Party Profile: Socialist Party of Ontario

by Apathy is Boring — September 23, 2011


Leader: Andy Lehrer

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So, what's this party all about? This Party Profile gives you all the info you need, from a description of the party to a summary of their policies. If you like what you see, visit their website for more information.
 
We assembled the content for this profile from the public sources listed at the bottom of the page. If you notice any incorrect information or have any questions, please get in touch with us using our contact us form. We (heart) feedback.

Founded in 2011, the Socialist Party of Ontario is a non-hierarchical party that aims to bring democratic socialist values to the province's society and governance. It is aligned with Socialist International and is committed to opposing neoliberalism in favour of a complete transformation of Ontario's economic system.
 
 
Issue Area Policy
Accountability and Transparency Create community-based statistical database with full public access.
Move to a Single Transferable Vote electoral system.
Have two members elected from each electoral district, one from a list of women candidates and the other from a list of men.
Ensure full transparency in bidding when the private sector is used in short-term projects.
Crime and Justice Repeal the Safe Streets Act in its entirety.
Hire more judges and clerks.
Increase funding to legal aid.
Increase funding to prisons.
Prohibit the use of prison labour.
Synchronize rules between different courts.
Abolish all conviction quotas.
Institute mandatory sensitivity and compassion training for prison guards.
Ensure that Community Service Orders function as alternatives to prison.
Prioritize compliance with internal investigations as a condition for police officer employment.
Form a civilian public inquiry to investigate police actions around the G20 and historical police abuses of civil rights.
Make mandatory Social Work, Diversity Training, Women's Studies, and Disability Studies (including mental illness) necessary to qualify to serve as a police officer.
Economy and Employment Set specific poverty-reduction targets every three years.
Form an inter-ministerial working group to combat poverty, 50% of which will be people currently living in poverty and other historically excluded groups.ts.
Assure a standard of living above poverty for any adult working full time throughout the year.
Create an Ontario Living Standards Act.
Implement a guaranteed annual income of at least $18 849, adjusted annually to inflation.
Increase labour law enforcement, hiring more civil servants to do so.
Introduce anti-scab legislation and ban the use of replacement workers during strikes.
Ban back-to-work legislation.
Limit "essential service" designation to police, firefighters, and paramedics.
Ban back-to-work legislation.
Recognize union certification by a "card check" system once 50% + 1 of a workplace sign a union card.
Mandate automatic unionization of a workplace if union activists face reprisals by their employers during a union drive.
Bring Employment Insurance (EI) under provincial jurisdiction.
Expand eligibility and length of coverage for EI, strictly forbidding the government's use of EI funds for any other purpose.
Introduce a 35-hour workweek without loss of pay.
Mandate 12 weeks of paid paternity leave in addition to existing maternity leave laws on file, regardless of the gender of the second partner.
Education
Eliminate EQAO standardized testing and the OSSLT.
Introduce an early-childhood education system allowing parents to receive free full-day education for their children starting from the age of two.
Hold a referendum on the public funding of separate schools.
Reverse all tuition fee increases since 1995, increasing subsidies to decrease tuition until eliminating them within five years.
Provide students with a living wage to buy books, pay rent, and maintain quality of life.
Energy Put Ontario's natural gas utilities under public ownership.
End the private leasing of nuclear power facilities and phase them out entirely within 10 years.
Environment Mandate that all future large buildings are constructed with green roofs and investing in retrofitting buildings with energy-efficient green technologies.
Expand mass transit and intercity rail to provide alternatives to car use.
Create a publicly-owned network of battery recharging stations for electric and hybrid cars.
Establish a province-wide, public car-sharing program.
Retrain workers in polluting industries, giving them living-wage jobs in green energy production.
Override municipal by-laws banning the leaving out of reusable household items for others to take.
Create provincial agency to replace all public transit services in York, Peel, Halton, and Durham Regions and that of the City of Toronto.
Health Care Provide basic prescription, dental, and eye-care coverage for all.
End the funding of private clinics.
Increase IT investment to provide electronic health records.
Abandon Public-Private Partnerships model in the construction of new hospitals.
Increase the number of spaces in Ontario medical schools.
Provide incentives to graduating medical students to work in remote areas of Ontario.
Increase the number of chronic care beds.
Maintain nursing staffing levels based on recommendations by nurses' associations.
Increase investment in preventative medicine and chronic disease management.
Ensure that the provincial government implements no policies that violate the Canada Health Act.
Provide free contraception and free fertility treatments.
Guarantee women's right to free abortion on demand at all hospitals, providing free transportation for women in remote communities.
Social Services Institute a landlord licensing system, revoking the licenses of those who do not adhere to government standards.
Ensure the proper regulation of Payday Loan Agencies, limiting interests rates to those levied by banks on individual or business loans.
Forbid the passing of any law restricting access to government services based on a citizen's manner of dress.
Increase monthly work-related Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefits to $150, exempting the first $600 per month from 50% earnings clawback for one year.
Streamline treatment of ODSP earnings with subsidized rent, child care, and student loan repayment programs.
Reverse Harris-government cuts to welfare, increasing social assistance rates by 55% and restoring in full the Special Diet Program.
Extend the Yonge Subway to Richmond Hill, the Bloor Subway to Mississauga, and add another Downtown line connecting the financial suburbs with other parts of Toronto.
Make public transit in Ontario free for users.
Construct a high speed train system from Windsor to the Quebec border.
Build enough new affordable public housing to abolish the wait list.
Make public housing the responsibility of the province.
Combat bed bugs and other infestations in public housing.
Prevent landlords from raising a unit's rent through eviction.
Double annual spending on services and shelters for the homeless.
Recreate the Province of Ontario Savings Office as a government-owned savings bank offering higher interest rates than commercial banks.

