Niagara Falls Riding Race Ramps Up With Redekop As NDP Candidate

By Doug Draper

Before an enthusiastic audience of supporter this June 10, Wayne Redekop was acclaimed as the New Democrat candidate in the provincial riding of Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls NDP candidate Wayne Redekop delivers nomination speech while party's Ontario leader, Andrea Horwath, looks on.

The nomination of Redekop, during a meeting in Niagara Falls attended by Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, promises to make the race for a seat in this October 6 provincial election a hot one in this riding, encompassing Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and the candidate’s hometown of Fort Erie.

Redekop, a lawyer and former Fort Erie mayor who has continued to speak out for fair access to hospital care, land preservation and other issues since he decided for years ago not to make another run for mayor after servicing two terms, will be facing off against Liberal incumbent incumbent and Niagara Falls resident Kim Craitor and first-time Conservative provincial candidate and Niagara-on-the-Lake businessman and farmer George Lepp.
Craitor has served the riding as its MPP for two years and has earned a reputation as a populist who has not been afraid to speak out for his constituents on issues that may conflict with the positions or policies of the Liberal government he is a member of.  His willingness to lay partisan politics aside, especially when it comes to concerns over hospital services, including the closing of emergency room services in Fort Erie and the call from constituents for an independent investigation of the Niagara Health System and its so-called ‘hospital improvement plan’, has earned him plaudits from constituents.

Yet, the Liberal government he belongs to, particularly that government’s health minister Deb Matthews, has hardly given Craitor a break, even on her recent decision allow a review of the NHS’s hospital plan. Matthews has said she wants the NHS and another government body that approved the plan three years ago (the Local Health Integration Network for this area) involved in setting the terms of reference for the review, a direction from the minister others see as a conflict of interest that could turn the review into a farce.

That concern was echoed during Redekop’s acceptance speech this June 10 with one of the louder rounds of applause he received during meeting.

“We need to get back to basics with health and hospital care,” said Redekop.  “There should be fewer administrators and more front line health care providers.  We need a supervisor to investigate the Niagara Health System to determine why it has been unable to do its job for the past decade and to make recommendations for the changes that will result in the people of Niagara receiving the hospital care that we deserve.”
“Don’t be fooled by the minister’s (Deb Matthews’) announcement about an “independent review” of those parts of the HIP  (hospital improvement plan) that have already been implemented.  Does anyone, except the minister, really believe that a review commissioned by a steering committee dominated by the body that created the HIP and the body that approved it will find fault with the HIP?  It’s no wonder the review won’t be completed until after the (Oct. 6) election.”

“We don’t need a review to know that we should reopen the Emergency Department at Douglas Memorial (the hospital site in Fort Erie) immediately – because it makes sense to do so, because it will lessen the burden on the Greater Niagara General and because it is the right thing to do.  We don’t need further evidence before taking action.”

Sue Salzer, a Fort Erie resident who heads up the Yellow Shirt Brigade, a citizens group that has received the support of thousands of people in South Niagara for its call for fair access to quality hospital services in the region, was at Redekop’s nomination this June 10, not as a Yellow Shirt but as an individual constituent in the riding, she said,  to support his candidacy. Salzer has often praised Craitor, and continues to, for backing the Yellow Shirt Brigade’s efforts but has slammed Matthews and the Liberal government for going along with the NHS’s plans, including the closing of emergency rooms at the hospital sites in Fort Erie and Port Colborne.

Salzer says that because of the lack of response she and so many others have received to the way the NHS is managing Niagara’s hospitals, she can’t vote Liberal.

Horwath, a Hamiltona area MPP and the NDP’s leader for the past two years, said she feels the party “has a fabulous candidate in Wayne Redekop” that can help the NDP win the upcoming election with policies that place ordinary residents ahead of special interests, and “give families a much-needed break.”

“I’m proud that such a strong, intelligent, community leader has chose to share his talents with the Ontario New domcrat team,” Horwath added. “Wayne understands the issues that matter to families in Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and  Niagara-on-the-Lake.”

Malcolm Allen, the MP for the federal NDP in the Welland Riding, told the audience he’s hopeful, based on the support the party received in the recent federal election, that the NDP can win in Ontario. “The Blues (provincial Conservatives) and the Reds are tired. They are the same old, same old. …. Sandra Pupatello (one of the McGuinty Liberal government’s senior cabinet ministers who announced this June 9 that she will not be running again in her Windsor area riding) has called it quits because she sees the wreckage coming,” Allen said.

“I am ready for the fight,” concluded Redekop during his nomination remarks. “Let the campaign begin for a better future for the people of this riding and for all of Ontario.”

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