CANDIDATE PROFILE: DON MCBEY, LIBERAL PARTY

NAME: Don Mcbey, Liberal Party

AGE: 62 year old

RESIDENCE: Kawartha Lakes resident

OCCUPATION: Administrative lawyer, mediator and ordained United Church minister; vice-chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal from 2016 to 2020; background in archaeology and heritage preservation; local wildlife rescue volunteer

POLITICAL BACKGROUND

"I am standing for election in Ontario for the first time. As a graduate student in England in the 1980s, I stood as a local candidate and managed a student campaign."

HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE PROVINCE'S COVID-19 RESPONSE?

"C-minus. Ford abandoned 'local risk' pandemic management in his first province-wide lockdown. He closed and decimated small local businesses while letting big box stores stay open to profit. His Toronto-centric, Big Brother approach ignored the needs of rural and seasonal communities, treating them like GTA suburbs. By trying to capitalize politically on reopening, Ford placed children, teachers and everyone in harm's way by ignoring new COVID variants and by failing to provide guidelines for reintegrating the vaccinated and unvaccinated in public spaces."

IF ELECTED, I WILL . . . .

"If elected, I will work to replace Ford's preferred model of institutionalized, for-profit seniors' facilities with expanded, publiclyfunded in-home care, allowing seniors to live in safety and dignity in familiar surroundings. Having witnessed the exodus of healthcare workers firsthand, I will fight to preserve community healthcare by reversing the longstanding Tory ravaging of local hospital services.

In particular, I would reverse Bill PR65 that restricted the involvement of community members on Ross Memorial Hospital's board. I will prioritize the training and hiring of healthcare professionals in rural communities.

I will address the affordability crises caused by an over-commercialized and

speculative residential housing market, and spiraling energy prices.

Under a Liberal government, workers will get 10 days paid sick leave as well as drug, dental and mental health benefits. I will advocate for extended GO Bus service in our region to take advantage of the Liberal 'buck-a-ride, provincewide' public transit policy during this period of soaring gas prices.

Small businesses badly hurt by Ford's unequal shutdown will get a twoyear tax break and loans to help them take their businesses online.

Living lakeside in the Kawarthas, I will work to preserve our natural lakeland heritage and vital farming communities. Enough of Ford's Ministerial Zoning Order fetish and 'let's pour more concrete' mentality.

School class sizes will be reduced to 20 by hiring 10,000 teachers and 5,000 special needs educators. Funds will be made available to retrofit schools with new ventilation, using money saved by cancelling Ford's $10 billion 413 'highway-to-nowhere.'"