Provincial By-Election Platform from 2005 (November 20, 2005)
Elect Alan Mercer in Scarborough-Rouge River
The Ontario Libertarian Party has nominated Alan Mercer as the Libertarian candidate for the upcoming provincial by-election in the riding of Scarborough-Rouge River.
Message from the Candidate
I urge anyone who opposes big government to contact me and get involved with my campaign in Scarborough-Rouge River. Please support the Libertarian Party. Vote Libertarian if you believe that government should stop dominating our lives.
If elected to the Ontario Legislature, I would represent the following goals based on the principles of individual liberty:
Cut the size of government. Leave a minimal government that protects the basic rights of citizens.
Reverse the course of the Ontario government’s central planning and social engineering programs.
Get the government out of education. Ontario residents will no longer be forced to pay for public school indoctrination and “zero-tolerance”. Parents – not the Premier – will raise their own children.
Abolish the Smoke-Free Ontario Act and every other law that regulates the personal and economic choices of Ontario residents.
De-socialize Health Care so that there are no more shortages.
Abolish the Greenbelt Act and similar laws that remove and restrict the rights of property owners. Property owners should have full rights to make decisions about their own property as long as they respect the rights of their neighbours. Victims of pollution should be legally able to stop polluters and require full compensation for damages.
Encourage Rouge River conservation groups to purchase as much as possible of the land they want to protect instead of trying to use the government to control others. [Note as of 2015: NGOs have done both. I wouldn’t have made the same statement if I had understood Agenda 21, which is an international public-private grab of power and resources.] Public property should be transformed into private property so that ordinary people can take good care of their own resources and their own environment. [In retrospect, the real problem was the way control over public property is handed over by governments to private groups (intermediaries for corporations) instead of being managed democratically–which doesn’t happen either. I think many parks might be better left in the hands of the public–rather than turned over to a more dangerous and unaccountable form of collectivism (also called “privatization” but it’s just an elitist authoritarian privatization instead of dividing up the property fairly among citizens or residents (if that’s what they wanted) and then they could work out their own ideas instead of obeying Agenda 21.]
Reform the courts and police so that they focus on protecting the public from real crimes – violence, theft, fraud – instead of victimless crimes. Move the provincial and federal governments towards a system based on restorative justice, where convicted criminals are made strictly accountable for the harm they have done to their victims.
End subsidies and corporate welfare. End the forced transfer of wealth from one group to another, and let individuals decide how they spend their own money.
Abolish or reduce all taxes. Taxes are wrong. Minimize taxes. Eliminate the provincial sales tax that burdens consumers and businesses. Eliminate the gas tax. Restricting taxation will lead to greater prosperity for everybody and allow greater generosity towards those in need.
Convert property taxes to fees for municipal services, and introduce as much free market choice as possible. Homeowners should truly own their own homes.
Encourage greater opportunities for everyone through allowing them the freedom – to start their own businesses without restrictions, to keep their own money, to make their own choices and to build their own lives. Encourage communities in which young people learn respect, personal responsibility, and accountability. Encourage independent communities in which people cooperate and help others without relying on impersonal governments.