As a young candidate, Emilie Leneveu is looking to make her mark and make a difference in the lives of constituents while running for the Liberals in Bay of Quinte riding in next month’s provincial election.
Running full throttle since the drop of the election writ, Leneveau, 24, (soon to be 25) and her volunteers have fanned out throughout the Bay of Quinte riding. The campaign, at its core, is a grassroots affair — going door-to-door to meet people where they live, listening to them, finding common ground and using those conversations to create local solutions to issues affecting people in the riding.
“I’m proud of our campaign for being a grassroots campaign. We have local volunteers, we’ve completely created a local campaign and I hope to continue to do that (for the remaining days of the campaign) and just show how many stories there in the Bay of Quinte that need to be heard and listened to and how many solutions we can find and provide as a team. I’m very passionate about amplifying not only the youth voice, but every voice that need to be amplified in the Bay of Quinte,” said Leneveu.
A Bay of Quinte and Canadian top 30 under 30, according to her website, Leneveu is also a director on the Quinte Regional Science and Technology Fair board and a youth advisor on the education sectoral committee of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
“I’m really looking forward to bringing some youth to the table and some new energy to provincial politics here in the riding and at Queen’s Park,” Leneveu said in a recent interview.
A native of Frankford now living in Rossmore in Prince Edward County, Leneveu attended school in Trenton where she received a bilingual education. She later attended Loyalist College where she completed three different programs: biotech, advanced biotechnology and cannabis applied science. She’s also studied project management through Memorial University online and is currently in project management with the Quinte Home Builders Association.
Her passion for politics began in 2018 when she shadowed former Bay of Quinte Liberal MP Neil Ellis in the House of Commons for a week. She mused about entering municipal politics in 2022, but she was approached by the provincial Liberals to put her name forward as the party and party leader Steven Del Duca were looking for more candidates in the under-30 ranks as more than 2 million Ontario residents who are under 30 are expected to vote in the June 2 election.
“I recognize there are gaps in services that I believe is thanks to our current premier Doug Ford. I definitely wanted to challenge PCs here provincially. I knew I would set my sights on a provincial party that was backed by science and had the environment top of mind. A couple of years ago, I had a good conversation with (former federal Green Party leader) Elizabeth May, we spoke about the Green Party, and I had some idea of potentially going there. But, quite frankly, speaking to the locals and the riding association, and learning more about the values of our progressive parties and as a scientist I definitely lean toward the Liberals provincially absolutely,” said Leneveu.
In speaking to people while campaigning, the No. 1 local issue — as it is throughout Ontario — is the lack of affordable housing.
Also, she notes the riding costs of daily life is also a big issue in conversations at the door. Education, equity and the environment follow as three close runner-ups.
“But affordability is definitely key in this riding and it’s the same across Ontario. Folks are struggling, rightfully struggling to make ends meet,” said Leneveu. “Yes, affordability on housing, but affordability as a whole locally. I also don’t want to forget sustainability of our people but sustainability of the planet, so the environment is top of mind provincially as well.”
To give people immediate pocketbook relief, the Ontario Liberals will change the minimum HST portion from $4 to $20 on prepared foods for example. “It’s just a little clip of policy,” she said.
As per housing, the chief plank in the Liberal election playbook is building a “robust” 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years with about 10 per cent of those homes being “deeply affordable homes, homes that anyone can buy.
“As a younger person myself, I fear that I will never be able to buy a house, so that’s a really strong piece of policy, one that I’m very happy to see as a younger candidate, for sure,” she said.
Health care is a major plank in the Liberals’ fully costed election platform, said Leneveu, with the Liberals focused on keeping health care firmly in the public domain. First, though, she said the Liberals, upon forming a government, will immediately repeal Bill 124 that caps wages on health care workers at one per cent per year.
“We are also working with our health care partners through a variety of stakeholder meetings to ensure we do get health care platform pieces right and that we do implement our policy planks in most effective way possible. We are passionate and very firm on our commitment tonsure health care is a public issue and isn’t creeping into privatization as we’re seeing from the Ford government,” she said.
Moreover, a Liberal government will provide more supports to those struggling with mental health. Leneveu said that currently in Ontario, 1 in 5 young people will struggle with mental health and only 1 in 4 will get help. “Wait times are too long,” she said.
On the education file, the Liberal pledges to reinstitute an optional Grade 13, cap class sizes at 20 for elementary and high schools, and invest the $10 billion into education the Progressive Conservatives have earmarked for a cottage country highway.
“We’re looking to invest $10 billion that Doug Ford is investing in Hwy. 413 for some 10 seconds of relief for cottagers’ commutes, we don’t want to spend that $10 billion there, that would go toward education,” said Leneveu.
Leneveu said the environmental file is an important one for her as she was part of the ‘environment policy squad’ that helped formulate policy planks for the Liberals. She said it’s the only plan of the provincial parties that is fully costed to bring Ontario to net zero emissions by 2050.
“It will also allow for immediate pocketbook relief for families who want to invest in the environment whether it be through transportation, whether it be through housing, whether it’s retrofitting your home, buying an electric car or buying an electric bike. There are incentives and subsidies to allow families to do so,” said Lenevue. “We do have a fully costed environmental plan that I’m very proud of. I would say it’s the most innovative or at least the most innovative that can be accomplished here in Ontario.”
In terms of the Liberals’ election platform for long-term care in Ontario, Leneveu said her party plans to “revolutionize” senior care in light of the fact 4,528 residents have died in long-term care in Ontario as of May 17, 2022, according to Public Health Ontario. The Liberals are prepared to make wholesale changes, including funding to allow 400,000 seniors to age at home, along with investing heavily in public long-term care.
“Not only are we going to revolutionize long-term care, we’re going to make sure the money we need to do that isn’t causing any further deficit,” said Leneveu.
While there is still plenty of campaign left to do, Leneveu hopes her grassroots campaign and the depth of the Liberal Party’s platform will resonate with voters in Bay of Quinte.
“I really hope to be able to amplify all voices at Queens Park and make sure Bay of Quinte is top of mind when it comes to our Member of Provincial Parliament,” she said.
(Written by: Alan Rivett)
