EVES' PCs RUN FRINGE PARTY CAMPAIGN
Lacking economically defensible solutions, PCs turn to fringe issues, literature, signs

September 7, 2003 - Oshawa, Ontario

An election flyer released by Ernie Eves' Progressive Conservatives shows the PCs have been forced to run as a fringe party, on fringe issues, with fringe party election materials.

1. PC FRINGE ISSUES

Fringe parties are defined primarily by their pet issues. Their issues are called "fringe" precisely because they have little to do with mainstream issues such as Electricity, Health Care, Education, and Auto Insurance. The PCs have been forced into a Fringe Party campaign because they lack economically defensible solutions to mainstream problems. Consider the fringy issues upon which they have instead narrowly focussed their whole campaign. These issues are set out in the PCs' election literature...click here to see it. In sum:

a) NOT LETTING WOULD BE IMMIGRANTS "TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR PUBLIC SERVICES"

"This is where things get not only fringy, but ugly", says Freedom Party of Ontario leader, Paul McKeever. "Eves is intentionally playing on the belief that social services are already strained to the breaking point. He's appealing to an irrational fear that if more immigrants are let in, health care will fall apart. It's vulgar, and it is beneath anyone who would seek to be Premier in a general election. By any dictionary definition, it is demagoguery. If he wins on that plank, God save his soul."

b) MORTGAGE INTEREST DEDUCTABILITY AND SENIORS PROPERTY TAX CUT

"These are not even tax cuts, except in name", says McKeever. "Mr. McGuinty has been kind to call them trinkets and baubles. They are, to be completely honest from an economic point of view, unaffordable government subsidies: the people who do not qualify for the subsidies would - under the Eves subsidy plan - be paying a greater percentage of the freight for the public services delivered to those who do get the subsidies. In their election literature, Eves claims that Mr. McGuinty is against these two hand-outs: I say Bravo if that is true! Mr. Eves is a Robbin' Hood dressed up as the Sheriff of Nottingham, and I think that he has miscalculated gravely on this. He has just set himself up for a demonstration that Mr. McGuinty is in favour of fewer big government hand-outs than Mr. Eves. The phrases "mortgage interest subsidy" and "property tax subsidy" cannot be repeated enough."

c) BANNING TEACHER STRIKES

Huh? It makes no sense to any party concerned about keeping government spending low: arbitrations for essential service workers frequently are more generous than the settlements that result from negotiations leading up to a strike. But, again, "huh?". This issue is completely fringe and, like the immigration pitch, appeals to the us versus them tendency in some. "What's next," says McKeever "vowing to repeal seat-belt laws? Cracking down on high hemlines?"

2. PC Signs and Literature: Fringe

In Oshawa, the big election signs used by Minister of Natural Resources Jerry Ouellette (currently under fire for a failure to take action sooner at the Aylmer meat packing plant) are white with blue lettering. "I've heard comments from Elections Ontario personnel that suggest this may be Jerry's way of distinguishing his PC signs from my blue Freedom Party signs", says McKeever. "For months, Freedom Party has made little secret of the fact that we were going to run a true-blue sign campaign. Of course, it might just as easily be explained by Ouellette's current crisis over Aylmer. He is probably trying to distance himself from his party as much as possible these days...indeed, he may be trying, at this point, to distance himself from himself."

The PCs' flyer is also fringy in appearance. Having used a Liberal party logo apparently in an unauthorized fashion, two red stickers have been slapped, in a sloppy fashion, over the Liberal logo. See diagram below (note, in the diagram, the stickers have been moved so that you can see the logo beneath):

Unlike the newly-fringe PCs' platform, the Freedom Party of Ontario's election platform provides economically defensible solutions to mainstream issues. Our platform, The Right Direction, can be found at:

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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