Boudreau runs to give Libertarians a voice

"We have to field candidates so libertarians can have a voice," explains Libertarian Party of Canada leader Jacques Boudreau. 

Libertarian Party of Canada leader enjoys country life near Petrolia | Sarnia Observer | Paul Morden: 

April 14, 2025 - "Jacques Boudreau is the only national party leader to campaign, so far this election, in Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong. Campaigns of other leaders hadn’t stopped in the riding in Ontario’s far southwest as of Monday but Boudreau, leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada, is there daily. He lives in near Petrolia and is running in the April 28 election to be MP for Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong.

Libertarian Party of Canada leader Jacques Boudreau. YouTube.

“'My wife and I moved to Petrolia February of last year,' he said. 'It was a lifelong dream for me to move to the country,” said Boudreau who lived in London. “In terms of lifestyle, I’ve never been this happy in my life'....

"After attending Western University, Boudreau worked as an actuary for 38 years. Now semi-retired, he’s involved in a life insurance startup. He described himself as [a]  'pretty average' swing voter until his early 40s, 'trying to find the right fit' and 'get a government that would get things right.'

"An 'epiphany' came when a financial newsletter he read included a link to mises.org, a website of an institute promoting teachings of Ludwig [von] Mises, an Austrian economist embraced by libertarians. 'I was so taken that for the next, I would say, 15 years, I would actually begin my day' on the site reading about Austrian economics and libertarianism, he said.... 'I could no longer defend my previously held beliefs and became a libertarian.'

"A few years ago, Boudreau noticed a lawn sign for a Libertarian candidate in the London riding where he lived but when he looked at his ballot on election day, it wasn’t listed there. He contacted the party to ask why and discovered what he would later experience firsthand. As a small party, it didn’t have the means to help candidates get on the ballot. 

"'I decided I was going to put my money where my mouth is and ran as a Libertarian candidate for the first time in the 2015 federal election,' he said,  This is Boudreau’s fourth federal election running as a candidate. He has also run in three provincial elections.... 

"Boudreau became national leader in 2021. He started out seeking a deputy leader post, thinking his proficiency in French could be helpful, and then the sitting leader decided not to seek another term. 'In a moment of madness, I put my name forth,' and became leader, Boudreau said.

"Nationally, the party calls for 'a marked reduction' in the size and powers of the federal government. 'I would shrink the government to a fraction of what it is now,' Boudreau said....

"He is disappoint[ed that] only 16 Libertarian candidates are registered to run this election.... Libertarians are independently minded, which is both a blessing and curse, he said. 'One of the things they treasure most in life is to be left alone,' which makes recruiting candidates a challenge, Boudreau said. 'As a political party, we are not a think tank. We have to field candidates so libertarians can have a voice.'”

Read more: https://www.theobserver.ca/news/national/federal_election/libertarian-party-of-canada-leader-enjoys-country-life-near-petrolia 

Oxford study program a big libertarian conspiracy

The Oxford Study programme faces a worrying lack of scrutiny | Cherwell - Libby Cherry:

June 10, 2019 - "Academic freedom is being threatened at Oxford University ... behind closed doors as part of a global attempt by a small sect of libertarians to ... exercise undue influence over those in power: legislators, policymakers, and, most insidiously, students and academics....

"[T]he Oxford Study Abroad Programme ... acts as an intermediary between US students and ... specific colleges, facilitating placements as Associated Members or Visiting Students for up to a year..... OSAP also runs ‘Specialised Summer Programs’. Whilst these ‘Programs’ use college facilities and are often instructed by handpicked Oxford academics, students are taught using custom reading lists and lectures developed by the 'faculty leaders' of the programmes ... without ‘interference’ from OSAP itself. Nor does OSAP’s educational scheme show evidence of being overseen by the central University or departments....

"Not only does this seem a singularly irresponsible model, a closer look at OSAP’s sample lectures, lecturers, and academic advisors reveals a highly commercialised organisation aimed at pushing a far-right agenda that is not only similar to those being propagated in the US but is directly funded from the same Koch sources....

