- For the incumbent candidate: of the things you promised you would accomplish when initially elected, can you summarize what you were able to achieve? For everyone else, can you summarize any wins you’ve had, or advocacy you’ve contributed to, with the current government while not being an elected representative?
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, I was working as a College Professor and as a researcher in long-term care. My two young kids were in daycare and in the first year of FDK. It was a very scary and stressful time, especially for parents trying to manage work responsibilities while juggling small kids underfoot.
In the summer of 2020, it became increasingly clear that the Ford government had no plans to keep kids and education workers safe in schools. So I began to do what I have always done throughout my life, whether in student council in high school, at the Psychological Graduate Students Association at U of T, on parent council at my kids’ school: I began to organize.
Together with parents, educators, healthcare professionals, and researchers across the province, we created a Safe Schools movement, pushing the Ford government to take evidence-informed steps to keep Ontarians safe, and fighting for equitable access to public health tools. Together with the support of Ontario NDP caucus members, I fought for universal access to rapid antigen tests, eventually forcing Doug Ford to release millions of rapid tests in December 2021.
Since that time, I have continued to fight alongside an incredibly dedicated team of volunteers, in sectors including seniors care, workers’ rights, education, healthcare, and addressing our escalating climate crisis. I’ve organized rallies in protest of Highway 413, cuts to education funding, and the closure of the Ontario Science Centre, written petitions on education and public healthcare, hosted Town Halls on housing, public health measures, and saving Ontario Place.
Through it all, I’ve been connecting with neighbours, meeting with them, and learning from them. If I am elected as your next Beaches-East York MPP, I will be ready on Day 1 to take my positive attitude and fighting spirit to Queen’s Park to address the most pressing concerns for our community.
- Does your party support the Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program and pledge to continue to work with the Federal Government? Will you advocate for additional provincial funding for the program? When will we see it fully implemented in a sustainable way that doesn’t force providers out of business?
The only way that I was able to go back to work after having my children was with the support of incredible child care workers who nurtured my children each and every day and made sure they were safe and cared for. I am so grateful to Early Childhood workers. When we walk by their old daycare, my kids still love to wave at their child care providers.
The Ontario NDP has always advocated for universal access to high-quality, affordable, inclusive, non-profit child care. Our party is proud to support the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system. We believe with adequate funding, the CWELCC offers the potential to provide access to high-quality child care services for all families in our community and across the province. However, improvements must be made.
The current provincial government has refused to invest in the program to ensure its success. Under the Canada-Ontario agreement, the City of Toronto is supposed to create over 18,000 new licensed spaces but the federal and provincial governments have refused to provide major capital funding to ensure that these new spaces can be built.
Another impediment to expansion is the shortage of early childhood educators. That’s why the Ontario NDP introduced a bill to address the workforce crisis, including improving wages and benefits and working conditions for all staff. The new funding formula must provide funding that reflects the actual cost of high quality child care in Toronto, and be strengthened to ensure greater accountability for public dollars. School-aged child care should also be included in CWELCC in the future, and access to subsidized spaces must be improved to ensure equitable access for lower income families.
An Ontario NDP government would create 53,000 new public and not-for-profit $10-a-day child care spaces by working with providers and service managers, and by removing the rules that limit municipalities in creating their own child care spaces. We will end the stress and uncertainty of applying at dozens of child care centres and following up endlessly to secure a spot by establishing a single Daycare Application Portal to make it easier to find quality childcare close to home. We are committed to working to reduce fees for before and after child care, and to work with the community to remove barriers to accessing affordable child care.
- What is your position on Education and funding? A local example – the Secord catchment neighbourhood will be expanding significantly over the next five years with all the local development projects, and, currently, the school is at 139% of capacity and was not included in capital funding for 2025-2026. What innovative ideas do you have to support our children’s learning?
Schools are at the heart of our communities, but decades of cuts and freezes have left our schools overcrowded, understaffed, and crumbling. Every child, regardless of their income status, deserves a high-quality public education in safe schools that support their needs. The fight for our public education system at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic compelled me to first run for office in 2022.
