April 7, 2022 Vol. 22, No. 14
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John Jordan To Represent Ontario PC Party in LFK By Jeff Green
John Jordan, Ontario PC Candidate
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ohn Jordan brings two key life experiences to his candidacy for the LanarkFrontenac-Kingston seat in the upcoming provincial election. In 1990, his father Leo won the election, in the old Lanark-Renfrew riding for the Progressive Conservatives. At the time, Leo was about the same age as John is now, after a long career at Ontario Hydro, so John knows first-hand what life as an MPP is like. John has also had a long career before entering politics. He has served as the Executive Director of Connectwell Community Health for almost 20 years. When he was originally hired, it was to run
the much smaller North Lanark Community Health Centre. Over a few short years, integration between 5 agencies led to the establishment of the agency that is now called Connectwell, providing a range of services to a large geographic area, in three counties. “I went from managing a small agency with 20 employees, to heading up the leadership team with over 200 employees, all done through voluntary integration, over a three or four year period. Much of my job was working with local government municipalities, counties, and provincial ministries. We grew as an organisation by working with partners. That part of my old job was what I enjoyed the most, and it is part of my motivation to continue that kind of work in provincial politics,” he said Connectwell provides community-based primary health care, health promotion programs and services, and a range of developmental and social services. It serves communities in Lanark, Renfrew, and Leeds and Grenville counties. He retired from Connectwell last Thursday, just in time to get his campaign for MPP underway. The selection process to find a Progressive Conservative (PC) candidate began over a year ago. The riding association was seeking a candidate to replace Randy Hillier, who was ejected from the PC caucus one year into the current term of government and was not given leave to seek the candidacy for the party again. North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins, and Lanark Highlands Councillors were both al-
ready in the race for the nomination when John Jordan decided to throw his hat into the ring. “I was late to the race, so to speak,” said Jordan, in a phone interview this week. “I had big decisions to make around my career first.” He said that while his father, who died in 2015 at the age of 85, always encouraged him to run, “I always said no way. My wife and I had young kids and it wasn't in my career plan to make that kind of change, although I have thought about it a couple of times over the years.” This time, the timing worked out for him. “I may have waited to retire a bit longer, but I am ready,” he said. “I'm happy, the staff are happy.” Ron Higgins ended up pulling out of the running for PC candidate and threw his support to Jordan, in a process that ended last November. Since then, Jordan has continued working full time at Connectwell, but the campaign arrangements have been proceeding behind the scenes. “We are working very hard now, still behind the scenes, but we have our volunteers and signs all ready to go,” he said. A campaign office will be opening soon as well.” He said that his plans for the campaign have not changed because Randy Hillier is no longer in the race, seeking support from the strong block of Conservative voters in the riding. “There are a lot of issues of concern in this election in Lanark-Frontenac Kingston, and that is what I am planning to focus on. I think the party is on track to make the
kinds of improvements to health care that are needed, but the pandemic has shown what we already knew, that long term care, and home and community care for seniors, needs more resources. “Also primary care. There are a lot of orphaned patients in the region, and when you have communities like Carleton Place, the fastest growing population centre in Canada, it only makes it more important to address primary care and other health services.” In the latest census, the population of the Carleton Place census division grew by 16.5%, to almost 14,000 people. Only 3 years ago, a Lanark County population forecast predicted that the population of Carleton Place would grow to 20,000 within 20 years, but the rate of growth has accelerated since then. Although fibre based Internet is well established in population centres like Carleton Place, improvements in Internet service to rural communities is another of Jordan's priorities, as are affordability issues. “Transportation is always an issue in our region. So, when gas prices go up, we feel it. In downtown Toronto, people have options for transportation, here we don't,” he said. John Jordan and his wife Brenda Leah live on the family farm in Montague township (near Smith Falls) where he was raised. They have three adult children and raise beef cattle. He is well known across Lanark County through his work and life experience, but is not as well known in Frontenac County, but he hopes to change that during the upcoming campaign. ■
Thomas Mulder; Ontario Party Candidate in LFK By Jeff Green homas Mulder was seeking a relaxing retirement from his career as a veterinarian with a special interest in veterinary dentistry, which be pursued at his home in Brantford, Ontario. So he moved to Canoe Lake Road in the Bedford district of South Frontenac last fall, and worked with a builder to put up a log home in the woods. He had no intention to get involved in any sort of politics when he moved to the region, and had never run for office in the past. But now he finds himself running for the MPP under the banner of the Ontario Party, which is headed by Derek Sloan, the former Federal Conservative MP in the neighbouring riding of Hastings, Lennox and Addington. “The big thing for me that started the concern,” he said in a phone interview this week, “was some of the COVID policies did not fit with my understanding of science, particularly the vaccine mandate. The vaccine was never intended to stop infection, rather it was designed to reduce severity of the disease, it was never really going to stop spread. The coercion by the federal and provincial governments didn’t add up. My son, who had COVID, no longer needed the vaccine and yet was prevented from going to
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university because he was not vaccinated. They took a way his right to choose.” That is what drew him to the Ontario Party. “If there is one word that defines the Ontario Party for me, it is freedom. The message is clear. When it comes to the vaccine, let me choose, for my own health. It's fundamental.” He said that the imposition of the Emergency Measures Act to force an end to the protests in Ottawa back in February was another factor. “When ruling on the injunction to stop the noise of the horns, a Superior Court Justice ruled that it was a peaceful and legal protest. Then the emergency measures came in and the police came in, riding horses through the crowd. It was sad to see that in our own country.” One of the things that attracted him to the Ontario Party was its embrace of freedom of religion. “It was sad to see that it was illegal to gather in a church, a mosque, or a synagogue because of coercive measures, he said. Another motivation for him to run for the Ontario Party is more specific to his Christian faith.
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“As a Christian, I am upset with the bible being referred to as a myth by the Federal Government. Bill C4 [the bill to ban conversion therapy] made it illegal to counsel according to the Bible’s view on sexuality, even to someone who came looking for that kind of information. In Canada we now have legislation that can imprison someone for counselling according the Bible.” The Ontario Party charter recognizes the “supremacy of God and the rule of law”. It also affirms that Canada operates under the Crown, and says that the pursuit of the common good of the people of Ontario needs to respect the “inherited wisdom and sacrifice of previous generations embodied in our culture and traditions.” Mulder said that the party is the fastest growing party in Canada, with new people joining every day. “It is exciting to think that as a new party develops you start seeing people buy in to it. As people plug into the significance of freedom. Freedom should not be a political platform, it should be a part of everything. I am not a politician; I am a veterinarian, but I had to step up to stop what the governments are doing. Last summer Doug Ford said no to a vaccine passport. That's what really gets under my skin, because he knew the soci-
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Thomas Mulder; Ontario Party Candidate
etal impact of this and the weak science behind it, and he was aware of the risk these coercive measures brought with them, and he went ahead with them any way. “I had no choice but to step up after that.” Thomas Mulder will be hosting an information meeting at the Portland Community Church in Hartington, 5567 Road 38, on Saturday, April 9 from 7pm-9pm. For information about the Ontario Party, go to ontarioparty.ca ■
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