Age: 57
Born: Montreal
Education: B.A. in Applied Social Sciences and MA in History and Philosophy of Religion from Concordia University.
Career: First elected to the Ontario Legislature in 1987. Served as Minister of Government Services and Minister of Correctional Services. Community involvement includes role as CEO of the CHEO fundraising campaign and as director of International Development on the National Council of the YMCA. Currently, opposition critic for Housing, Privatization and Human Rights.
Hobbies: Painting watercolours, windsurfing, cycling, skiing.
Quote: “I would place my record over and against any member who has ever served in Ottawa Centre, in terms of strengthening the community or standing up for it many, many times.”
Q & A with Richard Patten
Centretown News: Why are you running again?
Patten: I’m running again because I have always had a commitment to social change . . . With government, of course you can do many things. You can make sure that some of the things government does is constructive. The other motivation was that government has created a lot of dependencies. . .as a lot of cutbacks have hit and created a lot of dependencies that aren’t healthy. I think government has to look at ways tobe supportive without creating dependencies, by helping to strengthen groups, organizations, in ways that they are independent and strong. That’s important so they don’t have to be at the whim and call of sometimes-fickle government, where all of a sudden the changes in policies of a lot of organizations are damaged or hurt.
CTN: What are the issues in Ottawa Centre specifically?
Patten: One at the top of the list has to be the threat of school closures. There’s a threat of about a dozen schools just in Ottawa Centre – adult schools, McNabb . . . the Catholic board, and the French board. First of all, the formula for space for students is ridiculous. It’s designed to not give money to school boards, period. It pits suburbs against the core city, which is not good. So you have parents fighting parents, and schools fighting schools, parents pleading for the importance and uniqueness of their particular school . . . . If you take schools out of the community, families with children leave . . . Most parents want their children to be able to walk to school. So, if you close McNabb, you’re going to hurt that surrounding community very, very badly . . . as a Liberal party, we would change that formula. The closing of hospitals affects Ottawa Centre directly . . . . Shutting out the Salvation Army because they have an older building, to me, is absolute folly. The Salvation Army at Grace Hospital is, I’ve been told, one of the top five efficient hospitals in all of Canada . . . We think that was a silly decision. . . . Small business is a major concern. I’ve spent a fair amount of time . . . speaking to a lot of small business people. I’ve visited most of the convenience stores in the riding. I’d say about 75 per cent of the time, (their concerns are) property taxes. It’s increased this year, it will increase next year, and will the year after. The present government chose to say there should only be one rate for business, regardless of small or big. That meant that property tax for big business dropped, and the tax for small business went up . . . it didn’t quite double, but it wasn’t far from it. . . . If government should have a bias in helping business, it should be small business. The big businesses can take care of themselves. Where you get the most job creation, new business development, people risking all they own and putting themselves on the line, we should be supporting that. And we will. We would pull out small business from the general area and create a special small business tax . . . and their property tax would not go up any more.
CTN: Regarding the additions to the ridings, how do you predict the impact on your campaign?
Patten: The section in Ottawa Centre is a lot like the United Nations. You’ve got tremendous diversity. We have some of the humblest of housing, and some of the richest of housing. We have the Italian community, Greek, Chinese, Vietnamese, many people from Somalia, from Cambodia, from South America. It’s probably one of the most diverse ridings in Ontario. I like that. I think that’s great. It makes it more exciting. I find it more challenging with the relations between the various communities. It’s a fun riding in the sense that you’ve got tremendous diversity, going to Muslim functions or maybe Buddhist functions.
CTN: What do you hope to accomplish in the next term if you are re-elected?
Patten: If we form the government, we’ve made a commitment to really re-stabilize the health care system, so that will have ramifications here in our community; and to do the same with education. . . . We made a commitment to provide increased supportive housing, especially in the mental health area. We would also review the school closures in the formula, so you wouldn’t have the kind of closures, or the need, for closures that you see now . . . . If we can make sure that our schools in the inner city are saved, I feel that would be very important. If we can strengthen the people who are having a rough time — the homeless, for example — and have some additional programs, we can make sure our shelters are strong. The women’s shelters, for example, where they lost their money. So I would say that if we can strengthen the social fabric of our community, bring back an attitude that we all have a responsibility to help each other when it’s needed, that will make me feel very good about social accountability in Ottawa Centre.