Openers...

ROBERT METZ

It's been a busy year for Freedom Party, and once again we've fallen behind in reporting our activities and progress to you.

As has been our past experience, when things get busy on the campaign trails, keeping up-to-date with our newsletters (Freedom Flyer, Consent) can sometimes become a daunting task. But if you're an Fp member, supporter, or contributor, have no fear. You will always receive your promised 6 issues of each newsletter (following a minimum $25 contribution to Fp) - even if it takes us longer than anticipated to publish and mail them out to you.

We have a lot of catching up to do, and for that reason, this issue of Freedom Flyer is a little larger than most: in future we will do our utmost to keep them coming on a more timely basis. This newsletter includes Fp coverage and activities stretching from the fall of 1990 to the present, even though other events within that time frame have been previously reported.

Many of the issues featured within these pages are admittedly emotionally-charged and highly controversial. But that's exactly what politics is all about. Depending on your own perspective, these issues (which are all dealt with in this newsletter) might include: Sunday shopping; rent controls; taxes; cross-border shopping; BIAs; racism; socialism; capitalism; unions; education; privatization; fundamental freedoms; constitutional change; Quebec language laws; and even the Gulf war - certainly not a mix of issues that other political parties would be willing to openly discuss with their membership. Too many organizations dependent on voluntary support are terrified at the prospect of offending their supporters - and the risk of losing them - by "telling them too much" about what the organization represents.

In contrast, I believe that it's our obligation, as a responsible political organization, to keep our membership informed as fully as possible on our activities, the opinions we publicly express - and to take the risk of losing a few potential supporters rather than not challenge their viewpoints on an isolated issue or two.

In the long run, I believe this is part of what makes us a stronger party - a party of principle, a party where strength isn't just to be found in numbers, but in the quality of its people and the strength of their convictions.

So it came as no surprise to me when I read in the news that London (where Fp is headquartered and is always actively campaigning) was Ontario's "hot spot" of intensive school board campaigning under the Ontario Taxpayers' Coalition slate of endorsed candidates in the November municipal elections. After all, among endorsed candidates were the following Fp members and supporters: Paul Blair, Robert Vaughan, Jack Plant, Patti Plant, Jim Elliott, Steve Ronson, Dave Fortner, and of course, myself. And in conjunction with the London-Middlesex Taxpayers' Coalition, we've been working closely with coalition executive Jim Montag, Craig Stevens, Ken Lewis, and coalition members David Lewis, Luke Babich, and Nando Favaro.

Together, this is the team that set the political agenda for the 1991 municipal trustee campaign in London, and for the next three years at the London Board of Education - and congratulations are in order for each of the above-mentioned.

It was no coincidence that in the short span of time between the formation of the Ontario Taxpayers' Coalition and the 1991 Ontario municipal elections, no other Ontario community was able to produce as formidable a slate of candidates on behalf of lower taxes than London's. Thanks to Freedom Party's existing membership base and its past activity in the London community, it became possible, within the few weeks given, to find the right people to take on the entrenched school board bureaucracy and powerful teachers' unions. By the time nominations closed, there was at least one coalition-endorsed school board candidate in each of London's seven wards, a remarkable accomplishment.

But let's not fool ourselves. The process of finding principled, hardworking, and dedicated individuals committed to acting on the ideals of a free and prosperous society is a long an involved one. Our political system actively resists principles and common sense, and those who choose to join the battle in the front lines of political reform have to be very special people indeed.

Such individuals must be predominantly committed to a major established goal, and must not allow their minor differences of opinion to undermine that goal. Most of all, they must be strong enough to resist the temptation of compromising their principles to political pressures out to undermine and frustrate them.

Pleasingly, as current events have been unfolding, it has become increasingly clear to me that Freedom Party has more than its fair share of such people within its membership and sphere of influence, and that in the future, more and more of them will be getting active in Ontario's political arena - both in the front lines and in the support ranks.

Free citizens have a unique responsibility that unfree citizens (still most of the world) do not have. That responsibility is to protect and defend their individual rights and freedoms. To the extent that free citizens fail to acknowledge and take action to meet this rare responsibility, they will become less free - in other words, over-taxed, over-regulated, and over-governed. The Canadian political scene is in a tragic state (Ontario in particular), and unless more and more concerned individuals get involved in the tough battle to reverse many of the negative social, political, and economic trends that have us all in their grip, the future will continue to be what we allow others to make it for us.

Remember, no matter who you are, you can make a difference! Like others who have discovered our freedom of choice alternatives, if you haven't done so already, you can become part of the only political team that honestly believes individual choice matters, and that individual freedom is the cornerstone of all great societies.

To those of you who have been continuing supporters of Freedom Party, I offer my sincerest appreciation, thanks, and best wishes for the coming new year and many years ahead. You have already become an important and significant force in battle to preserve our fundamental rights and freedoms and the blessings we've come to associate with them. After all, without your continued support, the effort simply could not be made, and the remarkable influence that Freedom Party has already had would never have been felt.

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Page last updated on April 28, 2002