Candidate Guide

This section of the guide contains some sample speeches and remarks that you can use as a starting point for your own encounters with the public and the media. The timed speech is very useful for all-candidates debates or interviews. This section will get more content, so check back often!

Sample 1-Minute Opening Remarks

An Ontario Libertarian Minute #1: Libertarians and Conservatives

Healthcare, Education, Electricity generation all are monopoly services of the Ontario government.

Each of them has problems with the quality of service, waste, fraud, cronyism, etc.

My colleagues at this table will tell you they have solutions to fix the problems that always occur with monopolies.

Each of them will have a new idea, or little tweak to make each program work better. They will say, "Just give us a chance to fix it," and they have been saying that for as long as these monopolies existed.

Everyone understands that monopolies result in increased costs, reduced service, and quality, while competition reduces prices, and improves service.

Libertarians would allow competitive healthcare, education, and electricity generation including removing the government monopoly on the sale of alcohol.

It's time to think and vote differently instead of the "same ole, same ole."

I'm ____________, your Libertarian candidate in __________.

Find out more at libertarian dot O-N dot C-A

Sample 1-Minute Closing Remarks

In 10 years, the Liberals have doubled Ontario's debt because their government spending has doubled.

The Liberals and each of the other parties believe that big government is the solution to everything. Do you?

But everyone understands that competition improves prices and service... whereas monopolies result in less choice, higher costs, more debt, and lower quality.

Only governments allow monopolies.

Libertarians would provide real competition in:

• Producing electricity to lower your hydro bill.
• Removing the government monopoly on the sale of liquor, beer, and wine.
• Providing more choice in where to send your children to school.
• And allowing for a competitive, world-class health care system, resulting in better and faster care.

Vote for real change, and real choice - choose Libertarian - (your name) in (your riding).

To find out more, go to Libertarian dot O-N dot C-A.

Sample 2-Minute Opening Speech

Healthcare, Education, Electricity generation and transmission, are all monopoly services of the Ontario government and have been for generations.

Each of them has problems with the quality of service, waste, fraud, cronyism, exorbitant salaries etc.

My colleagues from the other parties at this table will tell you they have solutions to fix the problems that always occur with monopolies.

Each of the members from the other parties will say that this new idea, or that little tweak will make each program work better.

They will say please just give us a chance to fix it. They represent parties that have been saying that for as long as these monopolies existed.

Everyone understands that monopolies result in increased costs, reduced service, and quality, while competition reduces prices, and improves service. Consider how your electricity bill has gone up while your telephone bill has gone down and the service has improved. That's because of competition. A recent report said Canada has the longest wait times for medical care of any OECD nation.

All the other countries allow a parallel private system of healthcare, not in Canada, not in Ontario.

Libertarians would allow a competitive medical care system in Ontario, greater choices in education, and real competition in producing electricity that would reduce your electricity bill. We would remove the government monopoly on the sale of liquor, beer, and wine.

It’s time to think and vote differently. Let the other parties know that you are tired of the "same ole, same ole." Vote Libertarian.

I'm ____________, your Libertarian candidate in __________. Find out more at libertarian dot O-N dot C-A

Debate and Media Responses

This section provides candidates with a starting point when preparing a response to a specific media or debate question. One of the important things to keep in mind, as a candidate, is that how you respond to questions from the public (especially difficult ones), is just as important, if not more, than what information you actually provide in your response.

Ben Shapiro provides "10 Rules When Debating Leftists", a 21 minute video on YouTube. It will provide you with some useful tips for dealing with questions that may be asked during an interview or all candidate meeting.

Bridge the question to the answer you want to give!

During a media interview, or debate, always ask yourself who is "in control" of the communication lines whenever you are asked a difficult question. Sometimes, being asked a difficult question is a great opportunity to showcase how you, and your party is taking ownership of a difficult situation and offering actual alternatives that will help people. In this way, being asked a difficult question can be a blessing in disguise.

