Residents of Parry Sound-Muskoka now have a third option in the upcoming provincial election. Jim Ronholm will be representing The Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) in the riding.
“The issues that speak to me the most are the ones that impact the individual person more,” Jim said in an interview with 705BLACKFLY.COM. “There’s a whole list of those that are all issues that I don’t think have been treated properly – certainly in that last few years. So, these are things like affordability, homelessness, the medical system.”
Currently a councillor in the Township of Strong, Jim had not planned on entering provincial politics until his term was over.
“I certainly hadn’t made any decisions on my own,” Jim said. “You know, it wasn’t something I may have planned to do but I was approached. And when I was approached the election hadn’t been called.”
Jim grew up in the Almaguin area and attended Almaguin Highlands Secondary School before joining the military and earning his Computer Engineering degree at Royal Military College. Jim moved to Strong township in 1995 after serving 8 years in the military. His wife of 30 years and their two children have lived in Strong Township their whole lives.
Since moving to the area, Jim worked for Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, earned his M.Sc. and has been a professor at Canadore College for the last 25 years. Ontario’s faltering education is a key issue for Jim going into the election campaign.
“One of the things that is very close to me because of my experience is just simply the severe lack of funding that post secondary institutions have been suffering under for successive governments, not just the current government.”
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation/Federation of Education Support Professionals Ontario recently launched a campaign to raise awareness about what they say is “the dire state of public education in Ontario and the urgent need for action.” The satirical streaming series trailer titled “Ford High” is set in a dystopian near-future where public education is crumbling due to defunding and neglect. Jim says funding for repairing infrastructure, reducing class sizes and implementing extra curricular activities should all be high on the agenda.
“Which one do you pick? They probably all need to be addressed,” Jim says. “Lots of times, the boards and the schools themselves are making decision based on insufficient funds, you know. ‘We’re choosing not to do this because we need the funds for something else.” So, if they were just funded sufficiently, they wouldn’t be making decisions to not do these things. It’s probably a base funding issue more than anything else.”
It has now become a three-way race to become MPP in Parry Sound – Muskoka. Current MPP Graydon Smith represents the PC party while Matt Richter is the candidate for the Green Party.
“The party that he (Smith) represents seems to be beholden to corporations and developers and such and so that’s how I would differentiate myself from Graydon,” Jim reflects. “For the Green Party situation, I think that an NDP candidate is way more likely to have an effect on government than a Green candidate. If Matt was to get elected that would give them a sum total of two seats in the house where the NDP already has a significant standing. If I could add to that it would be one step closer to forming government.”
705BLACKFLY.COM will be speaking with Jim again next week to get an in depth look at his campaign.
