The Citizen invited Ottawa candidates from the four major provincial parties to explain why you should vote for them on Feb. 27.
The Citizen invited Ottawa candidates from the four major provincial parties to explain why you should vote for them. Those who met our deadlines and protocols will be published this week and next. Today: Orléans Green party candidate Michelle Petersen.
The current provincial election marks my third election campaign as a candidate for the Greens. I ran federally in 2019 and provincially in 2022. My friends and colleagues often ask me: How do you do it? Why do you do it? I’m a single mom. I work full-time as a self-employed Registered Psychotherapist. I’m the president of my community association.
The truth is: I need to do it.
I first got involved in politics because I was feeling powerless. I have worked in social and community services from the very beginning of my career. My first “real job” was at the YMCA-YWCA in Orléans. From there, I went on to Youth Net/Réseau Ado, a youth-led mental health promotion organization based out of CHEO. That led me to studying counselling, then working on gender-based violence for nearly 15 years.
Over the years, I saw how changes in government affect our capacity to deliver services that people in my community desperately need. There is a reason for the high rate of burnout in the helping professions: it is psychologically taxing to bear witness to people’s struggles and feel powerless to effect real change.
That’s what I want: real change. The research, the knowledge and the expertise exist. We can end homelessness. We can provide world-class health care. We can put an end to legislated poverty. We can ensure food security, and protect our farmlands and wetlands. What’s missing is people who care. We need to elect people who are willing to put others over their personal interests and over profit.
Greens party candidates are these people. We are local champions who are connected to the people in our communities. We are effecting positive change in all sorts of ways: We are teachers, doctors, architects, social workers, small-business owners. We care about you and the future of all Ontarians.
So, why vote for me? Because I believe we can do better and I am determined to do better. I will be a strong voice for Orléans at Queen’s Park. I am prepared to collaborate with my colleagues across party lines as well as local stakeholders to find new solutions to problems that have persisted for too long. I will take to heart my responsibility to be the voice for Orléans. Together, we will build a caring, connected, climate-ready community.
Michelle Petersen (elle/she) is the provincial Green Party candidate in Orléans.
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