When area residents head to the polls on Sept. 20, they must chose between the fve local candidates when casting their ballots. Below you will find a short bio on each candidate.

Marie-France Lalonde

When Orléans residents head to the polls on Sept. 20, Marie-France Lalonde will be hoping to keep the riding in the Liberal fold.

Lalonde was first elected to the House of Commons in October 2019 when she ran to replace former Liberal MP Andrew Leslie who had announced his retirement from politics the previous spring.

Before running federally, Lalonde served as the local provincial member of parliament for the Liberal Party from 2014-2019.

She served as Minister of Government and Consumer Services and the Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs from June 13, 2016 until Jan. 12, 2017, when she was appointed Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

In the 2019 General Election, Lalonde received more than 54 per cent of the vote, beating her Conservative rival by more than 21,000 ballots.

Lalonde can list several significant accom-plishments during her career in politics including the Orléans Health Hub which she championed as a member of Liberal Cabinet. She also introduced a Private Member’s Bill which resulted in Ontario becoming the first province in Canada to ban the addition of microbeads to cosmetic products.

As the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Lalonde introduced legislation leading to wholesale reform of the Police Services Act as well as Bill 6 – the Correctional Services Transformation Act.

On March 19, she was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages.

As the local MP, Lalonde has been able to secure funding for the Petrie Island Canoe Club through the Canada Com-munity Revitalization Fund; high speed Internet for Carlsbad Springs and an electronic charging station at the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Centre.

You can learn more about the candidate by visiting mariefrancelalonde.liberal.ca.

Mary-Elsie Wolfe

It’s been 15 years since Royal Galipeau upset Liberal incumbent Marc Godbout in the 2006 General Election to become the first Conservative MP in the riding and ending an 18-year run by the Liberals. Mary-Elsie Wolfe is hoping history will repeat itself when area voters head to the polls on Monday.

In 2006, Galipeau was trailing Godbout for most of election night. It wasn’t until the advance polls were added to the total vote count that he managed to squeak past Godbout for the win.

Unlike the current situation in which the Trudeau government dissolved Parliament to seek another mandate, in 2006 the election was held after the Liberal minority government was defeated in a vote of non-confidence. The result saw the Conservatives come to power under Stephen Harper with the smallest minority in terms of proportion of seats in Canadian history.

Local Conservatives have pinned their hopes on Wolfe who is a former national director of the Free Methodist Church in Canada and author of the Christian faith-based book Becoming His Story: Inspiring Women to Leadership, which applies the values of Jesus to the model for leadership today.

On her campaign website, Wolfe is described as “a passionate communicator and leader”. She is currently involved with the Mission Thrift Store in Orléans with an environmental, com-munity, and world literacy emphasis.

She holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California and a Master of Divinity from the Tyndale Seminary in Toronto and is currently employed as a parliamentary assistant to Winnipeg-area MP Ted Falk.

Wolfe can communicate in both official languages. She and her husband Gary have lived in Orléans since 2017 and they have two teenage daughters together.

To learn more about the Mary-Elsie Wolfe visit maryelsiewolfe4orleans.ca.

Jessica Joanis

In the last federal election the NDP garnered 11.5 per cent of the vote in Orléans. It was the largest share of the vote they earned since 2011 when little-known Martine Cenatus captured 14 per cent.

The job of making further inroads into the local vote has been left up to Jessica Joanis, a community organizer and substitute teacher at Terry Fox Elementary School who worked on Barbara Zarboni’s provincial campaign which captured nearly 22 per cent of the vote – a record for NDP candidates in the riding, in either a provincial or federal election. Coincidentally, Zarboni also ran against Marie-France Lalonde.

An Orléans resident, Joanis only recently graduated from the political science program at the University of Ottawa.

Among the issues she is campaigning on is the need for a universal pharmacare program so people can pay for their medication with their health card, not their credit card; the need for national standards for long-term care homes; and the need to address the climate crisis, while also fighting for new green jobs to deliver a just transitions for workers.

Nationally, the NDP are hoping to build on the 24 seats they currently hold in the House of Commons.

Ideally, they’d like to regain the 20 seats they lost in the 2019 election when they were relegated to fourth party status behind the Bloc Quebecois.

The NDP is led by Jagmeet Singh. Besides universal pharmacare, the NDP is also promising to implement 10 days of paid sick leave; universal dental care; and no-cost mental healthcare for Canadians without work or school benefits.

Other commitments include making essentials such as housing, post-secondary education and cellphone plans more affordable for Canadians; and supporting efforts leading to net-zero carbon emissions, although just what those efforts might include remains unknown.

To learn more about the Jessica Joanis visit orleansndp.com.

Michael Hartnett

It took the Green Party almost two weeks to green flag their candi-date in Orléans. In the end, Michael Hartnett was given the party’s blessing to carry their flag in the riding, two weeks after the election writ had already been dropped.

The election is already the shortest allowed under the federal Elections Act at 36 days, leaving the candidate and his supporters just 22 days to get his name out there and champion the Green Party’s platform.

Hartnett is a master yachtsman and instructor with the Royal Yachting Asso-ciation (RYA) who has sailed around the world over the past 20 years. His LinkedIn profile has him listed as the principal at the RYA training centre in Kingston.

Asked what the Green Party’s priority will be following the election, Hartnett said recovering from the pandemic.

“Recovery is the priority,” said Hartnett. “Recovery from a pandemic which has changed the way we live, the ways we do business, the ways we study and the ways we interact. We want this to be a recovery that is forward thinking, which takes into account serious global issues like climate change and important local issues like affordable housing, reliable public transportation and education.

"Most importantly, this recovery should be sustainable so that our children and their children can live in a world that is not threatened by global warming and awful pandemics. To recover we need a ‘green’ vision of the future of Orléans.”

For the first time in its brief history, the Green Party is being led in the federal election by someone other than Elizabeth May.

Annamie Paul beat out seven other candi-dates to become the first black Canadian and first Jewish woman to lead a federal party. Born in Toronto in 1972, she was called to the bar in 1998. In 2001, she founded the Cana-dian Centre for Political Leadership which focuses on helping women, indigenous persons and people of colour pursue political office.

To learn more about the Green Party campaign platform visit greenparty.ca.