Former federal NDP candidate John Rafferty is switching gears to provincial politics because he feels it is time Northwestern Ontario has a voice that’s heard.
“Northwestern Ontario needs a voice now, rather than later,” said the Fort Frances resident, who expects to capture the NDP nomination for the Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding later this month for the provincial election slated Oct. 10.
“If I wait for another federal election, it may be too late,” he reasoned.
It was decision that didn’t weigh lightly in Rafferty’s mind given he only lost the 2006 federal election here in Thunder Bay-Rainy River to Liberal incumbent Ken Boshcoff by a mere 600 votes.
“On one hand, people were telling me I had a good chance at winning the next federal election because Mr. Dion and Mr. Harper are going nowhere in the polls and Jack Layton is gaining popularity,” he explained.
“However, on the other hand, people were saying they don’t care if my voice is in Ottawa or Toronto because we need a voice now—there is no time to stall.”
Over the past four years while the McGuinty Liberal government has been in power, Rafferty said more than 42,000 jobs have been lost in Northern Ontario alone.
“This is another reason why I’m running because these job losses don’t need to be happening,” he argued. “People in the north have been taken for grated, their votes have been taken for granted, and now we have seen the effects of four years of Liberal inaction.”
The rippling effects of layoffs and cutbacks, especially in the forest industry, have been felt either directly or indirectly across every community in Northwestern Ontario.
The most recent job losses in Northwestern Ontario occurred in April when 110 workers at the McKenzie Forest Products mill (a division of Buchanan Forest Products) were laid off in Hudson, near Sioux Lookout.
Last February, Abitibi-Consolidated announced it was closing its Fort William paper mill indefinitely, affecting 265 people employed there and 88 others with the company’s woodlands operations.
Abitibi also has closed its mill in Kenora—leaving 320 people without jobs.
“I think it’s important the people remember these layoffs,” Rafferty said.
He noted we should be asking ourselves how it’s possible the forestry industry is booming in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia but not here in Northern Ontario?
“Mr. McGuinty will tell you the markets are poor and the Canadian dollar is too high, but how can other places succeed?” he questioned.
Rafferty said the reasons are clear and always the same—electrical costs are too much for our mills to sustain.
The forest industry is very electricity-intensive and, as Ontario NDP leader and local MPP Howard Hampton continuously points out, the McGuinty government’s policy of raising hydro rates through the roof is to blame for the job losses.
According to Rafferty, it costs $3 million a month to keep Bowater’s largest mill in Thunder Bay operating but the same size mill located in Manitoba only costs $700,000 a month to keep it running.
“If it’s going to cost a company $26 million more a year to run your operation in Northern Ontario, where would you run it?” Rafferty asked. “Of course where the expenses are the cheapest, that’s why we are in this problem.”
He believes the provincial government should be looking at different options with electricity—and says the NDP are doing just that.
“One option would be regional pricing for Northwestern Ontario and perhaps running our own electricity system, where we get it at cost and it’s owned by the people of Northwestern Ontario,” Rafferty suggested.
If some of these problems had been addressed, the NDP believes the forest industry in Northern Ontario would not have suffered as much. But they weren’t and Rafferty thinks the Liberals will feel the northern voice at the polls come October.
Rafferty also pointed out it only took Premier Dalton McGuinty eight days to give himself a $40,000 raise, which he said is more than most people in Northwestern Ontario make annually.
“Eight days, and in four years he’s done virtually nothing for us up here,” he charged. “He’s made lots of promises, though, but we know what those promises are worth from the last election.
Rafferty and the NDP are counting on the northern vote this election.
“I’m happy to be running in the provincial election because we have a great opportunity to turn all of Northern Ontario NDP orange.
“And what that would mean is Northern Ontario would finally have a voice because we would have a block of NDP MPPs led by Howard Hampton, who will ensure that the north is treated fairly,” Rafferty said.
“The north won’t be forgotten this time around, our voices will be heard,” he vowed.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
