OTTAWA—While she has less than a month to go before retirement as the Member of Parliament for Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing Carol Hughes says it is an emotional and bittersweet time for her after having served 16 and a half years as MP.
“It is bittersweet,” said MP Hughes who said she will officially retire the day before the federal election April 28. “Yes, certainly I have mixed emotions. The hardest part of retiring was the effect it had on my staff and serving people in the constituency. I never thought I would be doing this as long as I have. When I first started, I thought I would be around for five to seven years at the most. But it is time to make way for other individuals to make their own contributions.”
“I always wanted to help people. This was true in 2004 and 2006 when I first ran (and lost) and then in 2008 (and won), as it is today,” said MP Hughes. “My goal has always been to bring communities together, by working with people to present a vision of Canada where everyone is held up, and nobody is left behind. This was the vision I shared with my former party leader and friend Jack Layton that I tried to carry throughout my time in Parliament.”
“I am proud of, and can hold my head up high for what I have done locally, nationally, Canada wide,” said MP Hughes.
“I have a list of things we were able to accomplish over the years in the riding and for Canada,” said MP Hughes. “There are a lot of post offices in the riding that I have monitored, and I am still keeping an eye on the Providence Bay post office to make sure it remains open. I put a call into the mayor of the municipality urging council not to let Canada Post Corporation put in community boxes.”
“I haven’t stopped working. I am still on the road and meeting with people on issues. I am still representing the riding. They are not paying me to slack off,” she quipped, noting in the past few days her work travels included Kapuskasing, Blind River, Ottawa, Sudbury, Whitefish River and back to Kapuskasing. “There is still lots of work to do and I will continue to give it everything I have until the end, which will come the day before the election.”
“I am carving out time for meetings to help out the three (NDP) candidates in the area and will be doing some canvassing work for Andréane Chenier (NDP party candidate) in the new Sudbury East-Manitoulin-Nickel Belt riding). Plus, I still have to close all my constituency offices. I don’t know if the person who is elected as the new MP in the riding will keep all the riding offices open. They are certainly busy offices.”
“Politics is a tough business,” said MP Hughes. “It can be exceptionally frustrating, but sometimes, incredibly rewarding. I am very proud of many of the issues I’ve brought forward to help Canadians. In recent years, some of those projects include the Canada Dental Care Plan, the pharmacare framework, anti-scab legislations, doubling the Volunteer Firefighters Tax Credit and Search and Rescue Volunteer Tax Credits, and a National School Food Program that will help feed 400,000 Canadian kids. I worked with stakeholders at the Canadian Optometrists Association to develop a national eye health strategy that I had broad support across party lines to work to prevent preventable diseases like macular degeneration. Northerners know how important FedNor has been for economic development throughout the region, but from its inception in 1987, it always fell under the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED). But along with the work of friends like Tony Martin and Charlie Angus, it finally became a standalone agency in 2021.”
“Those large-scale projects are important, but there’s an adage that states all politics is local. And almost always, those are some of the projects I was proudest to help move the yardsticks on,” continued MP Hughes. “Over the years, it became obvious that none of the large telecom companies had an interest in bringing affordable high-speed internet to parts of our riding, so I was happy to work with people like Georges Bilodeau on the Huron Shore and Manitoulin Island Community Owned Fibre Infrastructure (H&M Cofi) project with ROCK Network and PomeGran Inc. which will provide high speed internet access to 18,600 homes across the riding.”
“It was a pleasure to help secure funding for mobile ultrasound scanners for the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, to both ensure expectant mothers could receive medical care close to home while saving Health Canada hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in travel and health care costs, a win-win for everyone involved,” said MP Hughes. “Sometimes small projects make big impacts to people in our communities, like working to save post offices in places like Webbwood, Constance Lake First Nation and Walford, or securing funding for Meldrum Bay Marina fuel storage and sewer projects.”
“Those great moments, though, sometimes feel small when you hit serious setbacks. While I don’t regret the amount of effort I and some of my colleagues in the House of Commons put forward to try to save the 10 Northern Ontario ridings, at this point, I have no qualms about saying Conservative MPs didn’t lift a finger to protect Northern ridings, there will always be those moments where I have to ask if there is more that could have been done to keep the same level of representation. Only time will tell how much of an impact reducing a riding in the North will have on our people, our towns and our communities, but I anticipate the impact will be a net negative.”
“I am proud of the work I, and our party have done,” said MP Hughes, who was the recipient of the Canadian Association of Optometrists Vision Champion Award for 2021 based on work with the organization to develop a national eye health strategy and raise awareness for treatable and preventable vision conditions.
MP Hughes worked with communities across the constituency on funding applications, especially on infrastructure items such as roads and water treatment plants. She helped settle the black liquor subsidy as alternative energy that was unfairly punishing Canadian pulp and paper producers.
MP Hughes worked with First Nations to stop the HST from being applied and ensured that funding was allocated for improvements to Gore Bay-Manitoulin Airport. She also helped Indigenous communities in having land claims resolved, worked to preserve Huron Central, and worked to save Lake Superior caribou and have them relocated.
“Andréane (Chenier) has been on the Island quite a few times for events and getting to know people. She is a real go-getter, and I have a lot of faith in her,” said MP Hughes.
“It is the right time for me, and my family for me to retire,” said MP Hughes. “I wasn’t going to run the last time an election was called, but I thought it would be difficult to have a new MP in place during COVID.”
With retirement, “I am going out on my own terms,” stated MP Hughes. “I will be spending more time with my family, including my daughter and my grandkids. I am known to my grandkids as ‘the political lady’ but I have been able to spend lots of time with them over the years. But there are lots of milestones I have missed and have to make up for with my family. The first day I sat as MP, my daughter had her graduation so this and other milestones I have unfortunately missed. I am also looking at a couple of things that would provide personal growth and there are numerous home renovations that I want to be part of. I am looking forward to enjoying my time with my family.”
