The Abolitionist Party of Canada was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 founded by perennial candidate

Perennial candidate

A perennial candidate is one who frequently runs for public office with a record of success that is infrequent, if existent at all. Perennial candidates are often either members of minority political parties or have political opinions that are not mainstream. They may run without any serious hope...

 John C. Turmel

John C. Turmel

John C. Turmel is a perennial candidate for election in Canada, and according to the Guinness Book of Records holds the records for the most elections contested and for the most elections lost having contested 75 elections and lost 74...

. The party ran on a platform of: monetary reform

Monetary reform

Monetary reform describes any movement or theory that proposes a different system of supplying money and financing the economy from the current system.Monetary reformers may advocate any of the following, among other proposals:...

, including the abolition of interest rate

Interest rate

An interest rate is the rate at which interest is paid by a borrower for the use of money that they borrow from a lender. For example, a small company borrows capital from a bank to buy new assets for their business, and in return the lender receives interest at a predetermined interest rate for...

s and the income tax

Income tax

An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...

, the use of the local employment trading system

Local Exchange Trading Systems

Local exchange trading systems , also known as LETSystems, are locally initiated, democratically organised, not-for-profit community enterprises that provide a community information service and record transactions of members exchanging goods and services by using the currency of locally created...

 of banking, and introducing a form of Social Credit

Social Credit

Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...

 with monthly dividends

Guaranteed minimum income

Guaranteed minimum income is a system of social welfare provision that guarantees that all citizens or families have an income sufficient to live on, provided they meet certain conditions. Eligibility is typically determined by citizenship, a means test and either availability for the labour...

 being paid out to each Canadian.

Unlike many Canadian social credit

Canadian social credit movement

The Canadian social credit movement was a Canadian political movement originally based on the Social Credit theory of Major C. H. Douglas. Its supporters were colloquially known as Socreds...

 parties, the Abolitionists were not social conservatives

Social conservatism

Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...

, advocating, for instance, the legalization of marijuana

Cannabis (drug)

Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...

 and gambling

Gambling

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

.

Turmel attempted to run for the leadership of the national Social Credit party

Social Credit Party of Canada

The Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...

 after the resignation of Fabien Roy

Fabien Roy

Fabien Roy was a politician in Quebec, Canada, in the 1970s. Roy was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec and the Canadian House of Commons, and advocated social credit theories of monetary reform.-Background:...

 in 1981, but the party chose to appoint Martin Hattersley

Martin Hattersley

J. Martin Hattersley is an Edmonton lawyer and a long-time activist in the Canadian social credit movement. Born in Swinton, near Rotherham, Yorkshire, England, Hattersley earned degrees in economics and law from Cambridge University before moving to Alberta in 1956 where he worked as a lawyer...

 instead. In 1982, Turmel founded the Christian Credit Party

Christian Credit Party

The Christian Credit Party was a short-lived Canadian political party founded in 1982 by perennial candidate and social credit activist, John C...

, which he disbanded in 1983.

Turmel founded the Abolitionist Party in 1993 with a similar program to that of the Christian Credit Party. The Abolitionist Party nominated 80 candidates in the 1993 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1993

The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...

, who collected only 9,141 votes between them. (See also: Abolitionist Party candidates, 1993 Canadian federal election

Abolitionist Party candidates, 1993 Canadian federal election

The Abolitionist Party of Canada ran 80 candidates, one more than the Greens, in the 1993 federal election, none of whom were elected. Information on these candidates may be found here....

.) The Abolitionist Party subsequently reverted to being a personal vehicle for Turmel.

In 2003, Turmel attempted to organize a new party using the name of the defunct Libertarian Party of Canada

Libertarian Party of Canada

The Libertarian Party of Canada is a political party in Canada that subscribes to the tenets of the libertarian movement across Canada.-History:...

, but was foiled by old members of the Libertarian Party who registered the name.

Party program

According to Mr. Turmel: "Quebec Social Credit first argued for a national LETS currency. But Canada Social Credit didn't agree and threw me out and changed their policy from prohibition of interest rates to 6%. So I founded the Christian Credit thinking that credit could only be Christian and friendly if there was no interest. This is the way I explained then what are the Abolitionist Party programs of today:

THE CHRISTIAN CREDIT PROGRAMS:

1. The abolition of interest rates;
2. The establishment of a government dividend;
3. The establishment of no-premium fire and auto insurance."

External links

• Turmel's Abolitionist Party of Canada Programs