Provincial election candidates in Ottawa Centre

The election will take place on June 2.

Here are the candidates for Member of Provincial Parliament for the riding of Ottawa Centre, in alphabetical order by party. The statements of candidates were edited for punctuation only.

Shelby Bertrand
Green Party of Ontario

My name is Shelby Bertrand, and I am honoured to be running for Ottawa Centre with the Green Party in our upcoming provincial election. I moved to Ottawa Centre seven years ago and fell in love with this vibrant, active and diverse community. After four years working with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and then two with Services Canada, I left the public service to pursue graduate studies at the University of Ottawa and represent Ottawa Centre environmentalists in two federal elections.

Residents of Ottawa Centre vote Green because they want leaders that give the environment the priority it deserves. The Green Party plans to put environmental living within reach of average working citizens by creating green jobs, bringing building codes and standards for provincial infrastructure in line with net zero goals, and incentivising electric transport. As an MPP, I would strive to protect our environment and ensure Ottawa Centre residents can proudly contribute to the health of our future.

Residents of Ottawa Centre should vote Green because of the people-centered issues I am passionately pursuing in 2022. Ottawa Centre residents deserve affordable housing. Everyone deserves mental health and addictions services to be as accessible and normalized as physical health services. Indigenous residents deserve an equal quality of life.

When I visit community members at their doorsteps, they tell me just how worried they are about our healthcare system. They tell me about struggles to find family doctors. They tell me about crowded ER waiting room marathons. They receive care lined up in beds in hallways, sometimes for multiple days, surrounded by chaos. They may not receive post-acute care after leaving the hospital, like visits from a PSW. Their relatives may stay at a hospital for months if no long-term care bed is available for them in the community.

COVID has made leaders confront the longstanding fragility of our acute care system. Ontario’s hospitals constitute one piece of healthcare. They currently do the jobs of the others. Patients find themselves going to hospitals for issues that could be addressed in community care settings, private homes and specific mental health and addictions services. Health does not start in a hospital. It starts in a neighbourhood.

Ontarians deserve health promotion, not illness treatment. The Green Party is calling for a healthcare system that is proactive, not reactive. On June 2, vote for the party committed to delivering real care to Ontario’s people.

Katie Gibbs
Liberal Party of Ontario

Over the past four years, we’ve seen Ontario move in the wrong direction – public education eroded, health care in crisis, backsliding on climate and so many of our neighbours living in poverty and experiencing homelessness. These last two years have been especially difficult – the COVID-19 pandemic and then the occupation of our downtown core on top of it.

As a mom with two young kids, married to an entrepreneur, I know first-hand how hard the past few years have been. As a scientist and experienced community leader, I know that we need a new government that is going to listen to science and put people first to deliver the progressive change we need.

Bold Climate Action

We are at a now-or-never moment for climate action, and it is at the core of why I am running to be your MPP. We cannot afford four more years of Ford’s environmental destruction. The Ontario Liberals have a bold and feasible climate plan. We will get to work ensuring our electricity system stays green and supports the transition to electric vehicles with up to $9,500 in rebates. We will use nature-based solutions to protect green spaces and build an active community through historic investments in public transit and dedicated active transportation funding.

Strong Public Education

Students, families and teachers have struggled through three disrupted school years. We will help students recover from learning disruptions by capping class size at 20 and hiring more support workers and mental health professionals. We will cancel EQAO, end mandatory e-learning credits and bring back the evidence-based sex-ed and Indigenous curriculums that Ford’s Conservatives scrapped. In Ottawa Centre, I will fight for funding to build the new downtown French school that we desperately need.

Resilient Health and Senior Care

All Ottawa residents should be able to find a primary care doctor. The Liberals will repeal the wage-capping Bill 124 so we can encourage nurses to stay in their profession and make it easier for internationally educated nurses to work in Ontario. I am committed to reforming long-term care by building sustainable solutions by focusing on not-for-profit, community-based alternatives and investing in stay-at-home supports for seniors.

