By Dara Hakimzadeh
Joe Varner thinks Richard Patten is a good man. But that isn’t keeping him from trying to replace him as the MPP for Ottawa Centre.
“It’s time for a change,” says the former army officer.
“The riding has been rather rudderless and the leadership has not been there,” says Varner.
Since March 2003 he has been adamantly campaigning for an expansion of the Ottawa Congress Centre and blames Patton for a lack of initiative.
“When the Congress Centre and $60 million in funding was at stake, 7,000 jobs and $100,000 in revenue to the downtown… our MPP sat silent,” he explains.
Varner says it just comes down to Patten not speaking out for the concerns of Ottawa Centre residents.
“It’s not enough to go to Queen’s Park and speak on issues, sometimes you have to go and win on issues.”
According to the provincial Tories, health-care spending has increased by 60 per cent from $17 billion to $28 billion since 1995.
“For healthcare and education we’re prepared to spend $300 million more than the Liberals,” says Varner.
“I think the Liberals and the NDP think you can throw money at a problem and then it’s going to go away.”
In 1997, he met his wife, Lisa MacLeod while working as a senior policy adviser to the Conservative caucus in the Senate.
At the time, the senate committee was trying to reopen the Somalia inquiry, which looked into the violent actions of Canadian troops against Somalis. MacLeod was also involved with the Progressive Conservative party and they started dating.
She now works for Jan Harder, city councillor of Bell-South Nepean.
“We have a real partnership in our marriage my wife goes with me door to door. It’s almost a competition,” jokes Varner.
Before attending Acadia University, Varner joined the reserve army where he learned a “healthy respect for people.”
Another influence was his mother, a town councillor in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, where he grew up.
Varner says he got into politics for the same reasons his mother did.
“She thought things weren’t moving ahead.