PARIS Several issues, including affordability, were discussed Thursday as candidates vying to become the next MPP for Brantford-Brant in the June 2 provincial election gathered for the first time.
Incumbent Will Bouma, of the Progressive Conservatives, and challengers Harvey Bischof, of the NDP, Ruby Toor, of the Liberals, and Karleigh Csordas, of the Green Party, participated in a candidates’ meeting sponsored by the Brant County Federation of Agriculture at the Paris fairgrounds.
“The issue I’m hearing about most at the door is affordability,” said Bischof, the immediate past president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. “People are truly feeling the strain.”
If elected, Bischof said addressing housing affordability for buyers and renters would be among his top priorities.
“In the past week, I’ve spoken to young people who had returned home to live with their parents because they couldn’t afford their apartment any more.”
He said an NDP government also would look at regulating gas prices which are “astonishingly high” and find ways to bring food prices under control.
Csordas said a top priority for the Greens is the environment.
“If we don’t address the climate crisis we’re not going anywhere.”
Csordas, who works as a recreational therapist at Norview Lodge Long-term Care Home in Simcoe, said another concern is the mental-health crisis, especially among farmers.
“We also understand that mental health goes hand in hand with the housing crisis.”
Bouma, who is seeking a second term, spoke about the key priorities of his party’s election platform.
“We need to rebuild Ontario’s economy because that is the path forward to prosperity,” he said. “We need to build highways and infrastructure so that the goods you produce can reach your markets.”
He said the province must build hospitals, long-term care homes and schools – all of which are being done.
“We also need to keep costs down, that’s why we’re getting rid of regulatory red tape,” said Bouma, who is an optometrist and a former Brant County councilor. “That’s why we got rid of the license plate sticker renewal (fee).”
Toor said improving health care would be her No. 1 priority. But she, like the other candidates, said there are other issues that must be addressed, including housing, child care and services for seniors.
“Seniors should be able to live with dignity and they should have a comfortable life,” she said. “Next, are our children.
“They are the future of our province and our country and we need to ensure they have proper schools where they can learn and grow.”
Toor, who is executive director at Amber Lea Place, a Brantford retirement home, said a Liberal government would look for ways to address the housing crisis.
Two other candidates, Tad Brudzinski, of the New Blue Party, and Rob Ferguson, of the Libertarian Party, did not participate in Thursday’s meeting.
Brudzinski attended the meeting but left before it started to attend a New Blue rally in Cambridge.
Formed in 2020, the New Blue Party is led by Jim Karahalios, husband of Belinda Karahalios, who is a candidate in the riding of Cambridge.
Belinda was elected to the Ontario legislature in 2018 as a PC representing Cambridge. She was kicked out of the PC caucus for voting against a bill that enabled the province to extend emergency powers for up to two years with consulting the legislature.
She served as an Independent until January 2021 when she became a member of the New Blue Party.
Ferguson was not invited because the meeting was limited to political party candidates with representation in the Ontario legislature.
Bouma pulled out a close victory in the 2018 provincial election, taking 42 per cent of the votes over New Democrat Alex Felsky, who got 40.9 per cent. With Bouma’s total vote count of 24,437 and Felsky’s 23,802, the two were separated by just 635 votes.
Toor was a distant third with 5,553 votes.
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