LITTLE CURRENT—It was a busy weekend on Manitoulin Island, with the inaugural Home, Cottage and Culinary Show (HCC) taking place in Little Current and Manitoulin Pride Weekend events across the Island. Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles was also “in the house,” so to speak, touring the HCC on Saturday and Sunday and joining in the Pride fun at the Little Current United Church (LCUC).
The Expositor caught up with the NDP leader and her entourage, which included Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes and Andréane Chénier who will carry the NDP banner in the new federal riding of Nickel Belt-Manitoulin-Sudbury East on Sunday at the LCUC Pride events.
This is Ms. Stiles’ first visit to Manitoulin. “I am really happy I am to be here,” she said, noting she spent two days at the HCC because there were different exhibits on each day. “And I had to pick up some things for my daughter,” she laughs.
When it comes to Ontario NDP policies that impact Manitoulin Island, Ms. Stiles noted that everyone in Ontario is suffering from many of the things that are impacting Manitoulin as well.
“I think, like everybody in Ontario, is facing affordability challenges, people are having a hard time, struggling a lot with the cost of everything, you feel that in places in Manitoulin Island, sometimes a little more,” she said. “If they haven’t already lost their homes the fear of losing their homes, and, of course very much the healthcare crisis with emergency department closures.”
She noted that hallway medicine has gotten worse under the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives. “It has gotten deeply worse under the Conservatives,” she said, despite the assurances from the current premier that he would end hallway medicine (where patients lie on gurneys in hallways awaiting a hospital bed).
“Almost three million Ontarians don’t have access to a family doctor,” she said. “I know that in Northern communities and in places like Manitoulin Island that has been a challenge for a long time. Now it is challenging every corner of the province and communities are competing against each other.”
She pointed to the continuing challenges facing municipalities due to provincial downloading of responsibilities. “The added burden of having to maintain infrastructure that really should be the province’s responsibility, it shouldn’t fall to local taxpayers who are already bearing a big, big burden of that. It really is a provincial responsibility.” She noted Northern highways do not receive the attention the 400 series receives.
As for her main message to Manitoulin voters, Ms. Stiles was adamant.
“When the election comes, which could be any time soon actually, we can’t let Doug Ford take us for granted as Ontarians,” she responded. “People here deserve a strong NDP voice in the legislature. They need that representation. Ontario needs a change in government and we’re the change. Ontarians deserve so much better.”
