Ontario Party commits to private healthcare options
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Summary
In this episode, we're joined by the leader of the Ontario Conservative Party, Derek Sloan, to talk about the party's platform and the issues they're focusing on in the upcoming election. We discuss conscience rights, digital privacy and the need for a carbon tax.
Transcript
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I want to turn back to Ontario politics, which we're focusing a fair bit more on in the last
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couple of weeks because the Ontario election is coming up on Thursday. Yesterday, we had
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new blue leader Jim Karahalios on to talk about the new blueprint, which is his party's platform.
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And we want to cover all the bases here and speak to the conservative movement more broadly. So
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today we invited back Derek Sloan, leader of the Ontario party, and he joins me now. Derek,
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it's good to talk to you here. I know that you've put with the Ontario party conscience rights front
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and centre on your platform, among other issues we'll get to. But let's just start there. Why do
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you think that's such a critical issue in the province right now? Right? Well, you know, there
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certainly is a freedom issue in this province. But what we're seeing simultaneously is people's
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conscience is getting trampled. So whether it's, you know, a vaccine perhaps that somebody doesn't
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want to take, whether it's an attestation that somebody doesn't want to say to be registered
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to be some kind of profession, or whether it's a medical treatment that maybe somebody doesn't
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want to be involved in, like abortion or euthanasia, we're seeing conscience rights of Canadians and
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Ontarians being trampled. Now, conscience rights are often things we hear, I mean, at any level of
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politics associated with social conservatism, whether it's conscience rights for healthcare
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workers, conscience rights for MPs or MPPs. Do you approach this as a socially conservative party?
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Is that what the Ontario party is? Or is it just a party that is in part made of social conservatives?
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Yeah, I mean, I think many of our policies appeal to social conservatives. But I think our reach is much
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broader than that. You know, our view of conscience doesn't, you know, doesn't necessarily go down to a
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strict religious or moral issue. We're saying we don't want people to be forced to do things that
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they don't want to do. The vaccine, for example, to me is not a religious issue. I know for some
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people it is. For me, it's an issue of personal health autonomy, personal health freedom to choose
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what gets put into your body and what doesn't. So I think a lot of what we're saying here is we don't
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want the government telling people what to do. And we don't want people, the government penalizing
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people for for not doing things that they really, really don't want to do.
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One of the things that we've seen, obviously, in the last two and a bit years now in politics is that COVID
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has overwhelmed everything. We've seen it very much reshape politics, the traditional left-right axis
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has changed a bit as well on this. We hope and I mean, obviously, it's not a given that we will put these
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issues behind us and be able to move on to other things in society. So let me ask you, because I know you do
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have a platform that has things beyond COVID and beyond vaccine mandates on, what do you see from
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an Ontario party perspective as being the top issues moving forward? Yeah, so just to summarize, I think
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that again, the freedom issues, the government surveillance issues are very important. So we
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we did a petition against the digital ID that's, you know, promoted by the World Economic Forum and
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others. We think that a digital ID and expanding government surveillance is a very bad idea. You know,
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there's all kinds of other, you know, discussion about collection of biometric data and other forms
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of tracking people, carbon footprint trackers. We want to make sure that the government is not in the
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business of tracking its citizens, of controlling its citizens. We saw what happened after the tracker
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convoy where people had bank accounts shut down, licenses revoked, property taken. We want to make sure
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that the government does not have the ability to do that. And when you have a digital ID paired with
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perhaps a digital currency in the future, it's very easy to turn the light switch off on people that are
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doing things that the government doesn't like. These are very much important issues. And I don't want to
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undercut them. But do you feel they are the ones that are front and center for the province as a whole? Or do you
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feel that people are more motivated by things like affordability, taxes, the carbon tax cost of living
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issues in general? So cost of living is certainly front and center. And I mentioned the you know, the
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government surveillance aspect is one of the things cost of living is a major issue. And of course,
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we have a plan to deal with the housing market as best as we can here in Ontario. One thing we've
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proposed is a complete ban of foreign purchasing. That's something that I that I that I proposed when
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I was running for leader of the Conservative Party. We know the Liberals have actually finally said they
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were going to do the same thing. But we don't trust them to implement it in the right way or in a timely
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fashion. That's one thing we want to do with respect to housing. As far as the gasoline prices,
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we've proposed taking off PST and the Ontario gas tax, which would lower the price of fuel about 20
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cents based on current prices. But we're also looking into the future we want to we would like
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to propose an energy corridor between here and Alberta. Obviously, that would require other provinces,
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even the federal government to be involved with that. But we want to make sure that we you know,
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once and for all cement a movement forward to make Canada or at least a good chunk of it energy
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independent, and you know, get prices down and make sure that we're using our own products here in
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Canada. Yeah, I mean, right now, we're seeing a global energy crisis. And a lot of this, I think,
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has been led by the Russia issue, if you're talking about European companies, but in European countries,
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but in Canada, this has been an ongoing challenge where you have provinces that are anti energy that
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stymie a development of the energy sector. And the result of it is an increased reliance on foreign
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oil. But but how do you I mean, just look at the federal government right now? How do you if you
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were the premier of Ontario, move forward on this when you have a federal government that is so hostile
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to that agenda? Yeah, that's a really good question. And so you'll note that I said between
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here and Alberta, which you know, right now, all of those governments would be friendly, I think,
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to to, you know, increased energy infrastructure. You're right, we're fighting against the federal
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government. I think, though, the liberals, as much as their agenda points them in one direction,
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if enough people are clamoring for something, they eventually will have to, you know, do something if
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it makes sense. So we want we're not going to wait for them to do that, we're going to make sure that
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we have a proposal, maybe we get the other provinces on board as well, and you know, propose it and get
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the public to buy into it as well. But I think there's a lot of things we can do. I mean, even strategic oil
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reserves is something that you know, our province has never done our country doesn't really do.