With the above ideas in mind, the sections below in this document will provide some advice to candidates on how to apply the following method to responding to a variety of questions on different topics relevant to our platform:

1. Listen to the (difficult) question being asked, and try to identify opportunities to "bridge" your response to a key part of our platform relevant to the issue brought up in the question. Do not feel like you need to answer the question exactly as it is worded! Instead, view any question as an opportunity to discuss the Party's platform on your terms, not the person asking the question. Here are some ways you can bridge a difficult question:
   1. "Here's the real problem..."
   2. "That is a very important issue, and it’s also important to remember that..."
   3. "That is a great question, and it all boils down to..."
   4. "This is a serious situation, and what matters most is..."
2. Begin by offering a hook statement (something short and memorable, to capture audience attention), pause briefly, then offer your positioning statement to frame what will be contained within your response.
3. Continue with another hook statement, then make one or more supporting statements to justify the position that you stated previously.
4. Finalize your answer by offering one or more illustrative points (ie. examples, analogies) that provide the audience with a way to see how the ideas you presented apply to the "real world".

Example: Healthcare (hospital wait times)

1. Difficult Question: How would your party improve service in hospital waiting rooms?
2. Positioning: There is no incentive for hospitals to offer faster, better service. >> Libertarians would change that.
3. Supporting: Today each patient that comes to emergency is an added cost on the lump sum of money given to the hospital each year by the province. >> In the short term we would alter the funding model to hospitals, by making each patient that comes to a hospital a cost benefit for the hospital.
4. Illustrative: In the most recent Ontario budget (May 2013) healthcare makes up almost half of the total annual expenditure and this grows every year. Continuing to increase funding to improve service under the current model is unsustainable. >> Pay the hospital for seeing and treating more patients. Hospitals will compete for patients and wait times will decrease.

Example: Healthcare (2-tier or privatization)

1. Difficult Question: Accessible, universal healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Any attempt to privatize our healthcare system will grant this right to only those who can afford to visit a hospital or see a doctor. Is that fair?
2. Positioning: Your health is not a bargaining chip for politicians. >> We need to relieve the pressure on the current system for those who need it the most, and allow Ontarians to access as many healthcare options as possible when they need them the most.
3. Supporting: Our current system is not a world leader among other countries. >> We can maintain a minimum social safety net while not standing in the way of healthcare innovators with new ideas.
4. Illustrative: In the recent (2013) Bloomberg efficiency ranking of national healthcare systems, Canada ranked 17th place, however among the "Top 5" ranked healthcare systems were some that included a private component. Publicly-run healthcare does not always produce better, or fairer patient outcomes.

Example: Taking Care of Low Income Families

1. Difficult Question: I’ve heard that Libertarians oppose government operated health care, education and other vital public services for low-income working families. What is your party’s plan to fight poverty in Ontario?
2. Positioning: Various governments have created elaborate and expensive programs to care for people in need over the past 50 years. Yet poverty is still with us. >> Poverty is a problem that affects individual people.
3. Supporting: We believe that people would prefer the opportunity to better themselves rather than be given handouts. >> A lack of education choices, excessive taxes against businesses and unsustainable government regulation have all contributed to limiting the economic opportunities for tens of thousands of Ontario families.
4. Illustrative: To begin a career in the trades in Ontario, you can no longer just leave your home and go to work. There are artificial barriers, such as the Ontario College of Trades, that impact your ability to earn a living and support your family.

Example: "Mainstream" Political Parties, and Us

1. Difficult Question: Non-mainstream parties, such as yours, can split votes in elections where only a few hundred ballots can decide which party wins the government. Do you really want this to happen?
2. Positioning: Most of the other parties at this table believe that a bigger government, and tweaking the current systems in place, is the solution to any problem in Ontario. >> How well has this worked for us for the past several decades?
3. Supporting: Healthcare, Education, Electricity generation and transmission, are all monopoly services of the Ontario government and have been for generations. Our approach is different. >> Instead of blaming the current problems on the government in power, a Libertarian government would introduce competition into these critically important services for the residents of Ontario.
4. Illustrative: When was the last time you experienced a food shortage at the grocery store? >> Food supply is a vital service to communities, and we should be thankful that we have so many choices as consumers in a competitive marketplace. When services like healthcare and education are operating in a monopoly, what is the point of blaming our problems on politicians and bureaucrats? The problem is with the structure of the system, not with the actors in it.

