The People’s Constitution of 2024

I am writing this for posterity and address it as an email to the current leaders of the Ontario Libertarian Party. I have been an active OLP member since 2007. The current executive are my friends.

Hi all, 

I am sharing this with you for your interest. As most of you know, I have been involved in various “freedom groups” one of which is discussed below to summarize my active involvement over the past year.

I am a co-author of the original Statement of Principles document linked below. Its first version was written by Charles Ficner, designated ‘lead author’, and I in late 2023 and early in 2024 for the civis4reform group (C4R). I had become an active participant of C4R in the Fall of 2023 and was invited by co-founder Marc Udeschini to join a select group of six to write a paper which ultimately became the Statement of Principles (SoP. After the first three meetings, the original group was reduced to only Charles and I in mid December because there were too many disagreements between the original six participants. The SOP was published in early Spring 2024 on the web site.

The Schism.

The C4R has since broken up into two groups with Charles as the head of the new one. This occurred in the Summer 2024 under acrimonious conditions.

The Statement of Principles (https://thegloriousrevival.org/statement-of-principles/) is the finished first version of the original draft co-authored by Charles and I by mid January 2024. It was subsequently modified by others including C4R co-founder Marc Udeschini. When announced to the public,  Charles was named the author for internal policy reasons - I was consider “too Libertarian” for many C4R members. My participation was not mentioned until months later when a group led by Charles split from C4R under acrimonious circumstances.

My version

The style of the Statement of Principles (SoP) document was too wordy for my liking, but the content was 10/10. As “lead author”, Charles had final say on its written style which was quite formal and “official” in nature. It reflected his 21 years of former employment in Canada’s federal civil service in Ottawa. I rated the style of the SoP as 6/10 but I endorsed the document anyway knowing that my opinion would be viewed as an isolated and inconsequential voice on the matter. 

When Charles split from C4R in the summer of 2024 to form his own group, he claimed ownership of the Statement of Principles and forbid C4R from its use under legal threat. His new group is now active promoting the Statement of Principles, with very minor changes, under its new web site. Of course, Charles makes no mention of the other authors to this document and maintains restrictions on its use.

As co-author of the Statement of Principles (SoP), I was never fond of its overly formal, wordy and long-winded style. Since I am no longer active with Civis4Reform and never joined the group Charles formed, I chose to write my version of the SoP in a more succinct and less formal style. I also made some content modifications to eliminate the compromises I was forced to accept as co-author of the original SoP under the C4R constraints.

The attached PDF (below) contains my version renamed as The People’s Constitution of 2024 (TPC2024). 

TPC2024 is intended to stand as a free market document written by an average Canadian for other Canadians who wish to re-establish the balance of power between “the state” and “the citizenry” on mutually agreeable terms and in a civilized manner as befits a genuine democracy. 

The spirit behind TPC2024 is to state and acknowledge that all public institutions exist to serve Canada’s citizens. As such, the decisions, actions and delegated responsibilities of “the state” must be accountable to the people in a robust and meaningful way. Elections have failed to accomplish this and enabled government autocracies to prevail and override many of our freedoms.  Change must come to restore a genuine and meaningful democracy. 

TPC2024 is desperately needed (my Libertarian opinion) to inspire Canadians to support a re-alignment of powers. In my view, the balance of authority and power has shifted over time to favour those employed in our “public institutions”. The perverse result has been that members of the “governing class” are excessively empowered and privileged at the expense of the “governed”. 

While the attached document is not strictly “libertarian” in the anarchocapitalist sense, it is “libertarian” in a very pragmatic sense. Its purpose and core theme is to re-establish the supremacy of citizenry in their rightful place within Canadian society under a truly democratic paradigm. 

My appreciation.

The TPC2024 document attached was penned entirely by me while borrowing on the ideas shaped by Charles and I a year ago, and subsequently embraced by Marc and Martin..

The TPC2024 carries some of the themes and structure of the SoP, but it is more succinct and easier to absorb than the original C4R version. Moreover, it is sufficiently different from the SoP in style and content to be original. As such, it is not a threat to either Charles or the leaders of C4R. 

I appreciate the time I spent as an active participant in C4R and the many hours invested in discussions with its leaders, Marc and Martin, and with Charles during and after the authorship of the SoP.

I have no personal regrets but I do lament the implosion of the C4R in recent months over this schism between the original group formed by Marc and Martin and their row with Charles and his followers.  That schism has caused many formerly active C4R members to abandon both factions in disappointment. It’s a loss for us all. 

TPC2024 is intended to be an “open source” paper to be used freely by anyone who wishes to support its content. As its sole author, I hereby impose no constraints of its use by any Canadian citizen, organization or public office holder. 

Regards.

Gene Balfour

Advocate for LESS GOVERNMENT  (unabashedly Libertarian 😀)

November, 2024