Governments are exercising dictatorship like power over our highways; they control and regulate where the roads go; how they are built; when and how they are repaired; they strictly limit the speed on our highways; they tax our gasoline exorbitantly; they force us to have special insurance to drive; they set all the rules even though government is rarely a diligent caretaker of responsibilities.

Government always avoids responsibility. The proper job of the courts is to determine responsibility. So here we have the government, which has a monopoly on the rules regarding speed, cost, fuel, roads, insurance; and a government that has the monopoly and sets the rules on the courts. Is it any wonder both our roads and courts then are in disastrous shape at this point in time? Is it any wonder that it costs twice as much for gas in Ontario as it does in Michigan? That court settlements take years, because governments have too many laws no one can interpret and too many lawyers in parliament rewarding their fellow lawyers with employment in the courts. It seems that the cost of justice in Ontario is too high, thanks to lawyers and politicians, and so the Peterson principle of political expediency kicks in when a crisis comes to a head.

The problem of no-fault is not just with car insurance. That, of course, is wrong, but the whole Peterson government mentality is to avoid individual responsibility, and place the blame on everybody. "It's everybody's problem" is government's answer to any problem in the economy, environment, taxes, etc. But individual responsibility is just that: individual. The Peterson principle of no-responsibility is perhaps reflects his own government's moral character, but it does not mesh with us here at Freedom Party. No- responsibility is no-justice. No- fault is no-responsibility. Freedom Party believes each individual is accountable for their actions, and our justice system must mirror our philosophy of individual choice, individual responsibility.

Ontario needs an impartial judge when assessing damage to property by pollution or neglect.

Yet, the biggest polluters in Ontario are Ontario Hydro and the Ministry of Natural Resources, both government agencies. Being the main polluter, should government itself set the rules that allow it to turn a blind eye to the damage it causes, and then make us pay exorbitant taxes to pay the bill?

We now have a $5 tax on every tire sold, supposedly to provide for tire recycling. Yet, not a dime has been spent on tire recycling and we have already been looted for $45 million on this tax.

The liberals, PCs, and NDP members of Queen's Park are, by and large, self-serving opportunists who have their political futures in mind (how many ever turn down Senate appointments or government jobs after they've finally left or been booted out of office? Look at Ed Broadbent, for example.), so you cannot expect sincere care for our province from them.

Private property owned by citizens and private conservation groups will protect our wilderness lands, government, with its ornery political agenda, cannol We at the Freedom Party say "privatize, privatize and privatize some more"... and this way we will have accountability and responsibility. When property is privately owned, it is maintained. When it is government "owned", it is polluted, damaged, neglected, over-logged, fire-damaged, fished out, not swimmable and often undrinkable.

Government is not the solution, it is the problem.

Any labor cost that is not the result of increased produc- tivity is a cost borne by the consumer. So if the government orders wages up, who pays? All businesses must pass their costs on to the consumer, whether it is equity laws or corporate taxes; they are all reflected in the price we pay at the stores. A higher standard of living is obtained by increased productivity with a reduction in costs, that is why the standard of living is rising in the far east, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, even slowly but surely in Hungary, and as it will in Poland and East Germany, because they are producing more while reducing their costs, and their governments are not going into debt.

But a disease has struck North America, where we want it all, but we don't want to earn it. Our governments are in huge, catastrophic debt (financed by thrifty Japanese, German, Arab lenders!), our labor costs are out of whack, our productivity is pale by other industrial producers, and we are still unwilling to face facts.

Government worker-welfare programs like Pay Equity destroy our productivity because they perpetuate the illusion we can legislate prosperity, rather than produce it. Ontarians continue to look at government to improve their standard of living, which is impossible, because governments only redistribute existing wealth, or conjure up (borrowing, inflation) illusory wealth.

They should instead look at increasing their effort in producing superior goods at cheaper prices, otherwise we are all in for a nasty decline in our standard of living! Pay Equity is wrong economically and ethically. Freedom Party would scrap Pay Equity laws.

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Page last updated on April 28, 2002