Our community deserves strong leadership from someone who represents our progressive roots and has experience making change. Together, we can build a more equitable and sustainable community, right here in Ottawa Centre, and across Ontario. Join our team at katiegibbs.ca.

Joel Harden
New Democratic Party of Ontario

Hi neighbour, Joel Harden here, your NDP candidate for Ottawa Centre, running for re-election as your MPP. As the election approaches, I want to reflect on the past four years and highlight how the Ontario NDP will help people in Ottawa Centre.

With June approaching, the Ontario NDP is the party best positioned to defeat Ford, end the cuts to our social services and bring change to Ontario. Over the past four years, I’ve been honoured to work with our MPP office team, volunteers and community groups to build a movement in Ottawa Centre. Our work is about more than just an election – this is about building strength in our community.

We’ve won gains for seniors and people with disabilities by unanimously passing Voula’s Law in the legislature, ensuring families aren’t barred from seeing their loved ones in care. We were there for our schools and for kids hurt by cuts to the Ontario Autism Program. We’ve supported nurses and other public sector workers targeted by the wage caps in Bill 124. We’ve helped tenants hurt by massive rent increases. And we stood up for workers and small businesses left behind during COVID-19.

I got into politics because Jack Layton and Olivia Chow showed me that politics can be done differently. They showed me that you can listen, organize and empower people through politics. That’s why I’m excited to be campaigning on the Ontario NDP’s plan which will provide hope to people who have been let down by the Ford government.

An NDP government will put your health first, by bringing in universal mental health care and pharmacare, making birth control free and expanding the federal dental care plan. We’ll take the profits out of long-term care and home care, and build 50,000 desperately needed beds across the province.

We’ll address the climate crisis with the urgency it demands, by getting Ontario to net-zero emissions by 2050, launching the world’s most ambitious building retrofit program and expanding the greenbelt.

We have crucial commitments for Ottawa Centre, like hiring 30,000 nurses and addressing the family doctor crisis. We’ll ensure students have access to French learning close to home, and eliminate Public-Private-Partnerships (P3) and stop signing wasteful P3 contracts like Ottawa’s beleaguered LRT.

We know that our city and province deserve so much better. Let’s elect an NDP government that will put people before profit and bring the change we need.

In solidarity,
Joel

Scott Healey,
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario

After a long career in the Canadian Forces, many friends and associates have asked me why would I want to enter the world of party politics; why not just retire, relax and do something you enjoy. It is indeed a good question and one that I can answer without difficulty.

A lengthy professional career has provided me with the opportunity to develop the skill sets required to meaningfully contribute to a political party I have supported my entire life, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

The 1981 provincial election was my first. I knew instantly who I would be supporting and contributing my energy and time to; the Ontario PCs led by the late Bill Davis.

Politics became a passion, but I soon wandered down another path, a commitment to my country through service in the military; but my interest never wavered.

It’s cliché to say we need good people in politics; we do, our democracy depends on it. To make a difference that matters, one has to get it done. Leadership, consensus building and reasoned decision-making are often lacking. I don’t lack these qualities.

We all care about health care, the environment, public transit, education and care for our seniors. However, without a competitive and creative economy that generates high-paying jobs, all of the programs above cannot be supported. The Progressive Conservative Party led by Doug Ford is moving Ontario past the pandemic to an economy that works for workers and provides value for taxpayer’s money.

The 2022 provincial election is my first campaign. The real question is not why do you want to be a candidate for the Progressive Conservatives but why in Ottawa Centre? Ottawa Centre is a tough riding for PC candidates. Nothing should remain static however, and it’s time for pragmatic representation at Queens Park, not driven by ideology and crusading but experience and the ability to get things done.

