Well over 300 Liberal party faithful turned out to Lakehead University Wednesday night to hear leader Justin Trudeau speak.
Several people arrived at 5 o’clock at the Outpost and by shortly after 6 o’clock the lineup had stretched all the way to the Agora part of the school.
Many of the people we spoke to were excited to see the leader, including Angela Damianakos, who says it was her first time seeing Trudeau.
“I came because I work in health care and I like Justin’s viewpoints on health care. I think if anyone else gets in we are looking at cuts to health care and education.”
Cathy Goodman says she wanted to come and support Trudeau.
“I know he’s had a tough time and I wanted to show him support. I still think he’s the way to go.”
The environmental group Fridays for Future held a protest outside of LU, saying Trudeau couldn’t plan pipelines and also declare a climate change crisis.
Spokesperson Kelsey Sanders says they want everyone to start paying attention to the climate crisis no matter what party they are voting for.
“This is something that impacts everyone. Everyone should be caring about the climate and that includes all the politicians.”
One person inside the venue for Trudeau’s speech was escorted out. It appeared a man was holding a sign that read “fake”. Shortly after waving the sign and yelling “no” he was taken out of the building by security.
Trudeau announced some election promises, including high-quality health care for all Indigenous communities and better infrastructure plans for First Nation communities.
He pointed out election day will be a crucial decision between his government’s work over the last four years and the “failed policies of the Harper [Conservative] government.”
Throughout his speech, Trudeau also compared Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s policies to controversial decisions made by the current Ontario Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford.
He asked his followers to get the word out for the local Liberal candidates Patty Hajdu and Marcus Powlowski.
Liberal supporters chanted four more years and screamed out his name throughout his speech.
Earlier Wednesday, Acadia Broadcasting’s John Ongaro had an exclusive interview with the Liberal leader.
While Justin Trudeau has no publicized plans to visit remote First Nation communities in northwestern Ontario during the election campaign, he claims they remain on his radar.
The Liberal leader admitted there are lots of challenges around infrastructure, like housing, wastewater, and cell phone and broadband Internet coverage.
Trudeau insists his government has been partnering with those communities on these issues.
He points to the work done on reconciliation and the money put into the regional economic funding agency FedNor.
On another topic, one of the Liberals’ big federal election promises is to reduce cell phone bills by 25 percent over four years.
John Ongaro pointed out that Tbaytel’s cell phone plans are priced 25 to 40 percent lower than in some others parts of the country.
Trudeau noted there are places across the country where there is more competition along with choices for consumers and “the cell phone prices are actually lower.”
The Liberal leader tells us the big three cell phone providers must lower their rates or his government would bring in more competition.
The entire interview can be heard below:
