Statement of Principles

December 1984

We, the members of the Libertarian Party of Canada, support the following principles:

1. Each individual has the right to his or her own life and this right is the sources of all other rights.

2. Property rights are essential to the maintenance of those rights.

3. In order that these rights be respected it is essential that no individual or group initiate the use of force or fraud against any other.

4. In order to bar the use of force or fraud from social relationships and to place the use of retaliatory force under objective control, human society requires an institution charged with the task of protecting individual rights under an objective code of rules. This is the basic task of, and the only moral justification for, government.

5. The only proper functions of government, whose powers must be constitutionally limited are:

a. settling, according to objective laws, disputes among individuals where private, voluntary arbitration has failed;

b. providing protection from criminals;

c. providing protection from foreign invaders.

6. As a consequence of all the above, every individual - as long as he or she respects the rights of others - has the right to live as he or she alone sees fit as a free trader on a free market.