On Wednesday, November 16, activists and other interested parties gathered at the Montreal offices of the LaRouche Public Action Committee, called the Committee for the Republic of Canada, to watch a live webcast by the movement’s founder, Lyndon LaRouche. He founded the movement to change U.S. government policy, and economic policy in particular, but his ideas have started to spread North of the border.
LaRouche activists can often be seen outside the Hall building of Concordia and at the entrance to Guy metro. They set up tables with messages criticizing Bush and Cheney, and calling for a new economic and social system in the U.S., while passing out pamphlets describing their cause. Their focus on U.S. government and policies has made it a bit of a tough sell in Canada.
“This is the only office in Canada,” said Rob Ainsworthy, one of a handful of fulltime members of the LaRouche Youth Movement in Montreal. “We’re thinking long term, and there’s different ways you can go. You can build your own party, or you can basically take over another party, the way our Youth Movement is in the process of taking over the Democratic Party.”
“Right now our focus is on recruiting, and over the next couple of years, opening offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver,” he said.
Their long-term goal is the establishment of a Republic in Canada, founded on a combination of the American constitutional system and LaRouche’s own ideas of administration and economics.
“This is not something that we can even think of in terms of five years,” he said. “We can’t rule it out, but we’re thinking long term, and the key right now is to build the youth movement. It’s about trying to figure out how we can elevate the people, and bring them hope and optimism. This is what’s really going to cause a shift over the next two generations.”
Ainsworthy believes that the biggest threat to Canada today is what he calls a process of “Balkanization” similar to what happened in Yugoslavia.
“In Canada it’s over single issues. You’ve got the sovereignist movement in Quebec, and the aboriginal question, which is a very big issue in Canada. Western Canadians want to separate, and all this.”
The LaRouche view is that these internal divisions are exploited by international financial interests, which use them to divide and conquer, undermining the ability of countries to act in the common interest. This idea of reestablishing the primacy of the state over finance and infrastructure is a central theme of LaRouche’s speeches and writing.
Ainsworthy said that part of the difficulty of getting Canadians involved in the movement is that the country itself lacks a unifying purpose.
“To be a nation you need to have a purpose, and a big difference between Canada and the U.S. is that the U.S. has a purpose: to develop its population, promote the general welfare and act as a beacon for the rest of the world. This is something that’s very real to these people, and can revive a population and get them to act.”
He isn’t discouraged, however, choosing instead to focus on making a difference at the local level.
“When you intervene in a society, even in terms of Montreal, there is an impact there. When you go out on the street and organize people, and you start to get them to think differently, it does have an impact. There are only about 300 members in the United States, and they’re having a huge impact. They’re going to take over the Democratic Party.”
Pascal Chevrier is also a fulltime member of the LaRouche Montreal chapter. He originally wanted to educate people by becoming a history teacher, but quit university to devote himself to the cause. He said that while LaRouche is very much against the current U.S. Administration, and Dick Cheney in particular, that doesn’t mean they’re a part of the Democratic Party.
“[LaRouche] is the best proponent of what’s right from the Democrats and what’s right from the Republicans,” he said. “It’s not about which party you’re with, it’s about fighting for the general welfare. That’s the idea behind this.”
“It’s true that he’s working with the Democrats, because they’re better in some ways, but at the same time the Republican Party understands economics,” Chevrier said. “They’re much more sane in terms of their economic policies.”
Lyndon LaRouche is not popular with Republicans or Democrats in the U.S., because his views don’t mesh with either party’s platform, and because he’s been known to make extreme statements about American elected officials, including Harry Truman, Henry Kissinger, George Schultz and most recently Dick Cheney. But that doesn’t prevent some people from taking an interest in his ideas about government and economics.
Leonora Maxhuni, who originally immigrated to Canada from Kosovo, is another fulltime member. She hopes to develop an understanding of government and society through her involvement in the movement, which she can then bring back to Kosovo to help develop her homeland into a healthy democracy.
“The aim of our youth movement is to develop statesmen and scientists, in the tradition of Solon of Athens, in the tradition of [Franklin] Roosevelt,” she said. “It’s to develop people who really understand the idea of the general welfare, doing something good for the benefit of others and creating a Republic based on these principles.”
She said that the LaRouche movement isn’t only political, but tries to incorporate elements of philosophy, history, mathematics, economics and other disciplines to develop Western society.
“The idea is that everything you learn, science, philosophy or whether, you apply it to your society so that you will better your society, not just for now, but for generations to come.”
For more information on the LaRouche movement in Montreal, visit www.committeerepubliccanada.ca or call (514) 855-1699.
