Sioux Lookout resident Susan Barclay has filed the necessary papers to seek the NDP nomination for the proposed new riding of Kenora in the next election.
As first reported in last Thursday’s Daily Bulletin, Barclay ran for the NDP in the Kenora-Rainy River riding in 2000—garnering 21 percent of the vote while the party only received eight percent nationally.
With new polls putting the NDP in the high teens nationally, Barclay has high hopes of winning the new riding this time around.
“The NDP is on a roll nationally,” she said in a press release. “There is new and real energy within the party.
“Ed Broadbent’s return to politics has given us a huge boost and Jack Layton’s leadership has certainly renewed the party and is having a very positive impact locally,” she added.
Within the boundaries of the proposed Kenora riding (which would see Rainy River split off and joined with the current riding of Thunder Bay-Atikokan), more than 850 party members will be eligible to cast ballots in the nomination race.
“Our membership has reached levels we have never seen before in this area,” said Barclay, the priest at St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Sioux Lookout.
“In the Kenora riding, people have a real choice,” she added.
“Do they want to elect a prime minister and a party that says it’s okay to give away billions of dollars in tax cuts to their corporate friends while at the same time the gap between rich and poor continues to grow and many still have no roof over their heads?” she asked.
“Is it in our interest to elect a prime minister who, as the owner of Canada Steamship Lines, didn’t hesitate to fly the flags of other countries to avoid Canadian labour laws, Canadian wages, and Canadian taxes?” Barclay argued.
A nomination meeting is expected to be held sometime in early March to choose the candidate to run under the NDP banner.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
