MANITOULIN—Trevor Holliday is a man on a mission. The Northern Ontario Party leader settled in to hold court at Little Current’s Loco Beanz coffee shop as part of a whirlwind Highway 17 tour.
The Northern Ontario Party is seeking to sever the North from the rest of Ontario to create a new Canadian province.
Mr. Holliday, a bus driver by trade, is intimately familiar with issues stemming from Northern Ontario’s vast geography and it was an incident on board a bus that triggered his involvement in the “separatist” party.
“There was an elderly woman on my bus who was obviously very ill,” he said. “She was there with her son who also needed to go to a medical appointment.” The woman had put off her own trip to get medical attention to coincide with her son’s appointment. “She explained to me that the Northern Travel Allowance didn’t cover all of the cost and she could not afford to go on her own.” That revelation ignited an ember that has since grown into a flame and prompted Mr. Holliday to explore political solutions. He happened upon the all-but-defunct Northern Ontario Heritage Party and its founder.
The Northern Ontario Party is the latest iteration of the former Northern Ontario Heritage Party that the indomitable Ed Deibel of North Bay founded in 1977 and led up until a couple of years ago. Mr. Deibel (84) is still active with the party, taking on the role of president.
The new Northern Ontario Party dropped the ‘heritage’ portion of its name when it registered with Elections Ontario because of the baggage in a political context that word has acquired over the past three decades.
Mr. Holliday is a father of four (one boy, three girls) and he is determined to help create a better world for them in the North.
Transportation issues play a big role in Mr. Holliday’s approach to the challenges in the North. “I keep hearing stories about grandparents not being able to see their children and grandchildren anymore (due to transportation cutbacks and the deterioration of public transit options),” he said. “Families are moving apart and becoming disconnected.”
Mr. Holliday maintains that Northern Ontario is being “treated like a colony” by the south, an inevitable consequence of the small population and vast resources and geography of Northern Ontario. As part of his research into finding a solution to the North’s issues, Mr. Holliday put together a petition “just to see if there was support or if we were just out in left field.”
The outpouring of support that petition revealed was an eye-opener. “We got 4,000 signatures in the first three months,” he said. Through that petition he connected with Mr. Deibel. “He asked if I would be interested in joining the party.” A few months later Mr. Holliday found himself falling into the role of party leader.
The party’s platform has 22 main planks, including: Having governance for Northern Ontario; restructuring government organizations to eliminate waste and repetitive spending or extensive spending; reducing the cost of living (hydro); improving transportation and travel of Northern Ontario; implementing a policy on natural resources; career creation with actual green energy laws and green building to eliminate emissions but also increase self sustainability; investing in Northern Ontarians before we help others; ending the sell off to outside countries and not always going to the lowest bidder as that takes away from the local economy; that indigenous residents are Northern Ontarians and are part of the government not just in meetings but including them as part of the process; that working people are supported and not just the whole give and take but a fair negotiation and a unity of workers, union and government; investing and spending for the future not just today and tomorrow; saying what you have thought or thinking about and not sugarcoating or make false promises to win your vote; regulating pricing to avoid unnecessary and unexplainable variances (ie. gas); investing in industry to refine and finish resources locally; reviewing seniors’ programs, funding and costs to ease the burden or assist with funding for keeping seniors with family or making living more affordable including stricter regulations and standards for personal support workers and all support workers for seniors while in their home or seniors living places and standards set for seniors living places; better care and help for veterans; true transparency; telling it as it is, not feeding lies just to gain a vote but to say what needs to be said or what you are thinking; investing in health care and jails; reducing wasteful spending to cut costs at government level while maintaining superior service; to have at least one candidate in all 11 districts in Northern Ontario and finally to work towards creating a Province of Northern Ontario.
Mr. Holliday noted that the approach of the party will be to respond to each and every communication in a timely manner, provide financial transparency, speak with the people not for the people, recognize that honesty and Integrity are not optional and to focus on the future not just today, tomorrow and yesterday.
Mr. Holliday recognizes that he has his work cut out for him, but he intends to take the long view on building the movement to establish a Northern Ontario province. “We have to build the political infrastructure,” he said. With that infrastructure in place to support candidates, the Northern Ontario Party hopes to elect MPPs in each of the North’s 11 ridings.
“We had 76 members of the party at its height in the late 70s,” he said. “We have 58 members now and we are growing every day.”
The party’s website can be found at northernontarioparty.simdif.com. “It’s a free website,” he explained. “We are all about minimal expense.”
