Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey acclaimed to run again

If an Ontario election is called in the new year, Bob Bailey is ready to go.

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The Ontario PC Party announced this month the Sarnia-Lambton MPP has been acclaimed to run again.

“I thought I would take another go at it,” said Bailey, who was first elected in 2007.

Ontario’s next fixed election date isn’t until June 2026 but Premier Doug Ford has left the door open to calling an election in 2025.

“We’ve got so many things almost across the finish line,” Bailey said about projects in Sarnia-Lambton.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to go one more time and see what happens,’” ​​he said. “Hopefully, I’ll be re-elected if the people decide I did a good job.”

With 17 years of service in the legislature, Bailey has matched the record of William Hanna, a Conservative from Sarnia who represented what was Lambton West in the early 1900s, and he is closing in on the about 22 years served more recently by the late Lorne Henderson, also a Conservative, in Lambton.

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“It has been a great privilege to serve the people of Sarnia-Lambton,” Bailey said.

Any credit, he said, is shared with his municipal and federal colleagues, and his staff, as well as others, who are “all pulling for a same community and trying to make it better.”

Projects Bailey said he would like to get over the finish line include a provincial pledge to convert a section of Highway 40 in Sarnia from two lanes to four lanes.

Another is construction of a 24-bed addictions hub at Bluewater Health in Sarnia, a project waiting for final provincial approval.

“I’m more than optimistic we’re going to hear shortly that it’s going to move ahead,” Bailey said. “We’re at that stage where they’ll be picking out the furniture.”

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The hospital said this fall talks continue with the provincial Health Ministry about architectural drawings to build the hub, most recently estimated at $16 million.

Once that work begins, it’s expected to take about a year to convert the first three floors of a vacant wing at the Sarnia hospital to accommodate the hub, according to Bluewater Health

The addictions hub was promised 100 per cent provincial funding in February 2022. The Sarnia area, like others, has been hit hard by the impact of addiction.

Looking back on 2024, Bailey pointed to local school improvement projects, and others, supported by the province.

“The Gregory Hogan school opened,” Bailey said. “That was $24 million by the provincial government. That was a big investment.”

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The province also funded about $3 million in renovations underway at the former Gregory Hogan site, which will become the new home of Sacred Heart Catholic school, and a $6 million expansion of Errol Village public school, he said.

Bailey said he also welcomed the announcement by the province that the former Lambton Generating Station site near Courtright is being considered for new electricity generation projects.

“That’s to be determined yet with discussions with the community and the ministry,” Bailey said.

The province also backed a replacement for the Trillium Villa long-term care site in Sarnia, expansion of sewage treatment plant in St. Clair Township and Sarnia’s new transit terminal, along with other initiatives, he said.

With files from Tyler Kula and the Canadian Press

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