Vote For Change

I’m proud to be the PC Candidate for District 18 Rustico – Emerald.  Special thanks to Leone Bagnall for moving my nomination, and Ken Sampson for seconding it!

Here is a transcript of my speech:

I want to say how honoured I am to be representing the Progressive Conservative party in District 18 Rustico – Emerald. Being the PC candidate is a job I will take very seriously. The people of District 18 deserve an MLA that will be a strong voice for their concerns in the PEI legislature and I firmly believe that now is the time for change. I have been talking to people in the area and most are telling me they are unhappy with the current Ghiz government. They are sick of the blatant mis-management of tax dollars – wasteful spending, broken promises, and poor decisions. They want a representative that says what they mean, and means what they say. Someone who will be accountable for the actions that are being taken; someone who isn’t afraid to give a straight answer; a person who will admit it if they make a mistake and take swift action to correct the problem. Someone who will work hard to understand the details behind the issues and use some common sense to find the best solutions. This is exactly what I want too – and as your candidate I believe that we can win this election and make this a reality!

The Ghiz government’s record is rife with mis-management and – as highlighted on the PEI PC Party website – it definitely has many people seeing red.

For example:

• We have a doctor shortage on PEI. Doctors are highly-educated professionals who are used to calling the shots. So why would Health PEI terminate the contracts of 24 doctors and give them an ultimatum to move to a salaried or pay-per-service method of payment – by letter none-the-less? It just seems like common sense to call them up, meet with them, and find out the best way to transition them to new payment terms. But the biggest criticism I’m hearing is that it took too long for the Minister of Health to respond, she would not give a straight answer, and would not admit that a mistake was made – basically shirking accountability. The people of District 18 need someone who will closely monitor appointed boards like Health PEI, and be accountable for actions taken.
• Over that last four years the Ghiz government has overspent by almost $500 million, and province now owes close to $2 billion dollars! Put another way – the people of PEI are now on the hook for $120 million dollars worth of interest charges per year – and the entire budget of the Department of Transportation is only $80 million dollars! Is that fiscally responsible? Absolutely not. Can it be fixed – yes! And I look forward to working with Olive Crane and her caucus to show how a Progressive Conservative government can turn things around. A good starting point is to stop wasting money on things like $3 million dollars worth of new hills in Borden!

Now it’s all fine and dandy to criticize the current government and point to how badly they have mis-managed our province – as they say hindsight is 20/20 – but people want someone with new ideas and solutions to the issues that face us today. Well, I have many ideas and look forward to working with my new caucus colleagues to tackle the issues with a fresh view.

I’m an IT professional – a web developer – and one area I think we need to leverage better on PEI is the internet. The internet truly is a gateway to the rest of the world – a place to market and sell our products and services, and it can be an amazing communication tool both on and off the Island.

We need to embrace the internet and pool business resources together to create a substantial presence – it is too costly for each business to try this on their own. We have made a good start with tourism, but the internet changes rapidly and we need to take this farther – especially on the social media front and expand to all industries. Government can help by offering more and better training and incentives to do this. I already see businesses like the New Glasgow Lobster Suppers leading the way – and promoting other businesses as they do so. Just this afternoon they posted the following message on Facebook and Twitter – “Nothing to do on a rainy day? Come to New Glasgow ! You will find it hard to not buy something at the Toy Factory, and The Preserve Co. always has free samples of their jams and of course you can sit back and enjoy the view while you dine with us. Why not come to New Glasgow?”, and they also created a Facebook page for the Community of New Glasgow.

High speed internet access allows for private information exchange and video conferencing. I believe we should look closely at how this could be used to improve our health services – a field known as “telemedicine”. For example as a father of two young children of 2 and 4 I find that often the latest bug being passed around finds its way into our house, and my wife and I debate whether one or both kids need to go to the doctor to be checked out. Like many parents we end up erring on the side of caution and end up driving to our doctor’s in Summerside and spending half a day only to find out that a simple prescription is needed. Imagine if we could just fire up our home computer – or one at a local clinic – and use a Virtual Private Network over the internet to get seen by the next available doctor in a pool of doctors that could be on or off-Island – in fact the doctors could work from home too! When a doctor was available they could pull up our file electronically and use high definition video to do simple triage to determine whether a face-to-face visit is necessary. And if it was a simple case, the doctor could just write a prescription and send it directly to the pharmacy of choice to be filled for pick-up. This sort of telemedicine might be appropriate for a number of minor consultations like prescriptions renewals and follow-up appointments. It is definitely an area that is worth further research. If some of the tools and systems to implement this don’t exist yet, there is no reason why PEI can’t be an innovative leader in developing telemedicine solutions. In fact, we already have companies on the Island that are leaders in health industry information systems.

Like our leader Olive Crane, I believe that with hard work and persistence anything is possible.   Here’s a story that my father likes to tell.

[frog story – having a race – fall in pail of milk – one frog drowns – the other keeps paddling until cream turns to butter – hops on pad of butter and jumps out]

It is when problems occur and times are tough that a person’s true character comes through. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and I assure you that I will work with vigour and determination to find the best solution, whatever the issues may be. I will actively seek input from all constituents in District 18 – regardless of political stripe – and make sure these issues are brought to the government table with a strong voice, and be accountable for the results.

Once again my name is Brad Trivers – that’s Rivers with a T in front – if the T was at the end it would be “riverst”.

The race is on, so let’s go make some butter!

Thank you.