Libertarians win council seats in New South Wales

Australia's Libertarian Party of New South Wales [LPNSW] has won at least nine council seats in the most recent municipal elections. 

Anti-smart cities Libertarians score local council election wins after NSW Liberals’ nomination debacle | The Guardian | Catie McLeod: 

October 3, 2024 - "Libertarians who fear 'smart cities' technology will be used to curtail freedoms have been elected to councils across New South Wales.... 'Smart cities' is a broad term that encompasses the use of technology to collect data on people’s movements to help guide local government planning on matters such as traffic, rubbish collection and reducing carbon emissions.... The Libertarian party and at least two independents who have spoken out against smart cities together won 11 seats at the NSW local government elections.

"In their 'local council freedom manifesto', which is available on their website, the Libertarians promise to “take a chainsaw to” smart cities, which they label a 'dumb idea'. 'If we don’t take a stand against so-called "smart cities" now then we are on the slippery slope to a China-style, 24/7 surveillance state and social credit system,' the manifesto said.

"The Libertarians’ sole NSW state MP, John Ruddick, said his party was 'opposed to anything to do with smart cities, 15-minute cities, the whole lot'. He said describing the Libertarians’ 'fears' as a conspiracy theory was an 'insult designed to shut down debate'....

"The Libertarians picked up nine council seats after preferences were counted on Tuesday, with only Liverpool still to be called, down from the 15 seats they had expected to win immediately after the 14 September elections."

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/oct/03/anti-smart-cities-libertarians-score-local-council-election-wins-after-nsw-liberals-nomination-debacle-ntwnfb

Libertarians take a page out of Greens’ playbook in bid to ‘gobble up’ disaffected Liberal voters | The Guardian | Tamsin Rose:

Libertarian state MP John Ruddick. 

Libertarian Party NSW, Wikimedia Commons.

September 17, 2024 - "John Ruddick, NSW’s sole Libertarian MP, said the strong local government election results had buoyed the party and it would now seek to gain more seats in both houses of parliament at the upcoming federal and state elections.... While the party has typically only garnered about 1 to 2% of the vote at elections over the past decade, Ruddick said the weekend’s council election results have Libertarians believing that 'we can do a lot better than that'. 

"'We want to become a 10 to 12% party on the right and we want to do what the Greens have done to Labor,' he said. 'The Greens have dragged Labor to the left. We want to drag the Coalition to the right, the pro-free market right.' Ruddick said growth was possible for the Libertarian party, especially in men under 40 who feel their 'employment prospects are hampered because of their gender'.

"The Libertarians – formerly known as the Liberal Democrats – have advocated for small government, a 'laissez-faire' approach to town planning and campaigned against the 'woke agenda'.... 

"Libertarians will pick up two spots in Camden, with an outside chance at a third.

"Labor’s Sally Quinnell represents Camden at the state parliament. She said the Libertarian party ran a very effective, simple campaign and was not surprised it resonated with constituents. 'People were looking for a right-leaning alternative and they found it,' she said. Quinnell, whose husband ran on the Labor ticket on Saturday, said people were moving away from major parties and they needed to be taken seriously."

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/sep/18/libertarians-take-a-page-out-of-greens-playbook-in-bid-to-gobble-up-disaffected-liberal-voters

LPNSW website: https://www.lpnsw.org.au/

It's time to privatize Canada Post

Canada Post's request for a 25% increase in the price of stamps puts the question of privatization back on the table.  

Time to finally privatize Canada Post | Fraser Institute | Vincent Geloso, Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University"

September 25, 2024 - "Canada Post wants to increase the price of a stamp by 25 cents to $1.24 to keep up with inflation and rising costs. But Canada Post has often relied on this reasoning for previous price increases since it stopped being a government department and became a Crown corporation in 1981. Since then, it’s jacked up prices every time it’s had 'financial difficulties.' The source of these difficulties has changed over time.... The answer is, however, always the same. Prices must increase. Indeed, since 1981 stamp prices have increased 98 per cent (after adjusting for inflation). In other words, the price for stamps have increased far beyond the rate of inflation.

Canada Post LLV, 2010. Photo by Kristoferb. 

CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

"Why does Canada Post keep getting away with this? Because it has a monopoly over most of the letter market in Canada. And while it competes with private companies ... in the parcel market, Canada Post can borrow money at much lower costs than its rivals because it is a Crown corporation ultimately backed by taxpayers.... 

"Normally, a company facing losses and declining demand would innovate and reduce costs.... However, due to its monopoly over most of the letter market, Canada Post lacks this incentive. In can simply pass the burden onto consumers by raising prices, which is exactly what it has done since the 1980s. And as a Crown corporation, it cannot be purchased by another company without express approval from Ottawa. So, what’s the solution?

"In Europe, due to a directive from the European Commission, all letters regardless of weight have been open to competition since 2013. The directive does not mandate the privatization of state-owned postal companies; it simply ends postal monopolies. Combined with local liberalization efforts before 2013, this directive has forced state-owned postal service providers to better control costs because they cannot turn to taxpayers (for subsidies) or consumers (by raising prices) to bail them out. 

"Some countries such as the Netherlands, Austria and Germany [and Britain when still in the European Union - gd] went further and privatized their postal operators.... In the 10 years following privatization, prices for stamps and other postal services fell by 11 per cent in Austria, 15 per cent in the Netherlands and 17 per cent in Germany (adjusted for inflation). All these countries now have lower postal prices than the European average.

"Predictably, postal service providers in these countries found new methods of organizing their activities, tying multiple services together to generate economies of scale, and moved fast in adopting new information and logistical technologies. Due to the incentives of competition, providers focused their efforts on controlling costs — a focus Canada Post will never achieve as long as it’s a Crown corporation with a monopoly....

"Policymakers in Ottawa should finally put postal liberalization and privatization on the table. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before a new problem emerges, which Canada Post will use to justify another price increase."

Read more: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/time-to-finally-privatize-canada-post

Why We Should Privatize the Postal Service | ReasonTV | October 6, 2017:

Tim Walz gets First Amendment wrong

During last Tuesday's VPOTUS debate, Tim Walz fumbled a key moment by misunderstanding the First Amendment.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz giving the State of the State 2024. Office of Gov. Tim Walz / Wikimedia Commons.

Yes, Tim Walz, You Can Shout 'Fire' In A Crowded Theatre | Reason | Emma Camp:

October 2, 2024 - "It would be nice if everyone on a presidential ticket understood how the First Amendment works, but unfortunately, that seems to be too much to ask of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. During an exchange about censorship and threats to Democracy — springing, inexplicably, from Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio) dodging a question about whether former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election — Walz made two major free speech fumbles. He claimed there is no First Amendment right to 'hate speech' and repeated the myth that you can't shout 'fire' in a crowded theatre.

"When Vance pivoted to correctly pointing out that Walz had previously 'said there's no First Amendment right to misinformation,' Walz interjected, adding 'or threatening, or hate speech.' But Walz is wrong. While threats aren't protected by the First Amendment, 'hate speech' most certainly is. Speech that is merely offensive — and not part of an unprotected category like true threats or harassment — has full First Amendment protection.... 'The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly rejected government attempts to prohibit or punish hate speech,' reads a rundown on hate speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment group.... 

"But that wasn't Walz's only error. A few seconds later, he said 'You can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater. That's the test. That's the Supreme Court test.' Again, this is incorrect. It's a common misconception that shouting 'fire' in a crowded theatre isn't protected by the First Amendment — a myth that originates from a hypothetical used in Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes' 1919 Supreme Court opinion in Schenk v. United States. 

"Holmes wrote that 'the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.' Not only was this a purely hypothetical example used to explain Holmes' opinion, but the ruling itself was largely overturned 50 years later in Brandenburg v. Ohio.

"'The real problem with the 'fire in a crowded theater' discourse is that it too often is used as a placeholder justification for regulating any speech that someone believes is harmful or objectionable,' Naval Academy professor Jeff Kosseff wrote for Reason last year. 'In reality, the Supreme Court has defined narrow categories of speech that are exempt from First Amendment protections and set an extraordinarily high bar for imposing liability for other types of speech.'

