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Northern MPs will ensure Sudbury has a voice: Angus

“The people who were receiving help with continue receiving help,” Angus said Thursday. “The office will still be there, staffed by New Democrats, and we'll make sure they are given the kind of support they need for the cases.
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Timmins MP Charlie Angus, left, and Sudbury MP Glenn Thibeault are seen in happier times in this file photo from 2013.

 “The people who were receiving help with continue receiving help,” Angus said Thursday. “The office will still be there, staffed by New Democrats, and we'll make sure they are given the kind of support they need for the cases.

“Politically, we, our northern team – (Nickel Belt MP) Claude Gravelle, (Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP) Carol Hughes and myself – will be meeting with people in the Sudbury area who are concerned about various political files they want represented in Parliament.”

Angus said he and the rest of the party are still trying to pick up the pieces following Thibeault's “stunning” announcement this week he was quitting the federal NDP to run for the provincial Liberals in Sudbury.

They've received a flood of messages from residents who are upset about the resignation, and are concerned they won't have a voice to help them in dealing with issues related to the federal government – personally and politically.

In a release Friday, Gravelle and Hughes vowed that won't happen.

“From standing up for veterans and seniors, supporting the Ring of Fire, protecting Northern resource communities and fighting the sale of Ontera, New Democrats are getting results for the North,” Gravelle said.

"Northern Ontarians know that only the NDP will fight for their priorities like jobs, health services, small businesses, and making life more affordable,” Hughes added. “We have their best interests at heart and take that message to Ottawa – every time."

While Sudbury's interests and concerns will be looked after, Angus said Thibeault's defection will have a broader impact, confirming in the minds of many people that politicians are self-serving. It's something he has fought against, and thought he had an ally in Thibeault.

“I was certainly stunned, because I considered myself very close to Glenn on the issues, spoken to him a fair bit over the last number of months,” Angus said. “To read it in the Toronto Star like everyone else – it hurt … I think shattered is a fair word.”

He was aware that Thibeault was unhappy, that he wanted to spend more time with his family. So he wouldn't have been as surprised if Thibeault left politics entirely.

“I mean, politics is a hard life and I get that,” Angus said. “He told me he (it was difficult) being away from his family. I would buy that argument if he was quitting politics and going back to the private sector, or doing something else.

“But if you're going to just run for another party in another legislature, don't tell me you want to spend more time with your family. That argument doesn't wash.”

He's tried to contact Thibeault, without success, to get a personal explanation of the decision. So like others in the party, he's left trying to guess what happened and to find a way to get past it.

“I still can't get my head around it,” Angus said. “I really want to believe that Glenn hasn't really thought this through, that he was tired and stressed. I can't believe that Glenn would be this cynical, to cook up this deal on the side and carrying it through.

“You get bumped and bruised in political life. That's part of the job. But the issue here we need to focus on is that when politicians believe that they're the ones who got themselves elected, they've lost touch with people.”

Aside from constituents, Angus said the people who worked to get Thibeault elected feel betrayed by what appears to by a calculated decision to further his own political career.

“I think it speaks to a very deep cynicism in Canadian public life right now, of people who put themselves ahead of the commitments they made to their voters and to get them elected,” he said.

“To think that you can make a decision like this and think it doesn't affect all the volunteers, all the people who came out, all the people who donated and who supported you, because you were the candidate of a party with a platform you said you believed in – that's a breach of a fundamental political covenant that you made with people. And it stinks.”

Thibeault has called Jack Layton – the late NDP leader – a mentor, and Angus said Layton was someone who inspired him to believe in the political process as a way to bring about positive change.

“He made me believe that you could make a difference by serving the people of your region, and that's what we've tried to do with the northern New Democrat team,” he said. “So now we're going to have to go and re-establish that trust with people after Glenn's decision. And Glenn is going to have to try and square that decision with the people of Sudbury – if he can. I don't know how he's going to do it.”


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Darren MacDonald

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