Pledging to underpin his campaign with respectful, professional decorum, family physician Dr. Ian Symington has launched another political bid with the Conservative Party of Canada.
Sudbury.com met with Symington at the Copper Cliff Medical Centre on Friday morning, where he has worked for the past eight years after spending several years with the family health team at Pioneer Manor.
Raised in Copper Cliff, he described the medical practice as a good fit, noting that while the community had just about everything else, they didn’t have a doctor until the clinic opened.
Symington recently announced his reaffirmed position as Conservative candidate for Sudbury on social media. Billboards have begun appearing which featured his face, Conservative branding and the statement, “I would be honoured to serve you in Ottawa.”
This isn’t Symington’s first kick of the political can.
He last put his name forward in 2021, when he also ran under the Conservative banner in Sudbury. Although Symington lost to Liberal Viviane Lapointe, he managed to secure 27.7 per cent of the vote, which marked an increase from the 20.56 per cent of the vote Conservative candidate Pierre St-Amant earned in 2019.
As with last time, Symington said his main inspiration to seek public office is to curb what he perceives to have been wasteful spending.
“I’ve got three daughters and I’m hoping they’ll have kids one day,” he told Sudbury.com, adding that future generations will have to pay for today’s spending, with Canada slated to spend approximately $54 billion in debt servicing this year alone.
“The system is getting worse and worse and worse, and people are hurting more and more,” Symington said. “Some of that is global, while some of that we have to shoulder the blame for in Canada.”
Life is getting more expensive for Canadians, he said, citing inflation and people’s struggles to make ends meet as being variables “you can’t spin,” like he said the Liberals have been doing.
Canada’s average annual inflation rate since the Liberals took power in 2015 has been 2.56 per cent, which exceeds the nine-year average of G7 countries of 2.22 per cent, and ranks Canada as having the third-highest average inflation among these countries (lower than the United Kingdom and United States, but higher than France, Germany, Italy and Japan).
“When you look at your bank account and you’ve got no money, or you go to the grocery store and it’s $8 for a pound of butter, you can’t hide that or you can’t spin that,” he said. “People know what’s happening when it’s hitting them in the pocket like that.”
As Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s campaign slogan has indicated, the Conservatives would “Axe The Tax” if elected — the tax in question being the carbon tax.
Last month, Parry Sound—Muskoka Conservative MP Scott Aitchison met with local media to promote this message in advance of the latest scheduled carbon tax increase (alongside an increase to carbon tax rebates).
The carbon tax is costing people, Symington said, adding that the math doesn’t add up, with 10 per cent of money collected going to programming and 13 per cent dedicated to HST leaving only 77 per cent to be returned via carbon tax rebates.
These costs “get rolled into prices,” he said, adding that everyone’s paying more for everything, including groceries.
(A Bank of Canada report attributed 0.15 percentage points of annual inflation to the carbon tax.)
With Conservatives making gains across Greater Sudbury during the 2021 federal election, Symington said his goal is to get his party’s platform points out into the public and to run an issues-driven campaign.
“The political landscape that we’re trying to deal with is not basically picking colours, red blue or orange, we’re dealing with real issues like economic issues and jobs and taxes,” he said.
“We have to stop black and white dividing everyone, because I think that’s what’s gone on for seven or eight years now,” he added. “I’m not saying that we have to agree with everyone. I think we need to have discussions now. I’ll have discussions with anyone.”
Poilievre has faced recent criticism for meeting with members of the Freedom Convoy movement.
While Symington said he doesn’t like seeing some of the movement’s “disrespectful” tactics, such as “F*** Trudeau” flags, they are clearly upset and want to be heard from.
“Having the discussion, to me, doesn’t necessarily make you a bad person, it’s just making sure you’re finding the facts and what they’re doing,” Symington said.
“You don’t just sit on your balcony and say you’re a ‘fringe right,’ I’m not coming down to talk with you, because I think that’s where the freedom convoy went off the rails.”
Symington’s “fringe right” comment is in reference to pandemic-era comments wherein Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Freedom Convoy protesters a “fringe minority,” which members expressed frustration for during a January 2022 convoy stop at Nairn Centre.
Trudeau later said he regrets the dismissal, and that he spoke too broadly about protesters.
Although Symington is campaigning for greater fiscal conservatism, he’s less interested in socially conservative causes, arguing, “Poilievre and the Conservatives are going to let people who feel marginalized be more themselves.”
Asked about Poilievre’s expressed belief that only biological females should be allowed in women-only spaces such as washrooms (which would exclude transgender women), Symington said, “No comment.”
As far as he’s concerned, the government should keep their hands off of issues like this, which is a sentiment Symington said the Conservative Party of Canada supports.
“I’m going to be very respectful to people’s rights and people’s expressions,” Symington said. “We’re going to be very mindful of what our policies are and how they affect people, and we’re going to be making sure that people know who we are.”
Symington estimates the core base of support for Conservatives in the Sudbury riding is approximately 9,000, which he’s going to strive to build upon by sharing policy points with as many people as possible.
“We think they're common-sense policies, and I think a lot of people can rally around them,” he said.
“I think the only thing we can do is put our policies out there and see if people come to them. We’re not going to change our policies to appease this person or that person.”
Last year, federal ridings were redistributed, which effectively flipped the southeastern edge of the old Sudbury riding to the northeast, maintaining the former City of Sudbury. Given polling numbers in this region of the Greater Sudbury area, Symington said it might improve his odds.
Further, with Poilievre making repeated appearances in Greater Sudbury alongside other prominent Conservatives, Symington said head office appears to have faith in the local ridings, too.
Following the recent public relations campaign announcing him as Sudbury’s Conservative candidate on billboards, Symington said he would continue building his base.
“We’ve been doorknocking and we will keep doorknocking weekly until the election,” he said.
The 2021 Conservative candidate for Nickel Belt, Charles Humphrey, is not running again, and a candidate has yet to be determined.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
