Sault MPP Romano invites Wynne, Rinaldi to visit north for themselves

Controversy remains over Northumberland-Quinte West Liberal MPP Lou Rinaldi’s perceived reference to northern Ontario in the Legislature Sept. 21 as “No Man’s Land.” 

The opposition Progressive Conservatives, including Sault MPP Ross Romano, demanded an apology in the Legislature Monday in a heated exchange with the government benches.

Those demands were met with repeated defences of Rinaldi’s record as an MPP by Deputy Premier Deborah Matthews, and a boast from Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault of government funding awarded to a Sault microbrewery.  

“There is no apology. One was demanded, and instead it was met with a request (from Rinaldi) to go outside,” Romano told SooToday in a teleconference held Tuesday morning, accompanied by PC leader Patrick Brown and Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli.

Rinaldi, in a press release, stated, “I was addressing my remarks to MPP Vic Fedeli and made the comment that he was in "No Man's Land," referring specifically to him being completely alone in his opinion about legislative changes to the Election Finances Act.”

But the Tories aren’t buying it.

“If it was just a one-off comment I wouldn’t be as upset about it,” Brown said Tuesday.

“This is consistent with how they’ve treated northern Ontario, whether it’s the mining sector where we’ve seen a massive slide in our rankings, or the forestry sector where we’ve lost jobs, or the northern rural school closures, or the state of healthcare in northern Ontario,” Brown said.

However, the PCs stated in the teleconference they wish to take the high ground, inviting Premier Kathleen Wynne and Rinaldi to the north, to see what it has to offer in terms of economic potential and tourism.

“On behalf of our community, I am very upset at what occurred yesterday but simply as an elected official I don’t at all want to be associated with the type of display that occurred after a simple request for an apology was made, that I think is warranted…but we have to find a way to move forward,” Romano said.

“I don’t have a problem with extending an olive branch out to MPP Rinaldi, and the Premier for that matter, to say come to Sault Ste. Marie and see we are not ‘No Man’s Land.’”

“I too am clearly disappointed MPP Rinaldi has refused to apologize  for disparaging the north…that being said, I also think it’s time to move on,” Fedeli said, inviting Wynne and Rinaldi to visit his Nipissing riding.

“While I’m disappointed that MPP Rinaldi and the Liberal Party has failed to apologize for these hurtful comments, it’s time we turn this negative story into a positive,” PC leader Brown said, referring to his own many visits to the north and his own family history of relatives having worked in the region.

“On behalf of the northern Ontario Progressive Conservative MPPs, I sent a letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne and MPP Lou Rinaldi, to personally invite them to visit northern Ontario and see everything it has to offer,” Brown said.

In his invitation to Wynne and Rinaldi to visit the Sault, Romano said he anticipates the city’s cyclical steel industry will survive, and gushed about the area’s natural beauty.

He also mentioned the many famous people who have hailed from the Sault, including Roberta Bondar, NHL greats Phil and Tony Esposito and Ron Francis, Team Jacobs, the Marcoux brothers, as well as mentioning Governor General David Johnston’s having been raised here, and how Wayne Gretzky played junior hockey with the Soo Greyhounds.

Instead of telling Rinaldi to take a hike, Romano invited him to come to the Sault and accompany him on one.

“I would really like the MPP to join me in Sault Ste. Marie where we can have a tour of some of our tourist attractions, maybe go on a nice hike and enjoy the beautiful wilderness we have there, and have a great learning experience where he could really better understand and get a fond appreciation of what we have to offer in Sault Ste. Marie,” Romano said.

Speaking to SooToday after the teleconference, Romano said “ultimately he made a very insulting remark of northern Ontario, I take extreme offence to it.”

“(But) we obviously knew that he was not about to apologize…at the end of the day, what’s going to be the benefit of continuing to push this, other than making it more of a media story, more political?”

“Today, we thought as a group, let’s try a different approach (and tell the Liberals) ‘you don’t seem to think much of our north. Why don’t you come to our northern communities and see it for yourself?’” Romano said.