With the Ontario election just two weeks away, candidates across the Kingston region are making their pitches to voters.
This includes some new, lesser-known parties on the ballot.
“I wanted to bring a new option to Ontarians,” says Ontario Party Leader Derek Sloan. “Frankly, I believe the mainstream parties have failed us. We have the same issues that we’ve always had in terms of housing, health care, mental illness, all of this kind of thing.
“And if we want a change, we have to vote for new options. Not the people who brought us here.”
While the Ontario Party has been around since 2018, Hastings, Lennox and Addington candidate Sloan only recently became the party’s leader.
He was previously elected as the Conservative candidate for Hastings, Lennox and Addington in the 2019 federal election before being expelled from the party after it was revealed that he had received a donation from a known white supremacist.
During the 2021 federal election he ran as an independent in the riding of Banff-Airdrie, where he eventually lost.
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“I have shown that I am willing to stand up for issues,” says Sloan. “Whether they’re politically correct or not, regardless of the consequences.
“So people in this riding know that they’ll have a fighter in their corner who’s not afraid, who’s not just there to enhance their career, that kind of thing. So people know what to expect from me, they know that I’ll always be honest and call it how I see it. And that’s the kind of representation they’re going to get from me.”
Running in the Kingston and the Islands riding is New Blue Party of Ontario candidate Stephen Skyvington.
“We’re where Doug Ford was four years ago when he ran as the PC Party and we voted for him and our MPP Belinda (Karahalios) was a member of his party,” says Skyvington. “And she got kicked out for standing up to him. Everybody has moved left of centre, Doug Ford is now in the same zone as Justin Trudeau. So we’re offering a true conservative alternative.”
Karahalios was kicked out of the PC party in July 2020 after voting against a government bill that grants powers to extend or amend some emergency orders a month at a time, for up to two years.
She was also removed from the Ontario legislature last December by Speaker of the House Ted Arnott after going against the COVID-19 screening protocols that had been adopted by the legislature.
“We’re right where we’re supposed to be. Doug Ford is not where he’s supposed to be,” Skyvington says.
Skyvington says that if you voted for the Progressive Conservative Party last provincial election, the New Blue Party reflects those same values.
He says New Blue has a simple, seven-point platform that looks to reverse the actions of the Ford government throughout the pandemic.
“I’m going to take what you want to Queen’s Park,” Skyvington says. “I’m not going to ram ‘Made in Toronto’ policy down your throat like the other parties do. I think that sets me apart.”
There is currently a New Blue and Ontario Party candidate on the ballot in each of the five Kingston-area ridings this election.
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