KENORA – RAINY RIVER – Now that the colours of election season have decorated the lawns of Kenora-Rainy River, the latest projections show that PC’s Greg Rickford is favoured to retain the riding.
Today, the PC’s are polling at 46 per cent, NDP is polling at 25 per cent, Liberals are at 17 per cent, and the Greens are at five per cent.
Even in light of the allegation against Greg Rickford’s top-up allowance of $14,640, which is listed as “MPP expense allowance” and “MPP car allowance” under the public filing from Election Ontario. His polling number seems to reflect that this scandal isn’t going to detour people from voting against him.
This top allowance was not much when breaking down the amount he received over the last four years.
“All riding association expenses are approved by the local riding association executive, audited by a licensed auditor, and all audited financial statements are reviewed and approved by Elections Ontario,” said PC campaign spokesperson Alex Hilkene.
It is common for politicians to ask for a top-up allowance for additional expenditures on their taxpayer salaries.
However, that does not excuse the ethical nature of the expenditure or even deny the idea that he should pay the money back as the New Democratic expected.
MPPs get travelling expenses on top of their provincial salary.
Nevertheless, Rickford has a presence within the region. He travels to meet his constituencies, taking the time to pop into local job fairs, providing funding to education programs in Seven Generations Institute and ensuring there is sustainably in for the North’s mining and forestry sectors. That might be enough for the people to vote for Blue during this election.
Oranges New Democracte Party’s JoAnne Formanek Gustafson isn’t just knocking on doors on the other side of the colour spectrum.
Formanek Gustafson, who is polling at 25 per cent, is taking an active approach to the rising flood warning that is consuming the Kenora-Rainy River Region.
“Families are being evacuated in Kenora. The only road to Red Lake, a community of 5,000 people, has been washed out, while highways across the northwest are closed after being flooded. At Couchiching First Nation, people are sandbagging the shoreline in some places, and docks are floating away all around Rainy Lake. Families are facing damage to their homes, and communities are being cut off from the supply of essential goods as their roads are being washed out by floodwaters. This is a result of extreme weather conditions in the northwest, and the situation is expected to get worse.
She calls on the province to provide more assistance as roads are completely blocked by water leading into Red Lake and Couchiching.
Gustafson’s and the NDP’s northern platform commit to road maintenance. However, the NDP highlights transportation projects are larger-scale projects like twinning Highways 69 and 11/17. There is no word on maintenance for service roads which are crucial to some communities that only have access roads leading in and out of their residences.
As this election comes closer to the final countdown, Liberal’s Anthony Leek and Green Party’s Catherine Kiewning have catching up to do.