When I’m knocking on doors near Main and Danforth, it’s clear that families love their local school (with its excellent teachers and educator workers!) and community hub. As well as being a JK to Grade 5 school, Secord is home to several child care programs and a busy City of Toronto Community Centre with free fitness classes, music and kids’ dance programs on the weekends. Despite being on a priority list for decades, subsequent Liberal and Conservative provincial governments have left these families behind, with promised capital improvements that have not materialized.
The Ontario NDP has a plan to fix our schools. When Doug Ford took office in 2018, he inherited a multi-billion dollar repair backlog for Ontario public schools, and this backlog has ballooned even further due to his neglect and cruel cuts. The Ford government has cut education funding by $1,500 per student since 2018, leaving schools with fewer staff, fewer resources, and larger class sizes. We will repair Ford’s $1,500 per student cuts. In consultation with school boards and education workers, we’ll review and fix school funding, so it meets the needs of kids. We will invest an additional $830 million a year to clear the repair backlog within 10 years while keeping up with ongoing school maintenance needs. And we’ll ensure that neighborhoods with capacity challenges have the resources they need to expand, making capital investments based on evidence – not politics. Finally, as your MPP, I will fight to ensure that indoor air quality is improved and monitored in all schools and childcare centres, to reduce the spread of disease and ensure staff and students are working and learning in safe spaces.
Areas that are slated for increased density, like Main and Danforth, should have assured funding to build a “complete community.” In addition to affordable housing, growing communities must have a new school, community centres, child care, libraries, seniors’ centres, and health services. We need a government that will reverse the Doug Ford policies that starve Toronto of community benefit funding and investment in parks and open spaces that support intensification.
The area around Secord School is expected to triple its population over the next decade. The provincial government must fund the capital cost of rebuilding the school, and support better coordination between the City and School Board to ensure that Secord School remains a community hub for this growing neighbourhood.
As well as fixing our schools, the Ontario NDP has committed to improving education and making a practical difference in the lives of our students and their families. We will hire more staff- teachers, educational assistants, child and youth workers, ECEs, custodial and trade workers. Having more caring adults in schools makes them safer for everyone. We will feed students, because kids simply cannot learn on an empty stomach. Families are facing record high grocery bills, and inflation from tariffs could drive up costs even further. The Ontario NDP’s universal School Food Program will set up every child in Ontario to succeed. Finally, we will support the unique skill sets and needs of every learner. We’ll end the practice of streaming and make sure we are using data to support more equitable schools. We will review the funding model to focus on student needs and not numbers of students to support vulnerable students.
- Climate change, and protecting our green spaces, is of the utmost importance. What, specifically, will you do to approach needed infrastructure-building projects with more awareness of green space, and how will you support restoration and maintenance of those spaces we already have?
The Ford government and Metrolinx, for example, have tended to treat local green space as expendable when planning rapid transit routes, weakening environmental assessment processes, while arrogantly dismissing alternatives proposed by affected communities. An NDP government will strengthen environmental assessment processes, end Metrolinx’s arrogance and secrecy, and restore proper public consultation to ensure that alternatives that protect local green spaces are properly considered when planning infrastructure.
Our beautiful riding includes so many ravines, walking trails, and beaches. We must ensure that we protect the air and water in Beaches-East York, and right across Ontario. That includes cancelling the Therme MegaSpa at Ontario Place, which threatens to divert sewage into Lake Ontario on the West side of Toronto, with inevitable spread to our precious East end beaches. We must also phase out Toronto’s Portlands gas plant, which spews pollution across our community, moving instead to clean energy sources including wind and solar.
The Ontario NDP was instrumental in working in collaboration with community members across Ontario to stop Doug Ford’s destruction of our precious Greenbelt. We must ensure that any new infrastructure in Ontario is being built wisely. We must stop Highway 413, which is expected to cross nearly 100 rivers, creeks, and streams, with the danger that runoff from roads can drive pollution into watersheds, and cancel the Bradford Bypass.
