HIGH-GRADE NI-CU-PT-PD-ZN-CR-AU-V-TI DISCOVERIES IN THE "RING OF FIRE"

NI 43-101 Update (September 2012): 11.1 Mt @ 1.68% Ni, 0.87% Cu, 0.89 gpt Pt and 3.09 gpt Pd and 0.18 gpt Au (Proven & Probable Reserves) / 8.9 Mt @ 1.10% Ni, 1.14% Cu, 1.16 gpt Pt and 3.49 gpt Pd and 0.30 gpt Au (Inferred Resource)

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Message: Sudbury PoV: Glenn Thibeault belongs in cabinet

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2016/05/28/sudbury-pov-glenn-thibeault-belongs-in-cabinet

Sudbury PoV: Glenn Thibeault belongs in cabinet

By Sudbury Star Staff

Saturday, May 28, 2016 2:23:17 EDT PM

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The Toronto Star reported this week (so it must be true) that Premier Kathleen Wynne will soon shake up her cabinet and that Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault is in line for a cabinet post.

The newspaper didn't say what portfolio Thibeault might get, but noted the Sudbury MPP is regarded as a good communicator and is an expert in autism, a file badly handled by the Wynne government.

Wynne, two years out from an election, is in trouble. The premier has extremely low approval ratings and her government isn't trusted. Part of that is due to the fact the Liberals have been in power for 13 years and voter fatigue is setting in. But most of it is due to a series of scandals and mistakes of the government's own making.

A cabinet shuffle, with a bunch of new, eager cabinet ministers, is one way for a premier to give a tired government a fresh coat of political paint, if you will. Critics, however, would argue that how Thibeault got to Queen's Park represents everything that's wrong with the provincial Liberals.

Sudbury's former federal MP, Thibeault defected from the NDP to run for the Liberals in a 2015 provincial byelection, after the NDP's Joe Cimino suddenly stepped down. A scandal soon emerged when the Liberals were accused of attempting to bribe Andrew Olivier, who ran unsuccessfully for the Liberals in 2014, to withdraw from the byelection. He refused, but Wynne usurped the local Liberal riding association, which wanted a nomination meeting, and appointed Thibeault the party's candidate.

Thibeault won the February 2015 byelection, but in the months that followed, the scandal ensnared Liberal fundraiser Gerry Lougheed Jr. He was charged and even though those charges were stayed earlier this year, other investigations into the Liberals' behaviour are ongoing.

None of this disqualifies Thibeault from the cabinet. His only sin, in the eyes of some, is defecting. He is in fact talented, experienced and, as the TorStar noted, a good communicator.

His inclusion in the cabinet would be good for Sudbury and under the right circumstances, the North. If Wynne really wants to shake things up, she would give Thibeault the responsibility of moving - actually moving - the stalled Ring of Fire project forward.

If the premier was really, really bold, she would give Thibeault and her other Northern Ontario MPPs the latitude to develop a political and economic plan for the region developed by the people who live here, free of southern Ontario interference or indifference.

Now that would be something to see.

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