With Ontario’s election day fast approaching, over 200 residents attended a Meet the Candidates night last week. The Wellington Community Association event offered the only local opportunity to hear the candidates, never mind let those new to the game develop into full contenders.

Questions posed by moderator Jennifer Armstrong included queries about a trade war with the United States, healthcare and family physicians, affordable housing strategies, and how to handle expensive infrastructure investments.

Lori Borthwick for the Green Party, Amanda Robertson for the NDP, PC Incumbent Tyler Allsopp, and new Liberal contender David O’Neil situated their party’s platform in the local context, with varying degrees of success. 

David O’Neil stuck for the most part to key Liberal talking points, while Mr. Allsopp had some difficulty reconciling Conservative policy with questions about the underfunding of social and public services.

When it came to the local issues, Lori Borthwick and Amanda Robertson were the crowd favourites. Both proposed people-centred solutions for affordability, housing, infrastructure and healthcare. 

Recent cutbacks to programming at Loyalist College, the County’s infrastructure woes, and the Ford government’s underfunding of healthcare and education, while failing to build much in the way of new housing, were hot topics. 

The favoured candidate, based on audience response, was Amanda Robertson for the NDP.

Yet Mr. Allsopp rose to the occasion, and his context, when he said he thought the County’s request for an MZO in its settlement with Picton Terminals was ill-considered. 

“Municipal planning processes require transparency.
They need to be open and transparent with feedback from residents.
I think the grain terminal could be a great thing for farmers, for example, but the issue is municipal and I would like to see this decision revert back to the municipality.” 

—MPP Tyler Allsopp

“Municipal planning processes require transparency. They need to be open and transparent with feedback from residents. 

I think the grain terminal could be a great thing for farmers, for example, but the issue is municipal and I would like to see this decision revert back to the municipality.” 

Lori Borthwick noted, “Picton Terminals should not get an MZO. It needs a full environmental assessment. You can stop blasting the cliff face and still have grain terminals for our farmers.”

Amanda Robertson was both tactful and principled, laying the blame for a municipality’s recourse to an MZO at the door of the Premier. “The issues are well known by everybody, but the solutions need to come from the people involved,” she said.

“If the relationship between municipalities and the province is respectful, open and reliable, that makes it easier for councillors to relate respectfully and reliably to citizens,” she said. Likewise, she noted, “an MP can’t just show up to make a funding announcement; you need to be there at the difficult conversations to understand the community you are representing.”

Ms. Robertson also said the provincial funding that has come the County’s way recently, for water infrastructure and Road 49, simply wasn’t enough. “The NDP pledges to return the infrastructure responsibilities of small rural communities to the province,” she said. “When it comes to 49, the NDP is committed to the whole road. Small communities like PEC don’t have the ratepayers to cover these projects.”

Light Sparring

The evening’s format of a series of fairly predictable questions answered four different ways did not leave much room for debate among the candidates, but it did clarify the major differences in approach. 

During the discussion on the rising cost of living for young people, families and seniors on a fixed income, Mr. Allsopp claimed the Ford Government had grown the province’s economy from about $160 billion in 2016 to $212 billion in 2024 without raising taxes. “Business is up, so taxes are up,” he said. ”We have grown the base rather than increase taxes.”

“Let’s redistribute that and make sure we are all getting a piece of it,” quipped Lori Bothwick. 

“Where do you want to start?” asked Mr. Allsopp.

“I’d start by not digging a tunnel under the 401,” she answered to laughter and cheers, referring to the Premier’s pledge for an underground expressway through the GTA.

Mr. Allsopp had difficulty fielding the questions around healthcare and education. When he noted the premier had increased spending on healthcare from $65 billion to $85 billion from 2018 and 2024, “that’s not even keeping up with inflation,” Ms. Borthwick noted. 

A front-line healthcare worker for three decades, she recalled the bed count at Belleville General was around 500 when she started out. The number has since dwindled to 192. She noted one in four Ontarians does not have access to primary care, and must go to emergency rooms for routine care because there is nowhere else.

On tariffs, however, Mr. Allsopp was on point, noting just how intertwined the American and Canadian economies are, and pointing out Ontario is the primary trading partner with 17 States. An automobile in production might cross the border six times before it’s finished. He also noted the tariff threats have reinforced the idea that Ontario needs to get better at refining the raw materials they export south.

Amanda Robertson opened her remarks by noting, “Queen’s Park is not hearing our voices.” She stressed the disconnect between what communities most need — health care, education, and social services funding — and the current Premier’s agenda, focused on delivering big money projects to developers.

The daughter of a dairy farmer, Amanda Robertson said she always checks the label to find the Dairy Farmers of Canada Blue Cow logo, and said such a label should identify all local foods. 
She cited the Ontario Federation of Agriculture to note that if households across the province spent just $10 more a week on Ontario grown goods, it would generate an additional $2.4 billion annually for the agriculture industry and create 10,000 jobs for that sector. 
“Every purchase you make that supports local grows the local economy, protects it, and supports employment,” she noted.
“We have everything we need right here in Ontario. We can be so much more self-sufficient.” 

When it came to the doctor shortage, for example, Mr. Allsopp stressed building hospitals and medical schools. 

Ms. Robertson, by contrast, noted her husband is a doctor, and that the need is for teams of healthcare providers at community health hubs, where, she noted, wages have been frozen since Ford came to power, making it difficult to recruit and retain qualified professionals. 

When asked about education, likewise, Mr. Allsopp talked about building schools. He also said he would advocate for better funding for Loyalist College at Queen’s Park. The Green, Liberal and NDP candidates, however, said the sector needs comprehensive, stable funding for every school, college and university.

The daughter of a dairy farmer, Ms. Robertson said she always checks the label to find the Dairy Farmers of Canada Blue Cow logo, and said such a label should identify all local foods. 

She cited the Ontario Federation of Agriculture to note that if households across the province spent just $10 more a week on Ontario grown goods, it would generate an additional $2.4 billion annually for the agriculture industry and create 10,000 jobs for that sector. 

“Every purchase you make that supports local grows the local economy, protects it, and supports employment,” she noted. “We have everything we need right here in Ontario. We can be so much more self-sufficient.” 

The Liberal candidate, David O’Neil, a two-term Quinte West councillor and the son of a long serving Quinte MPP, the late Hugh O’Neil, seemed to have been thrown into the race with little time to prepare.

He struggled for much of the evening, reading notes from a binder in response to questions. But he came to life as the issues got more contentious, showing his years of experience on Council. He blasted the Ford government for overriding municipal processes, noting Ford’s government had employed the MZO work-around 114 times since 2019, a seven-fold increase over previous governments.

The Liberal candidate also noted the Premier should have invested the $189 million this premature election will cost into programming that would help Ontarians in a trade war with the United States.

“He quit his job just when Ontarians needed him the most.”

Ms. Robertson closed by noting that election day, 27 February, was also her birthday.  “Let’s make that the day that NDP Leader Marit Stiles can refocus this province’s policy on the people who live and work in our communities,” she said.

Early voting starts Thursday, February 20. If you’re in the Bay of Quinte riding, here are the locations. If you have not received your voter card, you can register at the polling location with your ID.