The debaters:
Capitalists Peikoff & Ridpath vs. socialists Caplan & Vickers.

Seventeen hundred eager attendees braved a snowstorm to hear this extraordinary debate. Held at the University of Toronto in 1984—when academics still believed that socialism was the wave of the future—this event kept the audience captivated for over 2 1/2 hours.

The socialists were represented by Gerry Caplan, then Secretary of Canada's New Democratic Party, and Jill Vickers, then Associate Director of the Institute of Canadian Studies. The capitalists consisted of two Objectivists, Leonard Peikoff and John Ridpath.

The debate centered on moral fundamentals eliciting profoundly opposing views on issues from the nature of man to the justification of government. Don't miss this electrically charged confrontation.

Dr. Gerry Caplan: "Socialism is an ideal that tries to touch the best in people and to elevate the best into the norm."

Dr. Leonard Peikoff: "The system which guards the freedom of man's mind is … based on the concept of inalienable individual rights: laissez-faire capitalism."

Dr. Jill Vickers: I am a socialist committed to broad humane values which transcend the bankrupt visions of societies that are subservient to economies."

Dr. John Ridpath: "Socialism denies and assaults every basic social need of man and must therefore ultimately result in tyranny and destruction."

Also available on VHS.

(DVD; 2 hrs., 21 min.)