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Home My WebLink AboutGoderich Signal Star, 2017-03-15, Page 9Consensus Ontario dubbed new and different political party "We believe what voters are if telling us - they are looking for a better choice in 2018." Lynda Hillman-Rapley Postmedia Network Because your .priorities matter. That is the mantra for Consensus Ontario, a new political party at the provin- cial level. It is now organiz- ing in Huron Bruce. After some years of discus- sions, several well-meaning Ontario citizens have banded together to create a new and different type of political party for Ontario. Brad Harness, who lives in Strathroy, has 20 years plus years experience as a pub- lisher -editor of a rural news- paper is the brainchild of this venture. He spoke to Postmedia about this new party. "The party was formed in late 2016, and is based around what we organizers believe is some- thing no other party is doing: Identifying those priorities which voters would like their provincial government to tackle, and then crafting poli- cies to implement those prior- ities." Bottom up representa- tion. MPPs who would vote as the majority in their riding want them to. Harness said, "All three major parties have been in government and none have done much differently than one another, other than to govern in a top down man- ner. The fourth place Green Party has often been the home for voter dissent, yet Green economics if fully explained would scare away ordinary voters given its high tax impacts on their family and business incomes. We believe what voters are tell- ing us - they are looking for a better choice in 2018." The objective, says Harness, is to become a registered political party and run candi- dates in the June 2018 provin- cial general election. It is clear that many voters in Ontario are dissatisfied with the gov- erning provincial Liberals under Kathleen Wynne, and are equally unhappy to sup- port both the Ontario PC's under Patrick Brown and the Ontario NDP under Andrea Horvath. THE PROCESS "To become a registered partytheywill need to field can- didates for the election and then Elections Ontario will wave its magic wand and make us to become "registered': A bit of a chicken and egg situation. Until then we operate as an unregistered provincial party, so we can't give tax receipts for donations until registration,' explained Harness The timeline is to begin organizing in 36 target ridings (including Huron -Bruce, Lambton-Kent-Middlesex and Sarnia-Lambton). "These are split ridings, ones where voters can't really decide which candi- date to vote for. So we'll begin organizing, signing up members, do outreach work, and do our riding -by -riding survey in 2017, with an eye on finding women and men who wish to stand as Con- sensus Ontario candidates in the June 2018 election. Our candidates have to be in place by May 2018 when party registration will hap- pen. Other areas we are active in now are Ottawa, some eastern Ontario rid- ings, Peterborough area, Kitchener -Cambridge, Mil- ton -Burlington -Hamilton - Niagara, Owen Sound Area, Sudbury, North Bay, Muskoka." Financing has changed since 1 January 2017. Harness says the Liberals changed the electoral system such that monies that small parties relied upon have been cut off; corporate donations and larger single donor donations. "They also gave them- selves direct taxpayer annual subsidies in the amount of $2.71 per vote received per year! The NDP and PCs are also now getting this,. as do the Greens. The other 16 par- ties do not. The Big Three also still get taxpayer funded rebates of half of what they spent in the previous elec- tion, to allow them to build for the next election - not a level playing field. So to answer your question, we are relying on individual member donations and are grateful to receive these from Ontarians interested in building a better Ontario." Harness points out that the party has no official pol- icy yet, as that will come this year once the Riding -by -Rid- ing surveys are completed. Those priorities, he says, will be shaped into policies to implement them. "The Top five will become our platform for the 2018 election. Note that the Policy Discussions page is simply that: Policies we are discuss- ing and are not yet finalized," he said. The survey includes ask- ing random, ordinary voters - who live in the riding - which of the province's 43 responsibilities they care about. In this way, the sur- veyor is able to rank the vot- er's priorities. The survey takes about 10-15 minutes and the goal is to produce a ranked list of the Top 15 pri- orities for that voter in that riding. "Based on the initial riding survey work, priorities for voters so far seem to focus on the expected issues of electricity, health care, edu- cation, transportation, and housing. Policies to address these priorities will likely include a standardized elec- tricity rate in lieu of time of day charges; an increase in preventative health care to reduce health care costs in the mid -to long-term; a revi- sion of the school curricu- lum to focus on identified short -comings and a break- ing up of large school boards; an emphasis on ways to improve highway traffic and safety and improve the commuter experience - including tran- sit systems and high-speed rail for both passengers and freight; and measures to make housing more afforda- ble to both middle and low- income Ontarians." Wednesday, March 15, 2017 • Signal Star 9 Brad Harness. 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