My heart is open to you

A great hello to you all, my fellow neighbours and Toronto Danforth Greens! My name is Orlando Wright and it is a great honour to be your candidate for the upcoming 44th general Ontario election.

As many of you are well aware – this is an election we shouldn’t be having. It is a selfish move of a selfish government, desperate to appear as they’re fighting for Ontarians. It is a foolish move of a foolish man, who was utterly blind to the clear hostile intent of the government south of the border which he fawned for; racing us to the polls so we don’t pause and pay attention to the intentional and residual damage he’s caused along the way. Finally, its a cold act of a Queen’s Park with a cold heart, as many thousands of our fellow neighbours and Ontarians find themselves in lotteries for family doctors, needing food from food banks, without daycare for our children – our grandparents and parents in buckling elder care systems or our most unfortunate being left only with the option of freezing on the street while Doug continues to speak vainly on horrifically wasteful tunnelling projects.

I understand that the situation laid out sounds depressing. The fight for you and your fellow Ontarian is an arduous fight uphill. But it is in this fight that the greatest characteristics of Ontarians has been shown to me time and time again.

Despite the failures of our current government, despite the callousness of our world around us – the hearts of us Ontarians, I believe, are good and beautiful. We can’t shy away from our concerns for our families and others, which I’ve seen from the increase in community activism and charity – especially as we see the province and Ottawa withdraw and abandon from its responsibility to care for us. We love our neighbours, we love our neighbourhoods and when we see a lack of love from the government, our hearts are there for each other.

I accept if you’ve made it to this point with cynicism. Maybe the province let you down. Maybe it was a neighbour. In this day and age, it is very easy to be jaded. It might be difficult to expose your heart to the world for what you care about. Let me say this : I care about you. I want you to care about you. I want you to be able to go reach your neighbour and go, ‘you and I are in this together, and we can grow our province back together.’

We all need something to open our hearts on, well beyond this election.

Toronto-Danforth, my heart is open for you.
Orlando