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Ron Koski carries New Blue flag in Algoma-Manitoulin

Koski takes strong exception to incumbent MPP Mike Mantha’s candidacy
Ron Koski A-M New Blue
Ron Koski is the New Blue candidate for the Algoma-Manitoulin riding in the 2022 provincial election

Ron Koski is the provincial party candidate for the New Blue Party in the Algoma-Manitoulin riding.   

He is a medical services shift supervisor and marine facility security officer for the Port of Algoma. He has a family, enjoys coaching sports, earned an honours degree in Kinesiology from Lakehead University and is a certified firefighter and medical responder.

Koski was born and raised in Algoma-Manitoulin and is making a foray into politics in the June 2 provincial election looking to unseat incumbent A-M New Democrat MPP Mike Mantha. 

ElliotLakeToday asked him about party leadership which has been a major factor in this year's provincial campaign. 

ElliotLakeToday - On leadership – who can best lead the province, and why?

Answer: Jim Karahalios is the first provincial leader to field a full slate of 124 candidates. One for every riding. That's a strong vote of confidence for a platform built on accountability, fiscal responsibility, practical economic strategy, and Charter Rights.

In the north, the NDP still benefits from the legacy of labour-based candidates from the past. Today it's a party that has abandoned the labour vote in favour of identity politics. It's a party with no idea of what it is or wants to be and is led by a man more focused on dividing Canadians and securing his 2025 retirement than the real issues we face.

Leading with accountability, fiscal responsibility, practical economics, and the defence of Charter Rights may be boring; we get it, but it's where we need to go as a province.

We have a deficit of $13 billion that you and I have little chance of paying down in the near future. Couple that with an education system that needs to be reformed, the much-needed restoration of our healthcare system and unprecedented encroachment on Rights and Freedoms.

The New Blue party of Ontario led by Jim Karahalios is building a powerful new voice in provincial politics. Join us, seriously, and meet people from across Ontario coming together to make it happen. You can find us at newblueontario.com. Get a membership, volunteer, and be part of the momentum.

ElliotLakeToday - Health Care – Ontario for all its economic wealth spends less than the average provincial government per capita on health care.  Why are we doing this at a time when we have a huge aging population?

Let's be straight. Ontario doesn't have wealth; it has debt and continually borrows, at interest, to stay operational. As of this month, Ontario is on track to add more than $100 billion in debt over the next five years. 

The Fraser institute notes that "the (Ford-PC) government's current fiscal plan provides no road map to improve this measure of fiscal health. In fact, it doesn't even try. In recent financial documents, the Ford government has articulated the weak fiscal goal of simply preventing further growth in the debt-to-GDP ratio."

Getting ahead of the Healthcare crunch is where we need to be. With all the money invested in COVID, how many new hospital expansions did you see? How many new beds? Instead, Ford's mishandling of COVID led to the firing of thousands of nurses and the suspension and firing of countless doctors. As stated by Doris Grinspun, the CEO of the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, nurses felt "abandoned by this Premier."

The $500 million gambling license the Ford-PCs gifted the Toronto Star would go a long way to relieve the strain on our elderly and the doctors and nurses they depend on.

ElliotLakeToday – Regarding northern Ontario transportation, industry, and infrastructure. Hundreds of millions in provincial government dollars have been doled in the last month, largely in Sudbury, North Bay, and the Sault. But not in Elliot Lake. Do you have any theories?

It's election season. That means it's time for the NDP, Liberals, and PC's to make the rounds and buy votes. The more significant your voting block is, the more significant the buy. Elliot Lake has a 10,700 plus population, and like many communities across Northern Ontario it doesn't make the cut, but all those communities, including mine in the village of Laird, have common unmet needs. Needs that could be pooled and resolved at scale with leadership focused on the well-being of all of Northern Ontario, not just vote-rich ridings.

ElliotLakeToday - What are you getting at the door as you campaign?

The cost of living—housing, groceries, gas, electricity, a depleted healthcare system, and "what are they teaching our kids in school!?" Four basics and a corrosive left-wing addition to our education system. In the last two years, politicized mandates, unscientific lockdowns, and the wholesale shutdown of small-business, the economy's largest employment sector, have been exhausting. People are fed-up and looking for new solutions.