{"id":36081,"date":"2025-04-03T11:34:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T15:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36081"},"modified":"2025-04-03T11:34:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T15:34:59","slug":"canada-needs-steady-hands-at-the-wheel-amid-uncertainty-says-menegakis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/canada-needs-steady-hands-at-the-wheel-amid-uncertainty-says-menegakis\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada needs \u201csteady hands at the wheel\u201d amid uncertainty, says Menegakis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Canada needs \u201csteady hands at the wheel\u201d amid uncertainty on multiple fronts, and Costas Menegakis believes he has the experience to be part of that as Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill\u2019s next Member of Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Menegakis, who previously served as Member of Parliament for Richmond Hill in the government of Stephen Harper, is the Conservative candidate for Aurora\u2019s southern riding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last nine-and-a-half years, he says he\u2019s been \u201cvery, very unhappy with what has happened in this country\u201d \u2013 a sentiment he says he shares with \u201ca lot of Canadians\u201d \u2013 and community needs a \u201cfighter\u201d like him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to someone that can stand up to the community, that can fight for the community, that can deliver results to the community because, at the end of the day, it\u2019s all about service and certainly at the Federal level that is something that has been lacking in this riding,\u201d he claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He points to a growing national debt and the rise of crime at the community level as symptoms of a greater issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo matter what we say on a partisan political level, the fact of the matter is cars are being stolen out of people\u2019s driveways in Aurora and Richmond Hill on a daily basis. Just in the last two weeks we\u2019ve had a home invasion in Aurora. We need to clamp down on these things and these criminals need to pay a price for their crime. You can\u2019t commit the crime in the morning and be out in the afternoon or the next day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having last served in Parliament nearly a decade and three Conservative leaders ago, he says he remains a Conservative \u201cbecause I believe in smaller government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe in working for people,\u201d he continues. \u201cI believe in focusing on issues that are important and delivering results for people. I want everyone to have a family doctor. I want everyone to feel safe in their home. I want young people to be able to save up and buy a home in the community in which they live. Everyone can see what has transpired over the last nine-and-a-half years has taken hope away from young families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also says he believes Pierre Poilievre is the right man at the right time to lead the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two men served together in the House of Commons and, in the process, Menegakis says he was \u201calways been impressed with him\u201d as he was well-informed and asked important questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been the most effective, in my humble opinion, Leader of His Majesty\u2019s Official Opposition in Parliament,\u201d he says, rejecting claims that some might find the Leader\u2019s line of questioning \u201cabrasive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGovernments should be held to account,\u201d he says. \u201cWe live in a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite polls showing the Liberals pulling ahead of the Conservatives nationally, this apparent trend is something Menegakis says is not reflected at the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are fed up,\u201d he says. \u201cIt comes down to change, real change, meaningful change. It comes down to putting our country first. As Pierre has said\u2026 Canada First for a change. We need it. We need to think Canadian. We\u2019re a sovereign nation. We\u2019re never going to be the 51st<\/sup> state. That\u2019s just comical to assume. We need somebody who is strong, who is going to stand up and say, \u2018We have a country, it\u2019s called Canada, we\u2019re damned proud of our country, and we\u2019re going to defend our country in our negotiations\u2026with our best friends, the Americans, and everybody around the world, by negotiating mutually beneficial contracts and agreements that will benefit both countries. This is not a one-way deal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Menegakis\u2019 top priorities should he be elected to Ottawa on April 28 is affordability. He says he will not vote for budgets \u201cthat come in with $40-, $60-, $80-billion deficits, especially when I don\u2019t see service or delivery of Canadians,\u201d and part of that approach to affordability includes the Conservatives\u2019 plan to take GST off the sale of new homes of up to $1.3 million for first-time buyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also wants to \u201cclamp down\u201d on crime with legislation that \u201cwill keep criminals behind bars,\u201d with tighter immigration policies coming in as a third priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would be a very strong advocate to ensure we have a responsible immigration policy where we welcome people, people that can contribute to Canada, and to their families, based on a similar formula to what we have had in the past \u2013 quite simply that 65 per cent of new immigrants coming to the country have to come through what we call economic streams, someone who will have a working knowledge of either of the two official languages, and have a profession that is needed in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want people to make a decision based whether they think they\u2019re better off today than they were 10 years ago and whether they want change to that or not, whether they want more of the same or they want some different action to make their lives and their families better,\u201d he says. \u201cVote for your family, vote for your community, vote for your community, vote for you \u2013 what makes life better for you, irrespective of what Menegakis or Taylor Roy say\u2026 At the end of the day, look at your family and make a decision based on what\u2019s best for you and best for your community that you live in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Costas Menegakis is Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill\u2019s Conservative candidate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36082,"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-36081","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\/04\/2025-04-03-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9nX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 02:24:30","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\/36081","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=36081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36083,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36081\/revisions\/36083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}