Smith makes it official

Nipissing Liberal candidate Monique Smith, on the heels of NDP candidate Henri Giroux and Conservative candidate Bill Vrebosch, paid a visit to the Elections Ontario office on Main Street West Wednesday afternoon and filed her nomination papers making her candidacy in the provincial election official.

Smith told reporters outside the Elections Ontario office that she is excited about the campaign. She said that she has an organised team behind her who are eager as well and spent the weekend putting out her election signs ahead of the pack.

She also confided that she likes canvassing area neighbourhoods and hearing residents’ positive and negative comments.

Ray Brunette, the returning officer for Nipissing Riding, confirmed that the NDP, Conservatives and Liberals have all filed papers; however, he has yet to hear from the Green Party or independents, but reminded reporters that the cut-off date to file nomination papers is September 18th at 2pm.

Meanwhile, Smith issued the following news release on the issue of faith based schools.

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“The Vrebosh/Tory plan to fund private faith-based schools will result in money being taken from our northern schools,” said Nipissing Liberal candidate Monique Smith.

“Conservatives only plan to invest half as much in public schools as Ontario Liberals and they want to rip $500 million out of public schools to give to private schools. The Conservative scheme raises many questions – questions that John Tory and Bill Vrebosh can’t answer,” Smith said

The John Tory scheme to rip $500 million out of public education and hand it over to private schools will also put rural schools at risk of closure, says former Chair of the Ontario Public School Board Association and Liberal candidate for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock, Rick Johnson.

“Just when our rural schools are getting back on solid ground John Tory wants to put them at risk again,” said Johnson. “We can’t risk taking a single penny out of our schools.”

“Bill Vrebosh and John Tory keep talking about only 53 000 students, but what they don’t understand is that once the money becomes available, more and more private schools will open which will siphon more money from the public system,” stated Smith.

The Conservatives have not said how they would keep rural and northern schools from closing. And they have not said how much funding would be siphoned off for extra administration or for training for private school teachers.

“A vote for Bill Vrebosh is a vote for the John Tory plan to remove $500 million from the public school system. This is a step backwards,” Smith added.

“Education and our young people are too important. Our publicly funded school systems are too important. We have to keep moving Ontario forward,” concluded Smith.

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