MEET CHRIS ARNEW, NEW BLUE CANDIDATE FOR NIAGARA WEST

NAME: Chris Arnew

AGE: 61

RIDING: Niagara West PARTY: New Blue Party of Ontario

OCCUPATION: Chartered professional accountant (CPA, CGA) and certified internal auditor. Recently retired from the position of CFO and superintendent of business from Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board.

RESIDENCE: Smithville PAST POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: I am not a career politician

but I do have a lot of experience working with them and in very politicized environments.

As a business superintendent, CFO and treasurer in a school board, I worked very closely with trustees, provincial and municipal

politicians over 12 years in that sector with a lot of very complex issues to navigate.

I also sat as a director on two boards, the Ontario School Board Insurance Exchange (OSBIE) and on the Elementary Teachers Federation — Benefit Trust.

HOW WOULD YOU GRADE THE PROVINCE'S COVID-19 RESPONSE AND WHY?

CI feel a better response to the pandemic would have

been with a targeted strategy addressing early treatment protocols and protecting vulnerable populations.

Repetitive, ineffective policies — mandates, restrictions and division — made the "solution" worse than the problem. The strategy of the current legislative leader to "leave it up to individual employers, hospitals, school boards, health units" caused chaos and confusion, fear and uncertainty. Every job lost must be restored.

IF ELECTED, WHAT DO YOU PLEDGE TO DO?

If elected, I pledge to be active in enforcing accountability in government to respect people's God-given freedoms. Fiscal conservatism needs to be restored; assessing strategies and responses for the benefit of Ontario citizens and using tax dollars to benefit the average person, not line the bureaucrats' pockets.