Institute for Liberal Studies (ILS)

The Institute for Liberal Studies (ILS) became front-page news this summer when the group’s Liberty Summer Seminar (hosted by the Jaworski family of Orono, Ontario) ran afoul of small-town bureaucrats. Several media outlets—including Libertas Post—wrote about this bureaucratic fracas.

Libertas Post recently interviewed ILS executive director Matt Bufton over the phone:

How would you describe the Institute in a nutshell?

-I would say we’re an educational, nonprofit organization that takes speakers of interest to universities all over Canada. We want to talk to people about ideas in economics, philosophy, history and public policy and politics but do it in a non-partisan session. We think there is a real benefit to having young people talk about ideas that are going to shape our society. We do this from a classical liberal perspective so we use as a starting point the idea that individual liberty is good, rule of law is good, democratic society is a good thing.

When you say classical liberal, do you think of yourselves as libertarians?

-I would describe myself as libertarian, but we use ‘liberal’ and ‘classical liberal’ in a bit of a broader sense. I sometimes say almost everyone could be considered a classical liberal. Even if you talk to your average NDP member, very few of them will claim to be Marxists. So we agree on things—that people should certainly own property, rights should be ensured, etc. We agree on a democratic society and rule of law. We use that term to make sure we are as welcoming as possible to people [regardless of] whatever political label or ideology they might identify with.