Paramedic turned politician – Dave Parkhill to carry NDP mantle in LFL&A

Jeff Green | Sep 01, 2011

Dave Parkhill lives in Kingston, but he is a familiar face in rural Frontenac County, where he worked for 21 years as a paramedic out of the Parham and Ompah bases.

Parkhill is also the newly minted NDP candidate for LFL&A, and he said, “I may not live in the riding, but I’ve driven a lot of these back roads. I’ve delivered babies in this riding; I’ve started hearts in this riding. As we know, this is such a diverse riding. A young family in Carleton Place may not seem to have a lot in common with a Goodyear employee in Napanee, but I really think the NDP has a good way at looking at all these diverse needs.”

In addition to his work experience as a paramedic, Dave Parkhill made reference to his family life as providing the incentive to be active in politics. He is married to Heidi Penning, who deals with human rights issues on a daily basis as the Equity Officer at Queen’s University. They are also parents of four children, and Parkhill takes some of his political inspiration from all of them. He said one of his sons is 24 and has been holding numerous part-time jobs to get by.

“There is a lack of full-time employment in this region, which makes it hard for young people to get ahead,” he said.

Two of Parkhill’s and Penning’s sons have autism, and Dave Parkhill has learned quite a bit about how the political system in Ontario works by advocating for services for his sons.

“One of my sons could work and live independently with supports, but those supports are not available. My other son is in the school system, and has had some really good supports, but we have had to advocate for that. My wife and I know a lot of people and can navigate the system, but there are many people who don’t have that background, and as a consequence their children may not receive the same supports. I think that as a province we need to do a lot of work to make the public schools more pro-active in responding to needs,” he said.

“We also have a daughter who is likely headed into the university system,’ he added, “and there is an obvious need to make sure Ontario has a university system that is open, and does not leave graduates in grinding debt afterwards.”

Dave Parkhill thinks that the NDP have “a good vision, a good platform, and the election will be a great opportunity to really start some conversations, have some fun, and make some changes.”

He said he will be campaigning actively, will be participating in all of the all-candidate meetings that are arranged. He says will also be using some new media, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to try and connect with disengaged young people during the campaign.