Neal Ford

Neal Ford (born in Montreal, Quebec, 1965) is a Canadian politician who was a frequent candidate in elections in that country and a former candidate for the leadership of the Libertarian Party of Canada.

The first election he ever actively took part in was the 1981 Quebec election. Because of a teachers' strike that happened concurrently with the election, the 15-year-old Ford was able to participate in the campaign fully. He worked for Buff Norman, the New Democratic Party candidate in the riding then known as Lachine. Ford later moved away from social democratic politics.

He joined the Liberal Party of Canada while at Vanier College in St. Laurent, QC in 1987, where he became vice president of the Vanier Young Liberals. He left the party in May 1988 because of its opposition to free trade with the United States. He joined the Libertarian Party of Canada, which at the time, was seen by some as Canada's up and coming fourth party, following the demise of the Social Credit Party of Canada in the 1980 federal election.

He was a candidate for the first time in the 1988 federal election for the Libertarian Party. The Libertarians argued for the complete elimination of protectionism, lower taxes and less government.

In the 1989 Quebec election, he ran as an Independent Libertarian in the riding of Jacques-Cartier (there was no provincial Libertarian Party in Quebec). The main issue of that campaign in western Montreal ridings was the Quebec Liberal Party's enactment of Bill 178, which extended the provisions in Law 101, the law that called for French language predominance on all commercial signs. Joan Dougherty, the Member of the National Assembly for Jacques-Cartier was one of four Quebec Liberals defeated by Equality Party candidates opposed to Quebec's language laws.

Ford's view, as a Libertarian, was that governments should not legislate the language used by private businesses, and that commercial signs should be at the sole discretion of the owner of the business.

In 1990, Libertarian Party of Canada leader Dennis Corrigan resigned to accept a position in the USA, and Neal Ford was one of four candidates who ran to replace him. The field consisted of Stanislaw Tyminski, Neal Ford, George Dance, and David Yaki. Stanislaw Tyminski won the leadership, and left a few months later to pursue the presidency of Poland.

He had a major disagreement with the Libertarian party in 1992 when the party endorsed the "No" side in the referendum on the Charlottetown Accord. A resident of Quebec and a lifelong federalist, he believed that the passage of the Charlottetown Accord would have been the death knell for the Parti Québécois and their agenda to take Quebec out of Canada.

He nevertheless ran for them one last time in 1993,in the riding then known as Vaudreuil, after which the Libertarians joked that it was their best election ever, finishing with only two fewer seats than the PC party.