Residents are upset about conservative leader Doug Ford calling an election.
In Oakville and Oakville North-Burlington, Liberal nominee Kaniz Mouli said she’s been knocking on doors for a while now and hears the same things from residents.
“People are upset that a snap election has been called when Ford has a year and a half left of a majority mandate,” she said. “We’re going through so many things with the affordability crisis and the threat of tariffs, when I knock on doors, affordability is the number one concern.”
Mouli, who also ran in 2022, says with so many young families in the riding, education is also high on the list of residents' concerns.
Since so many families and children are in the area, the schools are having trouble finding space for all of them.
“Class sizes always come up as an issue, many of the schools have portables - especially in Oakville,” Mouli said.
She added the Liberals have promised to reduce class sizes across Ontario.
Outside of the province, there are additional concerns that Ontarians are facing, including the threat of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Our leader Bonnie Crombie has said she’s ready to take on Trump,” Mouli said. “A lot of these issues are federal as well, Trump will deal with the Prime Minister, but she’s ready to protect Ontario jobs.”
Among those jobs are healthcare workers, who are in high demand across the province currently. Oakville has a relatively new hospital, but wait times continue to be high in the region.
Mouli said the party will use experts from the medical field to better understand the problems that the industry is facing in Ontario and build a plan from there.
On the border between two cities – or a town as Oakville prefers to be called – Mouli has noted a few differences between the two.
“In parts of Oakville, especially in newer developments, education seems to be the biggest issue because so many have young kids,” she said. “On the Burlington side, healthcare is a bigger issue from what I’ve seen knocking on doors.”
Knocking on doors and making herself as accessible as possible is the most important thing for Mouli, and has been since the last election in 2022.
During the previous election cycle, a debate between candidates was scheduled to be held by the Oakville Chamber of Commerce. Mouli was the only candidate for Oakville North-Burlington who attended.
“It really matters whether you’re showing up for the community or not,” she said. “Of course I plan to show up to the debate this time around, whenever it is.”
The 2022 debate was supposed to include Green candidate Bruno Sousa, who had COVID at the time, and Conservative candidate Effie Triantafilopoulos, who did not respond to Oakville News’ request for comment at the time.
Read more here: Tory candidates skip out on Oakville Chamber of Commerce debate