{"id":7162,"date":"2014-06-25T17:47:06","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T21:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7162"},"modified":"2014-07-09T23:04:35","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T03:04:35","slug":"view-from-queens-park-humbled-delighted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/view-from-queens-park-humbled-delighted\/","title":{"rendered":"VIEW FROM QUEEN’S PARK: Humbled & Delighted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Humbled and Delighted to Have Your Support
\nBy Chris Ballard, MPP-elect, Newmarket-Aurora<\/p>\n

I am both humbled and delighted to have been voted the new Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Newmarket-Aurora.
\nCampaigning is hard work, but made enjoyable by the opportunity to meet so many nice people and to hear about their hopes and dreams for the future.
\nI thank The Auroran for this column, which I\u2019ll use to keep you updated about my work on your behalf.
\nI said on election night that my job is to be MPP for all residents of our riding, regardless of whether they voted for me or not. I hold that belief close to my heart.
\nI was encouraged to see voter turnout in Newmarket-Aurora recorded its highest level, at 54.3 per cent, surpassing the 2011 turnout of 49.3 per cent. I was very encouraged to see schools getting involved and enjoyed my time answering questions from young people.
\nDuring the campaign, I was asked countless times why I got into politics. For me, it was because of what was happening to the education system in the 1990s.
\nMy wife and I had three young children in elementary school and we became concerned at the lack of textbooks, broken computers, broken musical instruments, teacher frustration and burn-out.
\nWe saw firsthand how students were being affected by cutbacks and mismanagement at the provincial level. Something needed to be done. Together with other concerned parents, I helped start our school\u2019s first School Council to bridge the gap between parents, teachers and school administrators.
\nWe got parents and teachers talking, raised thousands of dollars for the repair and replacement of equipment, and generally tried to make the school a better place for our children and teachers.
\nHappily, I can report that Ontario\u2019s high school graduation rate is now 83 per cent, up from 56 per cent in 2003-04. This means more young people are able to move on to post-secondary education \u2013 which is great news for anyone who believes educated workers are the future of Ontario.
\nMy election priorities for Newmarket and Aurora were shaped after talking to hundreds of residents and businesses, and my work as a Town Councillor.
\nMy priorities are: ensuring our promise of all day, two way, electrified GO Train service between Toronto and Bradford is kept on schedule; local economic development and good paying jobs; and improving protection for the Oak Ridges Moraine, an important environmental feature in both Newmarket and Aurora.
\nThe Liberal government has spent more than $9 billion updating GO service across the GTA, including almost $7 billion to buy railway tracks. In Aurora and Newmarket, close to $50 million has been spent updating parking, lengthening platforms and adding a bus garage.
\nAll it takes is a GO Train trip to Toronto to see progress being made on double-tracking the line. But there is lots more to do if we are to meet our promise of all-day, two-way, electrified service. The provincial budget will be reintroduced in early July and contains provisions to spend $29 billion on improved transit, including $15 billion in southern Ontario.
\nThese are staggering sums of money, but required if we are to build a transit system to meet the needs of a growing region \u2013 and transit is much less expensive than expanding existing highways or building new ones.
\nAs chair of Aurora\u2019s Economic Development Advisory Committee, and through my years on Council, I heard time and again the difficulty of attracting major companies because of a lack of adequate transit.
\nExperience has shown that when all day, two way train service is available, companies are more likely to open offices where land is cheaper and municipal taxes are lower. Both Ajax and Oakville are benefitting from improved GO Train service in their areas.
\nI believe as GO Train, VIVA and YRT service improves in our communities, it won\u2019t take long for major companies to discover the benefits of locating here.
\nIn 2015, the provincial government begins a review of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act. With that in mind, I have announced my intention to launch a Citizen\u2019s Roundtable on the Oak Ridges Moraine. It is important that residents interested in this important environmental feature be informed of the process by which the government will review the legislation in 2015, and be able to make informed input.
\nIt will also be my opportunity to hear what you think so that I can form my input. Stay tuned for details on this initiative.
\nAnd, finally, a thank you to retired MPP Frank Klees who served this riding for 19 years. While we may not agree on politics, I commend his commitment to public service and wish him well in his future endeavours.<\/p>\n

Please feel free to contact me
\nat chris@chrisballardmpp.ca
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Humbled and Delighted to Have Your Support By Chris Ballard, MPP-elect, Newmarket-Aurora I am both humbled and delighted to have been voted the new Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Newmarket-Aurora. Campaigning is hard work, but made enjoyable by the opportunity to meet so many nice people and to hear about their hopes and dreams […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1Rw","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 13:46:23","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\/7162","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=7162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}