Candidate: John Rafferty

John Rafferty is proud of his time as Thunder Bay-Rainy River’s Member of Parliament and wants to continue his work.

When he’s not in Ottawa, the NDP incumbent said he’s spent every weekend over the last two-and-a-half years knocking on doors, attending events across the riding, doing surveys and setting up town hall meetings in an effort to reach people in the riding.

"I’ve made a real point of being accessible to all of my constituents," Rafferty said.
Rafferty, 57, said he got a good sense of what the riding’s priorities are last week when he held a telephone town hall last week. Eighty-five people stayed on the line and the number one issue for more than half of them was affordability, Rafferty said.

From the rising price of gasoline and food to HST, Rafferty said families of all income levels are struggling.

"People are finding it harder to put food on the table, to pay the electricity," he said. "Everybody needs a break … Ottawa needs to put more money back into people’s pockets or things won’t get any better."

The second issue was retirement security, something Rafferty tried to address with bill C-501. That bill would have made worker’s pensions and severance secured in the event that a company went bankrupt.

After several compromises, Rafferty hoped to get the bill to third reading in the spring. That hope was dashed when the election was called, meaning if the New Democrat is re-elected he will have to start the process over again.

Health care was next on Rafferty’s agenda, especially with an aging population of Northwestern Ontario. Long-term care, home care and child care for people looking after ailing parents all need to be sorted out at the federal level.

"People are very concerned about parents. What’s going to happen in terms of long-term care? Home care?" asked Rafferty. "We need a pan-Canadian strategy so that we have equality and fairness right across the country because some communities do better than others."

The MP believes the issues haven’t changed since the last election.

"I believe that the priorities in this coming house are exactly the same as the last one.”
With a week to go until the May 2 election, Rafferty will focus on speaking to people in the Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding.

"It’s important that people get involved with the dialogue and understand the issues, and most important to get out and vote."

Rafferty is a father of three. Born in Wingham, Ont., he is an educator, broadcaster, musician and businessman.

He was defeated in three federal elections starting in 2000 before beating Liberal incumbent Ken Boshcoff in 2008.