{"id":11643,"date":"2015-08-19T14:50:56","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T18:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11643"},"modified":"2015-08-26T16:01:12","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T20:01:12","slug":"conservatives-allow-families-to-make-the-decisions-that-impact-them-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/conservatives-allow-families-to-make-the-decisions-that-impact-them-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives “allow families to make the decisions that impact them”: Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Newmarket-Aurora\u2019s Conservative candidate Lois Brown is well on her way, inching towards victory one step at a time \u2013 victory, that is, over her goal of 10,000 steps a day, knocking on doors in Newmarket-Aurora to get her message out there.<\/p>\n

By last Wednesday\u2019s installment of Concerts in the Park, Ms. Brown had logged 16,472 steps that day alone or, according to her Fitbit, 6.4 miles. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I knock on someone\u2019s door, I think they feel a little bit more free to tell me what they really think,\u201d says Ms. Brown, noting she doesn\u2019t believe she has stopped knocking on doors since she was first elected seven years ago. \u201cI am not hearing anything different at doors [now] than what I have heard all along. The issues of the economy are very, very important to the people who live in Newmarket-Aurora. They are concerned about stability and the long-term prospects of their own jobs and that is where we focus as Conservatives. We are focused on growing jobs because we know that is what is going to keep Canadians prosperous and our economy stable.\u201d<\/p>\n

As economic pundits as of late have questioned that very stability, Ms. Brown says her party is well on track to address these issues. Canada is not immune to the impacts of the global economy and lower oil prices, the debt crisis in Greece and a \u201cflagging\u201d economy in China have all made a dent in Canada, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not immune from the impacts of those things because we are a commodity-driven economy,\u201d she says, adding Canada\u2019s economy was \u201cacknowledged\u201d as one to emulate at the 2010 meeting of the G20. \u201cWe are doing things right to keep our economy stable. We need to face all of these issues that are going on around us. We can\u2019t change what is going on in the global economy. All we can do is strengthen what we can here in Canada.<\/p>\n

For Ms. Brown and the Conservatives, this strength starts at home. Although she concedes the Conservative Government went into deficit financing to tackle the debt and balance the budget, she says it was a \u201cpragmatic decision.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can either pay people to stay on EI and stay home and get nothing out of it, or you can invest in infrastructure projects and keep people working. That is what we did. We got infrastructure projects out of it. Are we going to do deficit financing? I don\u2019t think so. I think we\u2019re going to continue managing the economy carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Universal Child Care Benefit boosted by her party has served to give parents more choice on childcare. \u201cMom and dad know what\u2019s best for their child,\u201d she says, and this extends to the family as a whole.<\/p>\n

Looking at her own bottom line, through tax cuts instituted by the Conservative Government, Ms. Brown says she and her husband, Kelvin, have found their household is saving an average of $60 a month. \u201cNot chump change anymore,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the things we have done to reduce tax gives people the opportunity to make choices in their own lives for the things they want to do for themselves and their family,\u201d says Ms. Brown. \u201cThat improves their life because it gives them choice. It is not government making decisions for them. When people say to me [an issue] is not what they want and it doesn\u2019t impact their life, good. Here\u2019s your money back in your own pocket. You make the choice for your own life. That improves people\u2019s quality of life immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Brown and her family moved to Newmarket over 30 years ago. In her early 20s, she became involved with then-MP Sinclair Stevens\u2019 campaign and through that avenue met many people who challenged her with difficult tasks she says ultimately became skills \u2013 and skills she says have served her well. <\/p>\n

As a Member of Parliament herself, Ms. Brown says she often has a difficult time answering the question whether she prefers representing people in Ottawa, or working with them at a local level. But, at the end of the day, being in her constituency office near Bayview and Mulock is what ultimately provides \u201csome of the greatest thrill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, I am able to impact someone\u2019s life for good,\u201d she says. \u201cI can\u2019t always fix people\u2019s problems because a lot of the problems are consequences of their own decisions and I have no magic wand that changes consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I have a family come into our office with a little girl in their arms who they are looking to adopt from overseas, and somewhere between the embassy and the adoption agency paperwork has gone astray [and they were told they would have to start all over again], people have adopted emotionally before they have adopted legally. In one case, I stayed in my office until 2 a.m. because that is when I could talk to Dubai and the person I needed to speak with put together the file with as much information as I could gather. Long story short, that little girl came into my office and I know I have changed her life forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ms. Brown looks ahead to the October 19 Federal Election, she says it is not about what she wants to accomplish, but about \u201cwhat the people of Newmarket-Aurora are going to see bettering their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not about how much money can be spent and how much stuff we can throw at you, it is about what is going to be better for your family,\u201d she says. \u201cIf those are the things I can represent, and if those are the things I can take back to Ottawa, then my personal goal will have been fulfilled.
\n\u201cThere is nothing about a campaign I don\u2019t enjoy. I love being at the door talking to people. I love the thrill of coming into the campaign offices and seeing people here, doing a variety of jobs. The one thing I don\u2019t love is all the junk food I consume. However, with 16,472 steps, I am not worrying too much!\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newmarket-Aurora\u2019s Conservative candidate Lois Brown is well on her way, inching towards victory one step at a time \u2013 victory, that is, over her goal of 10,000 steps a day, knocking on doors in Newmarket-Aurora to get her message out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vote2015"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-20-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-31N","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 06:30:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}