"OSAP is the brainchild of the late Chicago-trained economist, Robert L. Schuettinger.... Trained under Friedrich Hayek in the 1950s ... Schuettinger was an Associate Member of Christ Church, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University’s Rothermere Institute.... Not only was he Director of Studies at US conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which received $300,000 from the Koch-affiliated organisations in 2013, he was also a contributor to the Mises Institute’s online journal. The [Mises] Institute’s board of directors includes Bob Luddy, who founded the Thales Academy, a chain of private schools teaching 'free-market economics' to school pupils.... But perhaps most damningly, Scheuttinger was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, near-universally considered the most exclusive club of libertarian ideologues internationally ... with members including Charles Koch himself....

"Edwin Feulner, cited as a member of OSAP’s ‘Academic Advisory Board’, was former President of the Heritage Foundation and member of the 2016 Trump transition team.... OSAP’s website also includes praise from Texan Public Policy affiliate Ronald Trowbridge, who has formerly argued for the privatisation of universities....

""[T]he Reagan-Thatcher Lecture Series ... OSAP’s 'latest offering' ... received $10,000 from the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation.... The lecturers on the Reagan-Thatcher series ...  includ[e] historians Mark Almond, formerly a lecturer at Oriel College, and Norman Stone, former Chair of Modern History at Oxford and foreign policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher.... Almond also has his own personal ties with the American libertarian network, acting as an Academic Advisor for the Ron Paul Institute....

"This fatal combination of narrow political ideology, politicised funding, poor educational materials, and questionable lecturers makes OSAP’s course the paradigmatic opposite of academic freedom.... Putting aside the fact that their political philosophy encompasses those who have espoused racist, anti-democratic, and elitist viewpoints, simply allowing the University’s name to be associated with completely unregulated educational programmes seems absurd."

Read more: https://cherwell.org/2019/06/10/the-long-read-the-libertarian-links-of-a-private-tuition-programme/
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Sarwark re-elected Libertarian chair in landslide

Libertarian Party Rebuffs Mises Uprising - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Matt Welch:

July 4, 2018 - "The Libertarian Party on Monday afternoon re-elected in a surprising first-ballot landslide incumbent Chair Nicholas Sarwark to an unprecedented third consecutive two-year term. In doing so, the nation's third-largest political party swatted down what was supposed to be the most contentious challenge at its biannual national convention — to a leadership that was considered by various critics to be too operationally incremental, too ideologically tepid, and too (in the words of Ludwig von Mises Institute Senior Fellow and popular podcaster Tom Woods at a nearby New Orleans rally Saturday) 'SJW-friendly.'

"Sarwark's main opponent, the Mises Caucus-endorsed Joshua Smith, stumbled badly in a defensive debate performance at the New Orleans Hyatt Regency Sunday night, and ended up Monday on the business end of a 65 percent-22 percent rout. In the vice chair race, two-term incumbent Arvin Vohra, who has become a lightning rod over the past year-plus for intentionally provocative public comments such as 'Bad Idea: School Shootings. Good Idea: School Board Shootings,' was resoundingly drummed out of office, never receiving more than 11 percent of the vote in three rounds of balloting that ended Tuesday with a positivity-exuding 33-year-old finance/tech/consulting guy named Alex Merced squeaking past the 50 percent finish line.

"'What I think the race shows is that if you want to change the direction of the Libertarian Party, if you have new ideas about how we can grow and reach new members, the election of Merced to vice chair shows that the delegates want that kind of change,' Sarwark told me Tuesday afternoon. 'If your campaign is seen, or has themes of trying to kick people out, of trying to attack people like Gov. Weld, or... basically anyone — if your campaign was seen as trying to drive people out of the party, the delegates soundly rejected that. And I think that that is the biggest takeaway from the convention.'

