ELLIOT LAKE—Michael Mantha has been re-elected for a second term as the NDP Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Algoma-Manitoulin.
“I will again bring the issues of Northern Ontario, specifically of the Algoma-Manitoulin riding residents, to Queens’s Park,” stated Mr. Mantha, after last week’s provincial elections.
Mr. Mantha won the Algoma-Manitoulin riding vote in convincing fashion, picking up 14,172 votes (53.36 percent of the votes) compared to 6,504 votes for Liberal Craig Hughson (24.49 percent) and 4,589 votes (17.28 percent) for Jib Turner of the Progressive Conservatives. Alexandra Zalucky of the Green Party received 828 votes (3.12 percent) while Richard Hadidian, who represented the Libertarians, received 464 votes (1.75 percent).
“It’s a privilege to have been re-elected and I feel really humbled to be going back to Queen’s Park as the voice for this riding in Toronto,” said Mr. Mantha. “What resonated in what I was hearing from constituents in the election campaign was that I needed to keep bringing the issues that are important to them to Queen’s Park,” he continued. “People told me that for a very long time they had felt disconnected with the Ontario Parliament on issues, and with the government in power.”
“A lot of what we have heard from the residents, and will be voicing clearly in Queen’s Park, is about making things affordable for families, our seniors, health, jobs and the economy and looking at ways to reduce the cost of hydro,” stated Mr. Mantha.
Mr. Mantha said, “It is time to roll up my sleeves and get to work. One of the things I take great pride in is the bridges that I’ve built with other MPPs in every party and riding of the province, as well as with all provincial ministers.” He believes the bridges he has built will mean it will not be harder for him even though the Liberals and Premier Kathleen Wynne won the provincial election by a majority.
“In the 2011 election the voters did not give a full majority to the Liberal government in voting them in,” said Mr. Mantha. “With the majority government Premier Wynne and her party need to put in place everything they have said they would. We won’t forget and will be making sure that a lot of what was proposed in the provincial budget to help residents throughout the province, and particularly those in the North, are not forgotten.”
