Welcome to the first issue of Freedom Flyer, a newsletter published by the Freedom Party of Ontario. Formerly called Unparty and based in Toronto, Freedom Party's headquarters has now moved to London, Ontario where it will continue to obtain memberships throughout the province. Its new president is Robert Metz, whose article elsewhere in this issue will further explain what Freedom Party is all about.

Before outlining our newsletter's format, let me first introduce myself. I'm Mark Pettigrew and for the last sixteen of my twenty years, I've been a resident of London. Since graduating from high school, I've been working towards becoming a professional musician and composer. As an objectivist-libertarian (yes, these two terms are not necessarily in conflict!), my political activity has ranged from supporting Freedom Party to writing 'Letters to the Editor' and writing articles for the London MetroBulletin.

Now without much further ado, let's explain the function of Freedom Flyer. Basically and most importantly, its purpose is to inform members and others interested of Freedom Party's activities. We have, in addition, information in files, research, tapes, documents, speeches, and presentations available to members on request in the near future.

Freedom Flyer will also provide political instruction and direction through its articles, and indirectly through assistance (information and advice) to those who need help on strategies for entering political forums, election campaigns, debates, etc. Other very important functions of this newsletter will be to encourage lobbying on specific issues, to profile 'libertarians' who are active in the pursuit of freedom and liberty, to inform members of the input made by the libertarian movement outside the province, to distribute membership forms and issue papers as they are produced, and likely many other functions that have yet to surface. We'd be happy to consider any suggestions from our members of activities to be pursued.

Now, just a few words about what's in this issue:

Freedom Party president, Robert Metz, outlines some of the concepts of the party's goals, and has an article concerning Bill Davis and David Peterson reprinted from the London MetroBulletin's Fall 1983 issue.

Marc Emery, publisher and editor of the London MetroBulletin, proprietor of City Lights Bookshop, and whose reputation as a local political activist preceeds him, has written the first installment of a multi-part article on getting involved in local politics. And Mary Lou Gutscher, founder of the party, has a few words about recent events going on in Toronto and elsewhere. It's our expectation that Bob, Marc, and Mary Lou will be regular contributors to Freedom Flyer.

My own article concerns the best methods of discussing ideas with others. You will also find our first in a series of 'issue papers' that will become a regular enclosure accompanying this newsletter.

A word about subscriptions: In addition to being distributed to all current subscribers of Toward Liberty, this first issue of Freedom Flyer is being distributed free of charge to as many of our past and current supporters (without subscriptions) as we can effectively reach. It is hoped that this will minimize the potential confusion caused by our party's name change and that it will re-introduce many past supporters to our current efforts. This means that for those of you who don't already have a current subscription (shame on you!), future issues will have to be paid for in advance. Those with current subscriptions, of course, will continue to receive our newsletter as per normal (you're safe, for now!).

To conclude, special thanks must be extended to David Hogg, whose effort and generosity were so instrumental in providing us with our newly acquired computer facilities (yay!). We gratefully acknowledge the London MetroBulletin for its original article, and of course, you, our faithful supporters, without whom such an effort cannot exist.

See you next issue!

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Page last updated on August 22, 2002