CORNWALL, Ontario – Ontario Liberal Leadership candidates Michael Coteau stopped in Cornwall on Sunday night, Nov. 17, at King George Restaurant to meet with local supporters and to pitch his vision for the future of the party.
“They say that our party collapsed last election, it actually died,” Coteau told the audience at King George.
Optimistically though, Coteau pointed to how one million voters still cast their ballots for the Liberal party last provincial election.
“We have the ability to build a brand new party,” he said.
Coteau explained that he was touring Ontario to get feedback from local Liberal Party Associations (LPAs) and to hear about the priorities that mattered to them.
One issue that Coteau spent time on discussing with the audience while he was taking questions was climate change.
“I think that climate change is one of the biggest issues we face as Ontarians,” he said.
To help reduce the province’s carbon footprint and to fight climate change Coteau has proposed introducing free public transit within a decade.
Additionally, Coteau said that he would look at re-introducing subsidies to purchase electric vehicles and have more charging stations for those vehicles installed throughout the province.
Coteau also took shots at the record of Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford.
“Who cuts services to children with special needs, who cuts funding to libraries and nutritional programs,” Coteau asked referring to cuts either introduced or proposed by the Ford government.
Coteau also promised that he would improve his French and said that the province of Ontario should be providing encouragement and support to its French language population.
“French is the fastest growing language on the planet,” Coteau claimed.
Coteau is a three term MPP from the Toronto area. He served in the Wynne government in multiple cabinet positions including Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Minister of Tourism, Minister of Youth Services and Minister for Social Services.
Coteau is currently facing four rivals for his party’s leadership including former Education Minister Mitzie Hunter, former Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca, Kate Graham, who ran unsuccessfully for the London North riding in the 2018 election and is an instructor at Western University, and Alvin Tedjo, who ran unsuccessfully in the Oakville North-Burlington Riding in 2018 and is a former Liberal Party staffer.
