Four decades ago, Robert Skaf fled civil war in Lebanon.
His wartime journey eventually led him to Thunder Bay, where he set up shop, most recently as the owner and operator of Current River’s Skaf’s Just Basics for the past 15 years.
Frustrated at the lack of growth in Northern Ontario, Skaf says politicians have failed in their duties as nation builders.
It’s for those reasons he’s decided to join the fray and put his name forward as an independent candidate in Thunder Bay-Superior North, his first stab at federal politics.
“I’m very concerned about the future,” Skaf said recently. “The future doesn’t look promising and I’m very concerned with many issues. The first is the decline in the quality of jobs.”
Saying he thinks the country is about to morph from economic crisis to economic meltdown, Skaf offers up plenty of innovative ideas to turn things around.
First and foremost he’d like to see Canada’s North turned into the world’s largest organic farm, where wild animals can be raised free of pesticides and hormones.
The meat could be marketed around the globe.
Second on his list is charging the nation’s scientific community to invent a new material out of wood to build tremor-resistant houses.
He’d also like to transform the Canadian government into a business, generating revenue to help create even more jobs.
“The reason I am calling for a new economy is to have quality jobs where all our next generation can afford to raise a family,” he said.
“If you don’t have enough income to raise a family you aren’t going to do it. The only way to create quality jobs now is to have government involved directly in the economy. The multinationals are not going to do it for us.”
Skaf said many companies are finding China too expensive to operate in and are moving out to less expensive countries like Malaysia, Pakistan and India.
“We cannot compete on prices, but we can compete in innovation and creativity – new technology, new innovation, new inventions.”
Skaf said he chose the independent route because he does not want to be beholden to the party system.
