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
'We will exercise fiscal restraint': Freeland outlines priorities ahead of 2023 federal budget
The coming 2023 federal budget will 'exercise fiscal restraint' while also making 'significant' investments in health and building Canada's clean economy, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday.

3 people stabbed at Halifax-area high school; 1 person in custody
Police in Halifax say three people have been stabbed and a student is in custody following a weapons complaint at a high school in Bedford, N.S.
W5 Investigates | How did a healthy teen die at a minor hockey camp?
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in CTV W5's 'What Happened to Ben,' on CTVNews.ca and W5's official YouTube channel.
Conservatives forcing MPs to vote on striking new foreign interference study
In an effort to keep the foreign interference story at the forefront, and to do an apparent end run around the Liberal filibuster blocking one study from going ahead, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has forced the House to spend the day debating a motion instructing an opposition-dominated House committee to strike its own review.
Spring backwards? Why next spring will come earlier than it has in nearly 130 years
In the previous century, the spring equinox typically fell on March 21, but the first day of spring has slowly been moving. Here's why next year it will fall on March 19, for the first time since the 1800s.
Nexus program to resume by April 24 after yearlong standoff
The federal government says the Nexus trusted-traveller program will fully ramp back up within five weeks, allowing frequent border crossers to complete their applications and speed up their trips.
Amazon cuts 9,000 more jobs, bringing 2023 total to 27,000
Amazon plans to eliminate 9,000 more jobs in the next few weeks, CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to staff on Monday.
Parliamentary committee summons Mark Zuckerberg over Meta's threat to block news
A parliamentary committee has decided to invite the testimony of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose company operates Facebook and Instagram.
Donald Trump's call for protests gets muted reaction by supporters
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for protests ahead of his anticipated indictment in New York have generated mostly muted reactions from supporters, with even some of his most ardent loyalists dismissing the idea as a waste of time or a law enforcement trap.