Age: 40
Born: Ottawa
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Geography at Simon Fraser University and a Master’s in Urban Planning at Queen’s University.
Career: Arnold is the city councillor for Somerset Ward in Centretown. She is Chair of the Planning and Economic Development Committee, is a member of the Community Services and Operations Committee, the Advisory Committee on Equity and Diversity and the Environmental Advisory committee.
Hobbies: Kayaking. From 1979 to 1984 she was a member of Canada’s National Canoe team. Today she still kayaks for recreation.
Quote: “Let me be clear. I want to do more than just oppose the Mike Harris revolution. I want to undo it.”
Q & A with Elisabeth Arnold
Centretown News: Why are you running?
Arnold: I have been so frustrated by the gutting of public services in our community at the hands of the Harris government, and I hear the results of that every single day in my office. People who can’t find an affordable place to live, who can’t get health care for an aging parent, who are distraught because their community school is closing and they don’t know how to get their child to school (elsewhere).
We don’t have answers for them because the resources have been taken out of our community to pay for an income tax cut that has benefitted the most wealthy people in our province. And even more frustrating is the fact that the Liberal opposition, including the leader of the party, Dalton McGuinty, has been completely silent on these really important issues . . . So it’s out of a real anger at what’s happened in our community, and the lack of any effective opposition that I’ve decided to run.
CTN: Right now you hold a position of influence in municipal government. How much influence do you think you’re going to have in provincial politics?
Arnold: Whether I’m a government MPP or an opposition MPP, there’s a real role to be played for being an advocate for this community; pushing legislation through committees; making sure people are involved and engaged in what is going on in the community; and making sure that voice is heard at Queen’s Park.
You can do that partly in the House, but a large part of the job of an MPP happens outside the House, and that means doing work within as well as outside the parliamentary system.
And that’s what I’ve done at City Hall. People look at me as being an opposition voice, and the only New Democrat on city council, but regardless of the fact that I am not aligned with the majority parties on council, I’ve been able to work within the bureaucracy and with the communities to make changes at City Hall.
CTN: What are some of the issues in Ottawa Centre?
Arnold: I think if you look at health care, look at education, look at affordable housing, those are the issues that we confront every day when we walk down the street.
We see it with the increase in homeless people on our streets who aren’t getting the mental health services they need, or perhaps the addiction services that they need; that don’t have access to continuing education or adult education. We see it in the complete lack of affordable housing.
CTN: How does the redistribution of the riding affect you?
Arnold: There are really three different pieces that have been merged onto Ottawa Centre. Ottawa South is a very strong area for the NDP and for myself, because I’ve worked through my work at city council and particularly as chair of planning committee on a number of issues that are important to that area. I think if you drive around that area of Ottawa South you’ll see that the signs tell the message. That’s a very strong area for this campaign.
The area to the West has not traditionally been a strong New Democrat area. The area to the South which includes Fisher, down to Mooney’s Bay . . . has a lot of people who have been really devastated by the Harris government, particularly the social housing and public housing communities there. The middle-class working people who thought they were going to be getting these huge tax cuts and have seen their property taxes go up, their user fees go up and their services diminish.
CTN: What do you want to accomplish by the end of your term?
Arnold: If you have a fair income tax system; health care that provides the continuum of care that people need, from health promotion and prevention work to acute care and palliative care; a public education system that is equitably funded and meets the needs of both the growing communities in the suburbs and inner city communities; if you have affordable housing; those would be successes. The Harris government has taken us backwards, so we’re going to be having to play a catch up game . . . and that’s going to take some time because the cuts have been severe, so at the end of four years, I’d like to be able to say that we’ve made significant progress in each of those areas.