This Policies and Priorities section was updated in early September 2011, immediately before the election was called. As you may know, candidates and parties make lots of promises during elections. So many, in fact, that we can't always keep up with them. This profile is a general summary. Get the most up-to-date platforms and information straight from the party's mouth here.

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Glossary

A - L

Aboriginal peoples, Adjournment, Amendment, Back Bencher, Bicameralism, Bill, British North America Act (BNA Act), Budget, Bureaucracy, Cabinet, Cabinet Shuffle, Campaign, Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA), Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS), Caucus, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Chief Justice, Closure, Coalition government, Committee of the Whole, Confidence Motion, Constitution, Democracy, Department of National Defence (DND), Dilatory Motion, Dissolution, Division of Powers, Election, Electoral System, Executive, Federation, Filibuster, First Nations, First past the Post, First Reading, Fiscal Imbalance, Fringe Party, Government, Government Bill, Governor General, Hansard, Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition (Official Opposition), House of Commons, Ideology, In Camera, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Inuit, Joint Committee, Judiciary, Leader of the Opposition, Legislative Committee, Legislative Supremacy, Legislature, Lieutenant Governor, Lobbying,

M - Z

Majority Government, Métis, Minister, Ministry, Minority Government, Motion, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Notice of Motion, Notice Paper, Order of Precedence, Order Paper, Paired Vote, Parliamentary Privilege, Party Convention, Party Whip, Point of Order, Political Party, Président, Previous Question, Prime Minister, Prime Ministers Office (PMO), Private Bill, Private Members' Bill, Privy Council, Proportional Representation, Prorogation, Prorogue, Question Period, Repatriate, Report Stage, Riding, Royal Assent, Sanction royale, Second Reading, Seigneurial system, Senate, Senate reform, Session, Sitting, Speaker, Special Committee, Speech from the Throne, Standing Committee, Subcommittee, Supreme Court of Canada, The Notwithstanding Clause, The Privy Council Office, The World Bank (WB), Third Reading, United Nations (UN), Voting, Westminster Model, World Trade Organization (WTO), Written Questions,

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