Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Practice what you teach — that’s what Tim Rigby is doing by running as the Liberal candidate in the Hastings-Lennox and Addington riding in the June 7 Legislative Assembly of Ontario election.
A high school teacher within the Limestone District School Board, he says by putting his name forward he is leading by example for his civics students.
“In my civics class I actually have a project where they have to go out and do something, be an active citizen,” said Rigby from his campaign headquarters on Bridge Street in Napanee. “They have to go out and do an awareness campaign. They might choose to run a fundraiser for the Humane Society or whatever. I don’t just let them talk about it, I make them do it. When the opportunity came up for me to run as a Liberal candidate, I thought I can’t stare these kids in the face every day if I don’t step up and do exactly what I’ve been telling them to do, which is get involved, make a difference, put your name out there. It’s going to be hard, but you’ve got to do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
Rigby says the Liberal party across the province is feeling renewed energy following Sunday’s debate between the leaders of the Liberals, New Democratic Party and Progressive Conservatives.
“Kathleen (Wynne) did a great job last night’s debate and people are going to start taking that second look (at the Liberals),” said Rigby. “We’re there.”
“When you evaluate the choices, it just becomes glaringly clear that this is a competent government,” Rigby says of the Liberals. “There’s a $1.5-trillion economy in Ontario. I don’t even know how many zeros that is, it’s huge. We’ve got the most robust economy in the G7. That’s amazing. Better than the rest of Canada, better than Europe, Germany where they make the BMW, France, England, the United States. Ontario has been so well managed that our economy is leading those. Lowest unemployment in seven years. Not everyone has benefitted from that, but certainly you’ve got to have that in place for everyone to get onboard with the growth and the economic well being for them individually as well as for them in the province.”
As the campaign reaches the home stretch, he says the biggest issue he’s heard when talking to residents in this riding is concern over the NDP and Conservatives.
“There’s real concern over Mr. (Doug) Ford because he was certainly the candidate that everybody had their eyes on at first,” said Rugby. “I think that concern has now shifted to the New Democratic Party. Can they manage this $1.5-trillion economy? Can they make it work? Can they continue what the Liberal government has done in the economic field, in the employment field? In the care and opportunity and the programs we’ve put in, and still pay for them? Our path to balance is there. It’s not simply throwing money into the wind, it’s a real, costed program with a path to balance. For the last nine years the Liberals have hit their target for the budget right on.”
“We’re running this relatively small deficit, relative to that $1.5 trillion but still large in our personal budgets,” said Rigby. “But it’s less than one per cent the GDP, because we have such a huge economy. Those people that we’re helping in pharmacare, in education for their tuition, looking after them if they can’t afford it, for the seniors who can’t afford their medicare making sure they’re looked after. There’s a number of investments that we have to make because if we wait five years, there’s a whole generation of kids who go through high school who come out without being able to go to post secondary school. There’s a whole generation of kids who don’t have drugs if they get sick.”
Advancing voting is underway for the election with the final day to vote on June 7.