Let's face it. We all live in a world of specialization that is supported by amazing technologies, sophisticated processes, and a constant stream of human innovation. All this spells one undeniable fact - our lives are constantly surrounded and enveloped by change, and not to embrace and prepare for this change is to face potential obsolescence and failure.
At the level of the individual, life-long learning is the only way to adapt to change and to thrive. The challenge to our higher educators in the past was to teach facts. Today, it is to instill the desire, ability and consistent learning habit as a key survival skill in every student.
Human beings are NOT born equal. Innate intelligence, aptitudes, physical capacities, appearance and birth circumstances are as unique as each person's fingerprints. After nearly 33 years of employment as a professional recruiter in the staffing industry, I have come to deeply appreciate this reality. I have played the role of "matchmaker" thousands of times between employers who require individuals with rare abilities and those rare citizens who qualified to meet the always strict hiring criteria. In 100% of the successful matches, the candidates' Education credentials were of minor consideration compared to their progressive work history, experiences gained, skills mastered and knowledge acquired - in combination with the right mix of interpersonal, analytical and communication skills that successful performance on the job demanded.
Human beings are shaped by their life choices and ensuing life experiences just as powerfully as by the unanticipated life circumstances that each one of us encounters. Our elders often profess the importance of a good education as an essential ingredient to attaining a rich and fulfilling life - and they are right to do so. In the long run, however, personal and career choices ultimately play the most significant roles in shaping our individual destinies. Free market mechanisms have always been more effective at honing in on real market needs than top-down central planning as both Russia and China have realized in their evolving shift to more capitalist market practices.
The Ontario Libertarian Party believes that the top-down, centrally-planned, monopoly-delivered and taxation- funded model of education is NOT the best service delivery model when the enormously diverse hiring needs of employers and the unique potential of each citizen are taken into consideration. The private sector, on the other hand, provides numerous examples of businesses that have succeeded in profitably serving large and small markets for a enormous range of goods and services. Furthermore, whenever a business model is found to be unsuccessful in securing a market for its products, entrepreneurs are quick to make adjustments or else face extinction. How quickly would a government operation make these adjustments under similar circumstances?
A vote for the Ontario Libertarian Party is a vote for a bottom-up, free market approach to education services delivery. The mutual interests of future employers, parents and students will be aligned much more effectively by competitive, free market mechanisms than by the education and job market distortions that are the persistent by-product of the public Education monopoly that we have today.
Gene Balfour
Ontario Libertarian Party candidate, Thornhill riding
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