and denounce Liberal leader David Peterson for mouthing "Liberal party socialist claptrap."
The Freedoms show up whenever it can in London to fight for citizen's rights and become established as an intelligent, articulate, well-informed political movement, said Emery. "People think politicians are a scummy lot anyway. The premise of our campaign is to appear credible."
It annoyed Emery that Metz calls the Freedoms a fringe party, but the party leader argued: "I use fringe party because, in the eyes of people, we are."
That drive for credibility is what compelled Emery to publicly praise the police for using tear gas to break up a student party at Gatewood Place last fall, said Emery, and to campaign against the union members now on strike against Eaton's.
"They're never going to get unionized there now. The whole left-wing radical front is causing that whole union to commit suicide." The Freedoms will always defend the right of workers not to join a union, he vowed.
Denouncing union organizers at Eaton's led Emery and Metz onto another of their favorite topics: feminists, described by Emery as "strident, shrill, left-wing radicals." Feminists are "an organized NDP front" who do not speak for the great majority of women, said Emery. Women's issues, such as day care, equal pay for work of equal value and affirmative action are non-existent issues for most people, he said.
The Freedoms will target Peterson in the election campaign because he is "four-square in favor of more censorship" to combat pornography and because he favors more day care, Emery said.
While the party says it wilI run candidates in all London ridings and as many as seven in Toronto, only Metz and Michelle McColm are announced candidates.
McColm, an employee of the London Pennysaver, will run in London Centre. The party does not believe in nomination meetings. Metz and Emery hand-pick candidates who are acceptable to them. They have 130 members signed up and expect at least 50 to work actively on a London election campaign.
Any candidate, warned Emery, would have to be prepared to carry the "legacy" of a trouncing at the polls.
Among the Freedoms' planks will be:
Emery refused to label his party, saying both left and right wings are evil.
The Ontario Libertarian party again will field Kaye Sargent in Oxford where she won 1.5 percent of the turnout in 1981 with 493 votes, but a London candidate is questionable.
"We're sort of weak here in London," said Bruno Oberski. who ran federally for the Libertarians twice in the Hamilton area before moving to London. While he will not be a provincial candidate, Oberski said, "we're trying to form an association here for the whole city."
If the Libertarians field a local candidate, it will be in London South, said Oberski, although the party is somewhat lacking in members throughout the city.
A turnout of 1,000 votes would get the Libertarians' message across but that isn't likely, he conceded. "We're talking 200 or 300 votes."
Given that the Freedom party evolved from a breakaway group from the Libertarians, and Emery himself is a former federal Libertarian candidate, the similarity in their philosophies is not surprising.
Referring to what he called "The Pan-Am Olympics," Oberski said: "Where does it stop? They can only tax us 100 per cent and then we're a totally socialist society. The handouts have got to stop somewhere."
The environmentalist and peace-oriented Green party received official status a year ago, fielding dozens of candidates across Canada in the Sept. 4 federal election but will have only a few provincially in the Toronto and Niagara Falls areas, said party spokesman Jutta Keylewerth of Toronto. The Greens won't be in the game in London.
"It's so small and few and far between" around London, said Green party Oakville candidate Chris Kowalchuk, recently dispatched to the University of Western Ontario to try to drum up support.
Only six people showed up at UWO to discuss the Greens, he said. The Green party eschewed personalities and traditional structures a year ago to the extent that party leader Trevor Hancock told reporters he was party leader only because some government regulations require an official party to have a leader. The party shied away from recruiting environmentalist Richard Thomas - a former Liberal who lost the Parry Sound provincial riding by six votes in 1981 - because he was too well known with the general public.
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last updated on April 28, 2002
