Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie joins Belleville Councillor Sean Kelly to campaign for the Sept 19 Bay of Quinte By-Election

An enthusiastic and over-capacity crowd jammed the Boathouse Restaurant in Belleville last week to meet Liberal Party Leader Bonnie Crombie and new Bay of Quinte candidate Sean Kelly.

The Quinte Broadcasting morning show host is hoping to turn this Conservative stronghold red by connecting with an electorate that chose Ernie Parsons and Leona Dombrowsky in the 2000’s.

“We are going to tell Doug Ford that enough is enough and we are back!” said Ms. Crombie to an enthusiastic crowd. 

“We’ve had enough of overcrowded classrooms, enough of waiting for hours at Belleville General Hospital and enough of hallway medicine.”

The leader underscored the affordability crisis for would-be home owners, and said people on the inside are benefitting from the hollowing-out of public services Ontarians rely on — especially education and healthcare. 

“This Ford government has a deliberate strategy to underfund public services. Something like the new hospital in Picton is great, but where are the human health resources like family physicians, RN’s and PSW’s going to come from? We have hospitals in the system running up lines of credit to pay nursing agencies to bridge the gaps.”

A former school board trustee, Mr. Kelly currently serves at City Hall in Belleville as a councillor. He decried the consistent downloading of services onto municipalities and the government’s refusal to fund infrastructure in small, rural municipalities.

He said the current average wait time of 18 hours at BGH is “completely unacceptable,” and County Road 49 “embarrassing.” Mr. Kelly promised a Liberal government at Queen’s Park would be at the table to help with PEC’s crumbling concrete roadway.

“49 has consistently been one of CAA’s worst roads in Canada and it’s embarrassing that the provincial government has ignored the County. You see the same thing in Tweed. They can’t fix their bridges and the province ignores these serious safety issues.”

Ms. Crombie noted, “there needs to be a new deal for Ontario’s small and rural municipalities, they are being asked to build 21st century towns and infrastructure with 19th century tools and funding formulas.”

About speculation that she might use Quinte West to try to win a seat at Queen’s Park prior to the next general election, the Liberal leader said signing up for the Bay of Quinte wasn’t a consideration.

“The people of Ontario need to get to know me and the new brand and vision for the Liberal Party of Ontario.”