Duane Hicks
The Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding needs somebody sitting at the same side of the table as the governing party.
That’s the message Conservative Party candidate Maureen (“Moe”) Comuzzi sent when she stopped by the Copper River Inn here last Thursday to meet the public and talk about the party’s platform in the upcoming federal election.
Comuzzi noted the riding has been represented either by NDP or Liberal MPs for far too long, and feels it’s high-time to show what Conservative leadership can do for the area.
“We live in a beautiful riding, without a question, and there’s so much opportunity that we haven’t even touched on, and that is something I can bring to the table and champion,” said the lifelong Thunder Bay resident, who finished second to incumbent John Rafferty in the 2011 federal election.
“I’m a businessperson. I know how to go after small businesses and create activity in communities,” Comuzzi added.
“And I believe we deserve an opportunity to do that.
“Our kids deserve choices and right now, under the current NDP representation, we’ve had nothing,” she charged.
“It’s time for change.”
Comuzzi said the Conservative government is very vocal about supporting “our way of life” in the north, making sure that hunters and anglers aren’t being penalized for enjoying their way of life.
“Both the NDP and Liberal governments don’t support our way of life,” she argued. “That’s an important part of Northwestern Ontario.
“We’re a tourist hub in Fort Frances, right? Hunting and angling and tourism is part of that.
“Who better to champion the area than somebody who enjoys that way of life, who supports that way of life, and who knows how to encourage new business?” Comuzzi said.
In the four years since the last election, Comuzzi has worked with Kenora MP Greg Rickford, who has proven what a Conservative representative can do for a northern riding.
“He’s our [federal] minister of natural resources, our minister responsible for FedNor,” she noted.
“He’s coached me and mentored me.”
Comuzzi reiterated she sees great opportunities for Thunder Bay-Rainy River that haven’t been touched on.
“It’s been silent,” she remarked. “I haven’t seen any new business encouraged in any of our areas, have you?
“It’s time that we have somebody sitting at the same side of the table as the governing party,” Comuzzi added. “And I’m the person to do that.
“I have the contacts, I have the energy. It’s our turn.”
Comuzzi stressed Northwestern Ontario is “a gem” of a place to live, but children need opportunities, choices, and good-paying jobs if they are going to stay here.
The Conservative government looks after middle-class families, said Comuzzi.
Part of the Conservative’s plan to help those families includes the Family Tax Cut, which provides fairness for families with kids through income-splitting, saving them up to $2,000 every year.
The plan also includes:
•increasing the Universal Child Care Benefit to $1,920 per year for child under six years old and $720 per year for every child aged six-17;
•doubling the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit to $1,000; and
•adding $1,000 to the Child Care Expense Deduction limit.
Sara Loewen, a mother of two, vouched for how the Conservative government has helped her family.
“[The Child Tax Credit] is really huge for us,” said Loewen, who runs Loewen Greenhouses in Stratton with her husband, David.
“Because we have a business we are trying to get off the ground, it enables me to stay home and do office work for David,” she noted.
“We don’t have to have a second job because of that,” added Loewen, saying she’s not sure she’d do if a new government came in and changed the tax rules.
Loewen also said it seems to her that the other parties want young families to put their children in government-run day care and have both parents go to work.
“I don’t feel like that’s a freedom for me,” she remarked.
“The freedom is for us to be encouraged to get our business off the ground, have our kids to get the care we want them to have, and money we can use toward that.
“We’re not stuck with what the government dictates as ‘good child care,’” Loewen added.
“I think they are treating us as ‘stupid’ parents when they say that, actually.”
The four main parties all have their candidates in place locally for the federal election expected Oct. 19.
Rafferty is seeking a third term while Thunder Bay lawyer Don Rusnak captured the Liberal nomination earlier this month.
Thunder Bay principal Christy Radbourne is running for the Green Party.
