By Pepper Parr
This is the first of a series of interviews on the three candidates running in the provincial election taking place October 6th. Each candidate was asked the same questions.
Along with their answers are the impressions and insights gained from the time spent with each candidate. Some we had met before the interview – others were new to us.
There are those in the community who describe Our Burlington as a news source with a “Liberal” slant. Not true. As the publisher of Our Burlington my responsibility is to the community. On balance I personally tend to vote Liberal but have voted for other parties. John Robarts was a great Premier and Bill Davis did a really good job as well. One’s political party is a philosophical choice but my view is that you look for the best person to represent your community. We started this series with Karmel Sakran, the Liberal candidate, and now Peggy Russell, the NDP candidate. Next we will publish our interview with Jane McKenna, the Progressive Conservative candidate. The intention is to follow up with the candidates as the election progresses.
BURLINGTON, ON August 20, 2011 – It doesn’t take long to realize you are talking to a women who has strong views and little difficulty in making them known. Peggy Russell, the NDP candidate for the Burlington seat in the provincial legislature, served as a school board trustee for ten years and ended that career because she felt her work was done, is now clearly ready to begin working for the people of Burlington again.
For Russell – the three key issues are: The infrastructure first, saving the Escarpment second – and “can I get back to you on the third one”? This interview took place before the provincial government announced it had approved the upgrading of the Joseph Brant hospital but that announcement wasn’t taking any wind out of the Russell sails.
In a statement made after the funding of the hospital was announced Russell said “… the Liberal Plan to finance the hospital expansion and modernization through a private financing scheme. While the full details of what is planned have not been released, the Liberal government has indicated that it will continue with the P3 model of funding that they have renamed AFP (Alternative Financing Plan). Given the significant cost overruns and service reductions that have happened under this model, first adopted by Mike Harris”, Russell says the community has good reason to be concerned.”
For Russell the hospital is all about community and Russell’s focus is very much on community. She feels both the former Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government and the current Dalton McGuinty Liberal government failed Burlington by letting the hospital deteriorate to the point where it was not a very good hospital, but a place very much in need of an upgrade and the province wasn’t putting the funds needed to get the hospital back to the point where it met the needs of the community.
“We have people being taken out of the Region for health care” and for Russell that is “just not acceptable”. The announcement that the hospital will be upgraded pleases Russell but she is not going to stop beating on this “until I see shovels in the ground”.
Infrastructure for Russell is putting in place the services people need to live their lives in dignity and with food and shelter they can afford and hydro bills that don’t strip their purses and wallets of the money for those small discretionary things that give life some depth and meaning.
Russell doesn’t really trust government, yet she wants to be part of one – she wants to be part of a government that will put the people in communities first. People come before budgets Russell will tell you, and while that sounds good – services can’t be delivered without some balance between tax revenue and money spent on services for people.
Russell will argue, very strongly, that better administration and paying attention to the little things before they get out of hand and become big things, is the route to go and she believes that the New Democrats can bring that kind of government to the province. She makes no comment on Bob Rae’s NDP attempt to govern Ontario.
Russell was born in Quebec, moved to Ontario where she raised her three children who were schooled in the city. She worked as a Clerk for an Administrative judge and saw first hand the cases involving young people in conflict with the law who inevitably came from broken homes. They would get “processed” and then eventually released but because they had no marketable skills they would come into conflict with the legal system once again. It was a revolving door that is very expensive to maintain, says Russell. There has to be a better way and she certainly doesn’t think having provincial jail inmates cleaning trash out of highway road sides is the solution.
During her ten years as a school board trustee Russell served as the vice chair and negotiated seven of nine contracts signed.
Issue number two for Russell is the Escarpment and she makes the point that the issue over the Escarpment seems to be about transportation – which is fine with Russell but she adds that people are confusing the transportation of goods and the transportation of people. “We need to look at those two things differently” she said. Russell seems to be saying that getting a tractor trailer load of steel into Toronto isn’t worth destroying the Escarpment and North Burlington. The problem she adds is that if there is ever a highway put through the northern part of the city, the developers will want to build between that new highway and the 407/Hwy 5 road line – and if that happens “you can kiss the Burlington we know goodbye”.
As for the Liberal promise not to build the road, Russell raises an eyebrow and notes that “the Environmental Assessment hasn’t been stopped, has it?” “We can”, she goes on to say” “and should be looking for ways to use electricity to move people”.
When asked about the values that drive her she responded with “community” then “family”.. “If you are truly part of a community then you must contribute to the growth and welfare of that community. You get out what you put into it. You work to make it a better place, it is like being part of a larger family.
Each of the candidates was asked which comes first: the policy of their political party or the views of the community. Russell responded with: “The community, they elected me, I serve them. My job is to make sure this community’s voice is heard.”
When Russell met with NDP leader Andrea Horwath she says she made it clear to the party leader just where she stood on a number of issues. Russell is very good at making her point very clear. This is not a woman who minces her words. During our interview, the back and forth of questions and answers and follow up questions, Peggy reached out and touched my wrist and with a deep penetrating look said: “Pepper, you’re pulling my chain.” Peggy Russell does not like being taken off topic.
The Escarpment was major for Russell and the hospital right in there with it. No problems for Horwath on either of those. These two women would probably twin in terms of their thinking
Russell says that the politicians job is to be tough on the issues, not tough on the people. Her experience with the damage done to the province’s educational system when the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government slashed and burned by closing schools and totally trashing the trustee system we had in place. Russell is very blunt in telling you that the province is still recovering from the Harris damage. “We lost close to two generations of students through high school drop out because of that government.”
Russell explains that whenever there was a problem with Queen’s Park “we would drive into Toronto and meet with the appropriate people one on one. It didn’t matter what it was – we would drive in and make our case. There wasn’t one school closed in Burlington on my watch” claims Russell.
For Russell being open to every idea possible before you make a decision is critical. “I don’t know everything. When I am asked to make a decision or to develop a policy I need to know what people think – and in order to know what they think I have to listen. I have to make myself available. There were many times when I didn’t know how I was going to vote on an issue at the school board. I certainly understood the question but I didn’t have the answers and so I taught myself to listen. I was prepared to be swayed, I think that’s important. I was certainly assertive in my quest for information.
During the course of the interview Russell suddenly blurted out: My third issue is affordability – and then she launched into how critical it is for things to be affordable to people.
Affordability: Many of our seniors are in trouble. They want to be able to stay in their homes and maintain the dignity they had when they were younger and more active.
Russell sees caring for the elderly as one of our biggest concerns and with the massive shift in the demographics of the province about to take place, her comments are important if she is going to sit in the provincial legislature and speak for Burlington.
Russell says “we have to change what we are paying people who are providing care. It’s not about budgets, its about people. True, but the programs have to be paid for and that means balancing a budget. The province is currently so broke that it has to go to the private sector and have someone build the hospital that then gets leased back to the province.
The chances of the New Democrats forming a government in Ontario are slim to non-existent. Does that mean electing Peggy Russell is a mistake? The current member of the Legislature really hasn’t done all that much for the city. Should Peggy Russell convince enough of the voters in this city to vote for her – one thing is certain – she will speak loudly and I suspect very effectively for Burlington.
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