Liberal candidate Dorothy Noronha said she’s running to be the next Member of Provincial Parliament for Northumberland-Peterborough South because the environment across Ontario has changed dramatically over the last six years.
Noronha grew up in Muskoka, but has lived in Northumberland County for over 20-years.
“It reminds me a lot of home. When we came across it after living in Toronto, it had that really neat mix of rural and also having more populated areas with hospitals and schools.”
Noronha and her husband started off living in Campbellford for approximately eight-years and have been residing in Alnwick/Haldimand Township since.
She teaches business and leadership to students at Cobourg Collegiate Institute and formerly worked as an employee benefits and pension specialist.
Noronha also worked in wealth and estate planning, as well as marketing in the healthcare sector.
Over three decades she has also been an entrepreneur having run many small business.
During the last six years of the Conservative government, Noronha said, “the environment has changed dramatically.”
“The funding level – although we are being told they are at historic levels, they are actually, in a real dollar perspective, $1,500 less than they were in 2018.”
As frustrated as teachers are, she added, “healthcare workers are even more so.”
“They’re dealing with life or death stuff. Emergency room wait times. Twenty-two thousand people in Northumberland County without a family physician. That’s ridiculous.”
Even though a provincial election was not supposed to happen until 2026, Noronha has been knocking on doors since November.
“It’s a unnecessary, self serving, expensive $189 million election basically to keep his job.”
“People are smart. They recognize the fact there is no reason why we should be in a election.”
Highlighting there aren’t enough family doctors, clear cutting Ontario Place, shutting down the Science Centre to name a few.
“The list is so endless you have to challenge yourself, what has been done right?”
Living in the more remote areas of the riding Noronha said, “you feel ignored.”
“Everything happens in the major centres. Everything is either Port Hope centric or Cobourg centric.”
“We need to be a lot more responsive to those areas and start looking at hubs, particularly for things like social services where someone doesn’t have to go to Cobourg.”
“Helping businesses from a technological perspective. Whether that’s a fund or loans or grants to make them competitive so they can compete.”
Noronha said she’s so passionate about the future she quit her job and is focusing solely on politics.
“It’s that important that people with that depth of skill and a depth of experience, that those skills and off them to the public. It’s not career politicians that are going to solve this, its people that actually know the way things work.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
