A fringe federal political party is hoping voters check them out before heading to the polls in 2015.
The Patriot Party of Canada will be gearing up next summer to field a substantial number of candidates in ridings across the country.
Dan Perley, the leader of the Patriot Party and a technology consultant, outlined his party’s three main platform points in an interview.
“We don’t like the current free trade situation,” Perley said. “I don’t believe an across the board free trade deal is the best deal for Canada.”
Instead, the Patriot Party would like to see trade dealt with on a sector-by-sector basis, Perley said.
Next is the idea that more people should be able to work from home.
“We believe that it’s sensible for Canada to make a national priority out of having more people work at home because it will help the economy of every small town and rural village in the country if people can live there and work for a large company that’s based somewhere else,” Perley said. “There’s environmental, energy and economic benefits from it.”
The third major point of their platform is tied to the second.
“Basically we believe that as more and more people work at home and will want to work at home, that we should change the county level of government,” Perley said.
That change would amalgamate counties to form larger regional government areas called “zone governments.”
“We believe that by referendum the people of Canada should transfer about two-thirds of powers currently vested in the provinces down to the zone level of government,” Perley said.
He estimates having zone governments deliver zone, provincial and federal services in a one-stop shop would save $40-billion, which the Patriot Party would divide between military improvements and tax savings.
They would not allow charter banks to be retail banks, preferring to see local co-operatives look after retail banking.
“We would also nationalize all farm debt and we would sell that farm debt back to the co-operatives as soon as they were established,” Perley said.
“Within six months of forming government we would hold a national referendum and we would effectively remove all health, education and welfare powers from the provinces and push them down to the zone level. But the federal government would be responsible for health, education and welfare standards,” he said, noting this would mean certifications and other licenses would be portable between provinces.
The Patriot Party is also opposed to the export of water and what they see as the Conservative attempts to scrap the CBC.
While they’re not talking specifics about riding associations at the moment, Perley said they’re hoping to run a full slate of candidates in the next election, expected in fall 2015.
They plan on setting up district clubs in communities across Canada. Since many ridings encompass a few communities, the hope is those district clubs would work together during elections.
“Our organizational structure is a little different than most parties,” Perley said.
They’ve received hundreds of offers of help, as well as some fundraising commitments, he said.
“We have worked very hard on this,” Perley said of the Patriot Party’s efforts.
Patriot Party
For more information visit www.patriotparty.ca
