Heather Wright/The Independent

There are now six people on the ticket in the race to become the next MPP for Sarnia-Lambton.

The president of the Libertarian Party of Canada, Jacques Boudreau, and former Sarnia City Councillor and current owner of an online news organization, Nathan Colquhoun, is running as an independent.

They join incumbent Bob Bailey of the Ontario PCs, Liberal Rachel Willsie, the NDP’s Candace Young and Keith Benn of the New Blue Party in the Feb. 27 election.

SEE COVERAGE HERE https://petrolialambtonindependent.ca/2025/02/04/bailey-defends-early-election-call/

Boudreau, formerly of London but now a Petrolia resident, believes government plays too big of a role in our lives. Liberatarians, he says, advocate for more freedom from government regulations. “People can argue this is good or this is bad, or whatever, but (government regulation) has now grown so large as to be a massive infringement on our freedom.

“Governments are way too big. Regulation is killing the coming to market of new companies,” he says adding Canadians now pay 45 per cent of their income to taxes.

Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford called the election in the face of a 25 per cent tariff threat from the US. Ford has said he needed a mandate to provide aid to businesses.

“He knows that his argument is nonsense,” says Boudreau. “We know it’s nonsense, and he knows that we know it’s nonsense. But this is the type of ritual that we often go through with politicians where there’s a veneer of acceptability to what is said … he had 18 months to go, so this idea that he needed the strong mandate or whatever, again, simply does not hold water. This is purely for political gains.”

Boudreau says ideally, Canada under a Libertarian government, wouldn’t be in a trade war since all trade regulations would be dropped to allow the free flow of goods across the border. “Libertarianism is absolutely opposed to any form of managed trade, including tariffs,” he says.

Boudreau acknowledges that he wouldn’t be the typical MPP, trying to bring government spending to Sarnia-Lambton. “What I would hope to do, which would benefit not only the people locally, but ultimately, all of Ontario, is to finally have a voice to describe that there are a lot of things that are unacceptable and need to change,” he says.

Meantime, the independent candidate new to the race wants to be able to speak for Sarnia-Lambton residents, not represent a party.

“I think that a candidate should be free to back bills, back policy and legislation that supports the community that they’re representing, and not just the legislation that their own party gives,” Colquhoun tells The Independent.

He cites housing and health care as two of the issues that need action in the region. Colquhoun advocates for more public housing instead of trying to get private developers to increasing the housing stock, as the Ontario PC party suggests. While the province funds some housing initiatives, planning for the projects is done at the county and municipal level.

“Our municipalities have not been doing a very good job at all getting that kind of stuff going,” says Colquhoun. He believes housing corporations, which are arms length from government are a good way to improve the housing stock in the community.

“I think we’re something like six per cent of off-market (public) housing right now in Canada and other countries such as something like Denmark, is closer to 20 or 30 per cent and I just think that if we want to see healthy communities, that focusing on housing that isn’t just strictly driven by the markets or profits by developers, is something that is very needed.”

Colquhoun also wants to see a larger investment in education and health care which he believes is “almost intentionally underfunded. Wait times are at crisis levels. Emergency Rooms are short staffed,” he says.

“We need to start putting money back into funding classrooms properly, ensuring students with special needs get the supports they deserve, paying teachers what they’re worth.”

With three candidates outside the traditional parties in the field, Colquhoun recognizes it could pull votes away from the legacy parties in a close race. “Vote splitting is very real, and that could be something that puts Bailey back in,” he told The Independent.

“But the alternative is just trying to pick a party that aligns the closest to what I’m trying to do, and then still splitting the votes anyway. This way I’m not losing anybody because I picked a party, I’m just standing up for Sarnia-Lambton, and there’s no party that I am loyal to.”

Colquhoun owns The Sarnia Journal, billed as ‘Sarnia’s only independent news source.’ He says the online forum is committed to providing equal coverage for the candidates in the election.

But the candidate admits running for office as the owner of a news source could create conflicts.

Colquhoun says he’s not the editor of the site. “My partner is the editor. So there’s lots of conflict there,” he said.

Colquhoun does write a weekly column, which he said he intends to continue during the election. Traditionally, journalism organizations which allow politicians to write columns, as Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley did in the past, suspend the columns during an election to eliminate any appearance of bias. Colquhoun said he was not aware of the practice but would consider it.