Related: 2005 provincial By-Election

Ontario Libertarian Party
Attention News/Assignment Editors:

Ontario Libertarian Party’s Response to the Liberal Government’s Agenda

October 25, 2005 – Toronto, Ontario  The following statement is made on behalf of the Ontario Libertarian Party by Alan Mercer, Libertarian candidate for the upcoming Scarborough-Rouge River by-election.

Libertarians have several observations to make about the Ontario government’s agenda, announced in its recent Throne Speech.

For one thing, the government has announced a parent replacement plan called “Best Start”, which “will ensure our children arrive, on the first day of school, prepared to learn.” It doesn’t say what effect this program will have on private day care businesses, or on parents who might otherwise decide to care for their pre-schoolers at home. But it claims that Best Start is the result of “years of hard work by people who have devoted their lives to our youngest Ontarians.” This statement does not refer to each parent designing a program best suited to his or her child, but to collectivists who have somehow designed a program that is “best” for all of Ontario’s children.

The government also presented proposals to stop Ontarians from making lifestyle choices that are incompatible with the precarious state of its socialist health care system. “For the first time in our history,” as they put it, “your government has a Minister of Health Promotion who is leading an ambitious agenda to promote healthy and active living in Ontario.” So the government promises to meddle with your diet and exercise habits. And of course it also passed legislation that bans smoking in private clubs and privately owned places of business that socialists regard as “public places”.

As well as continuing a system of forced wealth redistribution to Ontarians with lower incomes, the government is proud to donate huge sums of taxpayers’ money to the automotive industry and the forestry industry – not to mention the Lord of the Rings (http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20051011/ca_pr_on_en/ont_lord_of_the_rings_2) musical. On top of that, in order to force gasoline consumers to provide more income to farmers, the government “is requiring an average of five per cent ethanol in all gasoline sold in Ontario by January 2007, and supporting the construction of ethanol plants.”

The government also wants to “break down the barriers that can prevent new Canadians from reaching their full potential.” But instead of taking the direct approach of ending the monopoly of certification agencies such as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (http://www.cpso.on.ca/About_the_College/geninfo.htm), the government only promises to “ensure timely access to professions and trades for qualified professionals trained outside of Canada by ensuring regulatory bodies create a fair and transparent registration and appeals process.”

In response to the government’s policies of central planning and social engineering, the Ontario Libertarian Party recommends that Ontarians should be free to make their own choices as to how they live their own lives: how they invest their money, how they look after their health, and how they educate their children.

For more information, visit http://www.libertarian.on.ca

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(Original Post)