Jim McDonell is the Ontario PC candidate for the riding of Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry. Mr. McDonell is currently the Mayor of South Glengarry. OurHometown.ca has offered space to each of the provincial candidates to write a column to discuss relevant Provincial issues. Ontarians go to the polls on Thursday October 6, 2011.
Jim McDonell talks about Change Ahead with Ontario PC’s
Jim McDonell
Ontario PC Party
In his first article, Jim McDonell indtroduces himself as the Ontario Progressive Conservative Candidate in the upcoming Provincial Election. A lifelong resident of South Glengarry and have served in municipal government for almost 17 years, serving as Mayor for the past 7 years and counting.
Lancaster - Jun. 2, 2011 - In my first article, let me introduce myself as the Ontario Progressive Conservative Candidate in the upcoming Provincial Election on October 6, 2011. I am a lifelong resident of South Glengarry and have served in municipal government for almost 17 years, serving as Mayor for the past 7 years and counting. I was raised on a dairy farm and recently retired from Bell Canada after 32 years as a professional engineer.
The upcoming election is a simple choice—the continued reckless spending of the Dalton McGuinty government or a Tim Hudak PC government that respects your hard earned income. This past Sunday, the PC platform called “Changebook” was released at our annual convention, which highlights three main points:
Change to put more money back into the hands of hardworking Ontario families.
Change to guarantee key services like health care and education.
And change to clean up government and demand personal accountability.
Taxes in Ontario are too high; squeezing the budgets of hard working Ontario families and killing business investments and job creation opportunities. Under Dalton McGuinty`s government, spending has increased 77% since 2003 and Ontario’s debt has doubled. A Tim Hudak PC government is committed to stopping this out-of-control spending, while providing immediate savings on home energy costs and personal income tax.
Ontario needs change to ensure that priority services, such as health care and education, are first-rate in the future. A PC government is committed to increasing spending in these two key areas, while eliminating fraud and unnecessary spending that takes money away from frontline health care and education. We will institute wait-time guarantees for emergency room care and hold hospital CEO’s accountable for meeting those guarantees.
Finally, we will change government to make it more accountable to the people of Ontario. There are over 600 boards, agencies, and commissions in Ontario that will be reviewed under a Tim Hudak government. Our process will be straightforward—if it works, leave it alone and if it's broken, fix it. If we cannot justify its existence, it goes. We will also put an end to secret deals that cost the Ontario Taxpayer.
The last eight years have been tough on Ontario families and we need a change. We need to put more money in taxpayer pockets, guarantee the services we need are available and bring accountability back to Ontario`s government. Canada needs Ontario to be a `Have Province` again and the Tim Hudak plan outlined in “Changebook” will make this happen.
