THUNDER BAY – As he attempts to rebuild a decimated Ontario Liberal Party, newly chosen leader Steven Del Duca says the Liberal party is in the fight of its life.
To help win the battle in Ontario’s north, the former transportation minister says he wants to ensure the region returns to prosperous economic times.
One way, if elected, will be looking at ways to decentralize government and bring anchor jobs to the regions. Another is to re-launch the basic income pilot project, which was cancelled by Premier Doug Ford and the Conservatives shortly after being elected in 2018.
Thunder Bay was one of three Ontario communities chosen to take part in the project.
“During the leadership I did say I was committed to re-launching the basic income pilot, which was so callously cut, and cut without warning and cut as a broken promise by Doug Ford and his friends,” Del Duca said on Wednesday afternoon at a media availability at long-time Liberal MPP Michael Gravelle’s constituency office.
“If we’re elected in 2022, we will restart the basic income pilot.”
Del Duca, whose party has been reduced to just seven members, also said he’d commit to continuing the twinning of Highway 11-17 between Thunder Bay and Nipigon, while also moving ahead with a Conservative plan to twin the highway between Kenora and the Manitoba border.
The province, under Ford, has yet to outline any concrete plans to complete the former project, which Gravelle has championed since first being elected in 1995, while touting plans for a stretch of the Trans-Canada near Kenora.
“There’s no reason they can’t do both,” Del Duca said. “At the end of the day, with the capacity the provincial government has, with all the work that had gone into this, under the leadership of Michael Gravelle and others, they should be able to do both. I support both aspects of that four-laning ... That work needs to occur.”
Del Duca acknowledged his party will need to raise millions of dollars over the course of the next 26 months in order to build itself back up and said after taking Sunday off, he’s hit the ground running. The former transportation minister does not have a seat at Queen’s Park and plans to use the time to get feedback and get the party ready for the 2022 election.
“We will need to find well over 100 candidates who are not currently incumbents, not currently MPPs in the legislature. We’ll have to raise millions of dollars over the next couple of years in order to go toe to toe and compete successfully with Doug Ford. And we’re going to have to – and this is the most important part – we’re going to have to develop a platform of compelling ideas that once again give the people of the Northwest, the North, and all of Ontario a sense that they can trust us to govern.”
Rebuilding that confidence and trust is critically important to the party rebuild, Del Duca added.
“But all of it requires hard work and requires us to be relentless.”
One candidate he won’t have to recruit is Gravelle, who on Wednesday committed to running in 2022, seeking his eighth election win.
“He’s an incredible champion for Thunder Bay, and incredible champion for the north and I’ve relied on him heavily and will continue to rely on him heavily in the months leading up to the election and beyond,” Del Duca said.
The Liberal leader also touched on the future of Thunder Bay’s Bombardier plant, noting that it’s a tough issue that will require further study. The company recently agreed to sell its rail division to a French company.
“I suspect I’ll have more to say about that in the coming weeks and months. I’m not exactly sure, standing here today what the right move is,” Del Duca said.
