Gene is a resident of Fenelon Falls, Ontario. It’s a rural town located in the electoral riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock, home to 114,000 residents. Prior to 2016, Gene lived in Thornhill, Ontario - a thriving suburb of Toronto which boasts a very ethnically-diverse community.
Since joining the Ontario Libertarian Party in 2007, Gene has been a tireless Less Government Advocate in many elections and is convinced that this is the only path to achieve genuine Freedom of Choice for every citizen. Gene fundamentally believes that the excessive size, cost and scope of authority is the single most significant cause of most problems in modern society.
Our #1 problem is the rising cost of living. The main causes are excessive taxation, counter-productive and burdensome legislation, and numerous deterrents to entrepreneurial success, employment and prosperity for everyone.
Governments hold a monopoly on power in society. The abuse of this power destroys public trust in each other and our public institutions. For example, when the Ford government assumed and prolonged the mostly-unjustified pandemic emergency orders, their policies of mass lockdowns and restrictions were a profound failure. The unconstitutional vaccine mandates and the autocratic treatment of peacefully protesting truckers who suffered from misguided policies have served to jolt many citizens into a state of disbelief that these actions were actually occurring in Canada.
Less Government is the only common sense antidote to the ills of Big and Bigger Governments. This became increasingly evident to Gene as a father raising two daughters and as a business professional over a 42-year career.
Soon after graduating from the University of Waterloo in 1975 with an Honours B.Sc. Kinesiology, Gene worked as a Physical Fitness consultant, a fitness and medical instrumentation Sales professional, and a staff Kinesiologist in a Toronto hospital. He then joined IBM Canada on the Ontario Government Account team in sales and support roles over the next 4 years. Subsequently, Gene built a successful practice as an IT Recruiter over the next 28 years, during which he interviewed over 10,000 job candidates to serve the staffing needs of clients in a variety of economic sectors.
From 2010 to 2018, Gene was Director, Talent Supply Chain for a Canadian consulting company. He played a critical role in building a fledgling international consulting business into a successful operation. The teams we assembled successfully completed systems integration projects that improved the manufacturing and supply chain productivity at over 120 plants in the USA, Mexico, Brazil and France.
When not working, Gene has been quite active in sports and fitness. He has competed in many sports including hockey, rugby, cross country ski racing and participated in 19 marathons as a runner and Nordic Cross skater. In 2008, Gene also became a business co-owner and subsequent Board member for the top cross-country ski and mountain bike center in Ontario.
Finally, an avid student of Economics and Politics, Gene has read dozens of related books and learned extensively from hundreds of Internet podcasts. He eagerly applies this learning as a Libertarian candidate in every election. In addition, Gene served as Chairman for the Ontario Libertarian Party for the June 2018 election, which produced the best results of any Libertarian political party in Canada’s history.
While Gene’s name appears on election ballots, his primary purpose is to continually advocate for Less Government so that voters will take this choice seriously. All too often, only Big and Bigger options are presented on election ballots, and Gene refuses to accept that any election is truly democratic unless a serious Less Government alternative is presented to every voter in every riding in Ontario. Gene will continue to be that election alternative in his riding for as long as possible.
Of course, Gene knows that it is very unlikely that a Libertarian government will be formed anytime soon. However, Andrew Breitbart famously claimed that “politics is downstream of culture” and this has continued to fuel Gene’s desire to shift our political culture through advocacy and writing.
In Gene’s view, sound principles are a prerequisite for sound public policies. They are the principles needed most: Individual Freedom, Personal Responsibility, Respect and Fairness under unbiased legislation. The pandemic had shown us that a cultural shift towards these principled of way overdue. Freedom of Choice is finally beginning to make sense to the majority of our citizens.
These days, Gene writes and publishes essays from a Libertarian perspective. You can get a glimpse into his life lens by subscribing to his Substack account at gbalfour@substack.com and on MeWe at https://mewe.com/i/genebalfour
