Hastings-Lennox and Addington Liberal candidate Lynn Rigby says she is running in the provincial election because she is concerned about where we all live.
The long-time family farm owner in Stone Mills is a widowed mother of three.
Her husband Tim Rigby ran for the Liberals in the 2018 provincial election.
In addition to the family farm, which is now run by her son, Rigby has worked as a Specialized Hospital Physiotherapist in Kingston for many years.
As someone who has worked on the health care frontlines she tells Quinte News she has a deep understanding of the crisis across the province.
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“When my son moved to help me with the farm, when my husband got sick, they could not get a family doctor, and they have three children. So not having a family doctor with three children is a crisis. There’s 2.5 million people in Ontario without a family doctor and they’re predicting that four million will be without by 2026.”
She’s also concerned about the closing of emergency departments and wait times and says more money has to be put into health care.
Rigby also believes small-town, rural Ontario, like the communities that make up the Hastings-Lennox and Addington riding, is getting left behind.
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“For instance Tweed has 56 bridges that need to be fixed and they can’t get money. And the tax base of Tweed can’t afford to pay for all those bridges so I think we need to invest more in small town and rural Ontario. Not just infrastructure but small business investment and helping them with the cost of OPP.”
She says rural Ontario deserves stable funding sources.
She also wants to see life made more affordable for everyone.
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“We need to invest in businesses, they need to be able to have jobs and affordable housing. And Bonnie Crombie has lots of ideas for affordable housing including tax breaks for developers and also building more affordable housing.”
Rigby says with more people homeless than ever before, Crombie’s plan to double ODSP payments will keep many people off the streets.
Speaking about the Doug Ford Conservatives, Rigby says they’ve wasted money on bad deals and cancelled projects.
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“This election’s costing $189 million and it’s a snap election, which is hard. And I mean I don’t begrudge people $200 cheques but that’s costing three billion. You could build two new hospitals for that.”
She says people want value for their tax dollars and a Liberal government will provide that.
The provincial election is Thursday, February 27.