Example: Funding of Public Infrastructure and Services

1. Difficult Question: How would your party pay for and encourage people to take transit?
2. Positioning: Transit is a service like any other. >> Libertarians would prefer the free market to provide that service. But given that government is involved, we need a short-term approach to manage the current funding shortfall.
3. Supporting: If Ontario taxpayers and families are forced to pay more for public services like transit, everybody will want access to it, in an unsustainable way. We would pay for transit like any prudent householder would, with a balanced budget. >> The most recent Ontario budget (May 2013) approaches $128 Billion. The cost to improve transit is estimated to be about $2 billion or about 1.6% of the total. Find savings in the other parts of the overall budget and re-prioritize those expenditures. If transit is so important, then treat it as important and find the money.
4. Illustrative: Flexibility is key to encouraging people to take transit. (applies to GTA only) Whenever subways or streetcars need repair shuttle buses are called in. Whenever snow blocks the Scarborough RT in east Toronto, shuttle buses are called in. Whenever water mains burst and subways are stopped, shuttle buses are called in. Buses are the most flexible and inexpensive mode of transportation we have. We would also invite other bus companies to offer their competitive service using existing municipal bus ways and roadways. With many companies competing using various sized buses and catering to the comfort of commuters, prices would be competitive as would service. Some bus companies would offer express service, some door-to-door service, some economy service, and some with luxury service. This way, the needs of more commuters would be met and more would be encouraged to leave their cars at home.
5. Illustrative (alternate): It is possible to fund and operate transit in a financially sustainable way. Singapore's transit infrastructure is managed by two private-sector operators, SBS Transit and S.M.R.T., and the transit system actually posted an overall operating profit (as of 2007).

Example: Energy

1. Difficult Question: As Ontarians and as stewards of our planet, we have a responsibility to develop a sustainable, environmentally-conscious infrastructure to deliver on our energy needs for ourselves and generations to come. De-regulating and privatizing our energy grid would encourage environmentally harmful practices and reduce our energy independence. How could that ever be a smart idea?
2. Positioning: Politics don't add any value to your electricity bill >> Energy sustainability begins at the home, and consumers need to be able to decide for themselves what electricity mix works for them.
3. Supporting: More efficient and affordable renewable energy options are being driven by the market today. >> Government should never stand in the way of innovators and customers. We do not support government involvement in energy production and delivery, nor do we support the MicroFIT program.
4. Illustrative: Renewable energy sources are a natural choice in jurisdictions who are concerned with maintaining a reliable energy supply, even in natural disaster situations where the grid becomes unreliable. These municipal-level "microgrid" projects, such as ones being piloted in Connecticut, provide a natural business case for wind and solar power without the need for feed-in-tariff (FIT) programs.

Example: Debt and Deficit

An Ontario Libertarian Minute #3: The Truth about job creation

1. Difficult Question: How would your party reduce Ontario's debt and deficit?
2. Positioning: Everybody understands by now that a service provided by the government is very expensive, regardless of the quality of the service. >> Our solution is to allow better alternatives for the services we need outside of the government.
3. Supporting: Better community services can be delivered by the people and groups who need them the most: communities. >> Due to Ontario's present fiscal situation, this transition will absolutely need to take place, as our debt and interest rates increase.
4. Illustrative: Imagine if the interest charge on your credit card was your 3rd-largest expense every month? This is exactly the status of Ontario's finances and debt, with today's historically low interest rates. This is simply not sustainable, especially as interest rates return to more normal levels.

Example: Economic Growth (job creation)

An Ontario Libertarian Minute #4: How government destroys jobs

1. Difficult Question: How would you boost economic growth in the province?
2. Positioning: To understand this question, ask a friend or family member who owns a business what their day-to-day challenges are when they try to operate and grow that business. >> Business want to succeed and grow, which creates more employment opportunities for everybody. Remove the artificial barriers to growth: government red tape.
3. Supporting: To stimulate the economy, Libertarians will invest in freedom. >> Allow employers and potential employees to negotiate wages and benefits, independent of regulation. Governments should refrain from any form of interference in the creation of jobs, labour regulations, or giving special legal privileges to unions or employers.
4. Illustrative: There are several examples in history of "special economic zones" or "economic freedom zones" being implemented to boost economic activity in specific geographic regions. This is not a new idea, unless you live in Ontario.

