The bottom line is the bottom line in this Ontario election campaign for Sam Mangiapane.
The New Blue Party candidate for the Barrie-Innisfil riding says affordability is what election day, Feb. 27, is all about.
“Affordability, I think, is top of mind on everybody’s plate. If nobody can afford anything, it’s the trickle-down effect,” said the Barrie resident. “It affects society on a whole … there’s a lot of things that revolve around affordability.”
Mangiapane is in the construction business, an electrical supervisor for projects across Ontario.
This is his first campaign for political office, although he has considered it before on both the municipal and provincial levels.
“This is the first time I’m throwing my hat in and seeing what happens,” Mangiapane said. “I’m pretty much a salt-of-the-earth type of person.
“I’m what you consider blue collar, family oriented … the core of the community, you know,” he added. “I’m not very wealthy. I work every day, just like everybody else. I pay my taxes, I try and raise a family.”
He’s 50/50 on whether this provincial election is necessary, however, given the Progressive Conservatives didn’t need to call the vote for more than another year, and it will cost taxpayers as much as $189 million.
“I’m not liking the way things are going with the current government, so in that regard I feel that (an election) is necessary,” Mangiapane said. “However, given the economic conditions that we’re seeing, I don’t think it was necessary, especially at this time, during the winter.”
Which brings him and the New Blues back to affordability.
“It’s the amount of taxes that we’re paying … so cut taxes at the provincial level and fight the carbon tax,” he said. “That’s still up in the air with a possibility of a federal election … you don’t see anything spoken about the carbon taxes and they really affect affordability.
“Also, housing,” Mangiapane added. “There needs to be some change in housing rules, especially with landlords being able to evict tenants who don’t pay. That is a big issue.”
But like most candidates, Mangiapane takes the conversation to health care.
“We need to rehire the nurses that during the COVID(-19) mandates were let go … get them back into the health-care system,” he said.
A lack of family doctors, or number of people who don’t have family doctors, is also a concern.
“A lot of doctors have left Ontario and moved to other jurisdictions,” Mangiapane said. “We have two cut and eliminate red tape in order to make it easier for doctors to practice, and bring back doctors to Ontario.
“The (New Blue) Party would like to incentivize doctors to come back.”
But the first step comes Feb. 27 and Mangiapane says he’s ready for the job.
“Government policies have a direct impact on me and my community, so I feel that because I’m an average citizen, this is what makes me feel that I’m a good candidate for this riding," he said.
The other Barrie-Innisfil candidates are Andrew Harrigan of the New Democratic Party, Dane Lee of the Liberals, Steve Ciesielski, Green Party, Anna Yuryeva, Ontario Moderate Party and incumbent Progressive Conservative Andrea Khanjin.