Juno News - June 01, 2022


Ontario Party commits to private healthcare options


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

198.2095

Word Count

3,107

Sentence Count

136


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I want to turn back to Ontario politics, which we're focusing a fair bit more on in the last
00:00:13.260 couple of weeks because the Ontario election is coming up on Thursday. Yesterday, we had
00:00:18.520 new blue leader Jim Karahalios on to talk about the new blueprint, which is his party's platform.
00:00:23.720 And we want to cover all the bases here and speak to the conservative movement more broadly. So
00:00:28.400 today we invited back Derek Sloan, leader of the Ontario party, and he joins me now. Derek,
00:00:34.900 it's good to talk to you here. I know that you've put with the Ontario party conscience rights front
00:00:39.400 and centre on your platform, among other issues we'll get to. But let's just start there. Why do
00:00:44.500 you think that's such a critical issue in the province right now? Right? Well, you know, there
00:00:49.020 certainly is a freedom issue in this province. But what we're seeing simultaneously is people's
00:00:53.760 conscience is getting trampled. So whether it's, you know, a vaccine perhaps that somebody doesn't
00:00:59.040 want to take, whether it's an attestation that somebody doesn't want to say to be registered
00:01:04.660 to be some kind of profession, or whether it's a medical treatment that maybe somebody doesn't
00:01:08.700 want to be involved in, like abortion or euthanasia, we're seeing conscience rights of Canadians and
00:01:13.780 Ontarians being trampled. Now, conscience rights are often things we hear, I mean, at any level of
00:01:19.820 politics associated with social conservatism, whether it's conscience rights for healthcare
00:01:24.200 workers, conscience rights for MPs or MPPs. Do you approach this as a socially conservative party?
00:01:31.500 Is that what the Ontario party is? Or is it just a party that is in part made of social conservatives?
00:01:37.760 Yeah, I mean, I think many of our policies appeal to social conservatives. But I think our reach is much
00:01:42.440 broader than that. You know, our view of conscience doesn't, you know, doesn't necessarily go down to a
00:01:48.240 strict religious or moral issue. We're saying we don't want people to be forced to do things that
00:01:53.180 they don't want to do. The vaccine, for example, to me is not a religious issue. I know for some
00:01:58.740 people it is. For me, it's an issue of personal health autonomy, personal health freedom to choose
00:02:03.900 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
00:02:09.840 want the government telling people what to do. And we don't want people, the government penalizing
00:02:14.400 people for for not doing things that they really, really don't want to do.
00:02:20.520 One of the things that we've seen, obviously, in the last two and a bit years now in politics is that COVID
00:02:26.460 has overwhelmed everything. We've seen it very much reshape politics, the traditional left-right axis
00:02:31.820 has changed a bit as well on this. We hope and I mean, obviously, it's not a given that we will put these
00:02:37.520 issues behind us and be able to move on to other things in society. So let me ask you, because I know you do
00:02:43.380 have a platform that has things beyond COVID and beyond vaccine mandates on, what do you see from
00:02:49.000 an Ontario party perspective as being the top issues moving forward? Yeah, so just to summarize, I think
00:02:55.300 that again, the freedom issues, the government surveillance issues are very important. So we
00:03:00.180 we did a petition against the digital ID that's, you know, promoted by the World Economic Forum and
00:03:06.140 others. We think that a digital ID and expanding government surveillance is a very bad idea. You know,
00:03:12.220 there's all kinds of other, you know, discussion about collection of biometric data and other forms
00:03:18.140 of tracking people, carbon footprint trackers. We want to make sure that the government is not in the
00:03:23.660 business of tracking its citizens, of controlling its citizens. We saw what happened after the tracker
00:03:28.640 convoy where people had bank accounts shut down, licenses revoked, property taken. We want to make sure
00:03:35.220 that the government does not have the ability to do that. And when you have a digital ID paired with
00:03:40.020 perhaps a digital currency in the future, it's very easy to turn the light switch off on people that are
00:03:45.540 doing things that the government doesn't like. These are very much important issues. And I don't want to
00:03:50.940 undercut them. But do you feel they are the ones that are front and center for the province as a whole? Or do you
