Horwath in Woodstock

Friday, 9 May 2014 15:38

Andrea Horwath talks to local NDP candidate Bryan Smith during a brief stop in the city

The Provincial NDP leader makes a stop in Oxford County

Provincial NDP Leader Andrea Horwath made a quick stop in Woodstock Friday afternoon to meet with supporters and local candidate Bryan Smith.

During her brief stop, Horwath was asked what her party would do to help alleviate the burden of rising policing costs in small municipalities.

Horwath says one of the things the NDP has been concerned about it getting downloading off of local municipalities and not doing other kinds of downloading through the backdoor.

"What we want to do is make sure we are strong partners with municipalities and make sure local property tax payers see the value of local services paid at the local level and provincial services paid at the provincial level."

When asked about her newly proposed Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit, Horwath said she has a brother who works in the auto sector in Oxford County and she knows what good jobs the sector brings.

"One of the things that we want to make sure is that we are continuing to support good jobs and ensuring that manufacturing, traditional and advanced manufacturing comes back to Ontario. We have seen a Liberal government over the years that has allowed too many of our manufacturing jobs to leave Ontario."

During her stop, a member of the public also expressed his disappointment with the elimination of horse racing in the County.

Horwath says the Auditor General just gave a scathing report on the OLG gaming modernization.

"Mr Hudak favours more privatization in the gaming industry. We think we need to support local communities and bring back the slots and so I don't know what the other two are telling you but I can tell you that's our commitment, we've made that commitment and we are going to stick with it."

Local Liberal candidate Dan Moulton stopped by Horwath's event saying it was interesting seeing her in Oxford County.

"She's beginning to sound more and more like Rob Ford with this risky, populism that she is offering. She's got no real specifics of a plan that she's laying out here so either that means she has no plan or that means she's going to raise taxes on families and businesses and she's trying to hide that."

He says he isn't sure what she accomplished in Oxford County.

"I think if she had a plan to offer there would be something for us to discuss, but really she's not talking about anything specific. She's offering vague, simple slogans and that's not what my campaign is about. My campaign is about real ideas about how we improve service delivery, how we build better infrastructure, how we secure our retirement and how we change how we are represented."

"I was proud to help design a new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan as part of the budget that our government brought forward. It's going to help advance the public pension system in this Country because right now, I think anyone out there that is on CPP knows that it simply is not enough to survive on."

The first all candidate debate in the County is scheduled for May 22 at 7pm at the CAW Hall in Woodstock hosted by the Oxford County Federation of Agriculture.