Global education leader and advocate becomes Liberal candidate for Leeds, Grenville, Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes

The provincial riding of Leeds, Grenville, Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes has a new Liberal candidate.

Lorna Jean (LJ) Edmonds was nominated on Sunday, Dec. 8.

Edmonds, a global education leader and community advocate, has previously held progressive leadership roles and led several transformative collaborations in the health and community services sectors. She has also worked in higher education and research within Ontario, the United States and beyond. 

From 2013 to 2020, Edmonds was the Vice Provost of Global Affairs and International Studies and a professor at the College of Health Sciences at Ohio University. 

“Today, I am an active community leader, volunteer, mother, grandma and partner,” shared Edmonds. 

With a long list of degrees and professional accomplishments to bolster her, Edmonds is ready to leap into politics.

“I love rural life, I love my neighbours, and I love my community. But it pains me to see our communities struggling to get by and very little in the way of rural investment to help us grow, diversify, and prosper.”

Edmonds continued, “We have too many good hardworking people who have to dip into their savings to buy groceries and pay their home heating bills. Too many people in our area cannot find a doctor and nurses and teachers are leaving their profession. Our healthcare system is in a crisis and privatization will not solve it.”

Edmonds maintains that one of the government’s top priorities should be increasing access to essential education resources to “enable our teachers to teach each and our children to excel. These are all essential for a healthy, thriving economy.”

Throughout November, Edmonds canvassed and knocked on over 500 doors in Brockville and Gananoque representing Bonnie Crombie, leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. After speaking with constituents, Edmonds detailed, “The overriding concern is access to a doctor, emergency departments, and community services and wanting all to be able to pay their bills. Many are awe-struck by the number of families using food banks while seeing the rich companies and developers profiting on the backs of hard-working citizens.” 

Edmonds explained that there are numerous systemic issues she wants to tackle with the Liberal Party during her foray into local politics.

“What we are facing is a reprehensible situation created by the current PC Party. The average citizen can no longer afford their rent, feed their families, and pay their energy bills. Many families cannot even seek medical attention as we are losing our doctors and nurses, and emergency departments are either overwhelmed or closed. Teachers are burnt out and leaving the profession due to a lack of essential resources…Life here in rural Ontario is getting harder and harder.” 

According to the Edmonds, some of the promises being made by Bonnie Crombie and the Liberal Party are:

• We are going to have the biggest tax cut in a generation. 
• We’re going to remove HTS on home heating.
• We’re going to cut small business taxes in half! 
• We’re going to remove the carbon tax and replace it with a made-in-Ontario emissions reduction. 
• We will train more doctors and establish an integrated network of community health and support services serving you. 
• The ‘More Homes You Can Afford’ plan will save real people up to $170,000 on the cost of a new home, make rent more affordable, and get more homes and communities built.