Candidate Profiles - John MacRae - NDP

Jemma Dooreleyers | Feb 20, 2025

John MacRae, the NDP’s MPP candidate for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston has deep ties to Lanark County and is passionate about rural healthcare and creating opportunities and reducing costs for Ontario’s workers. He is currently a public servant in Ottawa and has first-hand experience with areas of the province that he believes are underfunded.

What motivated you to run for the NDP’s Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston MPP?

During the Ford government, I became disillusioned with how the government was focusing on corporations and rich developers rather than working people. I saw that disparity in what the government was focusing on and I decided I wanted to be a part of the change. I ran with the NDP because I believe that they actually have the solutions to try to bridge that gap and put the government for working people rather than people who have connections to those already in power.

You work as a public servant in Ottawa, how does this work inform your decision to run for MPP?  

Because I'm a public servant, I really value my job in working for Canadians. I really have a value for working for people rather than working for myself. When I see the NDP platform and everything they stand for, I see those same values and that's why I gravitate that way.

 You mentioned some of the policies that Doug Ford has brought forth for the corporations instead of working people. Can you elaborate on that? And what policies you disagree with?

We've seen a lot of development on farmland and green space. You look at the green belt in the GTA as an example where they want to pay over farmland. Frontenac  and Kingston have a lot of farmland here in the agriculture community and who's to say that, that couldn't happen here. We've seen farmland, be sold to developers. We also see spas on in Ontario place that people in Lanark, Frontenac and Kingston are going to have to pay for even though it’s in Toronto, why do we need to pay for these things? So there's all of these deals that are going on that the people of Ontario including Lanark, Frontenac and Kingston have to pay that don't necessarily directly benefit us or provide value to us in terms of our day-to-day life or our quality of life.

What kind of policies would you work on to benefit the rural community in Ontario?

One of my main priorities is health care. It's an issue across the province, but it's especially stark in rural communities. You look at wait times there and this is all through underfunding.  Wait times are through the roof. ERs are not even just at capacity,  they've been closing. Healthcare workers including doctors nurses and others they're being stretched so thin that they're burning out and it's the people of this province and those health care workers that are paying the price. Whereas there's been further privatization of our health care and we're seeing it day after day. One thing I would want to do is increase funding to make sure everyone has a family doctor. We also need to incentivize healthcare workers no matter who they are to work and grow communities and this ties into affordability. Make rural communities more affordable so there's an incentive to actually move here and join the community and become part of it. Then we also need to consider removing red tape from doctors so that they can spend more time working with patients, rather than doing the administrative jobs that they need to do.

This is a historically conservative riding, do you feel like now is the moment for a different perspective?

 What we're trying to do with the NDP is to tell the working people of this riding that there is an alternative. It doesn't have to just be conservative. Has your life gotten noticeably better  under conservative power? Most people would say no, that it hasn't. We need an alternative that people can turn to to make sure that we have a different perspective on how to deal with rural issues that may be the conservative viewpoint has provided.

People are worried about the cost of living and when they hear plans to invest money into housing and healthcare and education, they worry about their taxes rising as well, can you speak to a plan to mitigate those worries?

Well, let's take health care, for example, the government is putting more into private than they're putting into public. Once we actually reinvest that money into the public health care system, there's going to be no difference in taxes in that respect. One other thing that we can consider is municipal taxes.

A lot of our infrastructure was downloaded to munciplaities, so people have to pay it through their property taxes. Our plan is to upload it back to the province. So now, instead of, let's say, a town of 6,000 people paying for the upkeep of the highway that people across the province use, it's now going to be uploaded to a province of 16 million people that they can, that everyone can pay the upkeep for which will actually reduce taxes. And we'll actually make things more affordable for people. It's all of these things that it's about making things, more efficient. While it seems on the macroscale that it might increase taxes, it's actually going to decrease how much you're spending because it's going to be way more efficient to pay for these things and make sure things are running smoothly.

There has been a lot of discussion about the conversation about tariffs overshadowing other issues for Ontarians, does this resonate with you?

You know, actually, when I've been speaking to people, I've noticed people, they're  aware of the tariffs for sure, but I actually think people are very still concerned about the issue we have been facing.  That that doesn't leave people's heads. Even though there's this new threat that we're dealing with people are very in tune with the fact that we have issues that we can deal with on our own. I would say, yes, we are a bit distracted right now because we're focusing on an election and the tariffs but I would say what we need to focus more on, is the fact that an election was called for no reason. Ford already had a mandate and an election can cost upward of 175 million dollars.That 175 million dollars could have been used to help workers during this uncertain time, in our economy, and I think that fiscal year responsibility is something that actually needs to be focused on rather than the tariffs that might be looming over us right now.

If you were elected as MPP, how would you ensure that the tariffs don't continue to overshadow the other issues?

Well what I would say is the way to overcome the tariffs is to make sure we have a strong Ontario and  you can't have a strong Ontario unless we have strong programs and a robust workforce that is being supported by their government.

Tariffs are an issue in and of itself, whereas ensuring that we can sustain ourselves and become self-sufficient, those issues are going to become central to actually combating the tariffs. Our health care, education, our transportation systems, how we're exporting our goods, the tariffs might impact that but we're going to be focusing on creating a strong Ontario that would actually be able to take care of itself. By doing that, we can deal with the tariffs on the side.

What are your thoughts on the snap election?

I think it's a waste of people's time and always the people's money. He wanted the government to have a mandate, whatever government it may be to deal with Donald Trump for how to mandate until next year.

He had more than enough time to actually be in session and deal with these issues as they come. Instead, he used it as an excuse to try to get another four years in office. That's my opinion, at least. So, I think what it's done is it's actually It's made Ontarians very discouraged in their government because it seems like a paragraph rather than something that actually needed to be done.

Is there anything else you feel like you want to mention to the voters of Lanark, Frontenac and Kingston?

I think I would just say we clearly need change in this writing. Our incumbent is part of this government that has shown time and time again that they're willing to sell out to corporate interests rather than work for people. We deserve someone who's actually going to fight for them in Queens Park and not just assume that they have their vote.