"Weld, the controversial-within-the-party 2016 vice presidential nominee and former moderate Republican Massachusetts governor who is laying the groundwork for a possible 2020 presidential run (and was everywhere to be seen at the convention, amiably taking on all skeptical comers), played a pivotal role in the decisive debate. Candidates had the opportunity to ask their opponents one question, and when it was Smith's turn, a delegate in the audience shouted out, 'What do you think about Bill Weld?!' (Weld-heckling was a sporadic feature throughout the three-day event.) Smith decided to make that his question.

"'What I think about Bill Weld," Sarwark started slowly, building into a feisty crescendo, 'is that he is still in the Libertarian Party, while many of his opponents are not. [He's been] raising money for and endorsing Libertarian candidates. He is fundraising for us. And the exposure of Bill Weld to the Libertarian Party has not made the Libertarian Party more like an establishment Republican, but has made Bill Weld a lot more like a Libertarian....He knows something about winning public office, and [we need to] learn how to do that from anybody who will help us, anybody who will join us. And we should not PUSH PEOPLE OUT who are willing to help!'

"As New York gubernatorial candidate and popular party organizer Larry Sharpe, who had backed Smith, commented later, after that exchange it was 'game over'."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/04/libertarian-party-rebuffs-mises-uprising
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Paleolibertarianism's appeal to the alt.right

The Rhetoric of Libertarians and the Unfortunate Appeal to the Alt-Right - Bleeding Heart Libertarians - Steve Horwitz:

August 4, 2017 - "The paleo-libertarian seed that Ron Paul, Murray Rothbard, and Lew Rockwell planted in the 1990s has come to bear some really ugly fruit in the last couple of years as elements of the alt-right have made appearances in various libertarian organizations and venues. Back in February, alt-right hero Richard Spencer stirred up a fuss at the International Students for Liberty Conference in DC after being invited to hang out by a group of students calling themselves the “Hoppe Caucus.” Hans-Hermann Hoppe, long associated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute as well as a panoply of racists and anti-Semites, is perhaps the most popular gateway drug for the alt-right incursion into libertarianism.

"And within the last couple of weeks, Jeff Deist, president of the Mises Institute delivered a talk to students at Mises University entitled “For a New Libertarian.” In that talk, he knocks down an extended strawman of what he thinks constitutes the libertarianism he wants them to reject – what many might call “left-libertarianism'.... Most controversially, Deist, after continuing to argue that family, faith, and the like are the cultural glue that humans need and that libertarians should focus on, decided to end with:

In other words, blood and soil and God and nation still matter to people. Libertarians ignore this at the risk of irrelevance.

"For those who know something about the history of the 20th century, the invocation of 'blood and soil' as something that libertarians should recognize as a valid concern and should appeal to should be chilling. That phrase, which has a history going back at least to the 19th century, was central to the Nazi movement and was at the core of their justification for eliminating those people who did not have connections to the German homeland. It remains a watchword of the nastiest elements on the right, as a quick visit to bloodandsoil.org will demonstrate....

"Perhaps Deist didn’t know all of that. If so, one would expect a decent person to immediately apologize for using that phrase that way in that context. To my knowledge, no such apology has appeared. On the assumption that he is not, in fact, a Nazi, the explanation left standing is that he and his defenders have no problem using rhetoric that will attract those sympathetic to Nazi-like views about nativism and Jews. It’s that lack of concern about engaging in that sort of rhetoric, if not a positive willingness to do so, that is so troubling here, and it is eating away at the liberal roots of libertarianism.....

As I pointed out with the Paul newsletters, all of this appeal to nativism, racism, and anti-Semitism and the like is in deep conflict with libertarianism’s liberalism. It’s particularly in conflict with the liberal cosmopolitanism of someone like Mises. And the use of Nazi language is especially galling as it was the very 'blood and soil' crowd who drove the Jewish Mises out of Vienna....

"Our history is one of liberal tolerance, universalism, and cosmopolitanism, putting the freedom and harmony of all people ahead of the supposed interests of any parochial sub-group, and especially ones defined by the artificial boundaries of nation-states and their subsets. Libertarians ignore this at the risk of irrelevance."

