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McGuinty
courts seniors during visit to Belleville
By
Barry Ellsworth
Belleville Intelligencer, September 12, 2003
|
Norma
Wheeler, 79, was happy to make the acquaintance of Dalton McGuinty when
the Liberal leader made a stop in Belleville Thursday during a campaign
tour of eastern Ontario.
Canada - Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty met his opposition head on over a
Conservative plan that would exempt seniors from paying the education
portion of their property taxes.
And he did it by raising the issue himself while addressing a room full of
senior citizens.
“You won’t have to pay for the education of your grandchildren,” he
said, shaking his head over the Conservative pledge. “I don’t think we
want to go down that path.”
During a 40-minute stop at Belleville’s Emmanuel Residences, he told
about 35 seniors that it was wrong to take money out of schools. Besides,
he said, if the Tory plan was instituted, families with young children in
school may then balk at subsidizing seniors’ health care costs.
“We have a responsibility to support one another,” McGuinty said.
“We are in this together and we will support one another.”
The Liberal leader was on a tour of Eastern Ontario.
Prince Edward-Hastings incumbent Ernie Parsons was asked how Emmanuel
Residences became a destination.
“I would say largely because I was here about a month ago for a
barbecue,” he answered while waiting for McGuinty to arrive around 4:30
p.m. At the barbecue, the seniors had a lot of questions about the Liberal
platform, Parsons said.
“Because of their interest, we asked if they would want to meet our
leader,” he said.
The stop was arranged and seniors were inside eating from a cold buffet
when McGuinty’s campaign bus, complete with his wife Terri, son Liam,
18, and a barrage of media, pulled up at the residences’ door on Rollins
Drive.
Before he spoke, a few seniors chosen at random said they were voting
Liberal, but it was more because of the work of Parsons than any
particular issue. He is the Liberal critic for persons with disabilities.
“Ernie Parsons has been very ,very good,” said Norma Wheeler, 79, and
a 13-year resident at Emmanuel. “He’s really for the seniors.”
Her sentiments were seconded by Harold Roulson, 99, who has lived at the
home for 14 years.
“Mr. Parsons has done pretty well for us,” he said. Parsons has
battled for more money for area hospitals and championed those,
predominately seniors, with macular degeneration, a leading cause of
blindness. The government refuses to pay for a $16,000 treatment until at
least 50 per cent of eyesight is lost.
A local radio newscaster asked McGuinty if he liked Parson’s chances at
re-election, since he narrowly won last time in a photo finish.
“I feel very confident,” McGuinty responded.
But, besides the endorsement for Parsons, McGuinty had his own goodies for
seniors.
He told them the Liberals would provide better home care services so they
could stay in their residences longer, subject to doctor approval. He also
promised to revamp nursing homes so residents received more attention.
“That’s the choice I’m putting (before) the people of Ontario,”
McGuinty said, adding the pledge that, “We will not raise taxes.”
He also joked that the Liberals would “ban winters” and only allow
rain between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. That drew guffaws, but McGuinty said he
knew he had a tough audience because seniors had seen more than their
share of politicians.
Erna Dixon, 84, though, poured water on McGuinty’s supposition.
She was asked why she was sporting Parsons and McGuinty campaign buttons.
“They were given to me in the expectation that I would wear them,” she
said, smiling. “I haven’t been given any others.”
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