Walpole Island man NDP candidate for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex riding

By Rick Garrick

A Walpole Island band councillor is running for the New Democratic Party in the Lambton—Kent—Middlesex riding.
“I have very strong strengths in being able to deal with even the seasoned politicians,” says Rex Isaac, a 46-year-old band councillor currently serving his third term. “The time I have spent on our local council dealing with the issues, dealing with the feds, dealing with the province, dealing with MPs and MPPs and all the bureaucrats has been an advantage. It’s making me a strong candidate for this job.”
Isaac graduated with a recording engineering diploma from the Recording Institute of Detroit before pursuing a career in public television with Channel 56 WTVS in Detroit, where he worked his way up to assistant director. He later worked as a journeyman steamfitter and an instructor at Lambton College. He has volunteered with the NDP since 1988.
Isaac says the reaction to his campaign has been positive.
“People have been very in favour of not only myself as being Anishinabek, but also of my platform and my presence,” Isaac says. “One of the things that really helped contribute to that is the timing of the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) because a lot of non-native Canadians never realized the government would actually do something like that. So people are really looking at us now in a different light. And it’s a very positive light.”
Isaac is calling for action on the economy, health care and environment in his riding.
“We used to have a very strong manufacturing sector here,” Isaac says. “First Nations people and non-Indigenous people enjoyed a good living in our small communities, and our small communities are dying off because of the (declining) manufacturing sector. So we have to rebuild our economy and we have to create new jobs and new opportunities.”
Isaac wants to work on building a diversified economy in his riding and across the country. He wants to help families achieve good middle-class jobs, better health care, affordable childcare and stronger pensions.
“Every child is given a gift by the Creator,” Isaac says. “We need to have a diversified economy and a diversified infrastructure so that all those gifts can be put forward to good use.”
Isaac has already been working with the Local Health Integration Network to increase the size of Walpole Island’s community health clinic.
“It will have a full complement of doctors, nurses and everything we need to reverse those negative (statistics) we see far too often in First Nation communities in regards to health,” Isaac says. “As a federal candidate, I want to … bring that in a broader sense across Canada and definitely across our riding.”
Isaac says the NDP was the first party to introduce the Nation-to-Nation dialogue.
“We don’t want to have this broad paintbrush approach to First Nations policies or legislation; we want to work one-on-one with First Nations,” Isaac says, quoting NDP leader Thomas Mulcair. “And that is huge for us — we’ve never heard a government say that before or make a commitment like that before.”
Isaac says the Lambton—Kent—Middlesex riding contains six First Nation communities and “a very strong representation of First Nations people.”
“The majority of the (Indigenous) people I have spoken to have never voted in a federal or provincial election,” Isaac says. “One lady was telling me the reason why she never voted before was: ‘We never had a candidate. Now that we do have a candidate, I am voting and I am voting for you.’”