Leader: Connie
Fogal
Web
Site: http://www.canadianactionparty.ca
Platform: None
on web site as of April 25, 2004.
Candidates: None
listed on web site as of April 25, 2004.
It is rumoured that the Canadian Action Party
("CAP") will be working to nominate
at least 50 candidates to run in the coming
federal election so as to avoid losing its
registered status under the Canada Elections
Act (though the requirement to run 50
or more candidates was ruled in June 2003,
by Canada's Supreme Court of Canada, to be
unconstitutional and to be unenforceable
after June of 2004).
The
Party: Like
the Abolitionist
Party, CAP was founded - in 1997, just
before the federal election of that year
- by former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister
Paul Hellyer, and some of his acquaintances. On
September 22, 2003, the CAP decided to
attempt a merge of the CAP with other political
parties, to form a party that would attract
to attract "progressives and patriots
from the Progressive Conservative, Liberal,
Alliance, Green, Bloc and other parties." (CAP
press release, September 22, 2004). CAP
billed the party as "ONE BIG PARTY:
to keep Canada independent". Chief
among the target parties was the federal New
Democratic Party (NDP). The September
22, 2004 press release quoted Hellyer as
saying: "What is needed is a broadly-based,
progressive pro-Canada party which will
put the interests of the majority ahead
of those of the transnational corporate
elite." The refusal of the NDP to
merge and form the One Big Party led, in
January of 2004, to the stepping down of
the party's first leader. The only leadership
candidate to file nomination papers with
the requisite deposit by the time of the
close of nominations in March 2004, lawyer
Connie Fogal has been chosen the party's
second leader.
On
the Issues - a Council of Canadians Connection?: First
and foremost in the list of CAP's policies
has been monetary reform: arguably, the
party was initially formed for that single
purpose. Paul Hellyer has published several
(very similar) books that explain how Canada's
laws allow chartered banks to create and
lend out an unlimited amount of Canadian
dollars in the form of credit, and to collect
interest on every dollar (because of the
Progressive Conservatives' 1991 amendments
to Canada's Bank Act, there has
been no legislated minimum reserve requirement,
such that the government no longer exercises
direct control over the amount of dollars
created and loaned out by banks). Hellyer,
through CAP, has advocated the reimposition
of a reserve requirement for banks that
would limit the amount of extra money that
the banks can add to the money supply.
In effect, Hellyer advocates a system in
which the Bank of Canada simply prints
50% of all new money and, in effect, gives
it to the federal government to spend.
Under Hellyer's proposal, banks could continue
to provide the other 50%. To make the money
issue easier to understand, CAP has published
comic books that describe the issue in
the form of a story. One such comic book,
entitled "Do You Think Canada Should
Adopt the US Dollar?" can be read
online by clicking
here.
However,
since its founding in 1997, the
CAP's reason for being has arguably broadened.
It's battle cry can now best be summarized
as: "Canada's sovereignty is being threatened
by international agreements and co-operation
with the USA". Arguably, if you want
to understand what this party stands for,
you should probably look at what the Council
of Canadians (founded in 1985 over the
free trade issue) stands for: the two organizations
virtually overlap in terms of their views.
In fact, in a November 17, 2003 CAP media
release, the party said that Council of Canadians
leader "Maude Barlow masterfully defines
the most important issues facing Canada right
now as we head into the next election". An
October 17, 2003 CAP media release had a
Council of Canadians flavour to it:
"...that
national democracies have been subverted
by a formidable brand of unelected world
leaders, power brokers and investment bankers.
This global consensus of market values has
seeped into Canada, eroding our democratic
institutions and threatening our independence.
What
is to be done? The conclusion is obvious:
Canada should chart its own course, abandon
the neo-conservative consensus and restore
Canada to a place of prosperity. Rather than ‘unite
the right,’ the war-cry of many Canadian
politicians, [then CAP leader, Paul] Hellyer
seeks to ‘unite the rest’ to
oppose the insidious creep of market fundamentalist
values."
The
party's political orientation is probably
best summed up as: pro-socialism, pro-inflation,
and pro-isolationism. In
more concrete terms, the CAP has opposed
the Multilateral Agreement on Investment
(MAI), and opposes the Free Trade Agreement
(FTA), the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA), global trade, "star wars" missile
defence, and the like. Without a platform
or set of policies online, it is difficult
to be much more precise. However, to get
more of a feel for the party's orientation,
consider that, reportedly, CAP or some of
its members attended the Free Trade Trade
Area of the Americas Summit in Quebec City,
Quebec, in April of 2001. Reportedly, among
the others there were left wing radicals,
anarchists, members or representatives of
the Council of Canadians (including Maude
Barlow), the NDP,
the Green
Party, the Marijuana
Party, the Communist
Party, the Communist
Party (Marxist Leninist), as well members
or representatives of various trade unions,
human rights groups (Amnesty International,
OxFam, Human Rights Watch) and environmental
groups (Green Peace, the Sierra Club).
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