This is one of a series of profiles on the candidates running in Simcoe North for the Feb. 27 provincial election.
For Walter Alvarez-Bardales, deciding to run in the upcoming provincial election goes back to his roots.
Growing up in Guatemala, the now 52-year-old-old says he left the country of his birth when he was 20 at the urging of his parents.
“They shot my brother in the head,” Alvarez-Bardales says of an incident that occurred during a troubling period of Guatemala’s history when a quarter of a million people were murdered in what became known as the Guatemalan genocide and/or the Silent Holocaust.
“My parents made the difficult decision to send me away.”
During this dark period in the nation’s history that stretched from 1960 to 1996 with civil war, Mayan Indigenous people were murdered by successive Guatemalan military governments that first took power following the CIA-instigated, 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état.
As someone who identifies as Afro-Indigenous, he left the country out of fear for his life. He first lived in the United States before eventually settling in Canada as a refugee. He is now a "proud" Canadian citizen.
He worked 10 years with the federal government and ended up volunteering by advocating for a Guatemalan refugee claimant.
At the time, the man was stricken by an aggressive form of cancer and didn’t have health coverage so Alvarez-Bardales asked former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government for some compassionate relief, which he says was denied.
“That resulted in a death sentence for him," he says grimly. "He died in my arms despite living blocks away from one of the best cancer centres in the world (Princess Margaret’s in Toronto).”
While Alvarez-Bardales lives in Scarborough with his wife Joyce and beloved puppy Pepa who he rescued from Guatemala, he says he’s passionate about ensuring North Simcoe residents don’t experience the pain that comes from inadequate healthcare.
“Healthcare access has been my lifelong fight,” he says. “It's unacceptable that 2.5 million Canadians lack a family doctor, and for the elderly to wait hours for a slim chance at care.
“I'm committed to fighting tirelessly for a health-care system that serves everyone with dignity and efficiency.”
(Walter Alvarez-Bardales is seen with his rescue dog Pepa.)
His varied life experiences has also brought Alvarez-Bardales closer to God and he says he’s a proud born-again Christian.
“The collection of those experiences was soul destroying, but I saw the light,” he says. “I want to leave a legacy of love.”
Despite no longer having any immediate family in Guatemala, Alvarez-Bardales visits annually to follow a belief that you must visit the final resting place of your loved ones each year.
Alvarez-Bardales says he also knows the importance of ensuring Ontarians get a sound education. For his part, he has pursued higher education and possesses an MBA and is now a doctoral candidate at Royal Roads University. He views health-care access as a human rights and ethics issue and wrote a Master’s thesis on the subject.
He also works on documentary films through the Democracy Matters’ YouTube channel and has garnered nearly half a million views. And as someone with ADHD, Alvarez-Bardales says his film work has amplified crucial conversations about learning disabilities and mental health.
Besides the film work and educational pursuits, Alvarez-Bardales also represented Canada at the United Nations Model 2019 in Washington D.C. and says his journey reflects a deep commitment to justice, inclusivity and tangible progress.
“I learned more about (government) policy because of being a Guatemalan immigrant,” he says, adding that he reached out to Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie about being involved in this election.
“I’m not a politician by trade, but we can’t neglect our health-care system. While people are dying, Doug Ford wants to build a tunnel.”