Greater Toronto

By William Doyle-Marshall

Rathika Sitsabaiesan, newly elected Member of the House of Commons for Scarborough Rouge River is making a brand new step into parliament whenever Prime Minister Harper decides. In an exclusive interview with Indo Caribbean World the neophyte politician was pleased that the people in her Riding wanted a change and they saw her as that face and voice they could put their trust behind.
"They saw me as leadership that they can actually trust," she smiled. Determined to be a good representative for her constituents, the Sri Lankan-born young woman was on a vigilant search for space to house her constituency office. "It is also about staying connected with the people. Right now I have been doing a lot of local events but also media to ensure that I am able to get my message out through the local media."
While campaigning Sitsabaiesan the MP-elect discovered people were concerned about a whole range of issues. They were very frustrated because no matter what they did it didn't matter. "No matter how they tried to organize their friends and neighbours to mobilize for change, it didn't matter. They were so disenfranchised that it was just like 'what's the point?' So this time it felt like they actually had a real choice and clearly the entire community mobilized and that's why we were able to see me, a young racialized woman elected as the first Member of Parliament from this Riding to represent the people of this Riding."
Sitsaba-iesan is going to Ottawa with the understanding that constituents in her Riding are tired of things being not affordable; of working longer harder hours and their dollar was not stretching far enough. They have had their share of challenges with things like the HST that the Harper Conservatives and the Liberals brought on here in Ontario in the middle of a recession and added it to things that are a necessity – like home heating. People who were either renting a condo where they had to pay utilities or own their own homes saw their heating bills just go through the roof because of HST and people were complaining about jobs; the fact that there isn't enough economic stimulus here in the local communities.
The Conservative Government was giving $60 billion in tax cuts to large multinational corporations who are sending the jobs and our money outside of this country whereas there are so many people in my home Riding of Scarborough Rouge River who need jobs, she elucidates. "We need to be contributing to our local community's economic development. What we propose to do is to reward the job creators which is to help the small and
medium sized businesses that are creating jobs in our community," Sitsabaiesan offered.
"Affordability, job creation and health care: people are really concerned about the trend right now with our health care becoming a two tiered system and not being accessible. Having emergency services being provided inside of a Tim Horton's is not okay. It's not adequate especially in our country where our health care used to be the one that the world came to look at. The world was proud of us and wanted a system like ours. Now our health care system has deteriorated so much because of the lack of continuous investment. It's becoming a two tiered system. Our seniors are scared; our young families are scared that they are not going to have access to child care," she added.
People are bothered that the Conservative Government under Harper behaved as though it had a majority. Having emerged from the May 2 election with a majority, tremendous disquiet prevails. Those same Canadians are wondering what would happen now that Harper has the required number of votes in the Parliament to pass any legislation, Sitsabaiesan muses.
But Rathika Sitsabaiesan, the Member-elect in the House of Commons for Scarborough Rouge River will confidently occupy her seat when that time comes knowing that her New Democratic Party with a contingent of 102 members will be even more effective than it was with 37 seats. "We will continue to work with the other parties. That's our strength, to work with everybody in the House of Commons and continue to hold Harper to account."
As the days to assume her duties as a Member of Parliament in Ottawa gets closer residents of the Scarborough Rouge River Constituency are being encouraged to keep in touch with her as she has expressed her undoubted commitment to address all their urgent needs.