Ottawa Citizen

ONTARIANS SHOULD VOTE FOR CHANGE

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If anything has become clear over the past several weeks, it’s that Ontario voters are fed up with the status quo. Big government, big spending, big deficits. After 15 years of Liberals, most people want a true shift in approach at Queen’s Park.

They won’t get that by voting NDP. Andrea Horwath’s team offers ideas drearily similar to those of the woebegone Grits: more spending, more social programs, more government in our lives. While Horwath is less personally disliked than Kathleen Wynne, she offers dismayingl­y similar policy prescripti­ons. Let’s not choose “more of the same.”

What to do instead? Vote Progressiv­e Conservati­ve. Here’s why.

For all his current inexperien­ce provincial­ly, PC leader Doug Ford encapsulat­es a belief that Ontarians have a right to keep more of their own money, and that businesses are not simply cash cows for runaway government projects. The PCs acknowledg­e the need for serious support in areas voters worry most about, from health care to education to hydro bills, but unlike the other major parties, they don’t think the answers to all of society’s ills lie in buying our votes with our own money.

The PCs are also fielding an experience­d roster of candidates: MPP Randy Hillier (Lanark— Frontenac—Lennox and Addington) has ably served as justice critic; MPP Lisa MacLeod (now running in Nepean) is a one-time finance critic; John Yakabuski (Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke) has served as energy critic; and Lisa Thompson (Huron Bruce) was internatio­nal trade critic, important during NAFTA negotiatio­ns and talk of tariffs facing Canadian goods. Former MPP and health critic Christine Elliott (now running in Newmarket-Aurora) will bring formidable experience and sense into any cabinet she joins; and Caroline Mulroney (running in York— Simcoe) has already proven herself a superior candidate for public office.

Here are three areas in particular to think about.

HEALTH CARE:

The Tories have promised 15,000 more longterm care beds over five years. They’re needed to help clear a backlog in the province and reduce hospital wait times. The PCs also pledge $1.9 billion over 10 years for mental-health care.

But real health care reform will require more than just upping spending. Only the PCs are placed to even begin an honest conversati­on with Ontarians about other models and innovation­s that work in other jurisdicti­ons; neither the NDP nor the Liberals will ever venture beyond status quo bromides on health.

TAXATION:

A promised tax cut from 9.15 per cent to 7.32 per cent for the middle class should ease the financial burden on many families; a pro-business corporate tax rate cut from 11.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent ought to encourage investment and is vital given the anti-trade policies south of our border; and small business, burdened by rapid minimum wage hikes under the Liberal government, would see the rate frozen at $14 per hour rather than rise again next year. Small business tax rates would also be lowered.

DOWNSIZING GOVERNMENT:

The PCs want government gone from places it shouldn’t be. Liberalizi­ng alcohol sales by allowing beer and wine in corner stores is a sensible, pro-business, pro-consumer policy. Cutting corporate welfare would reduce government meddling in the private sector, and a tax credit for child care would help ensure families, not government­s, decide how they want to receive this key service.

If Ontarians really want change, they need to vote for it. That means voting Progressiv­e Conservati­ve.

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