Mr. Hudak, Where Are Your Conservative Values?

I used to be a partisan.  I was a President of a riding association.  A sought-after fundraiser.

Now I think all partisans are shallow and foolish.  Familiarity breeds contempt, and when the 'party', (chose one), believes it has your vote by way of narrow ideological promises, they act contemptuously towards you.

Let's look at the PC platform as released to date.  We have hot-button issues such as chain gangs and the tracking of pedophiles.  Then we have false promises of a balanced budget arrived at only after the end of the mandate.  Why is it always after the end of the mandate I wonder?  We have tax cuts coupled with new spending (explain to me again how that works), along with another hot-button issue, union-bashing.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm all in favour of union-bashing, I just don't like the party to assume that they have my vote because of ideological issues, most of which just marginally touch my life, many of which will face court challenges and then be found to be contrary to the Charter.

What I want is for Mr. Hudak to tell me how he will provide us affordable energy, build jobs and eliminate red tape that chokes business, and help local former grow affordable produce.  I can't imagine being a business owner today with the OHSA, OHRC, PIPEDA, ESA, AODA etc. causing me nightmares with training, compliance and litigation costs without adding a cent to the bottom line.  Let's say that one more time.  All this government red tape is a drag on the economy that costs us dearly in terms of competitiveness.

Mr. Hudak has talked about OHIP card fraud.  My goodness, the OW and ODSP fraud I see every day are horrendous, and nobody seems to care.

And in my world of residential landlords and tenants, where nobody wants to build new housing rental stock, nobody can afford to fix up their buildings, small "potential" secondary market landlords are scared out of their minds to get into the business.  Show us some courage Mr. Hudak.  You've shown us none to date.

For starters, make evictions of drug dealers in crack houses easier with SCAN legislation similar to Bill 106 that died in the current mandate.  Make the requirements for notices for entry into the unit more flexible and practical.  Allow damage deposits.  Let landlords and potential tenants contract freely on issues such as pets in the unit.  De-couple tenant claims (usually made at the last second to avoid eviction) from landlord's applications for rent.  Bring back default judgments.  Have the police enforce mischief and damage to property laws in a rental context by reference to the Criminal Code, rather than have them repeat the tired and lazy mantra "take it to the LTB".  Get rent arrears applications to hearings quickly like it used to be, 2 weeks, and re-vamp the Sheriff enforcement process allowing private and competitive bailiffs to enforce LTB orders.

And finally, deal with the Human Rights Commission and Tribunal.  Your recent speeches tell me that you've already broken your leadership promise on this issue.  The perverse impact of the Commission's Recent Policy Guideline on the Human Rights Code and Rental Housing is the single most frightening and unfair of all the roadblocks put in the way of small landlords today.

Lucky for me, if Mr. Hudak doesn't examine these issues I will continue to wallow in the glut of clients in volumes I can't even begin to handle.  Not so lucky for the small landlords (working families Mr. Hudak) who have nowhere to turn and feel like they are being treated like trash at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

What will it be Mr. Hudak?  I'm staying home in October if you continue to run this classic front-runner campaign.