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Every family, farmer and small business owner knows that you can’t spend more money than you bring in or you will eventually go bankrupt. The same principle should apply to governments, which should not be allowed to accumulate debt and burden future generations. 

We should balance the federal budget and begin to pay down our national debt by 5% per year so that in 20 years Canada will be debt-free.  

When it comes to business, if the overhead is too high and there’s way too much administration up top, it doesn’t matter how hard the employees on the factory floor work, the company will simply not be competitive. The same holds true with countries.  

We should reduce government overhead and cut government spending on staff and programs by 5% per year over a 10-year period. After ten years, we will have cut government overhead in half, returning it to levels that existed 50 years ago when economic growth was at an all-time high and income levels and living standards for the majority of Canadians were much higher.  

No government workers would be laid off, but we would implement a freeze on the hiring of any new workers, and the reduction of employees would take place gradually through attrition. The hiring freeze would remain in place until the government developed a formula for the maximum number of bureaucrats per 1,000 Canadian residents.    

The reduction of government overhead and spending should occur at all three levels of government: federal, provincial and municipal.

Canada’s personal income tax code has swelled in size since it was first introduced more than 100 years ago, ballooning from six pages in length to over 1,300 pages a century later.

Not only has it gotten bigger, but it’s also gotten more complex and convoluted with thousands of mind-boggling passages like Section 18.1(8):

"Subsection 18.1(10) applies where (a) a taxpayer’s particular right to receive production to which a matchable expenditure (other than an expenditure no portion of which would, if this section were read without reference to subsections 18.1(7) and 18.1(10), be deductible under subsection 18.1(3) in computing the taxpayer’s income) relates has expired or the taxpayer has disposed of all of the right (otherwise than in a disposition to which subsection 87(1) or 88(1) applies)."

We need to reduce the complexity of our tax system by making it shorter and simpler and by making it black-and-white, cut-and-dried, with no convoluted language and no grey zones. In addition, we need to make our tax system fairer by eliminating all exemptions, loopholes and write-offs that benefit special interest groups. This will help reduce the growing wealth gap in our country.

We have to do everything we can to preserve free enterprise, because without free enterprise, there is no free society. We need to also recognize that small business is the backbone of the Canadian economy and the economic engine that creates most of the product innovation and new jobs.  

We should ignite the growth of small business by eliminating the business tax for any company with fewer than 300 employees and by eliminating practically all regulations with the exception of those relating to employee health and safety and the protection of the environment. Employees would still pay taxes on their wages and business owners would pay taxes on the amount of money they take out of the company as income.  

By eliminating the business tax, we would create thousands of new businesses and unchain entrepreneurs and small business owners so they can grow and expand. 

When small businesses grow in size to more than 300 employees, they will be required to begin sharing annual profits with employees and managers, recognizing that these stakeholders are entitled to a portion of the profits that they help produce.

They will share profits according to following formula:

• Year 1 – 5% of the profits will be shared

• Year 2 – 10% of the profits will be shared

• Year 3 – 15% of the profits will be shared

• Year 4 – 20% of the profits will be shared

Establishing this principle will create a new profit-sharing culture in Canadian business that will enhance competitiveness and improve productivity. We will gradually and naturally transition from a culture of bosses and workers, to a culture where employees are partners in profitability and share in the success of the business.

We need technically skilled trades people in order for the economy to function.  

We should require students in their final two years of high school to be exposed to one or more technical trades at businesses outside the schools. Students would be exposed to different trades such as toolmaking, bricklaying, carpentry, farming, and healthcare over a two-year period.  

This sort of exposure would give students some practical, hands-on experience and allow them to explore various career interests, test their skills and discover what they really love to do and what they are good at doing. Adopting this approach would also help create a feeder system to provide the skilled technicians and trades people our country needs while helping restore the real economy. 

Growing up healthy and happy – it’s the number one desire of every parent. And it’s what we as a society should make as our number one priority.  

One of the easiest and most cost-effective solutions we can implement is to provide every Canadian school kid with healthy, organic meals. No Canadian child should have to go to school hungry or leave school hungry, and as a result, organic breakfast and lunch meals must be served at every school in the country. When children eat organic food, they have a much better chance to grow up healthy and happy. Although organic school meals would cost a little more than what we currently spend, they would save billions of dollars in health care costs over the long term.   

We should also establish educational programs where children can learn about the nutritional benefits of foods and the critical role that food plays in human health, as well as learn how to grow organic foods.   

Growing healthy food for people is one of the noblest endeavours anyone can pursue, and family farms play a great role in supplying healthy food to Canadians. Canada should adopt a national program to support family farms that help supply organic food to our schools.