Thursday, June 29, 2006

Liberty Summer Seminar: Fun, Sun and Libertarianism

My friend Peter Jaworski will be holding another one of his wonderful Liberty Summer Seminars on the July 29-30 weekend, an event that’s becoming one of the premier liberty-oriented events of the year.

If you have never heard of the Liberty Summer Seminar just think Ayn Rand Meets Survivor and you will get idea as to what it’s all about.

First off the seminars take place in the wilderness. Well not really. Actually they are held on a beautiful 40-acre farmland property near Orono, Ontario, a property that includes a swimming pond, walking trails and tons and tons of trees.

And if you’re not a fan of trees don’t worry ---the real attraction isn’t the bucolic splendor; it’s the fact that Peter brings together prominent libertarian/conservative speakers with an energetic, enthusiastic audience.

The result: everybody has a great time.

I had the pleasure of speaking at last year’s seminar and I had a blast. It’s not often you get a chance to spend quality time with a bunch of like-minded friends, in such a gorgeous environment. (The meals were quite good too.)

So if you want to have outdoor fun while getting energized about your libertarianism, I recommend you register for this year’s get-together.

You will thank me later.

6 comments:

P. M. Jaworski said...

Yup. If you're reading this, why aren't you registering for the Seminar already...

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

Should be interesting. My only question is if this is a Libertarian conference how come neo-conservatives like David Frum and Ezra Levant are being invited. I thought Libertarians were for a non-interventionist foreign policy and socially liberal policies, while economically conservative policies. Not a hawkish foreign policy and social conservatism which involve bigger government.

Anonymous said...

with the shape the Liberals are in Miles you don't actually expect clear Libertarian representation from those ranks do you? Take to "Blue" and sit by the pool this weekend.

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

I don't expect to have Libertarians come out of the Liberals, but at least they won't go backwards on social policy while on economic policy from time to time they do adopt economically conservative policies. Just not as much or as quick as I want.

P. M. Jaworski said...

Miles, I've never invited David Frum to attend the LSS. I doubt I will. The LSS is covering property rights this year, not foreign policy. If it were a seminar on foreign policy, I would invite different people.

Have you ever visited or heard much about the Cato Institute? They're a libertarian (lower-case "l" when referring to the philosophy, upper-case "L" when referring to the political party) think tank that has often featured non-libertarians. Their policy is that, when you're asked to speak at Cato, you speak on topics where you agree with the libertarian political philosophy. We do the same thing. Everyone on our speakers list agrees that property rights are vital. Everyone who is invited to speak is asked to speak on topics they agree with libertarians about.

Why insist that people be "thoroughly" libertarian on everything, if all they will be speaking about is, say, taxes, health care, or property?

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

Thanks for the clarification. I am well aware of the Cato Institute and I support their principles although I don't agree with all of their views. I support the principle behind property rights which we already for the most part have. Now if the goal is to get it inserted in the Charter, the problem here is that requires 7 out of 10 provinces with 50% + 1 of the population, which could be difficult. Since most laws relating to property fall under provincial jurisdiction, some provinces may say this is an intrusion into provincial jurisdiction. For example the Bloc Quebecois supports property rights in the Quebec Charter, but not the Charter of Rights and Freedoms since they believe it falls under provincial jurisdiction.

Interestingly enough Pierre Trudeau himself was a strong supporter of property rights and only didn't put it in the charter since NDP provincial governments refused to sign it if property rights were included. This is despite the fact he was generally quite left wing on most issues.