Editor's Note: OrilliaMatters will profile the Simcoe North candidates seeking your vote in the June 2 provincial election. Today, we feature Ontario Party candidate Aaron MacDonald.
Given the current political climate in Ontario, Aaron MacDonald says he knew he needed to do something to effect change.
So, the 48-year-old opted to seek the nomination for the Ontario Party in Simcoe North.
“For me, I’ve always kind of been on the sidelines from a political standpoint,” says MacDonald, who describes himself as a Christian, husband, father of six and grandfather of two.
“It was time that we needed to speak out and drive some change.”
MacDonald says he was spurred to action by what he finds are the Ontario Progressive Conservatives’ failings in a number of key areas, including in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I voted for (PC Leader Doug) Ford in the last election,” MacDonald says, “but he’s flip-flopped on many things.
“First and foremost is the sex education curriculum for grades 1 to 12. He ran on taking that out and then re-implemented it in 2019.”
MacDonald is referring to the introduction of a new sex education curriculum introduced by the governing Liberals in 2015 that includes topics such as sharing explicit content online, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
While Ford said he would scrap the changes during the previous election campaign and revert to the 1998 curriculum, his government announced in 2019 a different, new curriculum that contained most of the updates in the Liberal plan.
MacDonald says the new curriculum goes too far and that children between the ages of six and 12 should have been exempt from the program.
“It opens them up to potential ideologies that could confuse them,” he says. “It’s up to parents to be the first teachers, not teachers.”
As for the government’s COVID-19 response, MacDonald takes aim at the lockdowns and closures, which he says hurt small- to medium-sized businesses.
“To turn around and mandate that people will lose their jobs based on a private personal decision is asinine,” says MacDonald, who notes he has had COVID-19 and elected not to get vaccinated.
“Continuing to allow the lockdowns was reckless,” he says, adding it was also wrong to postpone surgeries, which he notes likely led to additional deaths that might not be tallied in the official COVID-19 numbers. “Hospitals were also recklessly understaffed.”
MacDonald, who describes himself as a blue-collar worker, says political parties often overlook the little guy, who works hard and pays his fair share of taxes.
“I’m one of those people. I work multiple jobs to pay the bills and am overtaxed. There’s too much (government) waste.”
He says people are ready for a change, something the Ontario Party offers.
“I’d like (this election) to achieve change,” says MacDonald, who lives in Tiny Township.
“There are no differences between the three main parties. It’s all spend, spend, spend.”
He says that was evident prior to the writ being dropped when the Ford government regularly announced new funding initiatives and programs throughout the province while also tabling a budget featuring a $20-billion deficit.
MacDonald says the Ford government “isn’t as conservative as it should be. People are tired of not being heard and not being helped.”
And, given current inflationary pressures and high housing prices and rents, MacDonald says those high taxes to pay for myriad programs make it difficult for ordinary folks to not only keep a roof over their families’ heads, but also afford food and fuel for their vehicles to get to work.
“I’ve grown weary of the ever-increasing cost of living we, the taxpayers, are burdened with while our elected officials continue to fund ideological projects that confuse our youth, destroy any hope for the future and don’t meet the needs of their constituents.”
MacDonald says elected officials should be fiscally responsible and accountable for how tax dollars are spent.
“Every dollar saved on unnecessary expenses, which includes politicians and bureaucrats, is a dollar able to be spent on regional services and infrastructure,” he says, noting the savings could also be used to provide more support and resources to long-term care, mental health and other health facilities along with investing in local transit systems to support and join more communities.
“We don’t always need more money to do a better job within our communities; we just need to stop wasting what we have,” he adds.
MacDonald says Canada was once a beacon of free speech, welcoming and embracing all to create an amazing mosaic of peoples.
“But over the past few years it has been polarized by an ideology, which is both deceitful and degrading to everyone. This needs to stop.”
As well, MacDonald, who currently works as a production supervisor for a custom plastics moulder in Midland, says Ontario isn’t properly harnessing the skills of its immigrant workforce since those who may have been doctors or engineers in their former homelands aren’t allowed to work in their fields provincially.
Throughout the latter part of his career, MacDonald says he’s worked to improve the lives of those around him, either leading by example or communicating one-on-one to counsel positive life choices.
“I want to use this passion for helping people to drive the changes necessary to breathe hope and life back into our communities,” he says. “My goal is to break down the walls that our political elite have constructed between us.”
