Justin Medve
For the Beaver
The public met with Hastings-Lennox and Addington Ontario Progressive Conservative candidate Daryl Kramp for a spirited look forward at the opening of Kramp’s local campaign office downtown Saturday morning.
Kramp is now running for the province after serving federally as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Prince Edward-Hastings for just over a decade.
He lost his most recent bid for MP of the newly-formed Hastings-Lennox and Addington riding in 2015.Kramp took the floor Saturday to share some of the provincial issues he’s pledging to tackle.
He told the Beaver that he felt obligated to run after witnessing issues like high taxes, hydro bills and a growing debt pile up.
“The monetary direction of the province and all of the wants, needs, policies and platforms: they all fall victim to the budgetary restraints – and when you can’t manage your budget, you can’t manage an economy and you can’t manage your programs,” Kramp said.
Kramp said preventing rural school closures, decline of public services and problems facing youth are another part of his mantra.
He said a lot of similar issues face all corners of the riding, also including mediocre cell-phone coverage and a lack of long-term health care.
“The people are still the same. They all have the same problems, they still have the same challenges,” Kramp said.
Local campaign volunteers were also on-hand Saturday to share some of the early work they’ve done and tell others how to get involved.One of those volunteers is Simon Chapelle from Amherstview, who said he hopes his time spent spreading the word results in more youth engagement in politics.
“It’s not about you, it’s about your kids and their future and you want to set them up for the best opportunities for success,” he said.
With the election date still a couple of months off, mostly preliminary volunteer work has been done, but director John Stinson said the team has kept busy.
Volunteers also had to take their posts early to help gather votes for a new PC party leader, as previous Conservative head Patrick Brown left his position amid allegations of sexual misconduct in late February.
“That was a huge job we had to do in a very short period of time,” Stinson said.
He explained that keeping up with identification needs is a large volunteer role. Electronic voting poses issues aspeople sometimes lack a way to have their information scanned and need to be contacted, Stinson said.
“Elections are won and lost by whether people come to vote or not,” Stinson said.
Representing the Liberal Party in Hastings-Lennox and Addington is Stone Mills’ Tim Rigby. The riding’s NDP candidate is Bancroft’s Nate Smelle. Lonnie Herrington leads locally for the Trillium Party of Ontario and Grant Dewar will run for the None Of The Above Party.
Kramp estimates his Bancroft campaign office will be up-and-running within a few weeks. Volunteer opportunities can be found online or by dropping in at 8 Dundas St. W.