Children and youth will be those most impacted by the growing climate crisis. The Ontario NDP will establish Ontario’s first Youth Climate Corps, giving opportunities to young Ontarians to learn skills and earn a fair wage while helping Ontario communities reduce their emissions, restore their natural environments, and become more resilient to climate change. My Ontario NDP colleague Peter Tabuns proposed a Climate Resilience bill that will ensure Ontario is prepared to deal with, amongst other things, smoke days like those we experienced across the province in 2023.
Finally, we will help Ontario drivers make the switch to electric vehicles to save money and support our auto manufacturing sector, provide free or discounted electric heat pumps to Ontario households, and enhance Ontario’s SaveONEnergy Affordability program to provide retrofit support to renters and low-income households, ensuring fair access to Ontario’s energy savings program.
- Where do you stand on bike lanes being removed in the City of Toronto?
Our East end bike lanes have created a new, protected route for cyclists to move across our riding. In good weather we see them full of people of all ages going to parks, restaurants, and shopping locally on our High Streets. Even in the dead of winter and on extremely snowy days, I’ve seen people using the Danforth bike lanes right outside my campaign headquarters close! Bike lanes help everyone move around their community safely, positively contribute to individual health and well-being, and provide economic support to local small businesses.
I use the bike lanes with my family and I see their value – and that’s why, just a few days after Doug Ford announced he would introduce legislation to destroy our community bike lanes, I sprung to action, joining with neighbours to organize a “Save Our Bike Lanes East End Rally and Ride” along Danforth Avenue, from East Lynn Park to Main Square. We held our rally on October 20, 2024, just three days after Doug Ford’s announcement, and, despite the short notice, we had a huge showing of support. Our community values these bike lanes, they want to see them protected, and I will continue to support efforts to ensure that everyone can move across our city safely.
An Ontario NDP government will end the Ford government’s dangerous and politically-driven culture war against cyclists, and immediately repeal the anti-bike lane provisions of Bill 212, cancel all contracts to rip out bike lanes in Toronto, and reallocate the $48 million in savings towards investments in safe and convenient active transportation options in Ontario.
- Will you work to re-open the Science Centre and cancel the mega-spa at Ontario Place?
These are two spaces that are very dear to me and my family. That’s why I have been working hard in the community to reverse the damaging decisions the Ford government has made to close these treasured attractions.
I was absolutely shocked in April 2023 when Toronto mayoral candidate Ana Bailão first announced her plan to use “the existing land the Science Centre is on now to build housing”. I was even more shocked when Doug Ford, only days later, publicly announced that he supported this plan. It was immediately clear that this plan had been in the works for a very long time. As a scientist, and a proud Ontario Science Centre member, I have vehemently opposed this plan since Day 1, circulating petitions to oppose its destruction, and organizing opportunities for community members to fight back against this plan. While at East Lynn Park this summer gathering signatures on a petition with Marit Stiles, our Ontario NDP Leader, a young community member asked: “where is the kids’ petition?”. Her question was the inspiration for a rally I organized a few weeks later, where community members created over 80 pieces of artwork in honour of their beloved Science Centre. My family and I then went up to the Science Centre and displayed the art on the chain link fences Doug Ford had installed around the building and grounds.
I visited the Science Centre on its last day of operation, and walked through the building thinking of all the memories my family had made there. I watched the last school bus head up the hill, thinking of all the school kids and educators who won’t ever get the chance to wander the halls, learn from the excellent exhibits, bird watch from the terraces, ride the escalators down through the ravine. I am still in absolute disbelief that any politician would ever support the instigators of this horrific plan.
Beyond my personal advocacy, the Ontario NDP has been fighting for our Science Centre and against the privatization of Ontario Place every step of the way. Our party has committed to ripping up the deal with Therme. We have also committed to making the repairs necessary to reopen the Ontario Science Centre at its original location. Our leader Marit Stiles even reiterated, at a recent tour stop at our Campaign Headquarters (1974 Danforth Avenue), that upon forming government she would immediately repair and reopen this beloved community gem.
- Please outline your position on electoral reform and “first past the post?”
The Ontario NDP will reform Ontario’s voting system to make it fair and more inclusive, replacing first-past-the-post with a mixed-member proportional voting system where every vote counts. We will consult with the public, civil society and other political parties to design a made-in-Ontario voting system that reflects the needs of our communities.
