{"id":31317,"date":"2022-05-19T17:53:49","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T21:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31317"},"modified":"2022-05-19T18:18:56","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T22:18:56","slug":"aurora-oak-ridges-richmond-hill-votes-2022-pc-candidate-michael-parsa-seeks-second-term-as-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-oak-ridges-richmond-hill-votes-2022-pc-candidate-michael-parsa-seeks-second-term-as-mp\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill Votes 2022: PC candidate Michael Parsa seeks second term as MPP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The novelty of working in such a storied landmark as the Ontario Legislature hasn\u2019t worn off for Progressive Conservative candidate Michael Parsa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking through these corridors is just as exciting now as it was when he was first elected as Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill\u2019s MP in 2019, and he is hoping voters place their confidence in him for a second term in the June 2 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should he be returned to Queen\u2019s Park, Mr. Parsa says he will continue to fight for small businesses and tackle the issue of affordability for all residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe last two years have been very difficult for the people,\u201d he says. \u201cStudents, seniors, there is just so much, but I am an optimist and I really do feel the worst is behind us now and it\u2019s about rebuilding again and making sure we\u2019re better than we were even before the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his rookie campaign in the last Provincial election, fighting for small business was a top priority for Mr. Parsa, who came to the table with a small business background of his own. This remains a top priority for his second turn at bat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all know the importance of small business in our community as a whole, but it\u2019s the influence they have on the local communities that matter,\u201d says Mr. Parsa. \u201cThey are the light in local communities. I am going to be a strong advocate for small businesses, especially after what they went through the last couple of years. They were asked to do so much to help us fight the virus and they did. We were able to do what we were able to do because of the support of the people and, for the most part, because of our businesses and small businesses in the righting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI also want to make sure life is more affordable for people when we go back. Take a look at the prices of items, from gas prices to groceries \u2013 that is huge. We have to make sure we do everything we can to lower the cost of living for people; that means making sure gas prices are low for people [and] continuing to make sure that life all around is more affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several bills have been passed in the legislature, he says, to lower gas prices, a move he contends \u201cwill help everybody\u201d as lower fuel costs will, in turn, lower the price on groceries and many other areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHousing is so important,\u201d he continues. \u201cI have heard it time and time again that because of inaction from before we just never had enough housing. We don\u2019t have supply to meet the demand and that is really Business 101. You have to know when you have demand for a particular product, and this product being a home is essential\u2026 all types of homes. For the first time last year we had over 100,000 housing starts in Ontario and that is the highest since the early 1990s. The housing rental units is the highest since the 1980s in Ontario again. That is what you can do to make sure life becomes more affordable for people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another high priority is making sure support is there for seniors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur generation has a lot to be thankful for what we were left before and it was our seniors who left it, so we can\u2019t let them down now,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I looked at the waiting list for those looking to get into long-term care [it was] unacceptable. They\u2019ve got to make sure that\u2026in their golden years they live in dignity, they\u2019re happy, they\u2019re comfortable, and that means us doing our part to make sure the facilities they need and depend on is there for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making long-term care a priority, we\u2019re making sure that seniors have the right homes when we need them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another priority for all sectors is ensuring all parts of the riding \u2013 and indeed all parts of Ontario \u2013 have access to high-speed internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is mind-boggling to think that there are still areas in our riding that did not have access to high-speed internet and that is unacceptable in 2022 for people to not have access and still rely on dial-up and other very costly options, which is why we have $4 billion invested in high speed\u2026to ensure that every corner of this province is connected to high-speed internet by 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will continue advocating for small businesses. I want to make sure we have long-term care beds here. Some are going to be built here finally in Aurora but we need more. We have to make sure we have that infrastructure in place. The health, safety and wellbeing of the people is first and foremost. With the help of so many in our healthcare profession, the sacrifices they made, we were able to fight the virus and now we\u2019re one of the best jurisdictions when it comes to vaccination rates, when it comes to the number of cases, [and] we now have the capacity to fight future waves if there are any and we need to be able to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first four years were a great honour and I am really excited if I have the opportunity to back and continue working for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The novelty of working in such a storied landmark as the Ontario Legislature hasn\u2019t worn off for Progressive Conservative candidate Michael Parsa. Walking through these corridors is just as exciting now as it was when he was first elected as Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill\u2019s MP in 2019, and he is hoping voters place their confidence in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31318,"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":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/2022-05-19-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-897","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 12:40:16","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\/31317","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=31317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}