Let’s Have a Full Slate of New Democrats to Raise a Voice for Us in the Face of Four More Years of Ford Government
Brief Commentary by Doug Draper
Posted June 1st, 2022 on Niagara At Large
As I write this commentary there are less than 24 hours left before voters go to the polls in this Ontario election.
And I am going to begin by repeating something that I know some of you out there have told me you don’t want to believe or hear. Every poll out there is projecting, just as tracking polls have since this election officially began a month or so ago, that Doug Ford and his Conservatives are going to win another four-year term as a majority government.
The question we have here in Niagara is do we want to replace one or more of the three NDP MPPs we have – Jeff Burch in the riding of Niagara Centre, Wayne Gates in the riding in a riding of Niagara Falls that includes Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Jennie Stevens in the riding of St. Catharines – and add NDP candidate Dave Augustyn in a riding of Niagara West now held by Ford Conservative Sam Oosterhoff?
In other words do we want a solid block of NDP MPPs who will at least question Ford and his Tories and speak out for people in Niagara if, as expected, Ford win this election? Or do we want more Conservatives like Oosterhoff who will slavishly toe the Ford government line?
Indeed, if and when Ford wins this election, one can just imagine how emboldened his party will feel. If his Conservatives felt okay cutting environmental protection measures, services for children with autism, services for seniors, nursing services and on and on, how much further will they go next time?
We will certainly need as many voices as possible on the other side, fighting for the services and safeguards we have left.
That is why this commentator is hoping that as many voters as possible in Niagara, including younger voters who face crises in affordable housing, climate change and a loss of ever more of our natural heritage and food-growing lands, will paint this region orange by voting for Jeff Burch in Niagara Centre, Wayne Gates in Niagara Falls, Jennie Stevens sin St. Catharines and Dave Augustyn in Niagara West.
- Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
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“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders
Niagara At Large 
Before we despair — and let’s not do that unless and until we have to — we should recall that the pollsters are relying on 2018 results, when Ontarians overwhelmingly wanted to get rid of the Liberals, and small samples of people who still have land lines. Well, now we have a large and growing number of Ontarians who really REALLY do not want another four years of Ford. Are PC supporters honestly so thrilled about what’s happened over the last four years that they can ignore basic, vital issues? What about the decline in heathcare services, some of which will be privatized under another PC government? What about the scandalously poor conditions in LTC, particularly in the private ones (of which Ford will approve more)? What about the healthcare professionals at the end of their patience with a government that cares nothing for their welfare after all they did for us during the worst of the pandemic? What about angry teachers and angry parents? The disability community is up in arms, with families of autistics holding protest rallies all over the province. Anti–sprawl citizen groups that have sprung up like daisies in many Ontario municipalities to resist urban boundary expansion are all calling for an end to this government. They hate Ford’s ridiculous plan to waste 10 billion taxpayer dollars on a highway we don’t need and most don’t want, that will pave over Ontario’s best farmlands…all to enrich Ford’s developer and building trade friends. Are the majority of Ontario voters such chumps that they’ll support a party that holds us all in such contempt it can’t even be bothered to issue a platform and won’t allow its candidates to participate in debates in the riding?? I say to Ontario voters: have some self-respect. We all deserve better than this.
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