A retreat to advance freedom
Looking for real liberals? You'll find them every year, standing up for liberty, at Ontario's Liberty Summer Seminar
Ezra Levant - September 19, 2005
The word "liberal" used to be an adjective rooted in the Latin word for freedom, as in Alberta's provincial motto, "Fortis et Liber" (strong and free). Today the word liberal has been corrupted, and is used as a noun to describe people who believe that government should constrain personal freedom. Some true believers in liberty try to reclaim that word, describing themselves as "classical liberals," but that assumes a knowledge of the classic works of liberty that is increasingly rare amongst graduates of our state-run schools.
Some classical liberals have taken to calling themselves "libertarians," a more unwieldy word, but one not yet tainted by Orwellian redefinition. Its obscurity means libertarians are constantly explaining what the word means, which might be deliberate: it gives them frequent chances to explain themselves.
Our magazine has several great libertarian writers, such as Pierre Lemieux and Karen Selick. They represent an important part of our readership base, as do conservatives. I suspect most conservatives are actually libertarian conservatives, but are less optimistic that their fellow man will voluntarily govern himself. It takes an optimist to be a libertarian, or perhaps faith is a better word. It is not surprising that communism and fascism are so incompatible with either faith or optimism.
Which brings me to Peter Jaworski's annual Liberty Summer Seminar, held in August at his family's country acreage in Orono, Ont. Peter interned with us last summer and his work here won him the Felix Morley prize for journalism, our magazine's first such award. He left to continue his studies, but still writes for us on a freelance basis.
Peter's Liberty Summer Seminar is a weekend summer camp-style conference, and most guests bring tents and pitch them near the large, gorgeous swimming pond on the Jaworski family's bucolic property (I admit I retreated to a hotel in Toronto at night).
Guest speakers this year included Mark Mullins, the new executive director of the Fraser Institute; Tasha Kheiriddin of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation; Gerry Nicholls of the National Citizens Coalition; and Professor Jan Narveson, one of Canada's leading libertarian scholars.
I was delighted to be invited for my second year running, to give an update on our magazine's progress and to chair a media panel featuring the National Post's Marni Soupcoff, the Toronto Sun's Michael Taube and our own Karen Selick. Just as exciting was the presence of liberty-oriented bloggers, including Stephen Taylor, who posts frequently to our own website's blog, The Shotgun.
It was a serious refresher on the basic principles of liberty for me, and a great chance to reconnect with other journalists and activists from across the country (including loyal readers of the magazine). But what
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