The challenges our society faces are difficult and complex, there is no simple solution. What I promise the citizens of Ottawa Centre is that I will represent you in a Progressive Conservative government with dignity and professionalism and ensure that you have a strong voice at the table. Ontario and Ottawa remain one of the best places in the world to raise a family and live one’s life. I want to keep it that way. I count on your support on June 2.

Marc Adornato
None Of The Above party (NOTA)

My friends,

Would you like to sip a nice Merlot while having a picnic in Vincent Massey Park?

How about fresh eggs from your neighbour’s backyard chickens in Hintonburg?

Or let your kids have a pop-up lemonade stand along the canal without a permit?

Well right now you can’t. But if I am elected, YES WE CAN.

Together, let’s end this nanny state.

In my first 10 days I would:

Day 1: Donate 50% of my MPP salary to food banks and hire a BIPOC/LGBTQ2+ team.

Day 2: Legalize chickens, goats and community cows, and give tax breaks for planting fruit trees in your yard.

Day 3: Legalize booze in public spaces because we’re adults, not children.

Day 4: Connect all fitness gyms to the electrical grid #RenewableEnergy. #PeoplePower

Day 5: Get AC and VR headsets into all Long-term Care Homes.

Day 6: Introduce free education and transit in Ottawa, and give Galen Weston and Tobi Lutke the bill.

Day 7: No rest here! I’ll stop churches from ringing their bells, make them pay taxes and take the “catholic” out of “catholic schools” and hospitals.

Day 8: I will rename LeBreton Flats to “LeBreton Shacks” and allow 1,000 temporary low-income polyblock homes to fill that space to help the rental and housing crisis.

Day 9: End daylight savings time. Even if it’s just in Ottawa Centre.

Day 10: “Spark it up on Sparks Street!” I would turn Sparks Street into Canada’s only Red Light District, thereby fixing tourism and the economy.

But wait. How is this possible? Many of these things are not provincial jurisdiction, one might say.

True. The three levels of bureaucracy (Municipal, Provincial, Federal) are a HUGE challenge to getting things done. We need a less-complicated system that works faster.

If elected, I would team up with City Councillors, Feds, local businesses and YOU to get things done the way WE want.

I would form a new Direct Democracy Referendum Department (DDRD) tasked with designing a voting app that you could use to vote on every policy and bill. Imagine that? You, having a direct say on cross-jurisdictional policies that affect your neighbourhood and your life.

If food security and skyrocketing rent and home prices are a concern for you, or you’re tired of government over-reach into your lives and pocketbooks, then vote for me and together let’s end this nanny state. Vote None Of The Above!

Glen Armstrong
New Blue Party

I believe in these solutions to ensure our province’s future is one of hope, opportunity and prosperity.

If elected, I:

1. will fight to end all COVID-19 mandates, including: a complete repeal of Doug Ford’s emergency measures; a ban on COVID-19 vaccine passports; a reduction in the powers of local bureaucrats; and restitution for those harmed by emergency measures applied by the governments of Justin Trudeau or Doug Ford;
2. will oppose the $100 million taxpayer subsidy of Ontario’s political parties, ban lobbyists from party politics and crack down on voter fraud in internal party elections;
3. will promote a free press by cancelling the Toronto Star’s $500-million, online-gambling licence (gifted by the Ford PCs) and taxing all corporate media that receive any of the $600-million, federal government taxpayer “bailout” subsidy from the Trudeau Liberals;
4. will support growing Ontario’s economy at five per cent of GDP annually, starting with taking down wind turbines to reduce electricity prices and improving productivity;
5. support tax relief by cutting the HST from 13 per cent to 10 per cent and axing the Doug Ford carbon tax;
6. will support education reform by reducing administrative costs, introducing alternative schooling tax credits and stopping “woke” activism with the removal of critical race theory and gender identity theory from our schools;
7. will support dignity and transparency in our healthcare by expanding early treatment for COVID-19 and clearing the backlog of procedures by rehiring healthcare workers and offering choice in services.