Ontario Libertarian Party
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Ontario Libertarian Party
Parti libertarien de l'Ontario |
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| Active provincial party | |
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| Leader | Allen Small |
| President | Mark "Wojo" Wrzesniewski |
| Founded | 1975 |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario |
| Ideology | Libertarianism |
| Colours | Yellow |
| Website | |
| www |
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The Ontario Libertarian Party (OLP; French: Parti libertarien de l'Ontario) is a minor political party in Ontario, Canada that was founded in 1975 by Bruce Evoy, Vince Miller, and others, inspired by the formation three years earlier of the US Libertarian Party. The party is guided by a Statement of Principles and the philosophical ideas of Austrian School of Economics. It is influenced by authors and thinkers like Jan Narveson and Murray Rothbard. The party's leader is Allen Small.
It claimed, for a time, to be Ontario's fourth party, but has been surpassed in popularity by the Green Party of Ontario.
In 1980 several members of the party, unhappy with its direction and democratic structure, left and formed the Unparty. These members were Lisa Butler, former OLP chair Mary Lou Gutscher, Bill McDonald and Paul Wakfer. In 1984, under the leadership of Marc Emery and Robert Metz, the Unparty's name and nature changed: it became the Freedom Party of Ontario.
The party's most successful election was in the 2014 general election when the Liberals won. Libertarian candidates received 0.8% of the vote. Libertarian candidates came in fifth behind the Green, PC, Liberal and NDP candidates.
Because, in part, of the Harris "Common Sense Revolution" and the appearance of the Reform Party of Ontario, the party lost momentum and had trouble finding candidates in 1995, 1999 and 2003. In 1995, under the leadership of John Shadbolt, the party's total vote declined to 6,085 votes. The top candidate was Robert Ede in York Centre, with 1,792 votes (2.3%). Three other candidates – Party Chairman Jean-Serge Brisson, Vice-Chairman Kaye Sargent, and Paul Barker – topped 1.0%. Shadbolt resigned one day after the 1995 election, and was replaced by George Dance on an interim basis. Sam Apelbaum was chosen as the party's full-time leader at a convention in October 1996.
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