Election Campaign Strategy

Assumptions

• Libertarians are not going to form the government, provincially or federally, any time in the next 2 generations, probably not as long as most voters are educated in the government-run schools.  (Maybe our first objective should be separation of school and state.)  
• A Libertarian is not going to be elected until;
  • we run a full slate of candidates for at least two general elections
  • a significant percentage of the population understands Libertarians want limited government and more personal responsibility
  • we have at least 25 active Libertarians in several ridings, able to fund and execute an aggressive campaign.
  • the Party has a war chest of a few hundred thousand dollars.  (Let's see how much money the Green Party has.  I have their Annual Return from 2010, or someone can look it up online.)  

All of this implies that the key to success is to have several thousand members willing to make substantial donations to the Party and willing to volunteer their spare time to work for the Party. I (Jim McIntosh) believe we must focus on this before we should even worry about getting someone elected.

Grow Membership

How do we increase our membership?  We need to understand why people join the Libertarian Party.  There are at least two reasons;

1. Ideological - They believe that government should not do anything that private individuals and groups can do for themselves, or that the force of law should be used only to protect life, liberty and property.  They might even be anarchists who are willing to support us as moving in the right direction.  Many Ron Paul fans fall into this category
2. Politically homeless - Disillusioned conservatives who feel the PC party has abandoned them.  They may still believe government should do more than protect life, liberty and property, but not all the social engineering they continue to engage in.  These are the people who were attracted to the original Reform Party and the Common Sense Revolution of Mike Harris.  They are also the ones most likely to abandon the Libertarian Party if the Conservative Party moves to the right (or looks like it is) or if the Reform Party is resurrected as the new part of the right. 
3. Single Issue supporters - Gun Rights and Fathers' Rights people, for example.  A professor from University of Buffalo (Barris?) spoke to a group of Libertarians in Toronto years ago and commented that many people become Libertarians because "their ox was gored."  In other words, the government had screwed them somehow and that motivated them to take political action. 
4. (Anyone else?)

We also need to understand why they actively support us with effort and/or money. They believe the country is going in the wrong direction and they have to "do something" to fix the problem. They may support other organizations like The Fraser Institute and The Canadian Taxpayers Federation because they are pushing politicians and voters in the right direction.  However, if they are motivated by our Principles, they probably understand that these organizations are merely pruning the branches of government and not striking at the root,  Again, if they aren't motivated by our Principles, then they are susceptible to appeals from more pragmatic parties if they perceive they have a better chance of winning and being heard in the media.   

Find Libertarians

Based on exit polls conducted in the US by political scientist Nolan and White, some 16% of voters are libertarian, in that they vote Democrat on social issues (personal liberty ) and Republican in economic issues (economic freedom).  This was the basis for their book, Beyond Left and Right and the development of the World's Smallest Political Quiz by Advocates for Self-Government. 

Our primary effort should be aimed at finding and recruiting these people to the Party.  If they don't know about us, they are probably 'politically homeless' with no one to vote for.  They may have given up on politics completely and refuse to pay attention to any political advertising.  They may even classify all politicians as crooks.  We may get their attention if we hit their hot button - the issue that bothers them the most. 

Convert Voters

IN THE AUTHOR'S MIND, THIS DOCUMENT IS LESS THAN 50% COMPLETE. IT IS A DRAFT IN PROGRESS. HE OR SHE LIKELY HAS MORE TO ADD, AND WILL DO SO SOON.