00:03:55.620 feel that people are more motivated by things like affordability, taxes, the carbon tax cost of living
00:04:01.620 issues in general? So cost of living is certainly front and center. And I mentioned the you know, the
00:04:06.440 government surveillance aspect is one of the things cost of living is a major issue. And of course,
00:04:11.480 we have a plan to deal with the housing market as best as we can here in Ontario. One thing we've
00:04:16.520 proposed is a complete ban of foreign purchasing. That's something that I that I that I proposed when
00:04:22.680 I was running for leader of the Conservative Party. We know the Liberals have actually finally said they
00:04:26.600 were going to do the same thing. But we don't trust them to implement it in the right way or in a timely
00:04:31.240 fashion. That's one thing we want to do with respect to housing. As far as the gasoline prices,
00:04:36.760 we've proposed taking off PST and the Ontario gas tax, which would lower the price of fuel about 20
00:04:43.400 cents based on current prices. But we're also looking into the future we want to we would like
00:04:47.640 to propose an energy corridor between here and Alberta. Obviously, that would require other provinces,
00:04:53.000 even the federal government to be involved with that. But we want to make sure that we you know,
00:04:57.560 once and for all cement a movement forward to make Canada or at least a good chunk of it energy
00:05:02.920 independent, and you know, get prices down and make sure that we're using our own products here in
00:05:07.320 Canada. Yeah, I mean, right now, we're seeing a global energy crisis. And a lot of this, I think,
00:05:12.680 has been led by the Russia issue, if you're talking about European companies, but in European countries,
00:05:17.800 but in Canada, this has been an ongoing challenge where you have provinces that are anti energy that
00:05:23.320 stymie a development of the energy sector. And the result of it is an increased reliance on foreign
00:05:29.000 oil. But but how do you I mean, just look at the federal government right now? How do you if you
00:05:32.840 were the premier of Ontario, move forward on this when you have a federal government that is so hostile
00:05:38.040 to that agenda? Yeah, that's a really good question. And so you'll note that I said between
00:05:42.520 here and Alberta, which you know, right now, all of those governments would be friendly, I think,
00:05:46.520 to to, you know, increased energy infrastructure. You're right, we're fighting against the federal
00:05:51.400 government. I think, though, the liberals, as much as their agenda points them in one direction,
00:05:55.800 if enough people are clamoring for something, they eventually will have to, you know, do something if
00:06:00.760 it makes sense. So we want we're not going to wait for them to do that, we're going to make sure that
00:06:04.760 we have a proposal, maybe we get the other provinces on board as well, and you know, propose it and get
00:06:09.800 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
00:06:15.320 reserves is something that you know, our province has never done our country doesn't really do.
00:06:19.480 There's a lot of things that we can do to cushion, to cushion ourselves against shocks that can and will
00:06:23.880 come. Just when we're talking about Ontario's place outside of Ontario, and just in the country and
00:06:29.960 in the world, there was a radio ad of yours that I heard a couple of times, and I don't have the clip
00:06:34.600 to play, but you you talk and I have the transcript here in front of me, that Doug Ford answers to the
00:06:40.680 World Economic Forum, to the United Nations and to the World Health Organization, but never to you. And you
00:06:46.760 say, I'm Derek Sloan, leader of the Ontario Party, and I will never allow the globalists to rule Ontario,
00:06:52.120 vote down globalism, vote for the Ontario Party. There are a lot of people online right now listening
00:06:58.360 that are probably like, yeah, that's great, and rah, rah, rah. But do you think that is a message that
00:07:02.680 resonates with Ontarians more broadly, if you're talking about expanding the base, expanding your
00:07:07.240 support beyond those who are already on side?
00:07:09.400 Yeah, so surprisingly, we've done some broad-based issues polling, and believe it or not, some of
00:07:14.760 these world economic digital ID issues poll very high, poll as high as some of any other issues that
00:07:21.960 we've been fighting on. So that's a surprise to me. I mean, now, do they know every detail as much as
00:07:30.920 perhaps some of your listeners do? Probably not. But this idea about being tracked and international
00:07:37.160 organizations does actually hit a nerve. Of course, our party is, you know, talking about other things,
