Reader agrees with open letter to MPP

OUR READERS WRITE

I read Nicola Ross's open letter to Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones (November 14) with great interest and am in complete agreement with the positions that Ms. Ross takes about the lack of engagement of our MPP with residents on the many crises besetting this constituency.

From housing affordability to over-the-top truck traffic to proposals for massive urban expansions that affect our prime farmland and natural areas to the downloading of some public infrastructure from Peel Region to Caledon, our town needs a strong voice at Queen's Park on provincial matters because make no mistake --  there is a provincial role in all of these issues. Yet much of the time, Sylvia Jones is “absent without leave.”   

Certainly, MPP Jones has huge responsibilities at Queen's Park as Minister of Health and Deputy Premier.  But she also has huge responsibilities to represent her constituents on provincial matters.  We must not be shortchanged by our MPP.

In the past, I worked for four years in the offices of two Cabinet ministers at a provincial legislature in Canada as a senior policy adviser.  I saw how hard these politicians worked – both in their Cabinet roles and as members for their constituencies. Yet I never saw them shortchange their constituents' needs and priorities in favour of their Cabinet responsibilities, as I believe MPP Jones is doing.

Ms.Ross is right – we need our MPP to hold town hall meetings to discuss with Dufferin-Caledon residents the many crises here and work with us on solutions to protect our beautiful yet fragile rural/urban constituency from the many assaults that it is experiencing.

Linda Pim

Inglewood