DONNA HANSEN ACCLAIMED AS PROVINCIAL NDP CANDIDATE

Local NDP pinning its hopes on Hansen

By Laura Cudworth Staff reporter

(From the Beacon Herald)

“This is opening night. There’s no time to rehearse anymore. This is it.”
By the time she reaches “closing night” on Oct. 10, Donna Hansen hopes to have led the local NDP to victory in Perth-Wellington.
“If we don’t win, we’re going to scare them,” she said after the nomination meeting.
However, many were optimistic she could win, including the feisty rookie MPP Cheri DiNovo who won the byelection in Parkdale-High Park nine months ago. She’s best known for her Living Wage bill calling for an immediate raise of the minimum wage to $10 an hour.
“Donna, I’d vote for you in a heartbeat. You embody, as a person, all that is wonderful about the NDP,” she said in front of about 40 party faithful at the Optimist Hall last night.
Ms. DiNovo said the party has the best chance it’s had since Bob Rae formed a government in 1990. The lowest the NDP has been in the polls is 20 per cent, she said.
Even if that 20 per cent doesn’t multiply, this could be the most critical campaign the NDP ever runs. The ballot will also ask voters to vote for or against a major change to the system. That change, proportional representation, could mean parties that get a decent proportion of the popular vote could send more candidates to Queen’s Park. Germany, Scotland and New Zealand have proportional representation.
“It’s important to all of the smaller parties. It’s important to get us into the Legislature. People will stop saying, ‘What’s one vote?’ because it will make a contribution,” Ms. Hansen said.
However, she and Ms. DiNovo called the 60 per cent it will require to change the system undemocratic.
“A majority is 50 plus one,” Ms. DiNovo said.
Ms. Hansen previously ran for the federal nomination, which went to Keith Dinicol, in 2006. She works at the Huron-Perth Centre for Children and Youth to end violence against women. She lives on a small scale farm with her husband in Mitchell and one of the things she’d like to see is help from the government for rural families to get off the grid. The cost of a wind turbine is prohibitive for many families, including her own, she noted.
She also expressed concern about the average age of farmers and the inability of young people to start up because of the exorbitant costs. A combine is the price of a house, she said.
Ms. DiNovo, a former United Church minister and entrepreneur, got members riled up with a passionate speech.
“It takes (the Liberals) three years to give the poorest workers $10 an hour but eight days to give themselves a 31 per cent raise,” she said, calling it the “McGuilty” government.
She noted NDP members have donated the raise back into their communities.
In contrast, the government “gave” Magna International Inc. $51 million, she said, adding the average corporate CEO now makes $9 million a year.
The theme for the NDP campaign will be fairness, Ms. Hansen said.
Ms. Hansen outlined the issues in her acceptance speech and acknowledged there are many, including protecting universal health care, reaching Kyoto targets, improvements to education including tuition freezes for colleges and universities, building and renewing affordable housing and raising income levels for the poorest people in the province.