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An Open Letter to the Voters of North Bay & Nipissing

from Stephen Best,
Director of Environment Voters

Dear Voter,

I urge you to vote for George Maroosis, the Liberal candidate in the Thursday, May 2^nd by-election. Environment Voters is endorsing George Maroosis because of the answer to this question:

The answer is no.

And, in our view, the Progressive Conservatives don’t deserve to be re-elected because of the harm they’ve done to our environment — harm that kills people.

After seven years of Progressive Conservative government, there are fewer families living in North Bay and Nipissing. There are fewer businesses, fewer jobs, fewer teachers, fewer doctors, and fewer opportunities. There’s less hope now for the future than there was in 1995, when Nipissing’s MPP became Premier of Ontario.

Progressive Conservative policies are bleeding businesses and jobs out of North Bay. The bleeding continues with no end in sight. Boart Longyear, North Bay’s diamond-drill bit manufacturer, just cut 22 more jobs. Even top Progressive Conservatives are leaving town. Both Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, the new Premier, have gone south to work.

The Progressive Conservatives launched their attack on North Bay immediately after the 1995 election. In the 1995 campaign, Mike Harris promised he would "not cut one cent from the environment." As soon as the PCs won the election, they slashed the Ministry of the Environment by over $110 million. North Bay took some of the hardest hits. The PCs downgraded the MOE office from a major district office to an area office. They cut over 800 public sector jobs out of North Bay, and now they’ve put the 600 jobs at the ONTC at risk. For the environment and North Bay, the 1995 election was the beginning of seven long years of cuts, neglect, and decline.

We all depend on a clean, healthy environment for our health and economic well-being. Tourism in North Bay and Nipissing is based on environmental quality and natural beauty. From the day they were elected, the Progressive Conservatives waged war on responsible environmental protection. Seven people in Walkerton died because of the PCs’ war on the environment, and hundreds more — the wounded, some of them children — are suffering painful, chronic medical conditions that will last their lifetimes.

Safe drinking water is not the only thing we can’t trust anymore thanks to the Progressive Conservatives. Every year, Ontario’s polluted air is causing 1,800 people to die prematurely. Even in North Bay — which seems so far from the major pollution centres of southern Ontario — childhood asthma is on the rise.

At Environment Voters, we don’t trust election promises. You probably don’t either. Elections work best when they are used to judge a political party’s past performance — rewarding it for a good job, punishing it for a poor one.

After seven years of hurting North Bay and Nipissing, the Progressive Conservatives don’t deserve to be re-elected. They need to be punished. Their record shows they can cut; it also shows they can’t build. They are not the party for the future.

Furthermore, no matter how good a person the Progressive Conservative candidate in Nipissing might be, he’ll have no influence over PC policies at Queen’s Park. The PCs have turned their back on North Bay and northern Ontario, because their political base is in the urban sprawl that surrounds Toronto and other large southern Ontario cities. Their record shows that for the PC Party of Ontario, North Bay and Nipissing, politically, don’t exist.

Why is Environment Voters endorsing George Maroosis, rather than one of the other candidates? Experience. All of the candidates running in the May 2^nd by-election are good people, but no other candidate has demonstrated — through years of work and dedication — the same high level of concern for and commitment to the people of North Bay and Nipissing as George Maroosis.

Being an effective MPP takes political experience. Neither the NDP nor the Green Party candidate has ever served in office. So serious are the problems facing North Bay and Nipissing, this is not the time to elect an MPP who needs on-the-job training. George Maroosis simply has more experience serving the public than the all the other candidates.

And lastly, after questioning George Maroosis at great length, I’m convinced he’ll be a strong advocate for the responsible environmental polices we need to protect our health and economy, and insure a future for our children.

George Maroosis has served North Bay well. For all our sakes, it’s time to send him to Queen’s Park. Please vote for George Maroosis on May 2^nd.

Your sincerely,

Stephen Best

Director, Environment Voters

Paid for by Environment Voters

221 Broadview Ave. Suite 101 Toronto, ON M4M 2G3