Example: Jobs (youth unemployment)

An Ontario Libertarian Minute #5: Give the jobs back to the job makers

1. Difficult Question: High levels of unemployment are a huge threat to the competitiveness of the Ontario economy, and isn't it the government's responsibility to create meaningful work opportunities that provide a living wage for workers and their families, and provide opportunities for post-secondary education to manage rising tuition costs? Don't we want to invest in our future?
2. Positioning: We need to liberate employers so they can attract more workers. >> The nature of paid work is changing, an this is especially true of young job seekers. We would encourage the participation of employers directly in the post-secondary education arena.
3. Supporting: There is a disconnect between young job seekers who cannot find work in their field, and employers who must sometimes look outside of the province to find the talent they need. >> Employers in Ontario have expressed a need for highly-skilled workers in many different parts of the economy. Employers are part of the solution, not part of the problem.
4. Illustrative: Around the world, other countries such as Switzerland enjoy some of the lowest youth unemployment rates of all OECD countries (7.7% as of 2011), and emphasize heavily on partnering directly with employers to offer youth apprenticeship programs as part of the post-secondary education process.

Example: Minimum Wage

1. Difficult Question: Would your party support an increase in the minimum wage to compensate for increases in the cost of living due to yearly inflation?
2. Positioning: There is a more critical issue that needs to be tackled: youth unemployment. >> Employers and employees should be free to negotiate work arrangements, including cost-of-living increases in pay.
3. Supporting: A higher minimum wage compels employers to seek out higher-skilled workers, who can take on an expanded set of job responsibilities. >> Employers who provide on-the-job training to unskilled workers are a critical part of Ontario's labour force. Why are we making it harder for young workers to gain critical job skills?
4. Illustrative: In the Euro zone, it has been demonstrated that some of the countries with the highest minimum wage level also have the highest levels of youth unemployment.

Example: Employment or Pay Equity

1. Difficult Question: Everybody deserves a fair chance at meaningful employment. Without employment equity, how can we be sure that employers will give all applicants a fair chance at a job and equal pay for equal work?
2. Positioning: As libertarians, we envision a society where all individuals, regardless of race, religion, gender, creed, sexual orientation or any other factor, are recognized equally in their rights as human beings. >> Creating policies that further divide, and foster resentment between "groups" will never achieve this goal.
3. Supporting: Celebrating diversity is a key part to having an internationally competitive economy. Employers who do not embrace this idea will be affected in their bottom line, with or without employment equity legislation. >> Prejudicial bullying in the workplace cannot be resolved by bullying employers into behaving a certain way. Doing this only legitimizes the misguided prejudices that we are trying to resolve in the workplace.
4. Illustrative: We need to address the roots of discrimination. Furthermore, newspaper articles have noted that some the agencies responsible for implementing these programs do not even follow their own hiring guidelines.

Example: Education

1. Difficult Question: Funding cuts to Ontario's education system has placed some students at an unfair disadvantage over others, limiting their opportunities for academic achievement and advancement. Shouldn't our education system be fair, equitable and open to all, from kindergarten up to university?
2. Positioning: School choice is a key driver of student success. >> The current "one-size-fits-all" model of education in Ontario is not adequately preparing students to enter a modern workforce, which is vastly different than the workforce of 40 years ago. Adding funding to the current model will not improve outcomes.
3. Supporting: The world of work is changing, and "education" and "career" are no longer two distinct phases in a person's life. >> We need an education system that reflects this reality, which will require the participation of many more stakeholders and not just the government.
4. Illustrative: School voucher systems encourage innovation in the education sector, with the formation of independent schools which can respond to the needs of parents and students more rapidly. >> The Sweden school voucher system (established 1992) encouraged the formation of independent schools which were shown to improve student outcomes across several metrics (Bohlmark and Lindahl 2012).

