Ontario Alliance: History
The Ontario Alliance (French: Alliance de l’Ontario) is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It was formed in 2017, as a political response to a lack of local, regional and populist voice for the people of Rural and Northern Ontario that has led to widespread regional disparity, a party to represent the rest of Ontario versus the Toronto elite and their Big Three at Queen’s Park political agenda. The Ontario Alliance also believes Queen’s Park needs to be a stronger voice for Ontario versus Ottawa in protecting and preserving its provincial rights, responsibilities and powers from a centralized federal government.
The grassroots pro Ontario first agenda party is ideologically aligned with other Canadian provincial third parties like the Saskatchewan Party, but the two parties are organizationally independent and separate, though overlapping policy and orientation provide for much of the same commonalities. The party was originally established by a coalition of former provincial Progressive Conservative, Liberal, and federal Reform party members who sought to remove the socialist agenda of the Ontario New Democratic Party and the Wynne Liberal Government. The party find its origins in the spirit of Reformer William Lyon Mackenzie and the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion, where the Ontario Alliance identifies with the Reformers and sees the Big Three at Queen’s Park historically as the Family Compact. The Ontario Alliance also gets inspiration from the grassroots protest idea of the 1919 United Farmers of Ontario/Ontario Independent Labour Government from the past and presently with the big tent idea of the Saskatchewan Party Government.
The current provincial party President is Joshua E Eriksen and the Executive Director for the Party is Gerrie Huenemoerder.
Ontario Alliance: Origin
The Ontario Alliance began when many separate groups came together as one united movement to create a principled free enterprise alternative to the governing Wynne Ontario Liberals and its socialist agenda. Using the specific ideologies of localism, populism and regionalism, the Ontario Alliance cobbled a grand coalition grassroots party from disillusioned Liberals, Conservatives, and other independents, to agree to form a political alliance in time for the 2018 Ontario election. A farmer from the Central Ontario area riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, William Cook, who is a former Reform Party of Canada member from 1990 to 2003 and federal Liberal Party of Canada member from 2013, had registered the name “Ontario Alliance” soon after to create a new political home for likeminded classical small ‘l’ liberals like himself and his supporters. Previous chief of staff for Ottawa City Councillor Rick Chiarelli, Jay Tysick, who is also a former Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario member and currently a federal Conservative Party of Canada member, had become disqualified and barred from standing as a candidate for nomination in the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton by the Ontario PC Party backroom. Being the first prospective candidate to have their nomination manipulated by party brass, allegedly with interference from former Ontario PC Party leader Patrick Brown, Tysick left the party and started looking for a new political home for likeminded traditional small ‘c’ conservatives like himself and his supporters. During the summer of 2017, Cook with his liberal support and Tysick with his conservative support, along with Joshua E. Eriksen on strategy, policy research and implementation analysis and Richard Naranowicz on finances, policy development and governance, founded the inner workings of the Ontario Alliance and worked together on its registration with Elections Ontario to become an officially registered provincial political party before the upcoming provincial election slated for the spring of 2017. The grassroots pro Ontario first agenda party is made up of several different kinds of people, groups and ideologies, though it has become a home mainly for disgruntled liberals, conservatives, reformers, and other grassroot independents, some democratic reform friendly New Democrats, free enterprise friendly Greens, and family values friendly Libertarians also currently find a home within the Ontario Alliance.
Ontario Alliance: Foundations
The Ontario Alliance outlines its principles in a set of nine points:
- We believe in the ethical, responsible and accountable execution of the business of government which, in a free and democratic society, is to secure the life, liberty and property of the people through the prudent development and judicious enforcement of sensible laws and policies;
- We believe in limited government and the indispensable role that autonomous institutions such as church, family and other voluntary associations play in maintaining those limits by balancing and diffusing the power of the state;
- We recognize the natural family as the basic building block of a free and democratic society and the place where healthy and responsible citizens are formed. We believe in honouring parents and respecting the common-sense values they choose to live and raise their children by;
- We acknowledge that the people may choose for the government, as a secondary role, to provide essential services where the private sector is unable to do so. We reject, however, the practice of government monopolization of such services except in cases where monopoly is demonstrably necessary for the safe and efficient delivery and/or operation of that service;
- We believe in freedom of conscience, opinion, thought, and worship, freedom of speech, freedom of association and expression, and the principle of equality before the law under the Supremacy of God and rule of law.;
- We acknowledge that a responsible government might be compelled, from time to time, to adopt budgets that are not balanced. We reject, however, the practice of accumulating public debt through regular budget deficits and the passing on of that debt to future generations, as a violation of the principle of no taxation without representation. We also reject the practice of regularly submitting surplus budgets as over-taxation;
- We reject the divisive politics of envy and resentment that has come to dominate contemporary public discourse. We believe that government should encourage independence, celebrate hard work and inspire personal success, because it is only through personal success that wealth is created, communities thrive, and our province flourishes.
- We believe in the good stewardship of our natural environment which includes its responsible exploration and development as well as its renewal and conservation, both of which are vital to improving the economic well-being and quality of life of all Ontarians; and
- We believe in a decentralized government that respects regional balance and empowers local government to develop and execute policies that reflect the needs and concerns of the citizens of those regions. For the 2022 election, the Alliance is campaigning on a 7-point platform entitled “Bringing Ontario Back: A Seven Point Plan towards a Better Ontario together!” This platform calls for a balanced budget, tax fairness, return of rights, responsibilities and powers to municipalities, increased choice and competition for education and healthcare provision and services, and implementing legislation that allows for the recall of MPPs, citizen-initiated referenda and real responsible representation. The Ontario Alliance completely opposes both a carbon tax and the provincial sexual education curriculum.
The Ontario Alliance outlines its planks in a 7-point platform entitled “Bringing Ontario Back: A Seven Point Plan towards a Better Ontario together!”. These planks include:
- Balanced Budget First: Taxpayer Protection and Debt and Deficit Reduction towards Rightsizing Government;
- No to Carbon Tax Pricing: Let Citizens Decide with Choice and Competition on Hydro, Energy and their Environmental Future;
- No to the Sex Ed Curriculum: Let Parents Decide with Choice and Competition on Schooling and their Children’s Educational Future;
- More Accountability on Healthcare: Let Patients Decide with Choice and Competition on Essential and Non-Essential Servicing;
- Restoring Labour Management Relations: Tax Fairness and Relief for hardworking families, individuals and small businesses towards Job Creation, Affordable Living and Balanced Economic Growth;
- Renewing Intergovernmental Autonomy: Giving back greater control, regional balance and responsibility to municipalities, across Rural and Northern Ontario, recovered from Queen’s Park and strengthening Ontario by taking its provincial autonomy and powers back from Ottawa; and
- The Ontario Alliance’s Commitment to Constituents: Triple R Government being Recall, Referenda, and Real Responsible Representation, including repealing bureaucratic red tape legislation, more open debate by protecting and preserving freedom of speech and conscience, less party discipline through unwhipped free votes and free voices for all MPPs to provide balanced representation for their constituents’ wishes.