Zoey Duncan
The field is now set for the Oct. 6 provincial election here in Kenora-Rainy River riding, with Rod McKay getting the Progressive Conservative party nod on Saturday over fellow Kenora Coun. Louis Roussin.
McKay, a mill manager for Kenora Forest Products, joins Sarah Campbell (NDP), Anthony Leek (Liberal), and Jo-Jo Holiday (Green) in the race to replace retiring MPP Howard Hampton at Queen’s Park.
“I’m running in this election because every day I live being frustrated by the inaction and poor policy of the McGuinty government,” McKay told supporters here Saturday morning during the first of three nomination meetings held across the riding.
“I’m frustrated by the lack of recognition of the people, issues, and businesses in Northern Ontario,” he stressed.
“Frustrated because it could be so much better.”
In his speech, McKay roundly criticized the ruling Liberals of mismanaging the natural resources industry.
“Let’s consider the McGuinty record: thousands of jobs lost in the forest industry, something I’m acutely aware of. . . .
“I can tell you that if I told my boss I was going to pay more for raw logs than I was going to charge for finished two-by-fours, I’d be out of a job by the end of the day.”
He also strongly supported his party’s northern platform, dubbed “Changebook North,” which promises reduced hydro bills, cutting the HST, and giving First Nations a stronger voice.
“It’s a great platform that really starts to address the issues of Northern Ontario and affects the lives of the working people here,” McKay noted.
McKay also said he plans to attend the Morson Bass International tournament and the Dryden Fair in the coming days so he can get in touch with voters prior to the official start of campaigning on Sept. 7.
And if he is not elected MPP, McKay vowed to return to his seat on Kenora council.
This year marks the second time the provincial election will be held on a pre-determined date since Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government passed the Election Statute Law Amendment Act in 2005.
The law now requires an election to be held on the first Thursday in October every fourth year, as opposed to letting the ruling party call an election when it sees fit.
McKay said he likes the fixed-date election.
“If we have an election being called by the party in power, I think that can be manipulated more than if we just have a fixed election date [where] you have four years to prove you can do a good job and in those four years, if you’re not, then the voters are going to speak,” he reasoned.
Campbell, who worked as a
constituency assistant for Hampton at his Dryden office for the past eight years before being nominated to run for her party, agreed fixed election dates can be beneficial because they allow for more planning.
But that extra time comes with a hitch, she noted.
“It’s more expensive having fixed election dates because people tend to start ramping up their canvassing like six months prior,” she explained from Kasabonika First Nation, a fly-in community where she was meeting with community members along with Hampton.
For his part, Leek felt voters might be a bit fatigued after already having had federal and municipal elections within the past year.
“I think people are looking to settle down for a few years, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing that Ontario happens to be on fixed dates when you see some of the turmoil that can happen at the federal level. . . .
“But I mean, voting is important,” Leek stressed. “It’s an important thing and a very special privilege to have for people to participate in politics.”
Leek, an Emo Township councillor, said he’s eager to travel the region and bring some votes to the Liberals in an “equal opportunity” election.
“You can’t really predict this time,” he noted. “There’s no established superstar name that’s out there like Hampton had for 25 years and so everybody’s paying more attention. . . .
“I think that will be a good thing for this whole region.”
Leek said his top issue will be protecting the way of life that’s been fostered in the north, especially in the face of new mining projects coming to the area.
“Even though we have the potential of economic growth and development and all that kind of stuff coming up, we still need to protect the ways of our traditions and our communities, and that can be a hard thing to do when there’s change that comes,” Leek admitted.
“The big issue is to remind the rest of Ontario that we’re still here, to bridge the gap between two very distinct regions. . . .
“We need to stick together and we need to help develop our own growth and our own ways of life and maintain those ways of life while still building a network that connects us to the south,” he stressed.
Leek said that while he was excited to talk to people throughout the region, it would be a challenge for all the candidates to cover the province’s largest riding in just over a month.
Campbell also acknowledged that travelling throughout the expansive riding this election is likely to be the most difficult part of her campaign—even though she already has covered much of it in the past while helping Hampton.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be happy with all the places that I’ve been to in the sense that, I could work—and I really have been working—from the time that I get up until the time I go to bed, knocking on doors,” she remarked.
“But there’s only one of me and there’s a huge riding, so I do wish in some ways that I could replicate myself and really cover more ground, twice as much ground, but I am working hard,” she vowed.
In her nomination speech earlier this month Campbell highlighted the cost of energy as a barrier to small business owners and families in the north, and said that affordability continues to come up as a concern for many people.
More recently in Emo, she’s heard requests from constituents who want to see more targeted apprenticeship programs so that workers who are trained here don’t leave the province for work.
While Campbell is getting used to canvassing for votes instead of chairing meetings, she said she’s more than happy to keep learning about peoples’ issues.
“I’ve been knocking on doors for the last eight years and doing a lot of this work, but there’s always learning; the issues are always changing,” she noted.
Holiday did not respond to requests for an interview.
