Liberal candidate Bob Gordanier launches campaign at south Caledon event

By Zachary Roman

Dufferin-Caledon's Liberal candidate doesn't want to see Caledon's farmland destroyed for irresponsible development.

Bob Gordanier officially launched his campaign to become the Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the Dufferin-Caledon riding on April 22 at Mint Leaf Indian Sweets and Restaurant in the south of Caledon.

The campaign launch featured a dinner for guests and the president of the Ontario Liberals was on hand to give a speech.

Gordanier spoke to The Citizen at the event about why he's running and what his plans are.

Before venturing into the world of politics, Gordanier was a farmer, firefighter, police officer, and president of the Beef Farmers of Ontario. Through all these roles, he enjoyed the aspect of meeting people and trying to make things better, something he says he'll bring to politics.

Gordanier said he's not comfortable with a lot of things Doug Ford's Conservative government has been doing and that's part of the reason he's running for office again.

One area Gordanier is concerned about is health care.

“Minister (Christine) Elliot is talking about… privatizing hospitals and clinics… I'm totally against that,” said Gordanier. 

Another thing he's concerned about is education, saying cuts to education are beginning to have an impact on Ontario's school system.

“To me, education is the key to our children's success…we need to be giving the educators the tools to be able to teach,” said Gordanier. 

“We've had four children of our own, and we have seven grandchildren right now that have gone/are going through the education system, and the public system is fantastic. But it needs to be funded, not the money taken away.”

Gordanier said climate change is something Ontario needs to address and as a farmer, he saw the effects of climate change firsthand.

“I could see it over a period of time. You don't need to be a scientist to see that there's a problem,” said Gordanier. “We call it climate crisis. And actually, I see two crises. Right now, I do see the climate crisis and I also see the Ford crisis. We need rid of them.”

Gordanier said he and Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca are both against the proposed Highway 413. He said Dufferin-Caledon is an incredibly special riding and that alternatives to the 413 can be found. Gordanier said he's calling the proposed 413 a laneway, not a highway, as he said all it will be is a laneway back to the “thousands of homes” that will be built alongside it.

Gordanier explained land in Caledon is not only good for growing because of the soil, but because of the level of heat it gets. He doesn't want to see land that can “grow pretty much everything” taken over by unnecessary development.

“We have municipalities that are using developers… in their makeup of what they want to do, and I don't think that's too smart, to be quite honest. I think we need to have a whole totally different approach to this,” said Gordanier.

“Developers are not interested in… building the houses that we need. To me, we need to be telling developers what they're going to build and where (they are) going to build it. And if they don't like that, they should just go home.”

Gordanier said he plans to support Ontario's economy by supporting small business owners; he said as far as he's concerned they're the ones running the economy.

“Ford closed them (small businesses) up and allowed big box stores to stay open. And I mean, you never knew what you were even going to do on Monday morning. ‘Am I going to be open or am I going to be closed?' And that's a huge issue,” said Gordanier.

He said going around the riding knocking on doors has given him a real sense of what people are thinking as the June 2 election approaches. 

“I always have said, you don't have to agree with me, but we need to discuss it,” said Gordanier.