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There's a lot of things that we can do to cushion, to cushion ourselves against shocks that can and will
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come. Just when we're talking about Ontario's place outside of Ontario, and just in the country and
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in the world, there was a radio ad of yours that I heard a couple of times, and I don't have the clip
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to play, but you you talk and I have the transcript here in front of me, that Doug Ford answers to the
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World Economic Forum, to the United Nations and to the World Health Organization, but never to you. And you
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say, I'm Derek Sloan, leader of the Ontario Party, and I will never allow the globalists to rule Ontario,
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vote down globalism, vote for the Ontario Party. There are a lot of people online right now listening
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that are probably like, yeah, that's great, and rah, rah, rah. But do you think that is a message that
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resonates with Ontarians more broadly, if you're talking about expanding the base, expanding your
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Yeah, so surprisingly, we've done some broad-based issues polling, and believe it or not, some of
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these world economic digital ID issues poll very high, poll as high as some of any other issues that
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we've been fighting on. So that's a surprise to me. I mean, now, do they know every detail as much as
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perhaps some of your listeners do? Probably not. But this idea about being tracked and international
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organizations does actually hit a nerve. Of course, our party is, you know, talking about other things,
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you know, indoctrination in the school system, you know, general affordability, all of these kinds of
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things. But, you know, that particular issue actually does have a very strong appeal to many people here
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in this province. So let's move to healthcare, which I think is perennially one of the big issues
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in Ontario. And oftentimes, whenever a politician is approaching this, they only want to tiptoe around
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it, they'll admit that it's broken, but no one actually does a solution. And I think one of the
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biggest things Ontario needs is to have private alternatives, which is like the kiss of death to
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campaigns, or at least conventional wisdom says it is, you have it like on your website in big,
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bold letters that you want private alternatives in healthcare. So what would that actually look like?
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Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, you know what, there's various ways to go about it. What we did
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say is that we would permit private organizations to build hospitals and provide other services.
