The riding of Kingston and the Islands will be electing a new MPP on June 2. Housing, health care, education and affordability are issues most Kingstonians are eager to hear more about.
The riding is surrounded by a sea of blue rural ridings. The one-time Liberal stronghold was won by the NDP last election. With New Democrat MPP Ian Arthur not running for re-election, the riding will have a new representative at Queen’s Park, and there are some familiar political faces on the ballot.
New Democratic Party candidate Mary Rita Holland is hoping to keep the Kingston riding orange, carrying on the work done by her predecessor Arthur.
“I’ve been working on the issues that people in Kingston are concerned with for some time and I have a sense of how to resolve those issues,” Holland said.
Holland has sat on Kingston city council since 2014. She said the NDP platform pledges more supportive and transitional housing for those struggling with homelessness, along with offering first-time homebuyers a government-guaranteed loan, and it plans to make mental health services covered under OHIP.
“We need to have a system that funds talk therapy, different kinds of physiotherapy, CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) that kind of thing,” Holland said. “So the NDP plan will bring mental health into the health care system, bring community providers together so people don’t have to pay out of pocket.”
Health care is also a major election issue for another familiar face running in this election: Liberal candidate Ted Hsu, who will be looking to return the riding to his party.
He’s returning to politics after serving as MP for the riding from 2011 to 2015. He says he’s running provincially this time because his daughters have asked him to.
“They’re getting older and they’re starting to do things like watch the news and talk to their friends and follow world events and they’re concerned with what they see in housing, in health care, education, climate change. They’re worried.”
Hsu said the top priorities for the Liberals are creating more housing, providing funding for long-term care and home support that would allow people to live at home longer, and curbing the effects of climate change.
Hsu said that while canvassing he’s heard a lot about the lack of family doctors.
“The situation in Kingston is special because we have a lot of family doctors who do research, they teach,” Hsu said. “There are a lot of people from outside of Kingston using Kingston family doctors. And so this formula that the province uses for funding needs to be modified.”
Progressive Conservative candidate Gary Bennett says Doug Ford’s Conservative government will address the doctor shortage by adding 50 additional spaces at Queen’s School of Medicine.
Bennett served as Kingston’s mayor from 1994 to 2000. He said he’s motivated to run because of the PCs’ vision for Ontario.
“Kingston and the Islands has benefited actually from a Progressive Conservative government that’s invested money into the integrated care hub. We’re going to be constructing a new 50-unit dialysis unit with Kingston Health Sciences Centre,” Bennett said.
“These are all examples of why we need to invest in people and invest in their care and as a government, we’ll make sure no one gets left behind.”
The PCs want to fund the construction of new schools, balance the budget by 2023, and create more housing to facilitate immigration.
“The city of Kingston has more tax-exempt land than any other city other than Ottawa and I’m going to be going after the government at both the provincial and federal levels to make sure we’re freeing up those lands for housing and other opportunities,” Bennett said.
New to the political scene is Zachary Typhair, who is running for the Green Party. He said he’s representing the voice of the next generation and the future.
“One of the main goals in our campaign is to make gen-z, gen-green,” Typhair said.
Typhair said the Green Party wants a more affordable housing strategy, to raise minimum wage and wages in health care, to create a 15-minute work commute for everyone, and to bring mental health care professionals into the school system — all with the greater goal of achieving a net-zero emission rate by 2040.
“Every school and campus would have access to a mental health counsellor and on top of that we would have a 24-hour call, text, email crisis line open,” Typhair said.
Along with the four main players, other candidates in Kingston and the Islands are Stephen Skyvington is representing the New Blue Party, Shalea Beckwith is running for the Ontario Party, and Scott Foster has been nominated by the None of the Above Party. Shelley Sayle-Udall is running as an independent.
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