MP ready to hit the ground running

Markham residents voted in two Liberal MPs, re-electing Dr. Helena Jaczek for Markham-Stouffville, and Tim Hodgson for Markham-Thornhill, replacing Mary Ng, who didn’t seek re-election this year.

Only Markham-Unionville flipped blue, voting in the Conservative Party representative Michael Ma.

Despite Markham’s 2/3 Liberal representation, most of York Region flipped blue this year, contributing to the loss of a majority Liberal government. This flip comes from many residents, who turned towards the Conservative Party, ready for a change after supporting Justin Trudeau for a decade.

With the continued Liberal government, but now under Mark Carney’s leadership, what can Markham residents expect?

Markham-Stouffville MP Dr. Helena Jaczek expressed her intention to continue her efforts to improve healthcare. Increasing physicians through Carney’s healthcare platform was one to mention, but the other was improving healthcare infrastructure and expanding hospitals.

“We don’t hear too many awful stories about Markham-Stouffville and wait times in the emergency room. Obviously, that’s an issue we need to be guarded against as our population has increased locally.”

While there are no plans to expand Markham-Stouffville Hospital as per her last conversation with the hospital’s new president and CEO Mark Fam, Dr. Jaczek mentioned that there are discussions about building a hospice on behalf of Evergreen Hospice, potentially in Rouge National Urban Park.

Aside from a hospice in the park, an education centre in the York Region portion is also on Dr. Jaczek’s agenda. The project, which she started working on in 2007 while serving as a Member of Provincial Parliament, is something that “all local mayors and councillors are very much in favour of.” While it is uncertain if and when the project will be completed, Dr. Jaczek continues to be in conversation with the new superintendent of the park.

“There are all sorts of projects that I think we need to explore,” Dr.Jaczek said enthusiastically, but pushing through bigger projects will require all levels of government to work together.

Photo: Markham-Stouffville MP Dr. Helena Jaczek expressed her intention to continue her efforts to improve healthcare.

*Story submitted by Dina Dong.