The list of candidates in our region continues to grow for the February 27th Provincial election. The riding of Timiskaming Cochrane now has five total on the ballot including Rick Ellsmere who will run under the Liberal banner.
The Englehart resident says a major campaign issue for him is the lack of doctors in the north.
“Even before I decided to run people would say I can’t find a doctor, or I can’t get in to see my doctor,” he said. “With Bonnie’s (Crombie- Liberal Leader) ideas advancing foreign trained doctors and enticing back our doctors from abroad, she has some good ideas.”
Ellsmere says another concern to him is the downloading of services to municipalities.
“Thus we have the higher tax increases and I think it’s in pretty much every community,” he said “Another concern is the big bills that came in for all the communities for the OPP this year. Download, download, download we gotta stop that.”
Stephen McLeod of the new Blue Party has joined the race along with Kris Rivard of the Green Party, Tory DeLaurier of the Conservatives and incumbent John Vanthof of the New Democrats.
Meantime, unofficially there are four names now on the list in Mushkegowuk James Bay. Kyle Allen is the Liberal candidate, while Catherine Jones is listed for the Green Party, joining Dave Plourde of the Conservatives and incumbent Guy Bourgouin of the NDP.
There are still just two running in the Timmins riding – incumbent George Pirie of the Conservatives and Corey Lepage of the New Democrats. The deadline to file is Thursday at 2 pm.
