About Steven P. Babcock

Posts by Steven P. Babcock:

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The government role, individual rights, defense and foreign policy

Canadian Constitution states that the federal government is fully responsible for their actions and to its citizens. Our association fully supports this constitution in order to make them protect the individual rights. This means that our support goes to the Charter of Rights which clearly guarantees protection against any forceful actions or fraud, taking place by the government.

This includes all citizen initiatives, freedom of political action, the charter of rights, freedom of information and disallowance. The only force of law should be elected by the legit and duly elected Parlament. Furthermore, the government violates these rights if they keep any information from the citizens.

When it comes to the foreign policy and defense, the principle of non-initiation of force should always be executed. We strongly believe that the best policy is the one stating complete abstination from imperialist endeavors and foreign disputes.

A military establishment should be present in order to defend the country against any foreign aggression. As for the external affairs, diplomatic negotiations with foreign governments are always welcomed.

This is how countries prosper and by running healthy and positive external affairs politics, we strongly believe that we can contribute to the overall progress of our country. With this in mind, we are strongly opposing granting of diplomatic immunity to any foreign individual.

When it comes to the individual rights, there are no other rights than these and they are inviolable. This means that no institution can rightfully violate those rights. Furthermore, we think that each citizen has the right to own property and live from the fruits of their own labor.

All citizens are free to live according to their own choosing as long as they are not violating the rights of others. Individual rights are comprised of various freedoms like freedom of assembly and speech, associations, religion, contract, property rights, right to privacy and self-protection.

Our main policy is a belief that the government should not have the right to deny or abridge any individual rights because of age, sex, religion and race or personal non-criminal activity.

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English positions trade and economy

Trading and economic rights are almost the same as the individual rights. Just like any man has the right to be free and vote, they also have the right to trade and own property. In case that the government tries to deny these right, that can be considered as the violation of the rights and denying the freedom of citizens. The government role here is to protect the voluntary trade in any way by providing a legal framework, adjudicate disputes, enforce contracts and protect property rights.

Canadian Libertarians Association strongly believes that each individual must be allowed to exchange both services and goods with any group or a person, free from coercion. The government efforts to manage or control the trade are out of place completely. The same goes for the economy. If the government interferes too much, they threaten to endanger the material prosperity and the personal freedom of every citizen in the country.

With this in mind, our association follows a reform that should take place immediately. It refers to all sorts of economic agreements, reducing the government expenses and taxes, the removal of any impediments made by the government to all forms of free trade and the repeal of the government control or interest rates, profits, rents, prices and wages.

Any individual should be entitled to manage their own property and keep the product of their labor. Any activity made by the government, which consists of the collection of goods or money by force from citizens, is a direct violation of individual rights and therefore should be sanctioned.

The government should participate in these processes but their role should be strictly intermediatory, meaning that they should make sure that everything goes as planned and that the law is abided. Any actions aside from this, are considered harmful to the rights of the citizens. No one has the right to limit the freedom, given to the citizens on the day when they became the citizens. Our association is making the efforts to see these rights and freedoms being honored at all times and terms.

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English libertarian candidate guidelines

 

Every citizen of Canada who is 18 years of age on the day of election may become the candidate. There are some procedures that need to be followed in order for the registration to be successful. It is necessary to present a 1000$ deposit which is returnable and will be returned after the election and after the official agent submits all papers properly.

The official agent is responsible for the money and they submit the report which triggers the deposit return. In order to become a candidate, you will need the official auditor who cannot be the same person as the returning officer. Finally, a candidate needs to present a hundred witnessed signatures of electors who are entitled to vote. It is always better to keep this number higher as possible. As with any other procedure, there is a lot of paperwork and forms to follow here in order to make everything legal and legit. The only thing needed is to follow the exact instructions and there should not be any problems.

Now, for the hardest part. First of all, you must present yourself to individual electors and find people who would support your program. Having a good plan, schedule and program will ensure success but it is paramount that you present yourself to your electors. If you want to capture their attention in the best possible way, you will have to become a good and effective listener. Knowing the minds of your

electors will get you their trust. If you can get their trust, all that remains is writing a script.

The script is the way you are going to present your ideas to your future electors. It is what you are going to tell them and how you are going to present yourself to them as a man of vision and progress, someone who knows what is on their minds and how to help them. It is all about the presentation. If you do this in the right way, the people will follow you. Just present yourself as a respectful person, working for them.

