Frank Klees editorial board interview with the National Post
Frank revealed some policy in his interview with the National Post editorial board. I especially like the idea about new graduates not having to pay provincial taxes for the first four years. Having gone to University and now having a student debt, this policy would have allowed me to pay down my debt faster. The result would have been the opportunity to spend at this point and contribute more to the economic recovery by purchasing a house, car or other goods and services. Every current university student should be in support of this policy. I can tell you first hand this policy is a big deal and will make a difference for you. -Darryl
Klees wants grassroots to help develop policy
'Arrogant' Leaders James Cowan, National Post Published: Friday, May 15, 2009Peter J. Thompson, National PostFrank Klees says as PC leader he would fight the harmonized sales tax plan.
Ontario's Progressive Conservatives should abandon their top-down system of policy development and instead build their next election platform in consultation with rank-and-file members, says Frank Klees, a candidate for leadership of the party.
Mr. Klees said he is not "devoid of ideas," but that official policy should come from the party's grassroots -- not its leader.
"When it comes to policy issues, I have ideas that I want the party to consider and to develop with me, but I am not pronouncing those policies as a fait accompli because I think that is offensive," he told the National Post's editorial board.
A Cabinet minister under former Ontario premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, Mr. Klees said his party's leadership became "arrogant" after it won the 1995 provincial election and stopped conferring with supporters on policy issues.
He said that in order to win the 2011 provincial election, the party must reinvigorate its policy advisory council, which would allow average voters to have input on the platform.
"This isn't just a matter of a few people sitting around a coffee table and saying 'Because I feel this, this is what I want to do,' " Mr. Klees said. "This is a matter of saying what makes good sense, what makes good political sense and what is practical."
It has been widely reported that the Common Sense Revolution, the campaign document that helped Mr. Harris claim power in 1995, was developed by a small circle of Conservative strategists, including Tony Clement, Tom Long and Leslie Noble. But Mr. Klees said that notion is an "urban myth," and that the Common Sense Revolution was actually crafted through extensive consultation with the party members.
Among the ideas that Mr. Klees said he intends to present to party members are improvements to the province's transportation infrastructure and making university graduates exempt from paying provincial income taxes for the first four years after leaving school.
Mr. Klees also vowed to fight a plan by Dalton McGuinty, the Liberal Premier, to blend the provincial sales tax with the federal GST, creating a single harmonized sales tax (HST), arguing Ontario is able to pursue the harmonization only because of $4.3-billion in funding from the federal government. He wryly noted that Christine Elliott, another leadership candidate, could lobby her husband, Jim Flaherty, the federal Finance Minister, to withdraw the funding.
He said Ms. Elliott's own proposal to impose a flat 8% income tax in the province was equally ill-timed.
"This is not the time to look at a major overhaul of our taxation system," Mr. Klees said. "We want to attract investment here and a tax system in flux is not something that sends a message of stability in this province."
