Perth-Wellington NDP have named Jason Davis to carry the torch for the party in the current provincial election.
Jason Davis has been a diesel technician for the last 12 years, also operating the Stratford Comic Stop which mainly operates online and gives away comics to kids.
One topic important to Davis is one of childcare who says since November 2022 that there isn’t licensed at home child care when the federal $10 a day childcare program came and now has a 4 year wait list to get into public childcare options.
Davis says there needs to be more to address childcare which he mentions doesn’t come with as hefty as a price tag as some would think.
“When Perth Care for Kids stopped licensing at home childcare I called them and asked how much does this program cost per year. They said $20,000. $20,000 is all it takes to make sure that we are providing inspected at home childcare facilities that are able to care for one more child each. That means when we lost 30 locations, we lost 30 spots” said Davis.
While the Ontario NDP has a plan to address hot button topics in the province including healthcare, the economy and housing, Davis makes note a topic on the backburner which can come back to haunt the province is addressing post-secondary education.
“In 2019 Doug Ford froze provincial funding to post secondary education and asked them to look at international student visas to fund the schools because international students pay about $20,000 more per person than a Canadian would for education. In 2023 of the 435,000 international student visas given, 40 per cent were given in Ontario. Thanks to the federal government we have now limited the number of student visas being given out so we have school closures, schools declaring bankruptcy, professors not being paid. In the last 15 years we have basically gutted and destroyed one of the best education systems in the world and I fear this is a topic not being talked about right now”
Davis, like other candidates are continuing their campaign ahead of the February 27th election.
