Joslin Takes A Second Chance
By John Swartz
SUNonline/Orillia profiles candidates from each party in the forthcoming provincial election. Each candidate was asked the same set of questions. All candidates were invited to participate, however Jill Dunlop of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario did not make arrangements to meet with SUNonline/Orillia.
Bill Joslin is the Ontario Libertarian Party candidate for Simcoe North. He was born in Washago and has called Waubaushene his home for more than 20 tears. He is married and has one son.
He has worked for CN for 35 years and is currently commuting to Hamilton for the Confederation GO Station construction project.
“I am the protecting foreman. Because I work for the railroad and we have train go by, so I arrange the protection so the workers can work. When the train comes I clear them all. A glorified babysitter is the way I look at it,” Joslin said.
He ran in the last provincial election and only found out about the Libertarians a few weeks prior to becoming a candidate.
He was somewhat prepared to run in this election.
“I knew it was coming. I didn’t think it was going to go now. Talking with our guys gave me a heads up, so I started getting paperwork and getting people up to speed,” he said.
“I’ve been in contact with him (party leader, Mark Snow) more this go-round., He actually reached out to me the first go-round.”
Joslin says he’s always interested to learn something new, and election campaigns often reveal many subjects to learn about. So how does he find out information when asked about a policy, or campaign position he’s not familiar with?
“If I do not know I will tell the person. Now I’m curious. I want to look into this. I like to pick things apart, put them back together again. (Sometimes) I’m still on the fence because when you are sitting on the fence, you have the best view. I’m not a politician, they all lie, they are only up there for themselves. Myself, I like to help out,”
“If it revolves around politics Mark has been great with it. Scott Marshall, he’s been my sounding board for stuff. These are the two gentlemen within the party I reach out to.”
He is interested in helping people, particularly those who need a hand.
“If you went back through my school records I was only hauled into the office probably 5 or 6 times for fighting, but that was because I was defending somebody that was being picked on,” he said.
Healthcare
SUNonline/Orillia wanted to know what candidates views were about the privatization of healthcare and how much the public can take before the system breaks down.
“It’s already broken, completely and utterly broken. That’s just from what I have experienced with friends and family having to have anything looked at,” Joslin said.
“The ones that are in there now, looking after it, they’re happy because they are getting their money regardless.
He believes there are too many administrators in the system and not enough medical personnel.
“They outnumber the actual staff at least two to one.”
He thinks funding should be very different than it is now.
“Libertarians feel, it should be the person. That person is given an allowance per year that goes into your medical fund. If you don’t use it, it stays there. You have the choice to go to see the emergency, or the clinic, or your own personal doctor, it’s left up to the individual to pick and choose where you want to go.”
But what about major medical service, surgery or cancer treatment, let alone a transplant which can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars? And then next year, because you are old, it’s something else. Banking, let’s say, $5,000 or so per year for 50 years won’t do, will it?
“It gives you bartering power. Doctor A, what’s your price? Now you can go to doctor B. It gives you the option to shop around and find somebody that falls into the qualifications you are looking for, and the price because now you get to choose.”
“The best way to fix it, get the government out of there.” This raises the question, who manages the system? “It would be the local municipality,” Joslin said.
Climate Change
Days after Doug Ford took office in 2018 he cancelled 758 solar, wind and in Orillia’s case, hydro generation projects at a cost of $231 million. Recently we have witnessed the gutting of environmental and natural habitat agencies in the U.S. Industry rebels against any kind of environmental regulation and all around the world conservative politicians are not taking climate change seriously. SUNonline/Orillia wants to know if candidates think this is a good idea, or a bad idea.
Joslin thinks climate change is not a big problem.
“I’m going to assume it’s based o the amount of carbon that is in the air. Do you know we are at one of the lowest points of carbon in history? These are scientists doing the studies; we are at .02, at one point 4.6. When you have more carbon, that creates more oxygen.”
But shouldn’t the government at least fund research and development?
