ONTARIO PC's: COMMON SENSE DEAD, NOT JUST SLEEPING
Free Market Advocates who Vote PC Again Suffering from Battered Tory Syndrome

August 23, 2003 - Oshawa, Ontario

"Castro too might receive high marks for leadership, but that doesn't make him a right-winger", says Freedom Party of Ontario leader Paul McKeever about Ernie Eves' recent bump in the polls.

The events of the last week have made it clear: the red-Tory majority that made Ernie Eves the PC party leader have returned the party firmly to its central planning roots. The PC party's common sense experiment with free market solutions is ended, and the party has returned to the government-knows-best attitude that led to the nationalization/provincialization of hydro, to a government health care monopoly, and to a myriad of price controls on everything from rent to auto insurance.

"At this point," says McKeever "advocates of free market economics who end up voting PC in the coming election are probably best understood as having Battered Tory Syndrome. From price caps on electricity, to threatened price caps in auto insurance, to killing the sale of Hydro One, to setting up a snitch line, Ontario has suffered blow after blow of socialist economic intervention at the hands of the aptly named "red" Tories. But, like battered spouses, the pitiful denial continues in some. You can literally hear some of these poor folk say "but, deep down, I know the PCs love the free market". And, like battered spouses, many blame themselves: "Eves had no choice but to resort to price controls and to end privatization of Hydro One...it was our fault for not giving him the support he needed to do the right thing. We got what we deserved." Freedom Party, this election, is offering to help by separating advocates of common sense from their unhealthy and self-destructive relationship with the red-Tory tainted PC party", says McKeever.

Premier Eves' statements since the August 14th blackout have removed all doubt: the Common Sense agenda of Mike Harris' blue-Tories is dead within the PC party owing to the number of red-Tories in the party, including Eves himself. Consider that in the last week alone:

• The premier's press secretary made it clear that Eves had misspoken when he suggested a removal of the 4.3 cent electricity price cap was a possibility: price controls.
  
  
• Eves this week said "We made a commitment that the control of Hydro One would remain in public hands and I don't see anything that has changed that...there are other ways of raising capital dollars other than getting a private-sector partner": government ownership and operation, taxes and borrowing.
  
  
• Eves' government opened a snitch line for people to complain out "price gouging": the snitch line was reminiscent of a socialist dictatorship but, more strikingly, it was an open condemnation of the free market system of allowing prices to change with supply and demand.

Consider, also, that the centre-pieces of the PCs "Road Ahead" platform - property tax cut for seniors and a mortgage interest deductibility for homeowners - are further evidence of a party that favours the subsidies of central planning to the personal responsibility of the free market. "When you cut a person's taxes but do not cut spending on that person correspondingly, you are either reducing a subsidy or imposing one" says McKeever. "Eves' tax cut for seniors and interest deduction for homeowners are both subsidies, not real tax cuts. We need real tax cuts, not more welfare subsidies. And, to make the nature and extent of welfare clear to the taxpayer, all subsidies should come in the form of a cheque, not in the form of a reduced tax liability", says McKeever.

"Only Freedom Party," says McKeever "remains unshakably dedicated to a common sense agenda. It is precisely because we have a 19 year track record of advocating free markets and opposing central planning that investors will be able to trust a Freedom Party government. The fear of electricity sector investors could not now be quelled by anything Eves might do or propose. And it is laughable to suggest that directionless populism could inspire confidence if it were exercised by McGuinty instead of Eves. Going into the coming provincial election we are calling upon all proponents of common sense and market-based solutions to throw their support behind Freedom Party. A lot of deterioration can result from four to five years of central planning. The future of Ontario's economy depends upon a Freedom Party government."

The Freedom Party of Ontario is the only registered political party in Ontario that supports a free market, common sense agenda for Ontario. Its proposals can be found in Freedom Party's election platform, The Right Direction:

https://freedomparty.on.ca/platform.pdf (Adobe .pdf format)

https://freedomparty.on.ca/platform/html/cover.htm (HTML format)

Paul McKeever (who will be running in the riding of Oshawa, against Sid Ryan and Jerry Ouellette) is available to discuss this matter. You can contact him directly at:

***-***-**** (cell)

Freedom Party is expected to run candidates in approximately half of Ontario's ridings in the coming election.

For further information: Paul McKeever, Leader, Freedom Party of Ontario.
Oshawa Office Telephone: 905-721-9772.
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