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TORONTO (March 20-21, 1998) - Fp president Robert Metz was among the key speakers participating in this year's Roots of Change Conference held at the Royal York Hotel. Accompanying him at the event was Fp leader Lloyd Walker, whose comments to Toronto Star reporter Thomas Walkom set the tone of that paper's coverage of the event.
Organized by Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB) president Craig Chandler, the Friday and Saturday conference was billed as a 'unite-the-right' event. With an impressive list of speakers with philosophies ranging from 'social conservative' to 'libertarian', attendees heard a wide range of opinion on the merits and pitfalls of uniting these various fragments of the so- called 'right.'
FRIDAY: Toronto Sun Money Editor Linda Leatherdale; president of the Employer WCB Crisis Committee, Richard Fink; London South MPP Bob Wood; journalist, author and talk show host Michael Coren; Mackenzie Institute president John Thompson; Freedom Party president Robert Metz; former Halton School Board trustee Robb McLeod.
SATURDAY: president of Any Key Solutions, Tim McKay; past Reform Party candidate and Canadian Citizen's Alliance president Hugh Prendergast; Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada (APEC) president Ron Leitch; author, writer, and political activist Greg Vezina; Reform Party of Canada's executive councillor in Quebec Brian Rogers; Campaign Life Coalition member Steve Jalsevac; founder-president of Renaissance Canada Inc., Ken Campbell; PGIB Ontario youth chairman and board member of the Canadian Youth Rights Association, Karl Baldauf; president of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Youth Association, Walied Soliman.
Without exception, all speakers were both informative and entertaining, and often found their controversial perspectives critically challenged by conference attendees. Freedom Party's unofficial award for the best presentation at the conference goes to APEC president Ron Leitch, whose passionate call to unite around freedom earned him a standing ovation.
"It is my belief that you cannot unite people around the words right, left, or center," warned Leitch. "Politicians and the media have joined forces to make use of the word 'right', in a political sense, a dirty word."
Leitch repeated his call for a repeal of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and referred attendees to his booklet, Freedom or Political Slavery (a speech which was delivered to Freedom Party members and supporters in June 1997), for a more lengthy discussion of his argument. (See related article in this issue of Freedom Flyer.) Under the Charter, summarized Leitch, "whenever the government restricts your freedoms, with or without legislation, you are the one who must challenge that restriction in the courts. Before the Charter existed, the onus was on the government to prove that you did not have the freedom which you wished to exercise."
Fp members and supporters will have the opportunity to read the entire text of Ron Leitch's presentation in the next issue of Consent (#29).
With respect to 'uniting the right,' Leitch's message virtually echoed that of Fp president Robert Metz.
"Trying to unite a movement around a LABEL that can mean any number of things to any given number of people is like sowing the seeds of one's own destruction," Metz challenged. "Uniting the right is less an attempt to defeat the left, than it is to defeat our electoral system," he continued, as part of his argument favoring proportional representation. "In fact, the right wants to be the minority that gets past the post first, a concept totally alien to a free democracy --- and to what the right has been preaching.
"The dilemma of an ideological political party like Freedom Party lies in the attempt to do two competing things: change public opinion, and win public approval," he explained. "To be true to principle, you can't always do both, particularly under a first- past-the-post electoral system. We resolved our dilemma: We decided to put freedom first. Every time. No exceptions."
Possibly the most diametrically opposed viewpoint to Metz's was presented by author, journalist, and talk-show host Michael Coren, who admitted from the outset that "I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable calling myself a conservative."
Nevertheless continuing to describe himself as a "social conservative," Coren defined his philosophy as being "ever pragmatic," with family and community, rather than the individual, as the basis of society. The state has a DUTY to censor pornography and ban prostitution, he argued, and went on to make an emotional case against 'same sex couples,' legalized abortion, and euthanasia (even if done for compassionate reasons). To justify his support of censorship, Coren read explicit and offensive passages from a book describing forced anal (homosexual) sex.
