Candidate profile: Manuela Michelizzi

SIOUX LOOKOUT – After a run for the Ontario Liberals in 2022, Manuela Michelizzi is giving it another go in Kiiwetinoong.

The teacher, currently acting vice-principal at a Sioux Lookout school, told Newswatch she’s running again because “we haven’t really seen much change in our riding since then.”

In the expansive northwest riding, she said, “we need to address some very unique challenges. And I feel that regardless of the party that’s in power, there really needs to be relationship-building across party lines to be creative and to come up with some solutions for the people living in this area.”

She cited affordable housing as a top priority.

“That’s driving my pursuit in this election. We have so many wonderful job opportunities for people, and yet there’s no place for professionals to live.

“Working here in a school, we have so many jobs available. I know there are tons of jobs available in the health-care sector, and we just don’t have places for people to live. We don’t have the affordable housing.”

Many people are “being displaced and having to use shelters because they’re no longer able to afford their housing,” she said.

Infrastructure, health care and mental health are also major areas of concern, Michelizzi said.

“I think everyone is frustrated,” she said. “I think that we’re seeing affordability skyrocket. People are not being able to make ends meet like they once were able to.”

Northern Ontario residents are “waiting longer for our health care” and mental health services are coming up short, she said.

Politicians need to “put the party platforms aside” and work toward solutions, she said.

Michelizzi said the Liberals have “put out some very specific northern promises that will target some of our unique challenges.”

The health-care part of the party platform, for instance, “addresses the family health-care practitioner crisis. They have created incentives for medical students to have a portion or most of their tuition covered with the promise that they will remain in the North for a duration period, which I think will entice people to join a northern medical school and then stay in the North.”

The Thunder Bay native added that her party also wants to improve the health-care travel grant for northerners and expand the telehealth program to “allow us to stay in our communities and receive medical support and mental health support.”

Those Liberal policies are “addressing some of the needs and a lot of the barriers that we have to health care,” she said.

Michelizzi placed third in 2022 with 5.9 per cent of the vote.

Election day is Thursday, Feb. 27.