Example: Education (teacher merit pay)

1. Difficult Question: Is offering "merit pay" to reward teachers for exceptional job performance a good idea?
2. Positioning: The best measure of teacher performance is to look at student success. >> We believe that parents should be able to direct their taxes to the school of their choice. This will increase demand for the highly ranked schools, that increase in demand will allow those schools to raise their price, charge parents a bit more, and pay their teachers better.
3. Supporting: Teaching is a service - a business - that should not be a monopoly of government. >> There should be many different providers of this service, parents should be able to select the provider that best serves their needs, and one of the ways parents can determine who is best to serve their needs is to use student performance outcomes as an indicator.
4. Illustrative: Those schools that produce highly ranked students are the ones where parents will want to send their kids. >> Schools that lose students will need to improve their service or leave the marketplace. Overall education outcomes will improve, and the best teachers will be rewarded.
   (see Fraser Institute: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/report-cards/school-performance/overview.aspx)

Example: Product and Consumer Safety (corporate welfare)

1. Difficult Question: Without government laws to keep companies from harming consumers in the interest of corporate profits, how can we protect ourselves from unsafe products and shoddy business practices?
2. Positioning: Is it a coincidence that some of the industries that offer consumers the fewest choices, are also the most regulated? >> Competition responds more quickly to consumer concerns over safety than government regulation.
3. Supporting: Government regulation ultimately protects companies more than consumers, by making it more difficult for smaller companies to compete and innovate. >> This results in "corporate welfare" being offered to handful of large companies, at the expense of the consumer.
4. Illustrative: For example, as consumers we have a lot of choice over what we eat. If we're concerned about food additives or food safety procedures followed by large-scale producers, we can choose organic and/or local foods. What if we didn't have this choice?

Example: Censorship (Free Speech)

1. Difficult Question: Where should the government draw the line on free, but hateful speech?
2. Positioning: This is a federal issue, however any law against any type of free expression has a chilling effect on any other kind of free expression. >> With one exception: Inciting violence in written or spoken form is, and should be against the law.
3. Supporting: Where is the evidence that free speech laws have ever been effective without horrible consequences? >> If the goal of laws restricting speech is to promote a more tolerant society, do we see lots of examples around the world where this is the case, or do we see the opposite effect?
4. Illustrative: When citizens are denied their rights to freedom of expression, they also delegate to the government their responsibility to judge right from wrong. >> Repressive regimes such as North Korea provide a good example of this concept at work. Laws governing freedom of expression on college/university campuses are another good example.

Example: Ontario Lottery and Gaming

1. Difficult Question: Gambling addiction is a problem that affects the emotional and economic well-being of many individuals, and their families. This is why it makes sense for the government to run and regulate lotteries and gaming. Doesn't the government also need this revenue to operate its programs and services?
2. Positioning: The Government of Ontario gambles with unsustainable deficits and a ballooning debt every year, so why should they be the moral authority on gambling? >> Gambling addiction is a serious problem that requires professional help, and government casinos are not a solution to the problem.
3. Supporting: Over-regulation of the industry drives gambling underground. >> We would sell OLGC's assets and use the proceeds to help pay down Ontario's own quarter-trillion dollar "gambling" debt.
4. Illustrative: OLGC is playing the role of an unelected urban planner, creating social problems not helping them. >> As of 2013, OLGC's plans to allow only a handful of new casinos in urban areas will encourage the building of mega-size gaming operations that will dramatically change the neighborhoods where they are built.

Example: Statutory Holiday Shopping

1. Difficult Question: Shouldn't everybody have the right to enjoy some well-earned time off? Sometimes the government needs to step in to ensure that businesses do not take advantage of their workers during a statutory holiday, right?
2. Positioning: Learning how to negotiate with your employer to get what you want is a critical job skill. >> With youth unemployment levels so high, creating, not removing, opportunities for work should remain the priority of any government.
3. Supporting: This is a strictly a matter between employers and employees. >> The ability and willingness to work on statutory holidays can be a good "bargaining chip" for skilled and experienced workers.
4. Illustrative: Sunday shopping was allowed in Ontario as of 1992, and many jurisdictions already allow statutory holiday shopping in designated tourist areas, which proves that this is a viable idea. Why should some retail employees be allowed to work and others be penalized? This doesn't seem fair.

