This is a page from the 2017 British Columbia general election.
Looking for a different election? Click here.

Rob Pobran

Libertarian candidate for Langley

Read more

Misc. topics

Affordable Housing

Libertarian's promise

Reduce Government Interference that Makes Housing Unaffordable

Housing prices reached new highs during the past year, making the dream of ownership more difficult. The BC Liberals want to spend billions on interest-free loans, which place a heavy burden on taxpayers while further inflating home prices and put our economy at risk of a 2008 style sub-prime mortgage crisis. A safer and less costly way to keep home prices reasonable is to increase supply. Bringing new housing stock to market is restrained in numerous ways. For example, over 80% of the land in Vancouver is zoned for single-family residential only. By relaxing or removing these restrictions, we can free up the market to provide more housing at lower cost.

Work with municipalities to reduce development costs, streamline building permit processes, and simplify and accelerate rezoning

Budget and Taxes

Libertarian's promise

Make Taxes Lower and Easier to Understand

Because we don't pay directly for services offered by government, politicians come up with incomprehensible formulas to make us think that someone else (the rich, corporations) will pay more. But there is no free lunch and funds must come from somewhere. By trying to hide costs, politicians just add costs, complicate our lives and create dissension among us over conflicting meanings of "fairness". Taxation is compulsion and libertarians seek to minimize compulsion. Wherever possible, government services should be financed by fees paid by willing customers. In a transition period, we seek taxes which are as simple to understand as possible (so government can't hide the cost of their programs) and ones which cause the least damage to our economy.

​
Personal income tax: Remove all tax credits and exemptions and replace them with a lower overall tax rate. Make filing simple by using a BC Income Tax form that fits on a postcard.

Business and Sales taxes: Encourage business growth and job creation by replacing the complex and burdensome PST and corporate income tax with a simple and low tax on business revenue.

Carbon tax: Repeal it. Fuel prices are already too high, with nearly half the cost made up by various taxes.

Education

Libertarian's promise

Provide Real Choice in K-12 Education

In an age when knowledge is widely available online to suit anyone’s individual interests and learning styles, our public education system seems decidedly old-fashioned. And the labour struggles that shut down schools would seem like relics of a bygone era if they weren’t such a recent memory. The problem with the current system is that responsibility for how schools are run flows the wrong way—up to administrators, bureaucrats and union leaders, instead of down to students and parents. We believe that parents are the best advocates for their children’s educational needs, and that teachers who have been freed from the one-size-fits-all model will be empowered to bring out the best in each child. If schools have the right incentives and the flexibility to customize curriculum to the diverse learning needs of children, they can prepare them well for 21st century life.

Instead of funds going to each school district, each family with children will receive a voucher to spend at the public or independent school or home learning plan of their choice

Maintain provincial standards for core subjects such as math and English, but provide greater autonomy and flexibility for schools (public, private, and home schools) to meet the diverse learning needs of children

Environment and Natural Resources

Fentanyl Crisis

Libertarian's promise

End Prohibition and Let Police Focus on Real Crimes

BC is experiencing an epidemic with fentanyl and other powerful opioids that is claiming hundreds of lives. It's also tying up emergency responders, making it harder for everyone to get an ambulance when they need one. All options need to be on the table when dealing with a crisis like this, and decriminalization is a key part of the solution. By confronting this as a health issue instead of a criminal issue, we will discover new ways to reduce harm, encourage treatment of addictions, and make our communities safer. And eliminating victimless crime from the police’s mandate we allow police departments to focus their limited resources on catching real criminals (those who assault people or steal their stuff). Exclude the enforcement of victimless crimes from the provincial Police Services Agreement

Health care

Libertarian's promise

Create Choice in Healthcare

Let's admit that the performance of our public healthcare system is lousy. A trip to emergency rarely takes less than several hours. It can take months to see a specialist. Patients on waitlists see their conditions worsen or even die, yet the lines get longer. Why? It isn't because we don’t spend enough on healthcare, which is the single largest item in our provincial budget and continues to grow. No, the problem is that this sector of economy hasn’t been provided with incentives to innovate or be more efficient. If patients had more control over how resources were allocated, there would be much better service and much less waste.​ allow health practitioners (doctors, nurses and paramedics) to offer services for mutually agreeable fees that are not covered by MSP (home visits, phone prescriptions, etc.) allow health insurance alternatives to MSP so that consumers can choose an insurance plan better tailored to their own needs allow more experimentation in care delivery models, such as primary direct care (where health providers contract to provide patients with a clear set of medical services for a low monthly fee)​

Oil and Gas Industry

Post-Secondary Education

Transit

Biography

submitted by the candidate or their team

Rob was born in Saskatchewan and raised on a family farm and is a fourth generation Canadian farmer. After attending the University of Saskatchewan, He moved to BC and has lived on the west coast for over 20 years. He is a father of two teenagers and is a BC farmer, greenhouse grower of 14 years, irrigating his crops from the Nikomeckle River in South Surrey. Rob is the creator and founder of Simply Neglectable plants has been a part of the development of the lower mainland farmers markets.

Over time he has become a political atheist, a non believer in the political system. Many no longer bother to participate in our political system. Rob believes that the political system is broken, just like most of our societal systems and are in dire need of free market solutions and transparency in government. He believes that for many, the Canadian dream is dead, with the high cost of living and regulations.