{"id":35886,"date":"2025-02-20T14:07:57","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T19:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35886"},"modified":"2025-02-20T14:07:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T19:07:59","slug":"ndp-candidate-heng-aims-to-find-solutions-through-community-lens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ndp-candidate-heng-aims-to-find-solutions-through-community-lens\/","title":{"rendered":"NDP candidate Heng aims to find solutions through \u201ccommunity lens\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leaders need to have a focus on solutions through \u201cthe lens of community,\u201d according to Newmarket-Aurora NDP candidate Denis Heng.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heng, who is representing the Ontario NDP in Newmarket-Aurora for the second time after first jumping into politics in the 2022 Provincial election, is back on the ballot in 2025 and says he decided step up again to give residents \u201ca positive choice\u201d ahead of the February 27 vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really takes a solution-based focus run through the lens of community,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel like the issues are all the same [across party lines] and how we decide to move forward is different. I feel like the NDP provides a more community-based solution whereas I feel a more Conservative point of view it\u2019s all about the individual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heng says his decision to run for the NDP was all about their \u201cvalues and vision\u201d as well as after coming away from talks with party leader Marit Stiles feeling \u201cshe is someone that I believe is actually on my side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel there are a lot of people who are disillusioned with politics and it is easy to be cynical and say, \u2018Things are all the same and therefore that is why I am not going to participate. What does my vote mean?\u2019 I feel like that is something that was not a choice for me and I am looking for ways to empower the change in my community that I want to see and these were all things that culminated in the NDP,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel like there are a lot of election promises being made and really looking at, well, what are the meaningful actions that have been put into place in the past? I feel like action has been lacking, although election promises abound. I feel like when I look at the party, it\u2019s like who do I feel will be able to stand up and actually push for change against the status quo? I look to the NDP. I want to vote for something positive. I don\u2019t necessarily want to vote against something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heng says he appreciates the \u201cpassion\u201d and \u201cexperience\u201d Stiles has brought to Queen\u2019s Park as Leader of the Opposition, advocating for an \u201cappropriately-funded\u201d education system and tackling the issues of affordability, housing, and economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the energy I want to participate in,\u201d he says, \u201cdriving towards positive, meaningful action, positive change, that benefits everyone in our community, not just a wealthy few.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to build a community in figuring out what government can provide\u2026to actually build a community,\u201d he adds. \u201cIn 2022 and elections before that, it\u2019s about affordability, it\u2019s about healthcare, it\u2019s about education, it\u2019s about the economy. I feel like we have to have to get away from tunnel view to say, \u2018We\u2019re going to approach one of these at a time.\u2019 No, they are all interconnected. When we talk about the NDP and their environmental platform\u2026 an environmental lens is something our party applies to all of our priorities of affordability, housing and education \u2013 the idea that we can\u2019t get to a sustainable future without thinking about the green economy and incorporating building code standards, thinking about transportation from an environmental point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel this is something I see in Marit where it is not just trying to distill things down to one thing, put money to it, it\u2019s done. No, really understanding it\u2019s not just the funding, it\u2019s not just the people, and it\u2019s not just the connections that we need to work across the spectrum of these issues to ensure that we have a system that works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Leaders need to have a focus on solutions through \u201cthe lens of community,\u201d according to Newmarket-Aurora NDP candidate Denis Heng. Heng, who is representing the Ontario NDP in Newmarket-Aurora for the second time after first jumping into politics in the 2022 Provincial election, is back on the ballot in 2025 and says he decided step […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35886","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\/2025\/02\/2025-02-20-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9kO","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 13:40:35","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\/35886","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=35886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35888,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35886\/revisions\/35888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}