Example: Firearms and Gun Control

1. Difficult Question: Guns are dangerous, and several gun violence deaths are reported in the news every year. Wouldn't getting more guns off the streets, and making it more difficult to acquire them, be the responsible thing to do?
2. Positioning: Restricting the tools of violent crime, without addressing the causes of violent crime, won't make our streets any safer. >> Reducing violent crime is our policy goal, full stop.
3. Supporting: We are doing a disservice to the victims of violent crime, and their families, by not looking at the whole picture. >> We will shift the focus on to building more sustainable community resources for mental health treatment and youth crime prevention. We would move to opt out of administering the federal Firearms Act and put the full burden of administering the Firearms Act back on the federal government.
4. Illustrative: Would you feel safe walking the streets at night, in a gun-free zone such as South Side Chicago? >> In a 2013 comparison of UNODC crime statistics data by country, and data from the FreeExistence.org "Gun Freedom Index" (GFI) data: 8 of the 12 highest-ranked countries by overall crime rate were also the lowest ranked by GFI (ability to legally acquire a firearm). Translation: strict gun control laws do not always reduce the levels of violent crime, the data doesn't support this idea.

Example: The Arts

1. Difficult Question: People who dedicate their lives to the arts deserve to earn a living, just a much as lawyers, accountants and computer programmers do. Isn't it the government's responsibility to invest in the arts to preserve our cultural richness, values and traditions, without any outside influence?
2. Positioning: Creative and cultural expression should be cherished and supported by Canadians, not procured by the Government. >> There is a new reality, and there are new audiences, for Canadian artists.
3. Supporting: Arts and Culture is more than the size of Government budgets. >> It's about artists finding and connecting with their audiences, which has become a much more accessible process in the age of the Internet.
4. Illustrative: The Internet has enabled many more hubs for Canadian culture than government funding has, and technologies like crowd funding have helped to launch and sustain the careers of new artists, allowing them to connect with benefactors all over the world.

Example: Human Rights Commissions

1. Difficult Question: I want to live in a society that is free from discrimination, and I believe that it is important to promote and uphold these values equally for everybody. By eliminating the Human Rights Commission, aren't we making it okay to discriminate against minority and other protected groups? That seems wrong.
2. Positioning: Discrimination against any person or group is never morally justified, and neither is trespassing on one person's rights to grant them to somebody else. >> Libertarians believe in the recognition of every human being's fundamental rights.
3. Supporting: Assigning people to groups based on "protected grounds" does not celebrate diversity, it promotes further invisible discrimination. >> At what point does a human rights commission cease to be a civil liberties watchdog, and become a violator of civil liberties? The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) effectively removes the right of property from individuals and business owners by forcing them to comply with the code or to create some sort of lie to avoid prosecution.
4. Illustrate: In 2013, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) attempted to enact regulations via the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) to force doctors to perform in their duties, even when they considered the services to be "professionally unwise, morally unsound or religiously illicit". >> The patient should always have the freedom to seek another medical opinion.

Example: Immigration

1. Difficult Question: With the current financial challenges, how can the government support the arrival of increasingly more individuals and their families through immigration programs, while it struggles to offer social services to its own citizens?
2. Positioning: Immigration played a significant part in the history and formation of our country, and of Ontario. >> Although this is a federal issue, a closed-border policy will inhibit population growth, which is a key driver to economic development and prosperity for all Ontarians.
3. Supporting: The current immigration debate has been distorted by the involuntary welfare state. >> This is unfair to newcomers to Ontario, which are stigmatized before they even arrive, and is unfair to the residents of Ontario because we need immigration to support our continued economic growth.
4. Illustrative: At the turn of the last century, mutual aid societies and charities were the cornerstone of tens of thousands of families who immigrated to North America to enjoy a better life, and help build our country.

