Huron-Bruce now has a liberal candidate running in the upcoming Ontario election.
Ian Burbidge has been a local math and music teacher and president of the Huron-Bruce Provincial Liberal Association for several years.
He says some priorities for him when it comes to change in Ontario and in Huron-Bruce are education and healthcare, climate change and addressing income inequality.
“I have the sense that the current government would rather privatize everything than maintain a strong public education system and a strong universal public healthcare system,” says Burbidge.
He says when it comes to healthcare and education, “You can’t just throw money at a problem, but you do have to fund it.”
Burbidge continues, “I think that valuing public education is the first thing that has to be done. If you feel valued, you work harder.” He notes back in October of 2020, funding was announced for a new public high school in Kincardine and it hasn’t yet been built. “I understand that they’ve announced a new school in Port Elgin. Will we be talking at the next election about how they haven’t done anything on that school?” asks Burbidge.
He says, his party has plans for affordable housing, “You have to allow builders to make the profits that they want to make but governments can provide incentive.” Burbidge notes if municipal governments are expected to provide affordable housing and build affordable housing, “they need help from provincial government if they’re going to be effective in providing affordable housing solutions”:
He says the Ontario Liberal Party has plans to examine rent control, adding, “You’ve got to be careful when you do that– it can lead to problems but I think we’re looking at a solution that will allow renters some stability without drying up the supply of rental housing.”
He notes, “Personally, I have felt for a number of years, that there are two huge problems in our world and one of them is the climate change crisis and the other is growing wealth inequality.”
Burbidge says, “I think supporting those that are most vulnerable is important.”
With regard to the education system, he says, “The attention doesn’t seem to be on education these days,” adding he’s critical of mandatory online education. ‘That’s just one little step. If you can force people to be online then you can market out online courses. It doesn’t necessarily have to be delivered by local teachers,” says Burbidge.
He adds, “COVID had a huge impact of public education but also Bill-124 which underfunded nursing and education workers and has made it harder to recruit people. So we’re finding that it’s hard to get teachers and other educators in the system. There is not enough to provide some of the supports especially in some of the classes that have more special education students or extra challenges where you actually really, really need those support workers.”
He thinks back to the days when John Snobelen was Ontario’s PC education minister in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Burbidge says Snobelen was quoted saying the government of the day needed to “bankrupt” and create a “useful crisis” in the education system. Burbidge says “The playbook is, undermine the public institution, make it look bad, make it look like it’s in crisis, make it look like it can’t work, and then aha! The solution is private business will run this better.”
He adds, “And it will if you haven’t been running it properly, but governments can do a good job and we at one time in Ontario had an education system that was the envy of the world. It has eroded since then.”
He says he’s looking forward to this election campaign as it gets going, adding, “This wasn’t on my playbook for 2025, but I’m very excited now that I’m in this, I am looking forward to hearing the opinions, concerns, hopes of people in Huron-Bruce and I want to work as hard as I possibly can. If I can be a voice for small town Ontario and rural Ontario at Queen’s Park, I think that might be a good thing.”
Burbidge notes, he’s not planning on putting up campaign signs. He feels it’s more environmentally friendly to forego printing and posting roadside signs, and notes they wouldn’t be visible for long with the large snow banks around the riding this month.
Burbidge joins the race alongside Green Party of Ontario Candidate Matthew Van Ankum and incumbent Progresssive Conservative MPP Lisa Thompson.
Election day is February 27th.