Read more: http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2017/08/rhetoric-libertarians-unfortunate-appeal-alt-right/
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Fascists and progressives

by George J. Dance

Alt.right author James Miller believes that "Fascism has an undeserved bad reputation." In his view: "Regardless of this reputation, Fascism is a very sensible economic and social ideology." He goes on to offer the following definition:

Fascism is an economic system in which a nation’s government plays a central role in monitoring all banking, trade, production, and labor activity which takes place within the nation. Such monitoring is done for the sole purpose of safeguarding and advancing the nation and its people. Under Fascism, the government will not approve of any business activity unless that business has a positive impact on the nation as a whole and the people of the nation — this is the axiom which determines everything under Fascism.[1]

Interestingly, this definition of fascism (which looks correct) also looks like a correct definition of progressivism, the economic philosophy of the Roosevelts, Woodrow Wilson, and every Democratic president since (save perhaps Truman and Clinton), and some Republican presidents as well (Gerald Ford, G.H.W. Bush).

Like socialism, fascism and progressivism are variants of statism: the belief that state control of society and the economy is necessary to bring about and maintain a good society. But while socialists try to achieve that control directly, through government ownership and increased government spending, progressives and fascists try to achieve it indirectly through regulation, oversight, and management of nominally private businesses and workers.

As the historical record shows, the fascist regimes of Germany and Italy, and the progressive regime of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, were composed of mutual admirers, who followed a similar politico-economic agenda. As David Gordon of the Mises Institue has documented:

• The Nazi Party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, "stressed 'Roosevelt's adoption of National Socialist strains of thought in his economic and social policies,' praising the president's style of leadership as being compatible with Hitler's own dictatorial Führerprinzip" (p. 190).
• Nor was Hitler himself lacking in praise for his American counterpart. He "told American ambassador William Dodd that he was 'in accord with the President in the view that the virtue of duty, readiness for sacrifice, and discipline should dominate the entire people. These moral demands which the President places before every individual citizen of the United States are also the quintessence of the German state philosophy, which finds its expression in the slogan "The Public Weal Transcends the Interest of the Individual"'" (pp. 19-20)....
• Mussolini, who did not allow his work as dictator to interrupt his prolific journalism, wrote a glowing review of Roosevelt's Looking Forward. He found "reminiscent of fascism … the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices"(pp. 23-24)....
• Roosevelt never had much use for Hitler, but Mussolini was another matter. "'I don't mind telling you in confidence,' FDR remarked to a White House correspondent, 'that I am keeping in fairly close touch with that admirable Italian gentleman'" (p. 31). Rexford Tugwell, a leading adviser to the president, had difficulty containing his enthusiasm for Mussolini's program to modernize Italy: "It's the cleanest … most efficiently operating piece of social machinery I've ever seen. It makes me envious" (p. 32)[2]

Because (unlike socialism), fascism and progressivism do not directly challenge a country's economic status quo, they can appeal to the conservative as well as the totalitarian biases that I have argued exist in modern political societies.[3] However, like socialism, fascism and progressivism imply a radical restructuring of society, with state power vastly increased at the expense of individual rights and liberties.

This ideological symmetry can lead to tactical symmetries: for instance, historical fascism relied on tactics of political violence copied from those on the radical left (the anarchists and Bolsheviks).[4] Progressives, on the other hand, initially rejected those methods; one fundamental difference between progressives and fascists. That was because radical leftism and fascism were populist, bottom-up movements, while progressivism began as a thoroughly top-down, establishment movement. However, the mass-based, bottom-up progressivism that began in North America in the 1960s has increasingly also adopted political violence tactics from the radical left, further blurring the difference between the fascist and progressive ideologies.