Example: Internet Freedom

1. Difficult Question: When it comes to ensuring that we have a safe online experience for ourselves and for our children, shouldn't the government, companies and internet providers have a role to play in preventing against the malicious use of the internet?
2. Positioning: It's probably better to trust what we read online a little too much, rather than not trust it at all. >> This is a federal issue. Limiting or censoring one network will simply encourage new ones that are more opaque to authorities, such as Tor (home of Silk Road).
3. Supporting: Parents have the biggest role to play in ensuring a safe online experience for their kids. >> Adding a censorship layer won't be helpful for anybody, it will just encourage people to develop skills to evade the censors.
4. Illustrative: Information still flows through the internet in countries with online censorship. >> In China, Chinese bloggers use coded language and alternative text layouts to bypass some censorship.
5. Illustrative (alt): A Canadian internet service provider (2014) is currently being ordered to violate the privacy of its users in order to comply with a court order from Copyright holders. This will hurt the provider, and copyright infringement will likely continue to take place on other networks.

Example: Justice (Restorative)

1. Difficult Question: We are a nation of laws. If you do the crime, shouldn't you do the time? Isn't that fair?
2. Positioning: As Ontarians, do we want a justice system that focuses on just "getting even", or do the victims of crime deserve a more comprehensive kind of justice? >> We support restorative justice.
3. Positioning (alt): This is a federal issue.
4. Supporting: Libertarians believe that any justice system should place the victim first: without the victim, there is no crime. >> Maintaining a focus on restorative justice for non-violent crimes will liberate corrections and law enforcement resources to focus on crime prevention. We would promote private arbitration between criminal and victim for property crimes, and would free our police officers to fight violent crime by de-prioritizing victimless crimes such as seat belt laws.
5. Illustrative: Victim Offender Reconciliation programs (VORPs) were a proven model in Ontario, run for several years.

Example: The LCBO and The Beer Store

An Ontario Libertarian Minute #2: Personal Freedom

1. Difficult Question: Provincial liquor sales are a source of revenue for the government, and a source of steady, well-paying jobs. We owe it to our communities to continue to sell liquor responsibly, why would we want to change something that works so well?
2. Positioning: Controlling the sale of liquor is not a cure for the problems associated with alcohol, and nor will privatizing it be. >> However, privatizing liquor sales in other provinces has been shown as a way to create jobs in an economy that desperately needs them.
3. Supporting: A liquor control board manages and controls the supply of alcohol, not the rates of alcoholism, in Ontario. >> Cigarettes are sold responsibly in retail outlets across Ontario, why not liquor?
4. Illustrative: Alberta liquor sales have been privatized since 1993, and the province is managing the responsible sale of liquor through its "ProServe" certification for all people who sell and serve liquor.

Example: Abortion

1. Difficult Question: Assuming that the main role of government is to protect life, liberty and property, does this responsibility extend to all human life, including the unborn?
2. Positioning: This is a federal issue, and even among libertarians there is no agreement on the subject.

Example: Sunset Clauses (for legislation)

1. Difficult Question: I've heard that some people think it's a good idea to let all laws expire, or "sunset", which means that some day, we might not have any laws left at all. Is that really a responsible way to run a government?
2. Positioning: Laws on the books, just like milk or eggs at the grocery store, have a "best before" date. >> To stand up for renewal, laws need to be structured in a way where they can be measured and evaluated by their intended results.
3. Supporting: To earn the title of "politician", you do not have to be a policy expert. >> Ontarians should never have to live with the consequences of bad or outdated policy, for the rest of their lives.
4. Illustrative: Every year there are several examples in the news of parts of legislation being repealed (or not repealed), and the unpredictable timing of this created uncertainty in industries that are affected by the legislation. Sunset clauses, as a rule instead of an exception, would promote certainty around the effective periods of new legislation.

Example: Recall of an MPP or Bill

1. Difficult Question: If a new law goes into effect, it has done so because the people's elected representatives have voted in favour of it, so the law should stand. If a law, or an elected representative of the people, can be recalled at any time, isn't that an affront to democracy?
2. Positioning: Why do laws, unlike people, almost never need to stand for re-election? >> Citizens should be able to petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and demand the bill be repealed or set in motion the possibility of a referendum for repeal. >> Also, see Sunset Clauses (above).
3. Positioning (alt): Why do we expect our elected officials to have so much power over us in the first place, that we even need to consider recall measures?