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We've also said that people would be permitted to have supplemental private health insurance if
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they choose to do it. You know, out of the OECD countries, Canada spends the pretty much the most
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per capita on healthcare, and we have poor outcomes compared to many other countries. One thing that
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pretty much every other country that scores well on that list does is have, you know, private
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alternatives like what we're talking about here. So that's something that obviously, you know,
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we could flesh out further, and there's different ways to talk about it. But that's one major thing
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that we basically have to look into doing. Another, of course, is, again, I think, you know, people
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always talk about, you know, credential equivalency from, you know, people that come here and are trained,
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and they're not able to work in the field that they're trained in. I think that's important. I mean,
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anecdotally, I know about seven or eight people in my rough sphere here that are going to medical
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school in other countries, and then working in other countries as doctors. These are Canadians who
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wanted to go to school in Canada, they couldn't make it in. So I think there's something to be said
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about increasing spots at our medical schools. But we have to do, you know, a major change here in
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the system, and allowing private alternatives, while maintaining the public system as well, like they
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do in many European countries, I think it's critical to that. I don't know how much of the
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interview with Tracy Wilson you caught before you came on the show. But generally, we were talking
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about the bill that Justin Trudeau introduced yesterday on handguns, trying to ban ownership
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and new purchase of them. Obviously, you were in federal politics. So I know you know the firearms
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file somewhat. But is there a way that a province can flex a little bit of muscle on this? I know Alberta
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has tried by appointing its own Chief Firearms Officer. Is that something you would want to do
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in Ontario and anything else you could do on firearms? Yeah, I think there are. I mean,
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we've bandied about different ideas. And one idea I've had, and frankly, I haven't fleshed it out
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enough, but I think there would be a way for a province to potentially classify a special category
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of peace officers that would not really be keeping the law per se, but could be enabled to
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still own handguns. So for example, if the government bans handguns completely,
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the government could potentially say, Hey, you know, all you guys who had a restricted license,
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you know, up until two days ago when it was banned, hypothetically, if that happens,
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well, now you're a class C peace officer. And we need to make sure that you, you know,
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have a handgun in storage, you know, at your home in case we, we need reservists in the police force,
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or something like this, I feel like there is a way to get around this. Again, that's just an idea that,
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that that's been percolating in my head, but I feel that there are, I just want to make,
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just want to make sure I understand. So basically turning Ontario gun owners into a,
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like a standing militia of sorts. Well, I wouldn't call it a militia. I would,
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I would call it peace officers. And again, there were the, we could, we could use a similar vetting
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system as was already in place. But if the government were to get to a spot where they were just
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banning handguns completely or, or, or anything like this, I think there, I think there is some
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provincial jurisdiction to enable ownership to still happen.
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So one thing that I would bring up, and I asked this to Jim Carajalios, your opponent in the new
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blue yesterday, we know that smaller parties that are upstarts have a significant hurdle ahead of them,
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if they want to win seats, certainly to win a large enough number of seats to form a government or
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wield influence. Would you, as the leader of one of these upstart parties support electoral reform
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that would, I mean, like, for example, like Ontarians voted on in 2007, mixed member proportional,
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that would actually give some proportional representation so that smaller parties like
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yours can have some more influence? You know, that's a really good question. I've always been
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a fan of first past the post. And, you know, I understand the appeal to some of these other forms
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of voting as well. You know, at this point, obviously being in a smaller party, there is more appeal to it.
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I frankly think that, you know, a party like ours or a movement like ours, as it grows, could win
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anyways down the line. So I understand that the proportional system might allow for some early gains,
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but it would also work against actually forming a government. I mean, when you have these kinds of,
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the more proportional it is, the lesser odds are of actually forming, you know, say a majority
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government, for example. So I think there's pros and cons to it. It's not something, it's not an ax that
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that our party particularly grinds, but you know, you're right, it is a way to get in the door a
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little bit easier. We'll leave that up to the parties in power. You know, again, there's pros
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and cons to that whole debate. And of course, you would have, you know, if you went 100% proportional,
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you'd have, you know, 100 different choices at the ballot, you'd have, you know, the seniors party,
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and the this party, and the that party. So it may not be quite as advantageous as some people say,
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but I'm, you know, I'm agnostic about it. Obviously, we don't know what the exact breakdown
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of seats is going to be on Thursday. If we did, we could make a lot of money on the betting market.
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But if you were in a situation where the Ontario party had a couple of seats in the legislature,
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maybe held the balance of power, at the very least held enough of a block to have some influence,
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what are the the deal breakers? What are the things that you would absolutely not compromise on
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and the issues where you think you might be able to work with other parties?
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Yeah, well, some of the things that we've some of the things that we've been very clear on from
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the beginning. So, you know, we're against a digital ID, we're against, you know, mandates and
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passports and things like this, we're against indoctrination in our school system. So anything
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that would be promoting, you know, for example, critical race theory, or, you know, age inappropriate
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sex education, or, you know, digital IDs, digital currencies, these things are very,
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you know, very much a fabric of who we are. You know, I think obviously, we're in favour of,
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you know, balanced budgets and that kind of thing. But when it comes to more, you know, issues about,
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you know, should a road go here or there, you know, exactly how much money should go into the
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healthcare system, I mean, obviously, we can be a bit flexible. But I mean, you know, our voters voted
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on us because of the policies that we have. And we're going to make sure that we stick, stick to those.
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And frankly, there's only a few of us in Parliament, in the light in the provincial Parliament there.
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We've been elected to kind of be a thorn in the side of the governing of the governing parties. So,
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I mean, obviously, we're not there just to be protesters, but we're there to, you know,
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Derek Sloan, leader of the Ontario Party. I know you got an election coming up in a couple of days.
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So I appreciate you taking the time to come back. Thanks very much, Derek.
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Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
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