By Larissa Brittan
Wednesday September 14, 2005

Local politician Monte McNaughton has become the Progressive Conservative policy chairperson for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, and the local population is invited to come see him, and join him, in action.

The Ontario PC party, led by John Tory, says it’s reaching out to communities to find out how to make the province strong again. The party hopes for each riding to hold local-level policy sessions to make citizens involved in the policy process, hopefully to create an election platform for the expected 2007 election that “reflects the values of Ontario residents.”
“We’re going to spend an hour per topic and basically, it’s just a round-table discussion,” said McNaughton, who is also a councillor for the Village of Newbury. “People will just come with their ideas prepared for the most part ahead of time, and everyone will have the opportunity to give some input. We’ll be asking questions. There won’t be any debating. Everyone will have the chance to have their say.”

Three meetings will be held in the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex riding. On Sept. 21, the Dresden Legion will host the first forum, which will deal with agriculture and rural development. The Forest Legion will host the Sept. 28 forum, discussing economy and agriculture. The final meeting will be held at the Bear Creek Golf Course in Strathroy on Oct. 5, and the topic is health care and education. Each session will be held from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m., and an MPP will attend each session.

“There are three parts to Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, and that’s why we picked these three locations,” said McNaughton. “I’m the policy chair so I’ll be involved in all three, and Pat Davis will be mediating.”

For more information, call McNaughton at 693-0459 or Mark Simpson at 243-3034.