OTTAWA – Members of the youth wing of the federal Progressive Conservative party have definite ideas about the kind of Canada in which they would like to grow old.
Based on resolutions PC Youth are taking to next weekend’s Tory policy convention in Winnipeg, it is a Canada in which:
- There is a dual medical system with a private pay-as-you-go option for Canadians who can afford better or faster care.
- The federal government is much smaller, balances its books and cuts taxes by 20 percent within the next five years.
- Immigrants who break the law are deported.
- Boot camps or forced military service are sentencing options for people aged 14-25 convicted of non-violent crimes.
- A Parental Responsibility Act would make parents financially liable for the criminal acts of their under-age children.
- Capital punishment would be restored as a “sentencing option.”
- Welfare and income support would be doled out to those with “deserving need,” rather than to those whose own actions led to their problems.
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At an Ottawa news conference last week, Montreal lawyer and PC Youth president Tasha Kheiriddin said she does not expect all the youth proposals to be approved by the full party convention.
However, with up to one-third of the delegates from youth ranks, she hoped many would be accepted.
Kheiriddin said that while the young Tories are pushing for a more strongly right-wing set of policies stressing freedom of choice and law enforcement, they are not Reform party clones.
Recognize Quebec
The Tories are more tolerant on the sexual orientation issue and believe Quebec should be recognized as a distinct society, she said.
“The Reform party has many extremist elements, which we reject.”
She said the proposal to allow privately managed health care plans to operate parallel to medi-care is a way to save the public system, not destroy it.
She said it is over-burdened.
Canadian families that wish to spend money on their own health care should be allowed to do so. She said some families may wish to use the $2,000 they now spend on vacations to improve their medical care.
“Average and middle income families deserve the ability to choose what they want to spend their dollars on,” she said. “If it is spending it on health care, so be it. We will not deny anyone access to health care. For people who can’t afford it, the medicare system will still be maintained.”
She said that allowing those who can afford it to make their own arrangements would reduce waiting times in the medicare system and in the end, save taxpayers money.
