Large public-sector job losses if PCs win election, says Kingston & the Islands NDP candidate

With election day just two days away, the gloves are coming off. NDP candidates held media conferences across Eastern Ontario on Tuesday morning.

Kingston and the Islands NDP candidate Ian Arthur says public-sector jobs are on the line if Doug Ford’s PC Party forms the next government.

“In our community, that means at least 1,243 jobs are going to disappear, a shocking 12,000 jobs across Eastern Ontario alone.”

READ MORE: Doug Ford’s PCs would run higher deficits than NDP and Liberals, economists say

PC candidate Gary Bennett calls the move a publicity stunt and says the NDP needs to take another look at their own platform.

“It had to be pointed out to them they had an $8-billion hole. They’ve indicated they want to buy back Ontario Hydro and yet they’re going to buy it back without accounting for a single dollar of expenditures.”

Arthur also tried to discount Liberal candidate Sophie Kiwala as a viable voting option.

“With Wynne conceding the election, a vote for Sophie Kiwala is a vote for Doug Ford.”

READ MORE: Ontario PCs, and Liberals almost entirely ignored the NDP … until they rose in the polls

Kiwala says she is the candidate with both federal and provincial experience and has shown the ability to work across the aisle.

“I made sure to establish those relationships, you have to be able to work with everybody and I don’t think that Kingstonians are after nasty partisan politics.”

Green Party candidate Robert Kiley says his party is the only one offering real change in the province, citing increasing hydro rates as an example.

“The main driver is nuclear refurbishment. The OPG (Ontario Power Generation) has applied for a three-times increase. We know people can’t afford that.”

Kiley says only the Greens offer an affordable alternative.

“We can import clean low-cost hydro from Quebec to make sure that small businesses and middle- and low-income families have lower hydro rates.”