"The worst part about all this for Walz is that his sloppy, revealing answers on free speech derailed what had been one of his strongest moments in the debate. The subject only came up in the first place because Vance, in an attempt to sidestep a question about Trump's election loss and the possibility of challenging future results, argued that big-tech censorship and government jawboning pose a bigger threat to democracy than Trump's election denial.... Walz was making a good point and asking an important question. That is, until he revealed what he really thinks about the First Amendment." 

Read more: https://reason.com/2024/10/02/yes-tim-walz-you-can-shout-fire-in-a-crowded-theatre/ 

John Rustad cancels his cancelers

In August 2022, BC Liberal leader Kevin Falcon attempted to cancel MLA John Rustad by throwing him out of the party caucus for sharing a tweet sceptical of climate change theory. Two years later, Rustad is on the cusp of winning the premier's office, while Falcon is leaving politics.  

Backfire of Attempt to Cancel John Rustad Holds a Lesson for All Political Parties | Epoch Times | Cory Morgan:

October 5, 2024 - "People have grown weary of cancel culture tearing down the careers of prominent celebrities and politicians over politically incorrect social media posts. Twitter (now X) has been the prime platform for individuals to self-immolate over innocuous postings.... The nature of the platform creates a minefield as reactionary mobs await with figurative torches and pitchforks for a public persona to offend breaking what they consider acceptable orthodoxy.

BC Liberal MLA John Rustad in 2016.

Province of BC photo, Wikimedia Commons.

"Nowhere has cancel culture backfired more magnificently than in the case of BC Conservative Party Leader John Rustad. When Rustad caught the eye of the online outrage mobs due to retweeting what they felt was an inappropriate view, they swarmed,... The offence Rustad committed in August 2022 was to share a tweet by former Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore questioning the role of carbon dioxide in climate change. The action was considered unforgivable by the climate change mobs, and they went nuclear. Rather than defending Rustad or ignoring the mob, Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon felt the best course of action was to eject Rustad from his party’s caucus.... 

"In February 2023, Rustad joined the Conservative Party of B.C. and by March had assumed the leadership of it. At the time, the party was languishing under 10 percent support in public opinion polls and had no seats in the legislature. People dismissed Rustad as a political has-been taking over a fringe party in an act of sour grapes. They couldn’t have been more wrong.... By October 2023, Rustad’s Conservatives had eclipsed the BC Liberals (now BC United) in the polls and had gained party status in the legislature. 

"By August of this year, Rustad’s party had taken such a massive lead over BC United that Falcon announced the party was suspending its campaign, endorsing the Conservatives, and that he was leaving political life.... 

"Much of what caused the flight of support from the United Party was its participation in hypersensitive cancel culture. The beginning of the end was when BC United banned documentarian Aaron Gunn from running in its leadership race. The finale was the removal of Rustad from the caucus. Party supporters were tired of seeing their party capitulating to the politically correct and the ill-treatment of solid, conservative members. They were ready for a new political home, and Rustad provided it....

"The irony of the attempted cancellation of Rustad is if Falcon had just left things alone, BC United would still be a strong party and could have been in contention to win today. The ejection of Rustad created the political machine that would ultimately swallow the United Party. Politicians should be taking notes.... Voters are exhausted from watching politically motivated character assassinations under the most trivial of circumstances. They are now ready to punish the cancellers. 

"If the chattering classes’ hysteria over 11 alleged traitors residing in Canada’s Parliament matched the ink and time dedicated to X postings from politicians or strange things some politician may have said at town hall meetings, perhaps the names of the compromised politicians would have been revealed by now.... People want to see figures held to account for what they are doing here and now. We have a foreign interference crisis in Canada at every level of government. If the social media warriors really want to tear people down for the betterment of the nation, they would be better served dedicating their energy to these corrupted politicians than worrying about old social media statements."

Read more: https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/cory-morgan-backfire-of-attempt-to-cancel-john-rustad-holds-a-lesson-for-all-political-parties-5735365

Corruption scandal paralyzes Parliament

"Green slush fund" corruption scandal paralyzes Canada's Parliament.

