VILA No Longer an LPC Riding Association

In September 1998, three of the four VILA executive members (Mark Chase, President, Bill McElwain, VP, and Kent Cowan, Secretary) requested that the Libertarian Party of Canada (LPC) dis-affiliate VILA as a LPC riding association. The fourth VILA executive member, Treasurer Wayne McLaren, did not object to the request. In response to the request, the LPC Board of Directors on September 19, 1998, voted to dis-affiliate VILA as an LPC riding association.

One of the reasons for this decision to dis-affiliate was a falling-out between two of the founders of VILA. This led to a lengthy period of animosity between the two, marked by considerable name-calling, personal abuse on newsgroups, and a struggle for control of the organization. The conflict was hampering efforts to set up an Annual General Meeting to get the organization going again. Efforts to resolve the conflict were unsuccessful, so the executive decided to dis-affiliate VILA, and abandoned the attempt to revive the organization.

In a somewhat bizarre postscript to the struggle for control of the original VILA, one of the parties involved formed a second organization, with almost the same name as the original VILA, as part of his attempt to control "VILA". So, there are now two groups going by the name of VILA.

I have attempted to avoid going into all of the ugly details of the problems here; anyone interested in more information can contact me, and I will discuss the matter privately, or refer you to the people involved.


October 18, 1998
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