Ontario Liberal Party Leader Bonnie Crombie kicked off her provincial election campaign in Barrie this morning.
At her side at the outdoor podium, huddling against a stiff winter wind, was Dr. Rose Zacharias, the provincial Liberal candidate for Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte, as they spoke to reporters in front of the Barrie Primary Care Campus on Bayview Drive in the city’s south end. The event was held in the Barrie-Innisfil riding, where a Liberal candidate has not yet been announced.
“We are launching our tour here in Barrie because 55,000 people residing in this area don’t have access to a family doctor,” Crombie said.
“We are here today because Doug Ford doesn’t care about you, because he’s decided to spend $175 million on an early election that we don’t need rather than spending that money on getting you a family doctor, or do anything to make your life a little easier.”
Crombie touted a plan to provide 3,100 family doctors in family medicine in team care “so that everyone in Ontario will have access to a family doctor … It will be costed, and it will cost as much as the pre-election cheques.”
As premier, Progressive Conservative Party Leader Doug Ford recently issued $200 cheques ahead of the election call, calling them “taxpayer rebates,” to millions of eligible Ontarians.
When asked by Village Media during today’s question-and-answer portion of the news conference what steps she would take as premier, if elected, to address homelessness in Barrie related to addiction and mental health, Crombie was blunt.
“This mental health and addiction crisis deserves attention on its own,” she answered. “Should I form government, it will have its own ministry.”
When quizzed about a plan to address what many officials say is a funding shortfall for people living on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), Crombie stressed she has already committed to doubling the amount of money recipients would receive each month as part of an effort to help with the rising costs of living.
Zacharias described patients struggling to get care in a local emergency departments.
“This is what I know as a doctor inside the health-care system, as someone who has been at the bedside for 20 years as a family doctor at a hospital-based practice, primarily in the (emergency department),” said the local candidate.
Zacharias said she has previously advocated for the health-care system as a president of the Ontario Medical Association, speaking for all 44,000 doctors in Ontario in 2022 and 2023.
“This is what I know,” she said. “Real leaders fix health care, and that’s not happening right now. It’s not the priority of our current government, and so we need a change in leadership.”
The politicking has also begun as the provincial campaign officially kicked off Wednesday.
In a statement released by the Progressive Conservatives just three minutes prior to the start of Crombie’s local news conference, Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall threw his support behind Ford.
“Premier Ford is an incredible partner for Barrie,” Nuttall said in the statement. “Along with MPPs (Andrea) Khanjin and (Doug) Downey, he has delivered funding for rehabilitative services to combat addictions, housing dollars that have helped Barrie move forward with hundreds of affordable housing units, infrastructure that will bring hundreds of acres of land online for job creation, and consistent support for front-line policing in Barrie.
“Now is not the time for change. It’s time to implement the bold agenda that has begun and protect the jobs of Ontarians,” Nuttall added in the statement.
In response to the statement from the mayor, Crombie pointed to a lack of doctors in the city and also the local homeless crisis.
Crombie said Nuttall is “entitled to his own opinion.”
“Let the people decide if this is the kind of Ontario they want, because they can choose change and we will do more for them,” she added. “You can’t slap a label on a hat and pretend you are a leader.
“Real leaders fix health care, real leaders work and they are on the job, not gallivanting around the province calling unnecessary elections that will cost $175 million. That $175 million would have bought everyone here in Barrie a family doctor.”
Crombie was sporting a baseball hat that had ‘Real Leaders Fix Healthcare’ emblazoned across it in red letters.
She said she also visited the Barrie Food Bank.
“They supply food for 7,000 people each and every month. That’s the reality in Ontario for over two million people using a food bank who can’t pay rent and can’t buy groceries … and they’ve certainly lost the dream of owning a home,” she said.
Her next stop on this first day of the election campaign is scheduled for this afternoon in the Markham-Stouffville riding.
The provincial election will take place Feb. 27.