Notes

[1] James Miller, "What is Fascism," Kevin Alfred Strong blog, August 13, 2012.  http://www.kevinalfredstrom.com/2012/08/what-is-fascism/

[2] David Gordon, "Three New Deals: Why the Nazis and Fascists Loved FDR" (review of Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939. Metropolitan Books, 2006). Mises Daily, September 22, 2006, Ludwig von Mises Institute. https://mises.org/library/three-new-deals-why-nazis-and-fascists-loved-fdr

[3] George J. Dance, "Why are there no libertarian countries?", Nolan Chart, April 29, 2017.
https://www.nolanchart.com/why-are-there-no-libertarian-countries

[4] Ludwig von Mises, "The Argument of Fascism," Liberalism: In the Classical Tradition (translated by Ralph Raico). Foundation for Economic Education, 1985, 29. Books / Digital Texts, Ludwig von Mises Institute. https://mises.org/library/liberalism-classical-tradition/html/p/29 

DeVos picks libertarian for Civil Rights position

DeVos pick for Office of Civil Rights opposes racial preferences, feminism – TheBlaze - Brandon Morse:

April 17, 2016 - "Candice Jackson, 39, is an attorney who graduated with honors from Stanford University. She got her law degree after graduating — with honors again — from the Pepperdine University School of Law. Since 2002, Jackson has been practicing law, specializing in entertainment and politics.

"She’s now been hired as the deputy assistant secretary in the Office for Civil Rights. Since this position requires no senatorial approval, Jackson will act as head of the office until the position can be filled by an approved nominee.

"But ... Jackson once wrote that she once suffered discrimination on campus because she was white. This discrimination occurred when she attempted to seek help with her advanced calculus class ...  but she was rejected because [the program] would only allow in minority students.

"'I am especially disappointed that the University encourages these and other discriminatory programs,' she wrote in the Stanford Review.... 'As with most liberal solutions to a problem, giving special assistance to minority students is a band-aid solution to a deep problem,' she would later write. 'No one, least of all the minority student, is well served by receiving special treatment based on race or ethnicity.'

"Jackson stands opposed to race-based programs, and focuses more on individual liberty. She did a summer fellowship at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a think tank of free market Libertarian scholars. While at the Mises Institute, she gave some editorial assistance to a book consisting of a collection of essays put together by Murray N. Rothbard, the institute’s co-founder.

"Rothbard opposed mandated schooling, as he wrote in his 1999 book, Education: Free and Compulsory.... Rothbard also opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, calling it 'monstrous,' though not for racially prejudiced reasons.... Jackson, a fan of Rothbard’s work ... wrote of his 1982 book, The Ethics of Liberty, that it 'shines as a monumental achievement, meeting Rothbard’s goal of setting forth ‘a positive ethical system … to establish the case for individual liberty’....

"In ... another article penned for the Review during her senior year, entitled, 'How I Survived Stanford Without Entering the Women’s Center,' she condemned feminism on campus....

"'In today’s society, women have the same opportunities as men to advance their careers, raise families, and pursue their personal goals,' she wrote. 'College women who insist on banding together by gender to fight for their rights are moving backwards, not forwards.'"

Read more: http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/04/17/devos-pick-for-office-of-civil-rights-opposes-racial-preferences-feminism/
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WWE wrestler Kane to run for mayor

WWE's Kane Runs For Mayor - Being Libertarian - Brandon Kirby:

March 25, 2017 -  "Best known for lighting people on fire and chokeslamming his enemies, World Wresting Entertainment’s Glenn Jacobs, better known as Kane, sets his sights on the political ring to run for Knox County [Tennessee] mayor, according to the Associated Press.

"Standing at 6’9 and weighing over 324lbs, The Devil’s Favourite Demon had a successful 22-year career in the WWE.... Outside of the world of wrestling, Jacobs and his wife own and operate Jacobs Insurance Associates, LLC, offering auto, business, flood, home, life, and motorcycle insurance.

"The successful businessman and entertainer’s bid for mayor is sure to excite libertarians. Jacobs is actively involved in libertarian politics, supporting Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, is a member of the Free State Project, and spoke at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum and the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

"In an interview with Fox Business, Jacobs cited Harry Browne, Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard, and Mary Ruwart as influences on his political thinking. The former world champion also cited the non-aggression principle as his guiding principle.

