Dr. Lise Vaugeois Begins Campaign for MPP
Politics are certainly not for the faint of heart and entering the game as someone who is not a career politician, works a full time job and identifies as a woman; undoubtedly adds additional layers of adversity when it comes to carving out a role in this profession. Yet, in spite of the obstacles in her path, Lise Vaugeois persists.
Vaugeois is running for MPP on behalf of the NDP party for Thunder Bay-Superior North and if elected on June 2nd, will represent this riding at Queen’s Park. She is currently an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University, earning her PhD from the University of Toronto and has been teaching most recently at the graduate level with primarily an emphasis on Music and Social Justice.
Originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Vaugeois moved to Thunder Bay many years ago to work for the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. She is a gifted musician and considers herself to be a lifelong activist. For her, it is an honor to be given the opportunity to run for public office and potentially represent Thunder Bay-Superior North provincially, should she win in two months. As someone who has an academic background, this lends itself well to politics as in order to publicly debate you must be well-versed in the issue at hand.
It is no secret that Michael Gravelle has been the long standing front runner for Thunder Bay-Superior North and has managed to hold onto this riding since he was first elected in 1995. Yet, when Vaugeois ran in 2018 she lost to him by a very narrow margin, a mere 800 votes, which is representative of the fact that she has the capacity to run and win this upcoming election.
As a professor, life long learner and staunch advocate of the Arts, Vaugeois feels a personal kinship using her platform to advocate for students. If elected, some of the issues that she plans on championing that will directly affect students are creating changes to have tuition decreased: “ When the Harris government came into power, they began making cuts to education and pulling funding for universities and colleges. As a result, International students are being used as cash cows to make up for the lack of government funding by being charged astronomical tuition prices. This is simply not acceptable and detrimental to the lives of young people.” Additionally, Vaugeois points out that in the long term, wider issues that seemingly do not impact students directly such as long term care and child care will eventually be at the forefront of their priorities and in order to make changes for that time, we must act now.
When asked about the NDP platform as a whole, Vaugeois emphasized that the overall goal is to create change for the better: “A strong network of public services has allowed Ontarians to thrive. Yet, for the past twenty years these services have been eroded through major budget cuts and privatization and as a result, the services that people need are non-existent or very costly.” The NDP plans on moving Ontario forward through robust universal health care programs that meet the needs of our ever changing province. Specifically, they have outlined introducing dental care and prescription drug coverage for everyone as well as providing childcare for those who need it most and $12 a day for other families. They would also like to move to end hallway medicine and create shorter waitlists for surgeries through more hospital funding. Given that we are currently living in a pandemic, this is arguably more important than ever before as during the peak of Covid-19 our hospitals were severely overwhelmed and needed support.
On Wednesday, April 27th, Dr. Vaugeois will be kicking off her campaign at 6:30 pm at the Oliver Rd Community Center. There will be many local performers including Rodney Brown, the Honest Heart Collective, Outside the Lines and spoken word artists, Ardelle Sagutcheway and Taiina Chahal. Light refreshments will be served and this event will provide constituents with the chance to get to learn more about their candidate and voice their concerns. Should you be interested in attending or learning more about Vaugeois’ platform please RSVP to the event by following this link: https://www.ontariondp.ca/tbsn-lisevaugeoiskickoff
Voting is a fundamental right that we as Ontarians and Canadians are awarded and have a duty to use. Whether you vote NDP, Conservative or Liberal it is most important that you go vote! Advanced polls across the province will be open for 10 days and should you not be residing in your city of residence, it is possible to apply for a mail-in ballot or vote in the electoral district for your address while attending school/summer internship. For more information on how to vote, what riding you are eligible to vote in and any FAQs you might have, we invite you to visit Elections Ontario:
https://www.elections.on.ca/en/voting-in-ontario/how-to-vote.html#accordionstudent Special thanks to Dr. Lise Vaugeois and her contributions to this article.