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Trump, Trudeau, and Third-Party Canada: The Effects of the 2016 Election on Canadian Libertarianism

Like most of the western world, Canada has felt the reverberation of the election of Donald Trump. It’s no secret that Trump has had his fair share to say regarding international relations – including assigning 24% import duties to Canadian timber imports in April (CFR). Whilst pursuing the termination of the North American Free Trade Agreement, largely via Twitter, the US president has been thwarted repeatedly by Canadian officials, such as Quebec Premier Phillippe Couillard.

Despite the ever-increasing tension between the right and left, both in Canada and the United States, the Libertarian Party has begun to gain a larger audience. While still not quite as successful as the American equivalent of the party, which saw Gary Johnson take almost 5,000 votes, Canadian Libertarianism is slowly but surely taking hold (USDE). While Johnson’s election turnout may seem small, it is a marked advancement based on earlier elections. Regardless of the issues, a space for Libertarian discourse has clearly opened up over the past few years. Between 2011 and 2015, the number of Libertarians who ran for office skyrocketed from 23 to 72, a major leap in light of the lull in party popularity since 1997. Additionally, and perhaps even more importantly, libertarian candidates received 37,407 in 2015, up from 2011’s 6,017 (Elections Canada). Clearly, more and more citizens are finding that their ideologies do not necessarily conform to the Conservative not the Liberal platform, particularly the younger generations.

Considering the rapid development of this middle-of-the-road school of thought, conversations between people with radically different opinions have become more and more common. The election of Donald Trump has proliferated such political stalemates, and extremism seems to have become the norm. In 2015, current parliamentary representative Ron Liepert took approximately 60% of the vote on the Conservative ticket, defeating leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada, Tim Moen (EC). Still, current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the Liberal party is presently in office. The balance of power is arguably more secure in Canada than its southern neighbor. Regardless, Donald Trump is a controversial figurehead. Canadian and US politics and trade are inevitably bound: Canada is the second largest goods trading partner to the United States, with a $544.0 billion (two-way) goods trade in 2016 (USTR). Considering the closeness of this international relationship, the rise of the United States Conservative party caused by the 2016 election has had and will continue to have an effect on Canada and the ideologies of its peoples. Donald Trump’s open criticism of Canada’s role in the NAFTA agreement, in conjunction with Trudeau’s condemnation of the “racist violence” occurring in the United States, could continue to lead to larger disputes between the nations (Newsweek). Could this friction lead more disenfranchised voters to the Libertarian Party of Canada?

In 2017, months after the election of Donald Trump, US Governor John Kasich expressed his opinion that “the political parties are disintegrating” on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think more and more people across this country see no purpose for political parties. There are more and more Independents because of the squabbling” (NBC). It could be argued that the major rift in the United States voting public caused by the election of Donald Trump could influence the structure of two-party systems internationally, including that of Canada.

The campaign recently conducted by Maxime Bernier, a self-identified libertarian with conservative leanings, reflects the aforementioned disenfranchisement felt by American voters as mirrored in Canada. Bernier lost to Andrew Scheer by a slim 49%-51% margin. The race was tighter than it has been in a long time: despite differences in political positions, Scheer was victorious in his “less polarizing” campaign (The Liberty Conservative). The rise of extremist politics in the United States has reverberated through North America, leaving an increasing number of voters searching for a middle ground, not wanting to identify with the conservative nor democratic schools of thought. Indeed, Bernier received a great deal of support, including the endorsement of former-competitor for the leadership position, Kevin O’Leary (The Globe and Mail). Some of Bernier’s positions actually line up with those of the Trump administration: is the conservative stronghold on the United States giving more Canadian conservatives a voice? If so, tensions between the party and the liberal Trudeau administration could be mounting as well.

In light of the obvious friction between these two parties in the US, third-party Canadian voters have begun to band together in favor of alternative options. In fact, according to Elections Canada, third-parties spent over $6 million dollars to influence the 2015 Canadian election. This is undoubtedly a startling change: clearly, the impact of bipartisan politics and the tension generated by the election of Donald Trump is causing Canadian voters to search for another answer. In the words of HuffPost’s Colin Walmsley, “Unfortunately, like the Republicans and Democrats in the United States, Canada’s major political parties have started to lose their ideological core.” This creates a space for innovative and progressive discourse, and perhaps the ultimate destabilization of the two-party system in Canada. Walmsley goes on to assert, “This ideological bankruptcy opens up opportunities for demagogues whose views would ordinarily be confined to the fringes of political discourse.” Libertarianism is rapidly becoming more accepted as a legitimate political movement rather than an outlying and unimposing ideology. Time will tell whether the Trump era, which has truly only just begun, will contribute to a new space for libertarianism in Canada.