‘No. They (the party) are going to do away with it all, they are going to put it (funds) back into the electrical grid (infrastructure). That needs to be ramped up. We are basically one big ice storm away from being in the dark for a month.”
“Mark has said, “Anything that is so great and wonderful, why does it need the government handout. If it was working it would be making its own revenue.”
Housing
SUNonline/Orillia contends a major cause of the rising cost of housing are two things, Real Estate Investment Trusts, of which some are buying up whole neighbourhoods to turn family homes into rental units, and Airbnb, which incentivizes smaller landlords to take rentals out of the market to turn into quasi hotels. It seems the mainstream media and politicians think speaking about their role is Kryptonite. What, if anything can the provincial government do to halt, or roll back the high cost of housing?
“All these empty places, if it really was that big of a deal, then you would think the government would tell them use it or lose it,” Joslin said referring to incentives for developers and owners which allow high vacancy rates. He also points the finger at government owned housing facilities like Edgar and the Huronia Regional Centre which are not being used.
“They are refusing to use (them). The infrastructure is out there and the government just really doesn’t care about it,” he said.
He also thinks developers are building housing that is too large for many buyers.
“People don’t need that unless you have a family of seven. Why are they building these houses?”
“Do you think maybe somewhere in the upper echelon they’ve had their hands greased by these people? The whole thing is corrupt.”
Immigration
This is mostly a federal issue, experienced at the local level. There are many ramifications of too many immigrants coming in too short a time. It seems those who prey on and take advantage of the influx of new residents can do what they want. From immigration lawyers, to employers and landlords, immigrants are being taken advantage of. Does the province have a role in immigration?
“I think they (immigrants) know the ins and outs. The ones using the system have already been told how to do it. There’s a vast majority that come in on a student visa and they don’t even attend school. They take on two jobs, they find the lowest place to rent and they bankroll that second income until they get found out they are not attending school. I didn’t even know they could do that.”
“There is government incentive for employers to hire minorities. Half of their wage is paid by the government. There is no incentive to hire a student unless they are of an ethnic group. I was on said program when I was in high school. So long as I was attending high school and was holding down a part time job, when they (employers) found out the government was paying half, they bumped my wage up to $9.50.”
What They Say And Do
There is a growing concern among the electorate about the Americanization of Canadian politics. It’s an attitude, a say anything, blame anyone (or you more figuratively and specifically) and creating issues where none exists, or are so small it hardly warrants National headlines. There is a normalization of false talking points based on air.
Do we not have enough of our own problems without importing them? How much responsibility does media bear for this?
“Most, if not all, is bought and paid for. Everything is funded, The government takes bags of money and drops it in their (media) lap.”
That‘s on the federal level. Joslin says the province has little influence on ownership or content.
“That should be kept close to home, the ownership.,” Joslin said.
“There is no such thing as true journalism anymore. I couldn’t believe the (federal) government had OK’d the changing in the wording that the majority of newspapers funded by the government are now entertainment.”
The Last Word
Each candidate was invited to speak about an issue important to them that may not have been covered already. Joslin has issues with equal participation, being left out of debates.
“To me that is wrong. We did everything the same way they did; we should be afforded the same opportunities as the others. The reason we are not well known is because you won’t give us the chance to stand up and let people know about the Libertarian Party.”
And he thinks education needs attention.
“The schooling system has failed greatly. I believe it all started with ‘no child left behind,’ (This is an American concept, but in this case Joslin means students advancing grade levels before they are ready) I know quite a few who, just because the parents didn’t think it was right to have little Timmy left behind, that is where the system has failed,” Joslin said.
He believes education should have more opportunities for discovery and teaching trades should be more important.
“I would never have guessed for a million years that law, I enjoyed it. I really loved my shop class. I think they should put more emphasis on the trades because we’re going to have nobody to do these jobs.”
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia) Main: Bill Joslin is the Ontario Libertarian Party candidate for Simcoe North.
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