I just faxed the following letter to the CPC:

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Conservative Party of Canada
Fax: (613) 755-2001

June 19, 2008

To whom it may concern:

Re: My Membership - No. C6303796

The party that I worked hard to build would not have:

1. appointed a non-elected Senator,
2. appointed a floor-crosser to the Cabinet,
3. broken its promise not to raise taxes (1% added to lowest rate)
4. broken its promise to eliminate the tax on capital gains
5. broken its promise to eliminate the GST on gas once the price hit 85 cents per litre,
6. broken its promise not to tax income trusts
7. taken full advantage of undemocratic Liberal election financing laws rather than repeal them,
8. increased the power of the PMO contrary to Justice Gomery’s strong recommendation,
9. broken its promise to allow free votes on all but the main financial measures,
10. broken its promise to hold a free vote on the definition of marriage,
11. broken its promise to repeal the long-arm gun registry and use the savings to finance additional police services,
12. failed to respect, adhere to, and implement the policies endorsed by its membership,
13. generally failed to distinguish itself in any significant manner from its Liberal and Red-Tory predecessors.

The party I supported would have kept its promises and remained true to its principles. It would also have stood up to a leader who acted like a dictator and reaffirmed its commitment to grassroots democracy in its own administration. By selling out its principles for the sake of political expediency my party has ceased to exist, making my resignation moot. Nevertheless, to make it official - I resign.

Sincerely,
Howard MacKinnon

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So that’s that. Next? My application for membership in the Libertarian Party of Canada is in the envelope ready to mail tomorrow. Check it out: www.Libertarian.ca

In the 1980s Brian Mulroney presided over enormous increases in government spending and taxation. The national debt ballooned as each year’s deficit was piled onto the one before it. Only when the Liberals came to power did this change.

But the Liberals deserved absolutely no credit. It simply wasn’t possible to spend any more or raise taxes any higher - the Mulroney Tories had maxed out both these options. The Liberals did what they do best. They jettisoned their usual tax and spend predisposition to steal the thunder from their only effective political opponents - the Reform Party.

The fiscal mismanagement of the Mulroney Conservatives created the need for the Reform Party whose credible threat to the Liberals then forced them to make what progress they did in cleaning up the mess.

Now, after years of balanced budgets and even some very modest tax cuts, Canadians still find themselves the most overtaxed people in the developed world. Why? Because we have another gutless Conservative government.

Now this pejorative is intended as a double-entendre denoting cowardice while also alluding to the practice that could create the fiscal freedom to indulge in tax reductions - broadly and deeply. That is, by “gutting” the many and varied wasteful government programs that simply rob the tax payer to pander to special interest groups.

The recent auditor general’s report details overspending on the fisheries, the gun registry, computer equipment and infrastructure grants and many other items. Here’s one particularly egregious example. Almost half a billion dollars was spend last year on foster homes for 8,000 Native children on reserves. That’s $56,000 per child with no accounting for how the money was used or whether the children were any better of as a result. Sounds to me like an excuse to funnel more money and/or power to Native elites. Who else determines where this money goes?

How about the 41,000 illegal immigrants who have been already ordered deported from the country but whose whereabout are unknown? Why are we spending money on a system to screen immigrants when those who fail to meet the test stay here anyway? Why not save ourselves the money and scrap the whole thing?

Because gutting wasteful programs creates political enemies and doing that takes guts. From its actions to date it looks like we have just one more gutless Conservative government.

Here’s the first line of a story on the new Crop poll taken in Quebec:

“A new poll paints devastating picture of a Liberal party completely reduced to a rump in Quebec if an election were held today.”

Reduced to a rump? In 2006 the Liberals got 21% of the vote and now they are at 20% support. Doing the actual seat projections shows that they stand to actually gain 5 seats compared to 2006 due to the erosion of support from the Bloq and the greater equity in support among all parties.

So, the lesson is that the opinions expressed in our national media are often nothing but ill-informed water cooler chatter. The full seat projections based on the Crop results would be as follows:

BQ = 36
CPC = 20
LIB = 18

Using my usual method (see prior posts for details) here are the seat projections based on the latest SCC poll results.

This is the best of the recent polls for the CPC. In fact it is the best since the last election so it would be a fortuitous coincidence if it is the most accurate. Regardless, it is at least a hopeful sign that a majority government is within our grasp. It is certainly going to dampen whatever enthusiasm any Liberals may have for a spring election. And for Layton it would be suicide - reducing his party to below official party status.

