Charlottetown Accord...

The campaign consisted of three main components:

• the door-to-door distribution of an Ontario Information Bulletin containing a personal message from Fp leader Robert Metz, along with summary comments outlining the weaknesses of the August 28 Charlottetown agreement;

• the production and distribution of a Constitution 'handbook' featuring

  1. a complete reprint of the Aug. 28 agreement,
  2. a reprint of Canada's current Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
  3. a transcript of Freedom Party's 1991 address (made by William Frampton) to the federal government on the process for amending the Constitution, and
  4. several commentaries and articles analysing the agreement and fundamental purposes of a free nation's constitution;

• public forums to discuss the agreement and to encourage citizen input and involvement.

  "To ask that Canadians accept an all-or-nothing package of such magnitude is a tactic that smacks of gross manipulation," said Fp leader Robert Metz in reference to the sixty complex clauses contained in the August 28 agreement. "Worse, the limited time to make an informed decision, coupled with the scare tactics and emotional manipulation of those promoting the 'YES' vote, clearly illustrates that promoters of the agreement are appealing to desperation, ignorance, and fear to win their case. Canadians should be making their decisions based on knowledge and reason."

  In our effort to provide the public with such information, Freedom Party distributed over 10,000 Ontario Information Bulletins door-to-door and managed to circulate hundreds of copies of its 28-page handbook on the constitution, most to the media.

  NOT ABOUT UNITY

  "The October 26 referendum is fraudulently being sold to Canadians as a unity package, when in fact it has nothing to do with unity," said Metz. "The agreement commits our politicians to restructuring Canada on a factional basis, one that will surely divide Canada on a scale previously unimaginable. Canadians need a mandate for freedom, and the entrenchment of inalienable individual rights and freedoms which are the cornerstone of any free, unified, and prosperous country."

  CANADIANS VOTE 'NO'

  Fortunately, a majority of Canadians voted 'NO' to the question: "Do you agree that the Constitution of Canada should be renewed on the basis of the agreement reached on August 28, 1992?" Thus Canadians were spared the entrenchment of even more power in the hands of politicians and left the way open to negotiate a Canadian constitution that might be drafted for the people, instead of for the politicians.

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  Page last updated on April 30, 2002