Top down or bottom up? The #1 election question

The February 13 bi-elections in Thornhill and Niagara are about choice. This essay is about the most fundamental choice of all: how do you wish your provincial government to serve you in the future?

The Ontario Provincial Debt is currently rising rapidly from it existing level at CDN $ 261,558,481, 679 (January 20, 2014 ~ 8 AM). Each Ontario citizen’s share of this debt is $19,255. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that something is wrong. What’s more, the 2013-14 Ontario Budget ‘s Expense Plan is for $127.6 Billion while the Revenue Plan is $116.8 Billion leaving a Deficit Projection of $11.7 Billion. This explains the rapid rise in the deficit.

We can point fingers at current and past governments for this fiscal mess, but that is counterproductive and only invites people to back into their ideological corners in a defensive posture. Since we can’t change the past or “wish-away” the problem, its far better that we acknowledge that it exists and decide who has the best vision and commitment to correct it.

So, something is wrong, but what is it? 

To me, a businessman with over 40 years of work experience mainly in the private sector (only 6 months in a government job), I believe that the core problem relates to the Service Delivery Models that are employed within the province for sectors that include Transportation, Health, Education, Energy, Spirits, and others. 

Allow me to explain.

The public sector delivers its services using top down, monopoly Service Delivery Models. Characteristics of these models include:

·      Central Planning.  To achieve an ‘equality’ mandate, these type of models require delivery of the same products and/or services to everyone. This “one size-fits-all” approach does not provide much incentive to innovate for the sake of the consuming public.

·      Non-transparent Pricing. The services are allegedly “free” because consumers don’t pay on receipt of said services. In reality, the services are paid through taxes and there is no way to find out the actual prices of the individual services provided because this information is buried in the tax bill.

·      Benefits of competition are non-existent. Wherever the products or services entail the payment of a fee, such as the purchase of a bottle of rum or the supply of electricity to your home, the rates paid by the consumer are “monopoly rates” because competition cannot exist by government fiat.  There is no way of knowing what these rates might be if the market was freely competitive.

The private, for profit business sector must operate using bottom up (customer focused), innovative Delivery Models in order to survive. Characteristically, business entrepreneurs in small and large enterprises must adhere to some fundamental competitive principles in order to build and sustain a viable business:

·      Innovate or perish. All businesses start with an idea that is generally followed by a trial and error process to expand and fine-tune its offerings in order to establish a viable business. The tuning involves experimenting with pricing, service levels, quality, sales/marketing strategies, technology investments, value-added service offerings, business partnering, demographic and location considerations. All of these efforts are focused on one thing: how to find the winning combination of all of the above to keep the paying customer coming back again and again – i.e. customer loyalty.

·      Pricing is a critical piece of the “success puzzle” because it provides direct customer feedback to the business professional. If prices are too high, fewer customers will return; too low, and the margins may not be enough to make the business profitable. This information, and the profit margins that are manifest, will determine where, when and if the business owner will make future investments (technology and hiring, for example) or cut operating costs or even close shop.

·      Always know your competition. All business professionals know that they cannot take their success for granted. There will always be new entrepreneurs arriving in the economy with a “better mousetrap” or a service delivery model that is superior to existing ones. Nowhere is this more evident than how the Internet has transformed competitive shopping.

Let’s play “make believe” for a minute. Let’s imagine that the Spirits sector were to be made open-for-business for private sector business operators. This would mean 2 things:

1.     The LCBO would no longer be granted the monopoly rights for this sector.

2.     All government regulations that currently exist which provide a market advantage to the LCBO would have to be removed so that a truly level competitive playing field would exist.

The following is what would likely occur in such a scenario.

Entrepreneurs among our citizens, possibly even existing LCBO employees, would see a business opportunity and envision a business model that they believe to be potentially viable. Each entrepreneur would seek capital to fund the business startup and, thereby, take on the necessary risks to achieve success. Employees would be hired depending of the size and scope of his or her business vision and startup capital.

Every individual entrepreneur’s creativity and dream about his or her business would differ. Some may offer a “no frills” operation to serve the “Price Shopper” amongst us. Others may chose to locate near a dense population to attract “Convenience Shopper” who is willing to pay a little more than the Price Shopper for shopping close to home. Yet another entrepreneur may anticipate a market for the “Adventure Shopper” who enjoys sampling different products in a social setting and who would be willing to pay a premium for these ‘vale-added ‘ services.

Clearly the above bottom up (customer focused), innovative approach would result in a much greater variety of choices for Ontario consumers as well as new customers for banks and employment opportunities. It would provide career opportunities for any citizen with the vision, creativity and drive to succeed.

The above example is what Libertarians mean by being the party of choice.  By voting for a Libertarian government, you are voting for a smaller government that requires less tax revenue from you, your family and your friends so that you will have more disposable income to meet your own consumption needs. Furthermore, smaller government also means less control over our lives and the choices we able to freely make for ourselves.

It’s a contradiction to me that our government leaders insist that we are wise and mature enough to vote but not wise and mature enough to decide where and when it is safe to cross the road.

I am running as the Ontario Libertarian Candidate for Thornhill in the February bi-election not because I want a government job and all of its entitlements, but because I do not accept that Ontario is a true democracy until every voter has the choice in every election to vote for less government.

All the major parties aspire to balancing the budget but their actions speak volumes about their commitment to do so. Every household is expected to live within its means. The Ontario Libertarian Party believes that the Ontario Provincial Government should set this example within its own “household” instead of consistently adding to a “do as I say, not as I do” track record.

Its time to elect leaders for whom “balanced budgets” are not just election talking points but represent the core of their political vision.

Vote for free choice. Vote Libertarian