Mark Dewdney

Windsor West MPP Candidate

Mark Dewdney
(519) 598-1698
windsorwestmark@mail.com
www.windsorwestmark.ca

“Welcome to Canada, where the Liberals aren’t liberal, the Conservatives aren’t conservative and the New Democrats are neither new nor democratic,” says Mark Dewdney wryly as he folds one of thousands of flyers in his home office. “Nobody’s got any guts or any ideas. It’s all ‘fight, fight, fight’, and we need to relearn how to work together.”

It’s this frustration that prompted Mark Dewdney to run for office.

“Every single political party has to vote the way their biggest – richest – donors tell them to,” he grimaces. “It’s shameful, because that guarantees that party politicians can’t vote the way we need them to.”

A case in point, he says, is the construction of the Gordie Howe Bridge, which the NDP forced their MPPs to vote against en masse.

“You’re not going to tell me that Lisa (Gretzky) wanted to vote against a project which was going to help the Windsor automotive industry,” he shrugs. “I believe she’s a good and honourable person, but her party said, ‘No, we’re going to vote against the Howe because it was a Conservative-led project,’ and in party politics, you either vote the way the party tells you or they’ll get someone else who will – so now Lisa and every other party politician is stuck.”

A common cry Dewdney encounters at the doors while campaigning is, of course, “Well, what can we do about it? They’re all the same.” He feels that widespread sentiment is exactly why Canadians are tired of voting.

“When we’re happy to get a twenty-percent turnout on Election Day, it’s time to think ‘definition of insanity’,” the 51-year-old former first responder says. “It’s time for every voter who holds their nose, it’s time for every taxpayer who doesn’t vote because ‘they’re all the same’, it’s time for our first-time youth voters to all come together to send a message to career politicians; same-old same-old isn’t good enough any more.”

A former homeless youth, Dewdney has enjoyed self-made success, a definition he grimaces at; “You can’t go it alone. Everyone has people who have investedtime, money and love in them,” as he became the Director of Training for a large security firm and then ran his own business, a not-for-profit CPR-training firm.

That means he has some unique takes;

On health care;
“You can’t cut your way into a smart and healthy population,” he shrugs. “Community paramedicine and nursing programs have to be aggressively expanded, first targeting our most vulnerable; our seniors and homeless can’t be left behind any more.”
Dewdney believes it is time for radical ideas like requiring all new nurses and doctors, particularly from outside of Canada, which Ontario badly needs, to join the Canadian Forces Reserves, donating two weeks per year and one weekend per month in community outreach programs, overwhelmed emergency departments and new teaching hospitals, in order to attain citizenship and permission to start their careers.
“That’s just a stop-gap, though,” he warns. “If we don’t learn from the best in the world when it comes to medical systems, we’re going to keep spending too much to get too little result. Premier Ford said he’d end hallway medicine, but he has no ideas on how to do that. I do.”

On the environment;
“Sure, let’s give more money to the government. That’ll solve climate change.” Sarcasm aside, Dewdney believes that it’s time for Ontario in general and Windsor specifically to become a top destination for innovative businesses who know that it takes investment in higher education.
“You can’t just throw money at the environment,” decries Dewdney. “All that does is make EV manufacturers rich. I believe in innovation, but you can’t get innovation without best-in-the-world investment in higher education. The Next Great Green Ideas need to all come from Ontario, which will have the extra benefit of solidifying Windsor’s automotive industry while diversifying into other manufacturing and production sectors.”

On government in general;
“Nobody is held to account any more,” he laments. “Conservatives wasting more than sixty-one billion dollars in interest payments to banks! It astounds me that the population hasn’t risen up in revolt. Imagine a hundred million more a month going to education. Imagine a hundred million more a month going to health care. Imagine a hundred million a month on homelessness. Instead we’re making bankers richer, and that makes me really mad.”
Dewdney believes that tying recall mechanisms and politicians’ salaries to economic and other indicators should be the law of the land; “If a CEO was failing this badly at their job, they’d be FIRED. We need legal, visible and EASY ways to fire our politicians at any time. If I was elected, I’d be pushing accountability hard; the Emperor has been naked for a while now, and nobody’s doing anything to point it out, let alone do anything about it.”

All in all, it does seem that we’ve wrung political parties dry of every benefit to Canadians; perhaps it’s time for a new approach.

“Definition of insanity,” Dewdney agrees. “We keep electing the same people and expecting different results.”