Example: Unions (right to work)

1. Difficult Question: The organized labour movement has been one of the biggest contributors to improved working conditions for employees in modern history. How can a government claim to support my rights as an employee, if it compromises my union's ability to negotiate at the bargaining table?
2. Positioning: We don't need "right to work" legislation in Ontario, we need to repeal the existing laws (example: Rand Formula) that enable closed-shop unions. >> Unions aren't the problem, if union members can be treated more like an equal partner in their union, as a paying customer.
3. Supporting: If you are a union member who pays dues, what has your union done for you lately? >> What if unions were allowed to compete with each other for your dues?
4. Illustrative: Australia's Fair Work Act (2009) allows for competition between multiple unions in a single workplace.

Example: Worker's Compensation

1. Difficult Question: How can workplace health and safety be protected, when the government turns a blind eye to working conditions and hazards while on the job? Isn't this why we need a Workplace Safety and Insurance Board to ensure that employers will do the right thing?
2. Positioning: Independent contractors and their customers already recognize the need for insurance on the job, why is government insurance any better than private insurance? >> Private insurance already meets this need. If independent contractors want to buy what is being sold to them by WSIB, allow them to make an informed choice against competing offerings.
3. Supporting: If an independent contractor is forced to pay thousands of dollars extra per year for government insurance from the Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB), most or all of that cost will be passed on to the consumer, which will further encourage cash-based operators in the underground economy.
4. Illustrative: Bill 119 legislated the mandatory purchase of insurance from WSIB in Ontario by independent contractors. >> The WSIB is currently facing billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, which would not be sustainable for a private insurance company. Legislating insurance premiums provides a way to address those unfunded liabilities. How is this fair for the skilled trade worker?

Example: Cannabis and Recreational Drugs

1. Difficult Question: The abuse of recreational drugs has compromised the lives of countless youth and adults, creating a growing problem for our society. How can legalizing drug use possibly be any kind of sensible way to deal with this problem?
2. Positioning: Declaring a drug to be illegal does not curb consumption or addiction rates, so what is the real policy goal here? >> The criminal justice system is not an effective treatment program for individuals, and their families, dealing with drug addiction issues. So, why are we turning drug users into criminals?
3. Supporting: Consuming recreational drugs is a matter of personal choice and personal responsibility. >> Criminalizing the possession of recreational drugs only further enables the spread of organized crime, and drives addiction issues underground, in an uncontrolled environment. Decriminalization is a better short-term option all around.
4. Illustrative: More than 12 years into the decriminalization of drugs in Portugal, there is no significant increase in drug usage.

Example: Prostitution

1. Difficult Question: One of the major responsibilities of the government is to protect the most vulnerable members of society, and laws banning prostitution are in place for this reason. I don't understand how taking these laws away will make people safer?
2. Positioning: With any activity where there is a higher risk of harm for the people involved, the policy goal of any government should always be to reduce the risk of harm, instead of becoming a moral authority on that activity. >> Although a federal issue, enforcing laws against human trafficking needs to be a priority. Laws against prostitution only drive the activity further underground, putting more people at risk.
3. Supporting: The current laws are a reflection of the value judgments of citizens who themselves do not work in the industry. >> Groups representing sex trade workers recognize this, and are campaigning for a new legal framework that will actually protect human lives.
4. Illustrative: Multiple countries, including Singapore, have taken steps to regulate the sex trade industry, as a means to better protect workers.

Example: Conspiracy Theories

1. Difficult Question: I've heard about other political parties that support ideas like liberty and freedom, and they make me a bit uneasy. Do you believe that government is just a big conspiracy?
2. Positioning: Conspiracy theories do not belong in politics. >> Voters, and their elected representatives, need more facts (not less) to make informed decisions on the government policies that will affect their lives.
3. Supporting: A smaller, more transparent government will provide less incentive to create conspiracy theories in the first place. >> Reducing the size of government is the first step.