"Economic freedom is not an end in itself," Coren argued, though never explicitly defining what 'end' he actually supported.
When challenged by an audience member with obvious Objectivist leanings, Coren described philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand's ideas as those one would find at the "bottom of the barrel."
"I DO believe in the redistribution of wealth, socialized medicine, and universal education," he emphasized, and went on to argue that the issue of taxation has nothing to do with morality; it's what the money is used for that matters.
"What's wrong with being coercive?" Coren quipped.
Other speakers discussed a variety of subjects, generally consistent with the conference theme, but often focused on a narrower issue or concern. Subjects ranged from organizational software solutions for the 'right' in Canada (Tim McKay), to a call for lowering the voting age to 16 (by 15-year-old Karl Baldauf, whose compelling arguments will find their way to the pages of Consent magazine in the very near future).
Toronto Sun money editor Linda Leatherdale kicked off the whole event by distributing Canadian flags to all attendees in commemoration of the "flag flap" in Ottawa.
"We have the fastest-growing tax burden in the western world," she marked with alarm. "I don't understand why Canadians aren't screaming in the streets."
London South MPP Bob Wood offered an excellent electoral history (1985-1995) of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, using that party's history as a way of demonstrating how it managed to appeal to the "three kinds of conservatives" required to build an electoral base: economic conservatives, populist conservatives, and social conservatives. Wood's suggestions were both practical and useful, based on his experience with the "theory, history, and science" of political activity.
He warned attendees to avoid arguing about "minor issues" in public, or "all three voting groups will stop listening to you." Uniting under a single political party is not necessarily a solution to the issues people want resolved, Wood reminded the audience: "Have more than one political party exist, but find ways to work together."
Possibly the best mechanism for parties and individuals to work together on issues where they can agree is proportional representation. That was the bottom line of a most entertaining and animated presentation made by author, writer, and political activist Greg Vezina, whose book (co-authored by John Deverell) Democracy Eh? - A Guide to Voter Action, may well be the only publication to earn the endorsements of people ranging from Mike Harris to Judy Rebick.
Using a healthy dose of humor, cynicism, and sarcasm, Vezina aptly demonstrated how "our Canadian democracy makes it impossible" to effect any meaningful change. We have "Liberals for life" under the current constituency system of Canada's first-past-the-post system, he argued, and then offered ways of defeating that electoral system.
"Don't beat them, join them!" Vezina suggested. "Nice guys don't even finish, let alone finish last. Politics is for animals, not people. Some people actually think it's to do the right thing! Politics is about obtaining POWER. Period."
Until we have proportional representation, Vezina recommended that individuals take over existing party executives and candidate nominations. Other tactics recommended included the formation of a new amalgamated party, and/or a focus on strategic or negative voting. But his bottom line was clear:
"Endorse candidates who endorse proportional representation!" Vezina concluded.
Roots of Change organizer Craig Chandler wrapped up the two day conference by calling upon attendees to arrive at some consensus on the issues they could all agree to support, despite their many fundamental differences in philosophy and areas of concern. Surprisingly, support was virtually unanimous on six key issues, all of which are supported by Freedom Party policy:
(1) End government funding of abortion; (2) Seek an alternative to Canada's first-past-the-post electoral system; (3) Repeal the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; (4) Oppose the Calgary Framework in its current form; (5) Promote less government, lower taxes, more individual freedom; (6) Limit law-making to those issues that protect individual rights.
We are pleased to report that the last item (#6) was included at the behest of Freedom Party founding member Mary Lou Gutscher, who was quick to warn all that item #5 could be interpreted in ways not consistent with individual freedoms.
Chandler vowed to integrate these recommendations into PGIB's lobby platform when he returned to Calgary following the conference. Our thanks and appreciation are extended to both Mr. Chandler and the Progressive Group for Independent Business for hosting a most provocative and stimulating event.
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last updated on April 28, 2002