"In an interview with Tom Woods, Jacobs elaborated, 'Then I realized that it really is a philosophy that we’re talking about, you know — the nonaggression axiom, that the government should be bound by the same moral laws that the rest of us are. Once you realize that, you’re like, "Oh!" Your entire world opens up, and then your entire paradigm changes.'

"In the interview he also indicated that he believes taxation is theft."

Read more: https://beinglibertarian.com/wwes-kane-runs-mayor/
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Mises Institute donor files for Ch.11 bankruptcy

End Coal | Arch Coal funded US ‘libertarian’ think tank and ALEC - Bob Burton:

March 2, 2016 - "Arch Coal, the second largest coal company in the US, has revealed that it has been a secret funder of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a self-proclaimed 'libertarian' think tank which has been a part of the global echo chamber of groups opposing action on climate change.

"The filing also reveals the coal company was a behind-the-scenes funder of the American Legislative Exchange Commission (ALEC), a US-based group which drafts corporate-sponsored legislation and brokers its introduction via a network of conservative legislators.

"Arch Coal’s recent 579-page filing ... with the US Bankruptcy Court listed the Ludwig von Mises Institute as one of the company’s creditors which are owed money. However, no details are provided on how much Arch Coal has paid the libertarian think tank or when any payments were made.

"On its website, the Alabama-headquartered institute states it champions a 'free-market capitalist economy and a private-property order that rejects taxation, monetary debasement, and a coercive state monopoly of protective services.' The institute obliquely notes on its website it receives funding from businesses but provides no details on who they are.

"In 2014 the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s annual return to the US Internal Revenue Service revealed it had total revenue of US$3.8 million.... [T]he institute has been a part of the US conservative echo chamber railing [sic] against regulations to tackle climate change....

"Arch Coal operates 11 mines across seven states of the US. On January 11 Arch Coal filed for ‘Chapter 11’ bankruptcy protection in the US which allows the company to restructure its debt while continuing to trade. Arch Coal estimates that in 2015 it produced 118 million tonnes of coal for both the US and export markets."

Read more: http://endcoal.org/2016/03/arch-coal-funded-us-libertarian-think-tank-and-alec/
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Mises Institute promotes free markets worldwide

Libertarian think tank promotes free markets worldwide from Auburn | Auburn Plainsman | Kyle Nazario:

September 29, 2010 - "The Mises Institute is located in a small, two-story building.... Only a small sign at the front advertises an institute is there at all.

"'We are sort of a school, we’re sort of a website, we’re sort of a library and a book repository and we’re sort of a think tank,' said Jeff Deist, president of the Institute. 'We have a pretty broad mission, but first and foremost we are about keeping the legacy and the current elements of the Austrian school of economics alive and healthy'....

"Professor of economics Henry Thompson said the Austrian school of economics is a way of thinking about the economy that focuses on historical and theoretical information rather than empirical data....

"Mark Thornton, senior fellow at the Mises Institute, ... said the Austrian school of economics has an unconventional way of thinking about economic issues.

"'We’re free market (economists), which is an alternative,' Thornton said. 'Some would say it’s a radical alternative.'

"Deist said Carl Menger and Ludwig von Mises, the Mises Institute’s namesake, created a school of thought focusing on minimal government and private sector investment. The nationality of von Mises and Menger, both Austrian, became the collective banner for their theories.

"Work done by Mises scholars has drawn support from famous libertarians, such as Ron Paul and Andrew Napolitano, both of whom, Deist said, have spoken at the Mises Institute....

"Thornton said educating the public, not influencing government policy, is the Mises Institute’s purpose.... Mises scholars educate people through publishing on the website, Mises.org, writing academic papers, and open seminars."

Read more: http://www.theplainsman.com/view/full_story/25829423/article-Libertarian-think-tank-promotes-free-markets-worldwide-from-Auburn?instance=home_news_1st_right
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