Soon-to-be Ontario NDP leader Marit Styles visits Timmins
Just a week away from the confirmation vote that will officially make her the leader of the Ontario NDP, Marit Stiles visited Timmins Saturday to speak with media and supporters about her plans to support northern communities at Queens Park.
Joined by Mushkegowuk-James Bay New Democrat MPP Guy Bourgouin and retired former Timmins NDP MPP Gilles Bisson, Stiles told reporters that the Ontario Government is wrong to fight public sector wage increases and to lean towards private-sector-based healthcare.
“We’ve got everybody in this province competing for very few healthcare workers,” Stiles said in an interview.
“Everybody from doctors, to nurses, to PSWs. The last thing we need is a private, for-profit system that can pay more to suck more of those people out of our communities and into private clinics."
Stiles went on to say she worries that more healthcare funding will go to shareholder profits.
Visiting a historically NDP riding that’s now Progressive Conservative one, she said her party will still support northern communities.
Stiles told CTV News one of her goals is to win this riding back in the next election.
“[People are] struggling here, they’re struggling all over the province and we need to make sure that this government doesn’t ignore them,” she said.
“I want to make sure that the people of Timmins won’t get left behind, that this government doesn’t take people here for granted.”
- Download our app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
Family doctor and nurse practitioner recruitment are also top of mind for the New Democrats, as well as better winter road maintenance than the recently updated 12-hour bare pavement standard on highways 11 and 17.
Bourgouin said he’s going to continue pushing to get those highways ‘Class 1’ designations, which Carrie’s higher maintenance standards.
For Bisson, he said though Timmins voted PC after over 30 years, he said the he and the NDP had always supported them and helped get funding for major projects in the city; citing his help in funding the construction of the Timmins and District Hospital in 1993, under the Bob Rae NDP government and the building of the Cochrane Temiskaming Children’s Treatment Centre’s permanent location in 1998, under the Mike Harris Conservatives.
Bisson said Timmins had as much opportunity for funding as an NDP riding as it has now under its PC MPP George Pirie – but that a New Democrat will make a larger effort to help organizations apply for the funding they need.
He said he feels Stiles and her future candidate for Timmins will see that return.
“She’s a positive individual who proposes ideas, not just opposes, and I think she’s going to do very well for the party,” said Bisson.
“You’ve got people like Guy and a very strong caucus that will do well. I think this riding is going to go back to the NDP.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I just can't believe that it took so long': Body found in wreckage 3 months after deadly fire
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
No proof man lied to brother about number of kittens born in litter, B.C. tribunal rules
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Quebec police hand out hundreds of tickets to Hells Angels and other bikers before 'first run' meeting
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Parliamentary report on Emergencies Act decision is 18 months past due — and counting
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A candidate for Germany's key party was beaten up while campaigning for European elections
A candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left party in next month's election for the European Parliament was beaten up and seriously injured while campaigning in an eastern city, the party said Saturday.
Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
Snakes almost on a plane: U.S. TSA discovers a bag with small snakes in passenger's pants
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.