NDP candidate for the riding of Antigonish, Moraig Macgillivray, says she’s hearing that people aren’t happy with the status quo.
Macgillivray has been out knocking on doors since the provincial election campaign period kicked off on Saturday.
Stories of people struggling to find housing, childcare or healthcare are commonplace; People are frustrated with the current government, she says.
“An election is coming, so all of a sudden, all this money is getting spent after four years of ‘we don’t have the money for anything’.”
Macgillivray points out, problems which existed before the pandemic and were exacerbated during the pandemic, aren’t going to be fixed by sticking with the status quo.
To solve the housing, healthcare or climate crisis’, Macgillivray suggests they need to be approached with the same urgency as the COVID-19 crisis has been.
“Let’s collectively work together to get past this, because getting back to normal — normal wasn’t good enough. We need a new normal that’s better for everybody.”
Governments must spend money where and when it’s needed, because the alternative is creating a deficit that isn’t financial, she says.
“If you underfund education, you’re creating a deficit because you’re raising a group of people who don’t have the skills they need to thrive in the world.”
Macgillivray encourages people in the riding to use their voice by voting next month.
“[The NDP] are talking about making investments up-front, rather than Band-Aids later on. And I think people seem to be quite receptive to that message.”
