Freedom Flyer 28

It's time again for Ontarians to choose representatives at Queen's Park and again The London Free Press has chosen to play kingmaker, endorsing the big-three political parties at the expense of democracy, fairness and voter choice.

SINCE 1984: The Freedom Party of Ontario has been registered as an official political entity since 1984. Since that time, we have gained the support of thousands of Ontarians dissatisfied with the excessive government intrusion into their lives by all three of the "elected" parties. Whether conservative, Liberal or NDP, the voters have had their fill of vacant promises, oppressive taxation and outright incompetence when it comes to managing our finances.

Voter dissatisfaction makes for great copy in every edition of The Free Press, yet the paper and Queen's Park reporter Greg Van Moorsel continue to relegate credible choices like the Freedom party to a one-sentence comment about other "fringe parties." More attention was given to the Natural Law party's "Yogic Flyers" and the Reform Association for Ontario, which isn't even a registered party.

What follows is the Freedom party's platform for this election. I challenge The Free Press editorial staff to tell their readers exactly what they would call "fringe" about it and how it deserves to be lumped in a paragraph with the "Yogic Flyers" and the "no-government" Libertarians.

Freedom party supports the equal treatment of all individuals before and under the law, effective law enforcement standards, impartial courts which dispense punishments that fit the crime, and judicial/provincial respect for private property rights.

Freedom party advocates a taxpayer protection act that incorporates maximum tax limits, a flat-rate tax system, a binding referendum on tax increases, and balanced budget legislation.

Freedom party endorses lowering personal income taxes and retail sales taxes by reducing government spending and directing social assistance only to those in demonstrable need.

To ensure government is able to guarantee health-care accessibility and prevent catastrophic financial loss due to illness, Freedom party supports health-care reforms that emphasize an insurance-based, actuarially sound system of health care funding.

Freedom party supports the right of taxpayers to direct their education taxes to the school(s) of their choice, including private options. Within the public system, we propose clear education standards and objective student evaluations, with an emphasis on the basics, including: direct instruction, the systematic use of phonics to teach reading, standardized testing, and effective standards of discipline.

RED TAPE:Freedom party advocates a reduction of suffocating bureaucratic red tape and regulation of the business sector, and an end to forced union membership as a condition of employment.

Freedom party supports the elimination of government grants, funding, subsidies and preferential legislation for special-interest groups.

Freedom Party advocates the repeal of Bill-79 (employment equity laws), Bill-40 (labor legislation) and Bill-8 (French Services Act), the elimination of Ontario's Human Rights Commission and its political tribunals, and an end to the censorship powers of Ontario's Film Review Board.

Freedom party advocates the privatization of government-owned businesses including Ontario Hydro, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and Workers' Compensation. We also encourage private sector replacement of services currently provided by government (for example, day care and public transportation).

Freedom party advocates eliminating MPP "super-pensions" and replacing them with pensions in line with the private sector. We would also implement a process of MPP recall, and fixed election periods.

If it's not our platform that is "fringe" perhaps it's the fact that our London-area candidates consist of a firefighter (our leader, Jack Plant), entrepreneurs (Rob Smink, Wayne Forbes), a retired railway employee (Ray Monteith), a computer consultant (Lloyd Walker), a pollution-control plant employee (Barry Malcolm), and a retail salesperson (Maureen Battaglia). Not a son or daughter of an ex-premier among the lot. Not a lawyer. No leaders of special-interest groups at the government trough. Just normal, average working folk who know the value of a dollar.

Perhaps we can be labelled "fringe" because our party platform is based on principle and not cooked up by the pollsters just to get elected this time around. Unlike the big three, our principles do not change to the public's mood at any given election time. We consistently base our positions on the following principle: Every individual in the peaceful pursuit of personal fulfilment has an absolute right to his or her own life, liberty and property. A hundred years ago, newspapers would have defended such a principle to the death. Today they scoff at it as being "fringe."

DISSERVICE:The Free Press is doing readers a disservice by continually supporting, through unbalanced reporting, the big-three political parties, the very parties that continue to spend taxpayers' money with reckless abandon and play favorites with special interest groups.