Government business on pause as Conservatives demand documents on defunct green tech foundation | CBC News | Laura Osman & Alessia Passafiume, Canadian Press:

October 3, 2024 - "The government has been unable to put any of its own business before the House of Commons for a full week, and the Conservatives on Thursday said that's the result of Liberal 'corruption.' Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer said the governing party would rather see the House bogged down in debate than produce documents related to misspent government dollars in a program his party has dubbed the 'green slush fund.'

"House Speaker Greg Fergus ruled last Thursday that the government 'clearly did not fully comply' with an order from the House to provide documents related to a now-defunct foundation responsible for doling out hundreds of millions of federal dollars for green technology projects. The House has been seized with a debate on the issue ever since and Scheer said it will stay that way until the government agrees to hand over the documents to police....

"The RCMP told MPs this summer they likely would not be able to use the documents as part of an investigation, but Scheer said they should have access to all the information before they decide. The Liberals claimed that ordering the production of documents to be handed over to the RCMP blurs the lines between Parliament and the judiciary, and blame Conservatives for the dysfunction in the House.

"Liberal House leader Karina Gould called the request for the documents an abuse of Parliament's power that tramples on the Charter rights of Canadians. 'Let's be very clear ...' Gould said Thursday. 'Conservative members of Parliament are here for their own political, personal objectives and they don't care what they do to Canadians in the meantime, and that is something that should be extremely alarming to all of us'....

"A similar dispute over government documents played out when the Conservatives were on the governing side of the aisle during a minority government dispute more than a decade ago. In 2009, the House ordered the government to disclose unredacted documents related to Canada's role in the torture of Afghan detainees. A few weeks after opposition parties passed a motion demanding the documents be produced, then-prime minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament for several months, preventing the House committee from pursuing the issue.

"In this case, the Liberal government abolished Sustainable Development Technology Canada after the auditor general released a scathing report about the organization's management last spring.Of the projects she looked at, one in every six that received funding were ineligible. The auditor's report also found 90 cases where conflict-of-interest polices were violated. A month later, the ethics commissioner concluded that the former chair of the foundation failed to recuse herself from decisions that benefited organizations to which she had ties."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-documents-green-poject-funds-1.7341785

Government business on pause as Conservatives push for ‘green slush fund’ docs | Power Panel CBC News | October 4, 2024:

CSIS records contradict Trudeau gov't statements

Records submitted by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) to Canada's Commission on Foreign interference (or "China Inquiry" to some) directly contradict statements made by Prime Minister Trudeau and Defence Minister Bill Blair.

Inquiry reveals Trudeau warned 163 times about foreign interference | Western Standard | Western Standard News Services:

October 1, 2024 - "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and senior federal officials were briefed 163 times over a six-year period about foreign interference, including threats to Canadian democratic institutions, according to newly-disclosed records. Blacklock's Reporter says despite the repeated warnings, Trudeau claimed as recently as 2023 that he was unaware of any significant illegal activity by foreign agents, particularly from China.

"A logbook from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), submitted to the Commission on Foreign Interference, documented the 163 formal briefings, which spanned from August 1, 2018, to March 15, 2024. The meetings covered potential interference during the 2019 and 2021 general elections, with CSIS flagging threats, including potentially illegal conduct by foreign actors ... planned, formal briefings specifically focused on foreign interference in Canadian institutions.

"Despite the extensive briefings, Trudeau maintained as late as May 2023 that CSIS never escalated the information to his level, suggesting it did not reach the necessary threshold of concern. 'The Canadian Security Intelligence Service knew about certain things but didn’t feel it reached a threshold that required them to pass it up out of CSIS,' Trudeau told reporters at the time. He added, 'CSIS made the determination it wasn’t something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasn’t a significant enough concern.'

"However, the logbook revealed that the prime minister, along with high-ranking officials such as Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Defence Minister Bill Blair, and other cabinet members, were briefed about the ongoing threats. Notably, no Opposition MPs targeted by foreign agents were warned during this period.... David Vigneault, the former director of CSIS, testified on April 12, confirming that he had indeed communicated these issues to the government....

"One of the most alarming documents, dated February 21, 2023, explicitly warned the Prime Minister's Office that Chinese agents posed an 'existential threat to Canadian democracy.' This memo came three months before Trudeau told the media he had not been warned about foreign interference."

