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: Ottawa-Vanier NDP candidate Myriam Djilane.
I was born and raised in Ottawa–Vanier. I love this community. I love eating firfir at Habesha, hiking in Rockcliffe Park, catching a show at BeechFest in the summer, and walking my dog, Koda, in Stanley Park (the dog park is where I met my best friend and her baby!).
And there are so many other things I love about this place. People in Vanier take care of each other. We show up for one another. We’ve got each other’s backs. That’s why I’m running.
It hurts me to see people in our community suffering, struggling to make ends meet. I’ve been out canvassing every day, and I hear so many stories. Families tell me how they sometimes have to choose between putting food on the table and paying rent. I meet people working full-time who still need to access the food bank. I hear from folks who’ve been waiting more than a decade for a family doctor and are forced to spend countless hours in the ER just to get care. I meet people trying to survive on ODSP, which often doesn’t even cover their rent. On cold nights, when a few hours of door-knocking chills me to the bone, I think of our unhoused friends who face Ottawa’s frigid temperatures day in and day out.
I’m running because it doesn’t have to be this way — it shouldn’t be this way. We’re living in a time of the highest wealth inequality ever recorded in Canada. The top 20 per cent hold more than two-thirds of this country’s wealth, while the bottom 40 per cent hold just 2.8 per cent of it. Think about that: nearly half the population is getting by on less than three per cent of the wealth we generate.
So, how did we get here? As we advance technologically at an astounding rate, why is our standard of living declining? Why are we going backwards? It’s because of the choices made by our elected officials. When politicians represent the rich, the rich get richer. But when politicians represent the people, things get better.
We’ve seen it throughout our history. Our health-care system used to look like the U.S. — until Tommy Douglas, the first leader of the federal NDP, fought for universal health care. Workers once had no rights, worked grueling hours for minimal pay, and faced dangerous conditions — until the labour movement fought hard for the protections we have today.
The NDP was born out of that labour movement: a group of people who knew the status quo couldn’t continue and who realized that if we wanted true representation in government, we had to elect people who represent us. And that’s my promise to our community. I will work every day to make life more fair and affordable and to amplify the voices of the people of Ottawa–Vanier. The NDP doesn’t look to corporate lobbyists for solutions; we consult actual experts to figure out how to truly fix problems, not how to maximize profits for well-connected friends. I hope to earn your support.
Myriam Djilane is the provincial NDP candidate in Ottawa-Vanier.
