Fed date #2: Alan Mercer

Considering how most bloggers across the spectrum pride themselves on libertarian leanings, the political party dedicated to reducing the responsibilities and expense of government shouldn’t have a problem boosting their profile across the country. But for now, the Libertarians have only 11 folks running in B.C., Quebec and Ontario, including Scarborough-Rouge River candidate Alan Mercer. Mercer was born in Northern Ireland, earned a math degree at the University of Toronto, and has worked in the software industry for over a decade. It’s the second time in two months that he’s run for election in the riding with the highest immigrant population in Canada – Mercer was on the ballot for the provincial by-election in November. The riding’s current MP is Derek Lee, who’s been representing the area for five rounds since 1988. A freer society, freer markets and freer health care choices are all part of the Libertarian platform covered in their official FAQ. More of Mercer’s own insights are discussed below. Leave any of your comments or questions after that, and see where the discussion goes. (Suggestions of any other GTA candidates who seem worthy of this Q&A treatment are still welcome, too: pavedblog@gmail.com)

What’s the motivation for running? Because everything is upside down. People need to be in charge of their own lives and not be at the mercy of governments – democratic or otherwise.  I have been studying a website called antiwar.com for the last few years, and I feel that we are in a moment of crisis, in which Western governments are creating tension through their interventionist foreign policies. With terrorism as an excuse, we are on the verge of a society which enforces more totalitarian controls and surveillance.

How do you expect that trend to be reversed? The taxation powers of government would have to be seriously curtailed, the government would have to be reduced to something that did not dominate everything. In the current system, every aspect of our lives is regulated, so that people are not as free as they think to make economic and personal choices. In a libertarian system, victimless crimes would be removed from the Criminal Code – only crimes against other persons and property would remain. Drug Prohibition is a failure. The rights of victims are not addressed at all. Criminals should be held fully accountable for their actions. The system should be focused on restitution so that the criminal is required to compensate his victim first as well as part of the cost of apprehension, trial, and incarceration. The justice system is completely broken, and now we have constant news coverage in which inanimate objects – guns – are being blamed for crime instead of criminals. This type of ideology and propaganda is intolerable and it has no part in a society that is mostly founded on the recognition of the individual’s personal autonomy and personal responsibility.

How does Toronto stack up in libertarian terms? Thankfully, people have an attitude of "mind your own business" and independent thinking which is compatible with libertarianism.  Also, there is no shortage of people who are eager to learn and looking for ideals. But as far as the political climate right now in Toronto, it’s not libertarian at all. It’s a mixture of right-wing authoritarianism and left-wing welfare-state mentality.  Actually, I think the two sets of propaganda go very well together. They deserve each other. Premier Dalton McGuinty is the perfect model of anti-libertarianism. And now, he and his man Julian Fantino plan to suppress individual rights in case there is an outbreak of "avian flu" or any other kind of disaster.

Given how your riding has a voter base that’s two-thirds immigrant, what are you offering them? Recognition of foreign credentials is a major problem. I would call for governments to allow competition among certification agencies. For example, right now, in Ontario, only Professional Engineers Ontario issues licenses to engineers.  In a free society, there would be free market certification agencies for professions, so employers and consumers would be supplied with information about standards and reputation from these agencies and could choose to use whichever professional they liked based on this information.  So, people can wait around forever for the current system of central planning based on political pull to unclog, or they can push for a free society where the government is not involved in granting special monopoly privileges any longer. 

How about the future of cultural policies in this wired world? Most of us feel patriotic. Nobody should be attempting to regulate those feelings as if we’re plants that need attending, with the government as the gardener. Because of the protectionism, there are all sorts of dark suspicions some might have that maybe Canadian artists aren’t really any good, that they’re given special privileges, that Canadian entertainers aren’t actually talented. It’s not right for the government to regulate the airwaves at all. While there are many fantastic Canadian talents out there – Matthew Good is a favourite of mine – it’s an unhealthy system overall. This is one area where people get a glimpse of a libertarian model of things coming about, because artistic freedom of expression is highly prized. Subsidies and special privileges and controls just detract from it and people notice that. If only people could see the damage that’s being done in all other areas of economic life.