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/news/inquiry-reveals-trudeau-warned-163-times-about-foreign-interference/58285

Bill Blair (left) and Justin Trudeau in 2018. Justin Tang, Canadian Press (fair dealing).

Defence minister Blair caught misleading China Inquiry while under oath | Western Standard | Jen Hodgson: 

30 September 30, 2024 - "Records submitted to the Commission on Foreign Interference suggest Defence Minister Bill Blair misled investigators while testifying under oath. Documents disclosed by lawyers marked the second time Blair’s explanation for the mishandling of security matters was contradicted, per Blacklock’s Reporter.

"Blair as public safety minister on May 11, 2021 approved a pre-election warrant application by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to monitor Liberal Party contacts at the Chinese Consulate in Toronto. Blair repeatedly swore he signed the request within hours of receiving it. 'He was specifically asked,' said Counsel van Ert. However a CSIS report disclosed Friday by the China Inquiry said it took 'at least six weeks' for Blair to sign the warrant.

"Blair has been recalled to testify October 11. He swore in a March 6 Interview Summary with commission counsel that 'it usually took 2.5 to three hours' for him to review a warrant application, not six weeks. Blair repeated his story last April 10. 'There was no delay.... The document was put in front of me on May 11. I signed it off the same day, about three hours later.'"

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/news/defence-minister-blair-caught-misleading-china-inquiry-while-under-oath/58243

Fluoridation poses risk to kids' IQs, US judge rules

Last week a federal court in California ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to act on concerns about the "unreasonable risk" to children posed by currently recommended levels of fluoride in the American drinking water supply.

How fluoride fears went mainstream | Unherd | Laurel Duggan:

September 27, 2024 - "A federal judge this week ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride levels in drinking water to minimise the risk posed to children’s health. It marks a turning point in the fight over public water fluoridation, the potential harms of which have long been dismissed.

"Water fluoridation began in the US in the Forties in order to prevent tooth decay, but it was followed soon after by rumours that the project was a communist plot to make Americans less intelligent. The John Birch Society, a fringe Right-wing group that was prominent in the Sixties, pushed this argument... 

"More recently, however, Left-wing environmental activists have led the charge against fluoride, citing health concerns rather than national security. David Brower, former leader of a Left-leaning environmental group, the Sierra Club, co-founded the Fluoride Action Network, ... [the] same group [that] brought the lawsuit which resulted in the new EPA ruling....

"Just this year, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr pledged to 'remove neurotoxic fluoride from American drinking water', and was quickly fact-checked. 'Some studies suggest a possible association between greater levels of fluoride exposure during pregnancy or early childhood and reduced IQ in children. But many scientific experts have said the evidence for this association is weak,' FactCheck.org wrote, alongside citations of the CDC and EPA.

"For many years, health concerns about fluoride were dismissed.... But this week, an Obama-appointed judge, Edward Chen, determined that fluoride, which is added to the drinking water of about 75% of Americans, poses an 'unreasonable risk' to consumers. 'The scientific literature in the record provides a high level of certainty that a hazard is present; fluoride is associated with reduced IQ,' Chen wrote....

"18 high-quality studies have found a link between higher fluoride levels in public water and lower IQ in children, according to a National Toxicology Program systematic review published in August. The review was central to the federal court decision that the EPA needed to reconsider the regulation of fluoride in the water.

"Most of the studies cited in the review have been available for years, but federal agencies have been sceptical of this emerging body of research. The CDC announced in May that it had not 'found convincing scientific evidence linking community water fluoridation with any potential adverse health effect'.... 

"The US is a global outlier in water fluoridation, a practice which is rare in Europe. US authorities have long known that excessive fluoride consumption can have adverse health impacts, hence the existing limits on fluoride levels in water, but new research suggests the chemical is tied to lower IQ, even in quantities approved by the Government." In this week’s case ... Chen found that, based on existing research, even the Government-recommended fluoride levels posed an 'unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment'.

Read more: https://unherd.com/newsroom/how-fluoride-fears-went-mainstream/

Why I Changed My Mind on Water Fluoridation | NutritionFacts.org | May 6, 2024:

Read study: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1104912