Ontario Party (OP) candidate Sheldon Simpson’s boys learned a lot during the two weeks they were enrolled in the province’s public school system..They learned how not to be colour-blind — that some skin shades matter more than others..And their curiosity in sexual anatomy was inappropriately “peaked.”.Simpson removed them from that toxic environment..Fighting against polluting young minds through Ontario’s education curriculum is one reason Simpson, a firefighter, is running for member of provincial Parliament (MPP) in the Hadimand-Norfolk riding..Simpson is one of 80 candidates registered to compete in the June 2 provincial election for the OP headed by former Conservative Party MP Derek Sloan..By May 12, the OP will field a slate of up to 120 candidates — just shy of a full house — aiming to defeat Premier Doug Ford’s Conservative Party of Ontario that holds a 76-seat majority..This election is a referendum against Ford who cinched victory in 2018 by promising to uphold conservative values..He didn’t. His dramatic swerve to the far-left now has critics saying a vote for Ford is a vote for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau..Ford’s policies affected Simpson, like many others, in many ways..He was a fireman for 15 years, serving seven as an acting captain..“I’m currently on unpaid leave and awaiting a termination notice due to my insistence not to provide vaccine certification,” Simpson told the Western Standard..“I stand on the ground that I refuse to disclose. For 15 years I did enough to risk my life for the community and the job. For two years when we didn’t have vaccines available, I risked my life for that.”.“As we went through the COVID thing I had questions about the way things happened. I got abruptly told ‘Shut up, sit down, and do as you’re told.’”.“I’ve never been the kind of person to just do as I’m told. Despite being in a paramilitary organization and having a chain of command, what is being ordered to me has to make some sort of sense.”.The issue isn’t whether one is or isn’t vaccinated, he said. It’s about having autonomy over one’s body, personal health privacy, and being treated with dignity..“I don’t believe veterans, for example, should have to show their papers to participate in Remembrance Day ceremonies honouring their sacrifice.”.The destructive, sometimes senseless mandates were a factor in Simpson’s decision to seek office..Before COVID-19, he said he witnessed the decay in Ontario’s healthcare system when family members were in care..“I was touched by the downfall in the system, that lack of accountability, the lack of any real oversight on what was happening. Through work and personally, I saw that hospitals were routinely operating at 95-105% capacity. This was nothing new to COVID.”.It’s not just a personal fight for Simpson who wants Ontario restored to a “democracy where every voice is heard and valued.”.He wants children protected from agendas that shatter innocence..Simpson moved from the Greater Toronto Area and enrolled his two boys, now aged 12 and 14, in a public school where Critical Race Theory is part of the curriculum..“That lasted two weeks. My wife is South African. Her first legal vote was anti-apartheid. We know what racism looks like.”.The boys have close friends of mixed race — brown, black, white..“One day our youngest boy came home from school and said: ‘Do I matter?’ He was upset.”.“I said ‘Hey buddy, of course you matter. What do you mean?’”.The child said a video shown in class featured a black boy who said: “If you look like me, then you matter.”.“My son said: ‘But I don’t look like him.’ As they moved down this Critical Race Theory thing in the education system, all of a sudden he realized we’re different colours.”.Simpson explained the only difference is skin pigmentation and region. Period..He noticed the sex-ed curriculum was “peaking curiosity” inappropriately when his boys were playing with Lego and “wondering about sexual anatomy.”.“They’re not exposed to a lot of that stuff. They don’t have access to the internet. It’s very closely monitored for age-appropriate viewing.”.The OP’s platform champions family, freedom, faith, fiscal responsibility, truth, transparency — hardly priorities in Ford’s agenda..“I’m concerned about the erosion of the foundations and principles on which Canada has been built, through government overreach and creeping political tyranny,” Simpson said..The OP is the only political party that defends faith and religious freedom. Upholding these values sometimes generates scorn, wrath, mockery..“People are hurling labels which are wholly inaccurate, but this is the methodology, this is the way they fight. They don’t like what you say so they throw labels at you.”.“We’ve fallen so far morally — not to push a religious view, our goal isn’t to evangelize people by being a Christian-based party — but we must look at the foundations. I understand it’s not going to be popular.”.“Our country was based and built on a lot of these values, principles and morals. Returning to them, yeah, that puts me in the crosshairs. That’s just crazy. I can’t believe we’ve come to a point where that’s acceptable.”.He believed Ford. But when Doug Ford's Conservative Party of Ontario recently approached him to join the campaign, he declined..“Ford not addressing some of the major things he was elected on, that was a failing.”.“When I really had to turn my back on him and didn’t trust him — he was turning into everyone else. It was like there was some exterior motivation, something was putting pressure on him.”.“In the beginning he and Trudeau didn’t get along. You could cut the tension in the air with a butter knife when they were talking about each other. Now, they’re rubbing elbows, they’re buddies, Ford called him a great leader.”.“Somewhere along the line, for whatever reason, Ford abandoned his principles, abandoned the people who put him in to make changes. He seemed to have turned tail for whatever the benefit is.”.Hadimand-Norfolk is a conservative stronghold..MPP Toby Barret, first elected in 1995, is retiring after serving seven terms in the Ontario Legislature..Haldimand County Mayor Ken Hewitt aims to replace him..Another legacy politician isn’t needed, said Simpson..“We need real people with dirt on their boots that understand what it’s like to live real life and experience real struggles. That’s what’s been missing for a long time, somebody who’s willing to stand up and say that’s wrong, regardless of what you think.”.Sloan knows that.
