An enthusiastic crowd welcomes Mulcair to Perth

Julie Druker | Aug 12, 2015

Federal party leaders vying for Canada's top job in the upcoming October 2015 federal election are rarely known to make campaign stops in the hinterlands of eastern Ontario's federal ridings, but that was not the case for NDP leader, Thomas Mulcair, whose campaign bus arrived at the Crystal Place in Perth on Friday August 7.

It was standing room only as close to 300 supporters packed the venue early Friday evening to greet Mulcair, who was introduced by Perth Mayor, John Fenik.

Fenik, a former Liberal, recently crossed over to the federal NDP party and is now running as the federal NDP candidate in the new riding of Lanark Frontenac and Kingston. He introduced Mulcair as “the next prime minister of Canada” and the party leader with “the courage to stand up to Stephen Harper and the courage to win.” Fenik said that Mulcair has “demonstrated over and over again that he is a leader with a plan to get Canada back on track.”

Mulcair then entered the building to thunderous applause. He thanked the crowd for their “incredible energy” and said that what he and his crew have heard most often when traveling the country is: “People want change”. He was quick to call out Prime Minister Harper's job creation record as “the worst since the Second World War” and called his economic growth record as “the worst since the great recession of the 1920's”. He said, “Clearly Mr. Harper, your plan is not working.”

Mulcair then outlined some of his party's plans, which include scrapping Harper's income splitting scheme, which Mulcair said would only benefit 15% of some of the country's richest families. He said that Ontario families are spending as much as $2000/per month on child care and spoke of his plans to invest in a nation-wide program that will offer one million $15/day quality child care spaces across Canada. He said, “ffordable quality child care is just one election away”. He promised to maintain the retirement age at 65, and outlined his plans for 100,000 low-paid workers under federal jurisdiction, who would see their wages increased to $15/hour. Mulcair said that three-term Perth Mayor (on leave during the election) John Fenik is “an extraordinary NDP candidate”. He finished his speech by citing the party campaign slogan, “Let's work together”, recalling the party's success in 2011 in Quebec under Jack Layton, which spread to Alberta in May of this year. Following his speech, Mulcair posed for photos, signed autographs and spoke with supporters as he made his way back to his campaign bus. There he took questions from local media, and when asked how an NDP government would help farmers in the area, Mulcair said that farmers under supply management are “extremely worried about the current TPP negotiations” and that his party would “defend supply management tooth and nail.”

To another question concerning jobs in smaller areas like Perth, Mulcair answered, “We know that 80% of new jobs in Canada are created by small and medium-sized businesses, so instead of taking the same approach as Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper, which is giving tens of billions of dollars in tax reductions to Canada's largest corporations, we will concentrate our efforts on the small and medium-sized businesses and give them a tax break to help them create the new jobs that we so dearly need in this country.”

Mulcair said that his party has “a clear plan to kick start the economy” by “also investing in infrastructure with municipal and regional governments in regions like this one.” 

(Editors note. In a previously posted version of this article, John Fenik's name was spelled incorrectly. The version above is identical to the one that was distributed in The Frontenac News -  Volume 15, no.34 - August 13-2015)