Recently Green Party leader Elizabeth May was roundly castigated for comparing those who question the scientific basis of the environmentalist crusade to those who tried to appease the Nazis prior to World War II. Well, thanks to recent comments by May’s fellow-traveler David Suzuki, we now get a chance to see who the real Nazi appeaser is.

To the applause of an audience of fellow eco-fascists at McGill University, Suzuki stated that politicians who fail to take action to protect the environment should be jailed. Is the science behind green politics so weak that dissenters must be incarcerated for it to succeed? To the list of communism and fascism do we now add environmentalism as being among those failed philosophies which cannot persuade and so must rely on brute force to achieve political influence?

So Ms. May, now you have a chance for either a measure of redemption - or to reveal yourself to be the biggest hypocrite on the Canadian political scene. Do you forthrightly condemn Suzuki’s totalitarian rant or is it really you who is the Nazi appeaser?

In the recent poll by Nanos Research Canadians indicated support for laissez-faire economic policies over government intervention as their favoured means of dealing with the economic downturn. The numbers were 53% in support of laissez-faire policies such as doing nothing, lowering taxes, or reducing the debt to 44% who favoured interventionist strategies such as creating jobs or raising wages. The remainder supported measures which could not really be characterized as either laissez-faire or interventionist such as changing the country’s leadership.

In this article the always informative Scott Taylor sheds light on the recent insult leveled at Canadian troops by US Defence Secretary Gates. He also knocks Peter MacKay for not standing up for Canadian troops. Sounds like Canada has had to virtually reconquer Kandahar province after the US pulled out. Read the article to understand why.

Real conservatism has arrived.That was the point of the decade-long Reform/PC schism culminating in the Alliance and the alliance between the Alliance and the PCs - the Conservative Party of Canada. All of it was to take the “progressive” (read: leftist) tendencies out of Canada’s conservative party. So the ballots have been counted and the results are in and now finally Canada has a truly conservative government.

Ok, prove it.

Canadians are still among the highest taxed people in all the industrial nations. Despite the government’s minority status its opposition is so timid it’s disgusting. The CPC has and can continue to govern like it has a majority. If it falls it will be re-elected, possibly even with a majority, but if with a minority, so what?

What should the government do with this power? A real conservative government of an overtaxed people would think of doing nothing before dramatically reducing taxes. The means of doing so is suggested in this article.

All it takes is some hand-scrawled gibberish in the form of a complaint to the Human Rights Commission and you face an inquisition in this country where your own fundamental human rights are called into question. The exercise of liberty, such as freedom of speech, can cost you thousands in fines from the tin-pot fascists who accept appointments to these hideous tribunals.

Ezra Lavant is a publisher. He published the now famous cartoons originally published in Denmark to which radical muslims took such offence that they began their usual campaign of physical and verbal violence. In Canada no one was killed, no buildings were blown up, because the Islamo-fascists among us need only sick the state’s thought police on Mr. Levant.

If you haven’t already seen Ezra Lavant’s videos of his inquisition by the ludicrously-named Human Rights Commission you’re in for a treat. Follow this link to Ezra’s YouTube page.

For more written by Ezra Lavant himself visit his site at www.ezralevant.com

I attended a LPC convention in Toronto in the mid 80s and I was thoroughly impressed by the caliber of the delegates from across the country. I was impressed that these were intelligent and principled individuals pursuing the highest political ideal in the way they believed best.

I worked for the LPC (I even ran in the 1988 election as a Libertarian) until 1990 when I met Preston Manning. After hearing him speak I asked Mr. Manning if there was room in his party for a libertarian. He answered that he believed the economic principles upon which the Reform Party was based were essentially libertarian. He said he thought of the Reform Party as a broad political coalition of libertarians, conservatives and political reformers with sufficient common ground to allow us to work together effectively.

I was, and remain, persuaded by the argument that it is better to accomplish some of our objectives in alliance with others than to remain isolated and accomplish little or nothing. I joined the Reform Party and continue to actively support its successor, the Conservative Party. I will do so as long as it appears that implementing its platform will make Canada more libertarian than it is.

So, I believe the LPC is a great bunch of people doing what they believe is best. But I wish they would add their considerable talents and intellects to the CPC.

I do not believe there is any utility in the term “libertarian conservative”. If you mean “libertarian Conservative”, to refer to a libertarian who is a member of the CPC then I can see it, but not without the upper case “C”. If it means a social conservative who supports libertarian economics I think the label “conservative” is adequate. I believe the unmodified label “libertarian” implies support for the general application of the libertarian principle which would exclude the coercive social policies usually supported by social conservatives.