Beth Mairs, best known as managing director of Sudbury Indie Cinema, was acclaimed as the NDP candidate in the Sudbury riding for the upcoming federal election Thursday evening.
Mairs also sought to run for the NDP in Sudbury in the 2018 provincial election, but the nomination went to Jamie West, who was ultimately elected MPP for Sudbury.
A filmmaker who also previously ran an outdoor adventure company for women, Mairs' press release said she is a “notable progressive voice in Sudbury” and a “seasoned social activist.”
“She has fought hard to create space and to give voice to lesser-heard voices and marginalized people throughout her careers in both the private and public spheres,” the press release said.
Her efforts to improve the lives of marginalized groups started back in the 1980s when she worked on legislative changes to Ontario's social welfare, building a provincewide coalition to lobby Queen's Park, said Mairs' press release.
She later shifted her focus to neighbourhood organizing with seniors in social housing.
Her work has been well documented in a book on community organizing used as a textbook in colleges and universities for over 20 years.
More recently, Mairs has devoted herself to the development of a not-for-profit, co-operative cinema, the first of its kind in Northern Ontario — bringing lesser heard voices, Canadian cinema plus documentaries to the big screen.
Former Sudbury MPP Sharon Murdock nominated Mairs, and noted her innovative ways of thinking, said the press release.
Current Sudbury MPP Jamie West praised Mairs for being the first person to volunteer on his campaign after she lost the nomination to him by a small margin to run provincially for the NDP in 2017.
“We see too often people in government, who do nothing but advance the interests of big business,” said Mairs in the press release on why she's running.
“Too many people in Sudbury are suffering as a result of the erosion of a social safety net in Canada.
“We have politicians who are empowered to act, to effect change, but once in power, do nothing. But I am engaged and motivated to fight for the changes we need.”
Mairs used the press release announcing her nomination to highlight the plight of a group of Sudbury workers who have been locked out since last spring.
Thirty home-care co-ordinators and administration staff with CarePartners Sudbury who are members of United Steelworkers Local 2020 have been on the picket lines since the end of May.
Mairs said she joined the workers on a bus trip to protest outside of the company's headquarters on Thursday.
Although tight timing for Mairs, she decided this issue is too important to not make it a priority. She noted the words of Jessica Montgomery, the UWS 2020 unit president, herself a Sudbury home-care co-ordinator on lockout these past 15 weeks, who said “We know our worth.”
Mairs said in her press release the NDP is the party that fights for people who are told they don’t matter, yet know their worth.
