Trevor Holliday and the Northern Ontario Party believe they are forcing politicians in Southern Ontario to recognize Northern Ontario matters when it comes to decision making. Since the resurrection of the NOP, they have continued to demand better treatment for the North from politicians based around Toronto. In a media release, the party says Premier Kathleen Wynne has developed a trend of answering NOP media announcements with funding, and positive news for the North. Leader Trevor Holliday says Premier Kathleen Wynne has been reacting to things they’ve been up to lately, a big difference from a little while ago. Holliday says Wynne used to laugh when asked about the NOP, but she isn’t laughing anymore. He says the NOP is asking Wynne and her government to open their purse strings to fund and deal with Northern Ontario in a fair manner.
The NOP provided a timeline of events since its formation, but here’s just a snippet from 2017 alone. On January 23rd, the NOP announced information and membership meetings in North Bay and Sault Ste Marie to the public. Later that day Wynne announced visits to North Bay and Sault Ste Marie to discuss tuition costs and issues facing students in the North. Then on February 7th the NOP announced a new website, the first ever meeting in Sudbury and sent out a media release questioning Wynne’s under funding of Northern Ontario and the effect it’s having on the population. The next day Wynne and her government offered more funding to Northern Ontario as a response. On April 6th the MNRF and the Liberal government announced they are shortening the hunting season for rabbits and hares in Northern Ontario. The NOP platforms were leaked to the Thunder Bay press on the same day, and one of the NOP’s platforms discussed in the paper was the creation of a Northern Ministry of Natural Resources. Then on April 11th the government and the MNRF reversed their decision and reinstated the full season for rabbits and hares in the North.
Holliday says the Northern Ontario party is proving that they are a party, hard at work advocating for the North. He says the NOP doesn’t even hold a seat at Queen’s Park and look at the results the party has gotten already. If it was just once or twice it may be a coincidence, but Holliday says when it’s seven or eight times in a row its clear the Premier is paying attention. Holliday finished by saying they’ve only just begun and will continue to fight to make Northern Ontario stronger than ever.
