Ontario is a financial basket case whose elections are controlled by an axis of big union bosses. Socialists are governing Alberta. And, Pierre Trudeau’s son is Prime Minister of Canada. Who could have dreamt that in 2017 Canadian conservatives would face such a challenge? 

But this is not 1967. In that year, my father Colin M. Brown began running full page newspaper ads warning about the evils of big government. He paid for these first as a concerned citizen, then added “if you share my alarm, your support is welcome.” Tens of thousands of ordinary Canadians wrote to him and the National Citizens Coalition was born. The political landscape was not as crowded back then. The NCC was the only small-c conservative group in the country, running cheeky newspaper ads that made politicians, bureaucrats and union bosses spit up their morning coffee. Those ads helped form an “unofficial opposition” to high taxes and out-of-control public spending. By the mid 1970’s the NCC was pilloried in the mainstream media and a senior member of Pierre Trudeau’s government called my dad “the most dangerous man in the country.” In Ontario, a Premier who often seemed more progressive than conservative wondered aloud at cabinet meetings how the NCC would respond to each and every policy they were planning.

Unlike the flower child era of the 1960’s, Canadians now have the benefit of hard-learned experience to remind us that government cannot spend money indefinitely. Governments have crashed and burned around the globe as their lies promising a better future via “free handouts” are exposed. Despite the outcome of the 2015 federal election, there remains a solid majority of hard-working people in the land who know that economic freedom and individual initiative are the keys to a fair and prosperous society. Canadians will not be fooled again by the empty promises from some politicians of “sunnier days ahead” and claims that “Canada is back.”

The National Citizens Coalition no longer stands alone fighting for individual rights and freedoms in Canada. The political landscape is now more energetic and connected than ever before. However, our original mission of “more freedom through less government” remains unique and unchanged. We know how to fight back against the destructive collectives that would emaciate the taxpayers of this great country - and that is exactly what we will continue to do.

If you share our alarm, your support is most welcome.

Colin T. Brown