Jeff Green | Apr 06, 2022


Thomas Mulder was seeking a relaxing retirement from his career as a veterinarian with a special interest in veterinary dentistry, which be pursued at his home in Brantford, Ontario.

So he moved to Canoe Lake Road in the Bedford district of South Frontenac last fall, and worked with a builder to put up a log home in the woods. He had no intention to get involved in any sort of politics when he moved to the region, and had never run for office in the past. But now he finds himself running for the MPP under the banner of the Ontario Party, which is headed by Derek Sloan, the former Federal Conservative MP in the neighbouring riding of Hastings, Lennox and Addington.

“The big thing for me that started the concern,” he said in a phone interview this week, “was some of the COVID policies did not fit with my understanding of science, particularly the vaccine mandate. The vaccine was never intended to stop infection, rather it was designed to reduce severity of the disease, it was never really going to stop spread. The coercion by the federal and provincial governments didn’t add up. My son, who had COVID, no longer needed the vaccine and yet was prevented from going to university because he was not vaccinated. They took a way his right to choose.”

That is what drew him to the Ontario Party.

“If there is one word that defines the Ontario Party for me, it is freedom. The message is clear. When it comes to the vaccine, let me choose, for my own health. It's fundamental.”

He said that the imposition of the Emergency Measures Act to force an end to the protests in Ottawa back in February was another factor.

“When ruling on the injunction to stop the noise of the horns, a Superior Court Justice ruled that it was a peaceful and legal protest. Then the emergency measures came in and the police came in, riding horses through the crowd. It was sad to see that in our own country.”

One of the things that attracted him to the Ontario Party was its embrace of freedom of religion.

“It was sad to see that it was illegal to gather in a church, a mosque, or a synagogue because of coercive measures, he said.

Another motivation for him to run for the Ontario Party is more specific to his Christian faith.

“As a Christian, I am upset with the bible being referred to as a myth by the Federal Government. Bill C4 [the bill to ban conversion therapy] made it illegal to counsel according to the Bible’s view on sexuality, even to someone who came looking for that kind of information. In Canada we now have legislation that can imprison someone for counselling according the Bible.”

The Ontario Party charter recognizes the “supremacy of God and the rule of law”. It also affirms that Canada operates under the Crown, and says that the pursuit of the common good of the people of Ontario needs to respect the “inherited wisdom and sacrifice of previous generations embodied in our culture and traditions.”

Mulder said that the party is the fastest growing party in Canada, with new people joining every day.

“It is exciting to think that as a new party develops you start seeing people buy in to it. As people plug into the significance of freedom. Freedom should not be a political platform, it should be a part of everything. I am not a politician; I am a veterinarian, but I had to step up to stop what the governments are doing. Last summer Doug Ford said no to a vaccine passport. That's what really gets under my skin, because he knew the societal impact of this and the weak science behind it, and he was aware of the risk these coercive measures brought with them, and he went ahead with them any way.

“I had no choice but to step up after that.”

Thomas Mulder will be hosting an information meeting at the Portland Community Church in Hartington, 5567 Road 38, on Saturday, April 9 from 7pm-9pm. For information about the Ontario Party, go to ontarioparty.ca

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