Please tell us a little bit about yourself and why you are qualified to serve as MPP.
I’m a dedicated community leader with a lifelong passion for volunteerism in the arts, sports, and local initiatives. As the chair of a community well-being advisory committee, I have worked to address mental health, homelessness, and crime reduction.
Professionally, as business development manager in industrial sales, I have a proven track record across Ontario and Quebec, and am fluently bilingual.
I have three adult children as well, who help keep me grounded with deep-rooted values of service, leadership, and community engagement.
What are the most pressing issues facing Chatham-Kent in your riding?
In Chatham-Kent, 32,421 people don’t have access to a family doctor. That is a crisis. Hiring 3,100 new doctors, doubling residency spaces, and helping foreign-trained doctors get accredited to work in Ontario sooner, as well as keeping people with minor ailments out of our overcrowded ERs, are priorities of a Liberal government.
How will you address the growing discontent that’s led to petitions seeking de-amalgamation in Chatham-Kent?
I can understand the views of some, with forced amalgamation by the Harris Government and billions in downloading. It would have to be a municipal priority to urge the province to take action or keep the status quo.
How can the provincial government better address the homeless issue?
People with disabilities are dying in this province because Doug Ford has neglected to provide the basics. ODSP rates are so low that people are forced to live in poverty, and rely on food banks just to get by. It’s unacceptable.
We will double ODSP and help those who need it most.
If elected, what will you do to best represent your constituents?
Firstly, I will listen! The Liberals would offer a bonus to patriotic nurses and doctors who want to come back home to Canda from the U.S. and help solve Doug Ford’s health-care crisis and get people a family doctor.
We would also save Ontarians up to $1,150 a year immediately through our “More For You Tax Cut,” keeping more money in your pocket.
We will also take the HST off your home heating and hydro bills and plan to cut the small business tax rate in half from 3.2 per cent to 1.6 per cent. We will increase the eligible income threshold, saving small business owners as much as $18,000 per year.
