Robert Metz

Small new political parties may, as was said about Freedom Party in a recent television feature, be facing "a long hard climb" to ultimate electoral success, but their active influence and impact on the outcome of issues and on public attitudes is both immediate and dramatic. We can prove it --- and we have.

Freedom Party's record of action --- and results - is a testament to the truth of this statement and to the value of supporting a new political party. January 1, 1989 marks the end of Freedom Party's fifth year of activity, and the beginning of our sixth. From the very outset, Freedom Party's strategy has been twofold: (1) grass-roots community action; (2) grass-roots community education. It's a formula that works, and is well-worth supporting.

When Ontario's Solicitor-General Joan Smith implied that Freedom Party still has a long way to go before its votes will make a difference (see Open-Line on Sunday Laws, elsewhere in this issue), she paid us a great tribute. Since Smith has campaigned and debated against various Freedom Party spokesmen from the very beginning of her career in provincial politics, she is well aware that the principles on which Freedom Party is founded are not for sale -- not even for votes!

Back in 1985, when I first met Joan Smith, she was hard at work campaigning (successfully) to unseat Conservative incumbent and London South MPP Gordon Walker during Ontario's general election that year. Joan had served in London's municipal government both as alderman and as a member of its Board of Control, where ironically, she was known to be adamantly opposed to any municipal involvement with Sunday shopping laws. But more significantly at the time, Joan Smith was a strong supporter of London's hosting the 1991 Pan-Am Games at an incredible tax-paid cost of over $100 million!

Upon her entry into provincial politics however, Joan Smith dramatically reversed her position on tax-funding for the Pan-Am Games. Her reason? According to Smith herself, as she knocked on the doors of London South voters during the provincial election campaign of 1985, she was constantly - confronted by a tremendous, consistent voter opposition to the scheme.

The same mood was reflected in the other two London ridings where, as chance would have it, Liberal opposition leader David Peterson was running in London Centre. (it is somewhat amusing to reflect that in 1985, Peterson's riding campaign headquarters set up shop right next door to the offices of Freedom Party.) Not surprisingly, both Peterson and Smith promised London voters that they would not spend any provincial tax dollars on the Games, a factor that weighed heavily in the subsequent success of each of their campaigns.

As many Freedom Party members and supporters who have been with us since our beginning are aware, organizing the official opposition to the tax-financing (federal, provincial, and municipal) of London's 1991 Pan-Am Games was Freedom Party's first major community campaign, and by any objective standard, it was a smashing success. Not only did it demonstrate the value of direct citizen involvement in an issue that would otherwise have been dominated by bureaucrats and politicians, but it proved to our members and executive alike that we don't have to be getting votes to have a profound and measurable impact on political issues of the day.

Joan Smith's discovery of a consistent and informed opposition to the tax-funded Pan-Am Games was a direct consequence of our "No Tax for Pan-Am" campaign, and of that there can be no doubt.

In 1984, the year before Smith began her provincial campaigning, Freedom Party distributed over 60,000 8-page brochures to households in London, which outlined in detail the risks and pitfalls associated with such an expensive undertaking, especially when it is undertaken by politicians and governments. Prior to our information campaign, there was virtually no vocal or organized public opposition to the scheme.

Within three months, Freedom Party was servicing 1,100 local subscribers with its monthly No Tax for Pan-Am newsletter, and our supporters intensely lobbied municipal, federal, and provincial politicians to withhold tax funding from the Games.

Without going into every detail, (a complete documentation of our first campaign is available to any member or supporter on request) suffice it to say that Freedom Party's first community campaign was an unprecedented success:

A record number of letters to the editor of the London Free Press (a paper which editorially and financially supported the tax-financed scheme) were generated on the issue --- with 85% of the comments opposed to the greater tax burden. The same statistical range of opinions was reflected in a wide range of informal polls, including one conducted by the London Free Press and two conducted by, of all things, a local open-line sports program.

Otto Jelinek, federal sports minister in 1985, was among the many who acknowledged our campaign and supporters. Fortunately for taxpayers at the time, he announced that federal funds would not be forthcoming for the 1991 Pan-Am Games, and both an unnecessary expensive undertaking and more taxes were avoided.

Needless to say, our influence on the outcome of an issue that saved taxpayers over $100 million was dramatic: Freedom Party --- and no one else -- supplied the intellectual and moral ammunition that made it possible for citizens to effectively voice their opposition to more taxes and thereby, to force two significant political candidates (David Peterson, Joan Smith) to withdraw their previous support for an ill-conceived scheme. If this isn't a demonstration of political power and influence, then I don't know what is.

And yet, many people still have doubts and reservations about the value of supporting a small, new political party --- especially one dedicated to individual rights and freedoms. Current political mythology has it that "principles", "idealism", and "philosophy" just don't mix with realistic political action. But that depends on the objectives of your political action. If you're out to violate rights, buy political favours, or steal money from the pockets of hard-working honest individuals through constantly increasing their taxes, of course principles "won't work"!

But principles of individual freedom do work and we've proven it time and time again. Since our first campaign, Freedom Party has amassed an impressive list of campaign accomplishments and has played an important community role in defining the issues and principles behind many of today's political controversies.

We've successfully fought against forced association in both labour and in business. They told us we couldn't take on coercive unions. So we did it. Twice. Two union ratification drives were defeated as a direct consequence of Freedom Party's involvement. We even dared to picket the postal union during a postal strike in which violence and vandalism erupted. We supplied free garbage pick-up service to residents of London during that city's last garbage strike. (Freedom Flyer: The Labour Issue, November 1987]

They told us we couldn't take on big government and those business people who would use political influence to achieve their ends. So, through our BIA campaigns, we did it. Not once, but many times. (See coverage elsewhere this issue and also see Freedom Flyer, January 1987 and Summer 1987 issues.

Because Freedom Party is a party based on principle, we're not out to appeal to public opinion; we're out to change it.

In the course of our public advocacy of individual rights, responsibilities, and freedoms, we've become Ontario's leading proponent for freedom of choice in Sunday shopping. While some may observe that "Sunday shopping" seems a trivial subject for concern, the issue has offered us a tremendous opportunity to educate and influence the public on the real issues behind Sunday shopping --- in fact, the real issue behind every political controversy: individual freedom of choice. Through public advocacy, we not only educate the public, but the politicians.

Still, the events reflected in this newsletter and in my previous remarks represent only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Freedom Party is doing. I haven't mentioned the numerous visits to schools, open-line debates, special events, radio and television interviews which have become a routine part of our activities. Or our past and future participation in provincial elections. Or the fact that Freedom Party is becoming a bona-fide research and information resource center in its own right. Or that Freedom Party has printed and published more literature, pamphlets, newsletters, etc. in its first few years than most political parties would offer their supporters in a lifetime.

We've accomplished and done all this because of our principles, not in spite of them.

And just as in 1984, when Freedom Party was founded, we're still challenging and confronting politicians like Solicitor General Joan Smith (see coverage, elsewhere in this issue) --- politicians who bend and sway with every political wind and who, because of their lack of principles, are destroying our rights, our freedoms, and our future.

We can stop them.

Let's do it. We have only our freedom to regain.

e-mail

Page last updated on April 28, 2002