MPP Christine Elliott stops in Timmins

PC Leadership hopeful Christine Elliott stopped by Timmins Wednesday afternoon.

It’s part of her campaign trail, that she hopes leads her to a victory on May 9th.

She says there’s some cleaning up to do, as previous leaders seemed to have ran on “Southern Ontario” focused policies.

A major topic of discussion has been the high cost of energy, which has hindered the industrial sector and in some cases, shut down buildings altogether.

“Mining and forestry require high levels of hydro, so we need to develop a coherent energy policy that’s going to make sense across the Province of Ontario,” she said.

Elliott adds they need to come up with policies that aren’t harmful.

Timmins Mayor Steve Black cited former leader Tim Hudak’s plan in the last election that would see 100,000 jobs lost.

It’s widely believed the Liberals twisting that message cost the PC’s the June 2014 election, but Black—who ran under the PC banner last summer—says they lost it at the policy convention level.

Elliott agreed.  She says they need to have Northern voices heard more.

“We need to make sure that the voices for Northern Ontario are heard around the table, and involved in all the decision-making,” she said.

Elliott admits she isn’t as familiar with Northern issues as others, growing up in Southern Ontario, but she plans to travel through the North more consistently to gain a better understanding.

One thing she wants to do is form a committee, led by Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli (who is travelling with Elliott this week).

When it comes to the campaign trail, Black asked if she’d come up for a Northern debate and whether she’d make campaign stops in the Timmins area as PC leader.

To both, she answered yes.

We’ll see what happens next month, when the PC’s choose their new leader.