OrilliaMatters received the following letter from Bruce Stanton in response to a letter from Gerry Hawes criticizing the MP's track record, as reported in a recent article.
***********************
I was interested to read the views of Gerry Hawes, a long time political opponent, in a recent letter to the editor of this news site, in reference to a New Year’s interview article with me Stanton vows to vie for fifth term in 2019, by Dave Dawson.
Mr. Hawes raised some interesting points that deserve a reply. To start with, he seemed to be equating my reflections on 2018 as an advertisement for my re-election. This was not the premise of the article by Dawson, who asked me about highlights from the year past and what envisioned the year ahead to be.
However, since Hawes raised the issue, I have not hesitated to put my record of service before Simcoe North voters since 2006 and I am proud to do the same in 2019.
It’s not just the more than $640 million for capital improvements to Trent-Severn Waterway since 2006 (including a tidy sum from this current Liberal government which I credit them for), it’s Lakehead University – Orillia ($13 million), the Clean-up Lake Simcoe Fund ($60 million over 10 years), and the creation of the Southern-Ontario federal development agency, FedDev Ontario ($2.0 Billion over 10 years), among many, that I pushed for and succeeded in, that have had a direct and positive impact on the people of Simcoe North.
Mr. Hawes’ trivializing of the important service to individual constituents is curious since he knows from his lead role with my predecessor, Paul DeVillers, M.P., how important this is to the people we advocate for. I regard this work as the most important task of the day – it is customer focused – it means everything to the people we serve and that is why I consider it an accomplishment.
From now until Parliament adjourns in mid-June, I will continue to vote to hold the current government to account for such matters as their deficit spending (more than twice the deficit they promised in election 2015), their fumbling of tax changes on small businesses, essentially call them tax cheats, bungling NAFTA 2.0 – such that we now have tariffs on aluminum and steel with our most important trading partner, the disorder at the US border that has seen nearly 40,000 refugee claimants crossing illegally since 2017, the scuttling of pipeline projects to help get Canada’s oil to export markets, and higher taxes (payroll and carbon taxes, canceling tax credits for sports, fitness and transit) at a time that more and more Canadians see affordability as their most important issue.
I look forward to the campaign ahead but until then, I’ll keep my eye on my MP duties here and in Parliament.
Bruce Stanton
MP, Simcoe North
***********************
