Laurie Hazzard of Bayfield has been accepted as a candidate for nomination in Huron-Bruce by the New Democratic Party for the next provincial election.
Hazzard has an extensive career in nursing and education says her decision to run for office was prompted, to some degree, by COVID-19.
“When I saw the number of deaths in long term care homes, at the second wave, I was appalled at how badly the current government dealt with that because they should have learned from their mistakes. I thought long and hard about that.”
Hazzard adds, the other passion in her life is the environment and the NDP platform gives her some hope regarding that issue. She notes, the pandemic had pushed environmental concerns into the background, but the current forest fires and heat waves all over the world have brought climate change and the environment back into the spot light. She says it's only a matter of time before the problems in BC move east and we're going to have to re-think how we do farming. Hazzard says, in BC, they have fruit dying on the trees.
“Not because of the forest fires, but just because of the unbelievably hot temperatures, so we have to be aware, we have to find ways for our farmers to survive and we have to find a way to cool the planet down, essentially.”
Hazzard says she feels she has something to offer, including lots of experience in health care and education and a passion for wanting to make a difference. The Huron-Bruce NDP provincial nomination meeting will take place in September.