00:07:42.040 you know, indoctrination in the school system, you know, general affordability, all of these kinds of
00:07:47.160 things. But, you know, that particular issue actually does have a very strong appeal to many people here
00:07:54.280 in this province. So let's move to healthcare, which I think is perennially one of the big issues
00:08:01.160 in Ontario. And oftentimes, whenever a politician is approaching this, they only want to tiptoe around
00:08:07.240 it, they'll admit that it's broken, but no one actually does a solution. And I think one of the
00:08:11.320 biggest things Ontario needs is to have private alternatives, which is like the kiss of death to
00:08:17.320 campaigns, or at least conventional wisdom says it is, you have it like on your website in big,
00:08:21.480 bold letters that you want private alternatives in healthcare. So what would that actually look like?
00:08:26.040 Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, you know what, there's various ways to go about it. What we did
00:08:30.120 say is that we would permit private organizations to build hospitals and provide other services.
00:08:36.040 We've also said that people would be permitted to have supplemental private health insurance if
00:08:40.840 they choose to do it. You know, out of the OECD countries, Canada spends the pretty much the most
00:08:46.680 per capita on healthcare, and we have poor outcomes compared to many other countries. One thing that
00:08:52.120 pretty much every other country that scores well on that list does is have, you know, private
00:08:56.840 alternatives like what we're talking about here. So that's something that obviously, you know,
00:09:01.320 we could flesh out further, and there's different ways to talk about it. But that's one major thing
00:09:06.040 that we basically have to look into doing. Another, of course, is, again, I think, you know, people
00:09:12.760 always talk about, you know, credential equivalency from, you know, people that come here and are trained,
00:09:18.520 and they're not able to work in the field that they're trained in. I think that's important. I mean,
00:09:23.000 anecdotally, I know about seven or eight people in my rough sphere here that are going to medical
00:09:29.320 school in other countries, and then working in other countries as doctors. These are Canadians who
00:09:34.120 wanted to go to school in Canada, they couldn't make it in. So I think there's something to be said
00:09:38.200 about increasing spots at our medical schools. But we have to do, you know, a major change here in
00:09:43.080 the system, and allowing private alternatives, while maintaining the public system as well, like they
00:09:48.600 do in many European countries, I think it's critical to that. I don't know how much of the
00:09:53.320 interview with Tracy Wilson you caught before you came on the show. But generally, we were talking
00:09:58.040 about the bill that Justin Trudeau introduced yesterday on handguns, trying to ban ownership
00:10:03.960 and new purchase of them. Obviously, you were in federal politics. So I know you know the firearms
00:10:08.520 file somewhat. But is there a way that a province can flex a little bit of muscle on this? I know Alberta
00:10:14.600 has tried by appointing its own Chief Firearms Officer. Is that something you would want to do
00:10:19.640 in Ontario and anything else you could do on firearms? Yeah, I think there are. I mean,
00:10:25.240 we've bandied about different ideas. And one idea I've had, and frankly, I haven't fleshed it out
00:10:30.280 enough, but I think there would be a way for a province to potentially classify a special category
00:10:35.960 of peace officers that would not really be keeping the law per se, but could be enabled to
00:10:42.440 still own handguns. So for example, if the government bans handguns completely,
00:10:46.840 the government could potentially say, Hey, you know, all you guys who had a restricted license,
00:10:51.480 you know, up until two days ago when it was banned, hypothetically, if that happens,
00:10:55.480 well, now you're a class C peace officer. And we need to make sure that you, you know,
00:11:00.200 have a handgun in storage, you know, at your home in case we, we need reservists in the police force,
00:11:05.640 or something like this, I feel like there is a way to get around this. Again, that's just an idea that,
00:11:10.920 that that's been percolating in my head, but I feel that there are, I just want to make,
00:11:14.840 just want to make sure I understand. So basically turning Ontario gun owners into a,
00:11:18.680 like a standing militia of sorts. Well, I wouldn't call it a militia. I would,
00:11:22.680 I would call it peace officers. And again, there were the, we could, we could use a similar vetting
