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Religion,
Power, and Taxes September 12, 2009, Toronto - Paul McKeever today released the final three planks of his St. Paul's by-election platform. McKeever earlier released planks concerning the repeal of what is left of the Retail Business Holidays Act, and the use of taxes to fund Toronto's 2010 Pan Am bid. McKeever's third plank is a response to increased involvement of religion in our government buildings. "The Ontario legislature has started the practice of bringing religious symbols into the Legislature, and the practice of saying a wide range of religious prayers as part of the official opening of each day of legislative activity", says McKeever. "Religious ornamentation is also making its way into our courthouses. In fact, it was the former MPP for St. Paul's, Michael Bryant, who over-ruled Justice Marion Cohen's demand that a Christmas tree be removed from her courthouse lobby in 2006. However, in my view, the judge was right, and Mr. Bryant was wrong. Religion is a strictly personal matter. In a free country, laws are made in accordance with reason, not in accordance with religious beliefs. The Ontario government ought never to appear to officially recognize or endorse any religion in any way." If elected the MPP for St. Paul's, McKeever will advocate keeping religion and religious imagery a purely personal matter within Ontario's government buildings, including the Legislature and our court buildings. McKeever's fourth plank is a response to planned closures of coal-fueled power generation plants in Ontario. "For decades, industrial and commercial businesses found Ontario's inexpensive electricity a good reason to stay in Ontario", says McKeever. "Approximately seventy percent (70%) of the power consumed in Ontario was consumed by industrial and commercial businesses. However, with our industries and commercial businesses leaving for lower cost jurisdictions like China and India, demand for power in Ontario is decreasing. The effect of reduced demand should be decreased electricity costs, which would make Ontario more attractive to industry and commercial businesses. Yet Dalton McGuinty is closing power generation plants, which will keep the price of electricity high, and leave Ontario without the power needed by industries or other businesses that might choose to set up shop in Ontario." If elected the MPP for St. Paul's, McKeever will oppose the closure of Ontario's power generation plants. McKeever's fifth plank bridges the gap between Liberal and Tory positions on the HST. "According to estimates set out in Ontario's 2009 budget, the new tax will take in 30% more of your money than does the current PST", says McKeever. "It is better to tax consumption than to tax income, but that switch should be revenue neutral." If elected the MPP for the St. Paul's riding, McKeever will demand that income taxes be reduced enough to ensure that overall tax revenues do not increase as a result of the introduction of the HST. For further details, contact:
This media release distributed to all major news media. |
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Freedom
Party of Ontario Tel:
1-800-830-3301 |
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