Platform
The Libertarian Party advocates minimizing government interference in the social and economic affairs of Canadian citizens, on the grounds that such interference violates rights and leads to general impoverishment. As such, the party platform contains the following positions:
Economic Policy: The Party supports a highly laissez-faire economic policy. It opposes most, if not all, government restriction or regulation of voluntary trade, including the imposition of centrally planned labour and environmental standards. Likewise, the Party is firmly committed to unilateral free trade, rejecting both protectionism and trade agreements. The Party also regards most, if not all, taxation as coercive, and seeks to eliminate or substantially reduce the personal and corporate income tax rates, as well as abolish the GST and federal excise taxes. Its stated goal is a move towards a system of fees for service. The Party also supports the abolition of the Bank of Canada, arguing that government regulation of currency and credit is harmful to the economy.
Welfare Programs: The Party opposes all government subsidies- whether to industry, education, health care, science, the arts, or individuals. It thus opposes both social welfare programs and corporate welfare programs, including the Canada Health Act, public education, and agricultural subsidies.
Environmental Policy: The Party maintains a free-market environmentalist philosophy. It regards pollution as aggression against property rights, and supports the right of pollution victims to file injunctions against polluters. It also considers the overexploitation of natural resources to be a direct result of government ownership of those resources, and supports their privatization. The Party opposes government-mandated environmental standards and Canadian participation in the Kyoto Protocol.
Civil Liberties: The Party supports the unrestricted rights of freedom of expression, religion, the press, voluntary association, and peaceful assembly. It opposes government interference into marriage, the family, churches and other private associations. The Party has condemned the erosion of civil liberties in the last decade in the name of counter-terrorism. It also strongly opposes government surveillance of society, as well as government restrictions on the right to own firearms and the right to self-defence.
Law and Order: The Party supports laws against the use of force, the threat thereof, or fraud. It would remove all victimless crimes from the criminal code, regarding any action that does not aggress against another individual as an issue of personal responsibility. It thus supports the blanket legalization of all drugs. The Party also contends that the punishment should be proportional to the crime, and likewise supports heavier sentencing for violent offenders.
Foreign Policy: The Party maintains a non-interventionist philosophy in foreign policy. It supports diplomacy and free trade with other nations, but opposes interference in their sovereign affairs except through those means. It likewise supports a rigorous defence of Canada's sovereignty from foreign powers. However, it opposes government provision of airline security. The Party generally opposes war and nuclear proliferation due to their potential to result in rights violations. It also advocates withdrawal from military alliances such as NATO.
Immigration Policy: The Party supports open immigration so long as immigrants do not take advantage of existing social welfare programs.
Intellectual Property: The Party advocates a moderate approach to intellectual property that would generally entail rolling back the existing laws. The Party has also called into question the ability of companies to patent existing processes, genetically modified organisms, and existing organisms.
Telecommunications Policy: The Party supports internet freedom, and rejects government regulation of Internet Service Providers. It supports the elimination of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. It also proposes the private appropriation of the electromagnetic spectrum as an alternative to government spectrum licensing.
Political Process: The Party opposes restrictions on campaign donations, advertising, and spending. It rejects electronic voting in light of its questionable track record and supports including a NOTA (None Of The Above) option on ballots. The Party is also supportive of citizens' rights to recall their local Member of Parliament, as well as challenge parliament through referenda.
Read more about this topic: Libertarian Party Of Canada
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Do you know I believe that [William Jennings] Bryan will force his nomination on the Democrats again. I believe he will either do this by advocating Prohibition, or else he will run on a Prohibition platform independent of the Democrats. But you will see that the year before the election he will organize a mammoth lecture tour and will make Prohibition the leading note of every address.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)