I won’t vote for any of the mainstream candidates or parties, which should be evident to any regular readers given my scathing criticism of politics as usual.
The Green Party, while not mainstream in some ways, including not having an Ontario provincial member of Parliament, is out of consideration, since they fully support the global warming scam.
Therefore, in this election, I was left with one other party choice — the Freedom Party.
I strongly support their platform of restoring personal private payment options for health care, as every other country has in the world, except, apparently, Cuba and North Korea.
Another platform of theirs I strongly support is making spy meters optional, and eliminating all public funding for private power generation and so-called green energy initiatives.
Where I part company with them, however, is their platform to repeal various excise taxes like the gasoline tax and liquor taxes. Excise taxes are one of the few taxes that I think are legitimate, since you as a resident have the choice of paying that tax or not.
They also pledge to repeal the $2.9 billion health premium, yet the obvious question becomes — how will that revenue be made up? Based on a cursory analysis of their pledges, it would seem that the kind of cost savings required wouldn’t be met by the shortfall in revenue their policies would result in.
Another platform I strongly oppose, which basically tipped the balance in favour of me not voting for their local candidate, is their plan to provide for the election of Ontario’s federal senators. I wrote about why I think Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Senate reform plan is unconstitutional. Beyond that, I think the last thing we need are more elected representatives for the money power to manipulate and make voters feel they are really making a positive choice for.
Some people have called for abolishing the Canadian Senate, as did the late NDP leader, Jack Layton, while many in the Western provinces have called for a so-called Triple-E Senate (Equal, Elected, Effective). However, I call for a Senate where the senators are appointed by the provincial legislatures, which is a system like the United States had prior to 1913, which I believe served its federal government well before it eventually became more centralized and expansive than Canada’s without direct state representation.
They also criticize the leaders of the major parties for letting the Toronto School Board decide how to handle Muslims praying in some of its schools. I was surprised that PC Leader Tim Hudak, didn’t take the opportunity to demagogue that issue.
I think he took the appropriate position, because I favour local school control, and if anyone feels the Board or school is acting illegally, they can take them to court. The last thing I think the education system needs is more centralized control, as should be evident from the U.S., which has a federal Department of Education and has some of the worst primary and secondary school outcomes in the Western world.
Therefore, I intend to vote for “none of the above,” which you can officially do in Ontario, by declining your ballot.
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