Elect me as first minister!(ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING)

• Author: Robinson, Dave

I am very pleased to accept the nomination for the position of First Minister for our new regional government. As first minister I will serve the people of Northern Ontario faithfully and, I hope, long. We have to thank Premier Dalton McGuinty for his courageous decision. Letting us Northerners make our own decisions goes against every tradition in Ontario politics.

Now it's up to us. We can have policies that make sense for the North. We get first crack at the resource revenues that have been flowing south. We can have a lot more fun. We finally have the power to create a prosperous and exciting North. That is why I am so happy to offer my services as First Minister of the new Semi-Autonomous District of Northern Ontario.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I have many disadvantages as a candidate - I have no name-recognition and less sex appeal. I have no money and no party would touch me with a ten-foot pole. These are not fatal flaws.

The fatal flaw that I must confess is that I have a program. Not just any program: A Program for Northern Ontario. No one has ever seen a serious politician with a workable program for Northern Ontario.

Plank number one in my program - may I say OUR progam? - is the unity plank. The goal is to unify the people of the North. We are divided by distance and by government. We will begin to build solidarity across the North in many small and cheap ways. We will connect every schoolroom using the Internet. We will create a Northern "youth corps" or Katimivik that will give young Northerners a chance to work in other communities. When we do public consultations, the public will really participate in making decisions.

Plank number two is the culture plank. Northern students will learn about Northern artists, poets, and writers, Northern history and geography, biology and culture.

The culture plank will give Northern students an educational advantage. Students learn more and better when they are learning about the real world around them. It will give Northern Ontario an economic boost. Instead of buying textbooks from Texas and Toronto, we will be paying Northerners to develop materials that are relevant for us. We will keep money in Northern Ontario and we will create a new export industry The culture plank will help keep our young people in the North - they...