"Politics makes strange bedfellows," is a phrase I've heard all my life, and often experienced first hand -- not so much in bed, but in unusual political alliances. It accurately describes the fact that political interests can bring together people who otherwise have little in common.
The saying is adapted from a line in the play, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare: "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows." It is spoken by a man who has been shipwrecked and finds himself seeking shelter beside a sleeping monster.
We at the Sovereign Society, now over a decade old, have been very fortunate in our associates and alliances. Now and then along the way we have encountered monsters, sleeping and otherwise, but in addition to our professional management and staff, we have been honored to work on behalf of our members with leading experts on offshore investment, currencies, law, banking, business and international citizenship and foreign residence.
Indeed the Sovereign Society's highly qualified Council of Experts includes fully qualified professionals located, not only in tax and asset havens, but in many countries around the world.
Libertarian Is the Word
Our Council of Experts members share a freedom and liberty loving philosophy, which probably can best be described as "libertarian," in the sense that we are advocates of liberty and free will, especially with regard to freedom of thought or conduct
One of our most distinguished libertarian leaders is Canadian Pierre Lemieux, economist, author, professor, and consultant. His many books have been published in Paris (Presses Universitaires de France and Belles Lettres) and Montréal (Varia). He is a frequent and well known contributor to Canada's National Post and many other newspapers worldwide.
Lemieux is an associate professor in the Department of Management Sciences at the University du Québec en Outaouais and co-director of the GREL (Groupe de Recherche Économie et Liberté), a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, and a member of the Scientific Board of the Turgot Insitute (Paris).
All of which introduces you to our good friend Pierre and his appropriately jaundiced view of the so-called "conservative" government in charge in Ottawa for the last two years.
Much as the big spending, big government, Big Brother, President George Bush has destroyed the Republican Party's claim to being true conservatives, Professor Lemieux spears the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Conservative Mentality
Writes Lemieux: " The Conservatives have brought their own building blocks to the construction of the Police State while dismantling nothing of what the Liberals had built before them. The Conservative government has restricted political competition by reducing allowed donations to political parties, promoted ID papers for voting, openly imposed official ID papers for boarding interior flights, 
subsidized the provinces to transform driver’s licences into more of an ID card, increased the penalties for drug "crimes", undermined the defense against "impaired" driving, created an American-like no-fly list, made anti-money laundering legislation more liberticidal, and extended the DNA database." For the full commentary by Professor Lemieux, see "With friends like this." at http://www.libertyincanada.ca/
Prof. Lemieux reminds us of a lesson for Americans in this 2008 election year.
He recalls that the noted political philosopher Frederick Hayek is widely seen as a conservative because he favored free markets, the rule of law and individual liberty. Yet, in a 1960 article entitled "Why I Am Not a Conservative, " Hayek blamed the conservative mentality for "its fondness for authority and its lack of understanding of economic forces". Hayek wrote:
"In general, it can probably be said that the conservative does not object to coercion or arbitrary power so long as it is used for what he regards as the right purposes. He believes that if government is in the hands of decent men, it ought not be too much restricted by rigid rules. Since he is essentially opportunist and lacks principles, his main hope must be that the wise and the good will rule — not merely by example, as we all must wish, but by authority given to them and enforced by them. Like the socialist, he is less concerned with the problem of how the powers of government should be limited than with that of who should wield them; and, like the socialist, he regards himself as entitled to force the value he holds on other people."
For more of Professor Lemieux's pro-liberty thoughts and writings, go to http://www.pierrelemieux.org/
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