00:11:27.240 system as was already in place. But if the government were to get to a spot where they were just
00:11:32.360 banning handguns completely or, or, or anything like this, I think there, I think there is some
00:11:37.640 provincial jurisdiction to enable ownership to still happen.
00:11:40.760 So one thing that I would bring up, and I asked this to Jim Carajalios, your opponent in the new
00:11:47.800 blue yesterday, we know that smaller parties that are upstarts have a significant hurdle ahead of them,
00:11:54.600 if they want to win seats, certainly to win a large enough number of seats to form a government or
00:11:59.400 wield influence. Would you, as the leader of one of these upstart parties support electoral reform
00:12:04.760 that would, I mean, like, for example, like Ontarians voted on in 2007, mixed member proportional,
00:12:10.040 that would actually give some proportional representation so that smaller parties like
00:12:14.280 yours can have some more influence? You know, that's a really good question. I've always been
00:12:19.560 a fan of first past the post. And, you know, I understand the appeal to some of these other forms
00:12:25.640 of voting as well. You know, at this point, obviously being in a smaller party, there is more appeal to it.
00:12:31.800 I frankly think that, you know, a party like ours or a movement like ours, as it grows, could win
00:12:39.560 anyways down the line. So I understand that the proportional system might allow for some early gains,
00:12:45.720 but it would also work against actually forming a government. I mean, when you have these kinds of,
00:12:50.360 the more proportional it is, the lesser odds are of actually forming, you know, say a majority
00:12:55.400 government, for example. So I think there's pros and cons to it. It's not something, it's not an ax that
00:13:00.600 that our party particularly grinds, but you know, you're right, it is a way to get in the door a
00:13:04.760 little bit easier. We'll leave that up to the parties in power. You know, again, there's pros
00:13:10.440 and cons to that whole debate. And of course, you would have, you know, if you went 100% proportional,
00:13:16.760 you'd have, you know, 100 different choices at the ballot, you'd have, you know, the seniors party,
00:13:20.920 and the this party, and the that party. So it may not be quite as advantageous as some people say,
00:13:26.600 but I'm, you know, I'm agnostic about it. Obviously, we don't know what the exact breakdown
00:13:32.840 of seats is going to be on Thursday. If we did, we could make a lot of money on the betting market.
00:13:36.840 But if you were in a situation where the Ontario party had a couple of seats in the legislature,
00:13:42.200 maybe held the balance of power, at the very least held enough of a block to have some influence,
00:13:47.240 what are the the deal breakers? What are the things that you would absolutely not compromise on
00:13:52.760 and the issues where you think you might be able to work with other parties?
00:13:56.360 Yeah, well, some of the things that we've some of the things that we've been very clear on from
00:13:59.480 the beginning. So, you know, we're against a digital ID, we're against, you know, mandates and
00:14:05.720 passports and things like this, we're against indoctrination in our school system. So anything
00:14:10.840 that would be promoting, you know, for example, critical race theory, or, you know, age inappropriate
00:14:15.800 sex education, or, you know, digital IDs, digital currencies, these things are very,
00:14:20.920 you know, very much a fabric of who we are. You know, I think obviously, we're in favour of,
00:14:26.120 you know, balanced budgets and that kind of thing. But when it comes to more, you know, issues about,
00:14:32.360 you know, should a road go here or there, you know, exactly how much money should go into the
00:14:36.360 healthcare system, I mean, obviously, we can be a bit flexible. But I mean, you know, our voters voted
00:14:41.640 on us because of the policies that we have. And we're going to make sure that we stick, stick to those.
00:14:47.320 And frankly, there's only a few of us in Parliament, in the light in the provincial Parliament there.
00:14:52.520 We've been elected to kind of be a thorn in the side of the governing of the governing parties. So,
00:14:56.840 I mean, obviously, we're not there just to be protesters, but we're there to, you know,
00:15:01.640 to stick to our values as well.
00:15:03.800 Derek Sloan, leader of the Ontario Party. I know you got an election coming up in a couple of days.
00:15:08.120 So I appreciate you taking the time to come back. Thanks very much, Derek.
00:15:11.560 Glad to be here. Thank you.
00:15:12.760 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:15:15.160 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.
00:15:24.840 Thank you.
00:15:36.360 Thank you.