- Considering the Eglinton Avenue Crosstown delays and the lack of information surrounding timelines and cost on the next subway projects, can Metrolinx be saved or reformed well enough to serve the public? Should there be a public inquiry into how the agency has been run?
The Ontario NDP has long-called for a public inquiry into the Eglinton Crosstown public-private partnership (P3) fiasco. An NDP government would end the secrecy surrounding this project, and let the public know on Day One what is going on, including when this long-delayed service will finally begin running. Beyond that, we will fix Metrolinx. We will get rid of its arrogant and overpaid executives, restore public accountability and in-house expertise, and end its dependence on self-servicing private consultants. We will end the use of wasteful and risky transit P3 schemes that – as the Eglinton Crosstown has proven – cost more, deliver less, take longer, and keep the public in the dark.
- What is your position on safe injection sites? Will you fight to reverse the extraordinarily harmful decisions made by the current government?
This is a particularly timely question, as February is Psychology month. As a psychologist, I know that mental health is health. Many in our community have loved ones who have struggled with mental health issues and addiction, or have experienced these issues themselves. We have seen first-hand that Doug Ford has systematically underfunded our public healthcare system, and there simply are not enough resources and supports for Ontarians. As your MPP, I would work hard to include mental health care coverage under OHIP.
Ontario is experiencing an opioid crisis. In Ontario, a person dies every 3 hours from the toxic drug supply. These numbers include our parents, children, siblings, friends, and neighbours. Consumption and treatment sites have been instrumental in preventing thousands more deaths. We know that the closure of these sites will have ripple effects into acute care and the first responder system, with more 911 calls and more presentations to our already overburdened emergency departments.
The science on safe injection sites is clear – they save lives. Closing these sites will have negative repercussions for the health and well-being of Ontarians who use drugs, and for those healthcare heroes who are supporting them. The Ontario NDP will increase funding to community mental health service providers, like CMHA and AMHO, that provide crucial services to help people with addictions. We will follow the advice of experts and use evidence-based strategies to address the opioid epidemic. We will fund the addition of detox beds and residential treatment beds and establish wage parity for health care workers in community settings so they can also offer mental health support.
- Please elaborate on how you will address both the housing affordability crisis and encampments. Do you support forceable removal of community members from encampment sites?
The Ontario NDP believes that housing is a human right. Housing is also a key social determinant of health. And because not everyone can afford what the private market can profitably deliver, the NDP is committed to getting the government back in the business of building homes for people whose needs won’t otherwise be met, including low-income households, people with disabilities, seniors, and students. An NDP government will establish a new public agency, Homes Ontario, that will provide grants, low-cost financing, public land and other supports to enable the construction or acquisition of at least 300,000 new permanently-affordable homes, to be operated by public, non-profit and co-op housing providers.
The NDP has also committed to the goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2030. Since the only real solution to homelessness is a home, our Homes Ontario plan includes the creation of at least 60,000 new supportive housing units, with access to mental health care and addiction treatment, so people living in encampments or the shelter system can transition to a safe, adequate and permanent home. Our plan is rights-based, and modelled on the Housing First principle that has been applied successfully in jurisdictions like Finland. And of course, an NDP government would never threaten the human rights of the unhoused, and certainly would never consider using the Notwithstanding Clause to take away anyone’s rights, as Doug Ford has suggested. Doug Ford’s cruel threats of a $10,000 fine for individuals living in encampments is simply a means to further stigmatize our neighbours who instead deserve support and compassion.
Shelters are overflowing while Doug Ford has withheld funding for programs like the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit. We’ll work with the federal government to expand this program so more people can afford to pay their rent. And to ensure that shelter and homelessness prevention programs have adequate and stable funding, we will upload the costs of housing, shelter and homelessness programs from municipalities back to the province where these costs belong.
Finally, to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place, we will protect renters by immediately introducing real rent control, also known as vacancy control, so rent control applies to the rental, and not just the tenancy. This will remove the incentive of unethical landlords to use bad faith evictions and renovictions to squeeze out existing tenants so they can charge a higher rent to the next tenant. We will also immediately close the loophole that exempts newer rentals from any rent control protection at all.