KAPUSKASING - David Plourde is looking to bring his decades of municipal experience to Queen’s Park.
Progressive Conservative candidate David Plourde is one of two candidates vying to be the Mushkegowuk-James Bay MPP.
Born and raised in Kapuskasing, Plourde has served in municipal politics since 1994. He sat as a councillor first and was elected mayor in 2018.
“I am 58 years old. I probably was the youngest elected in Kapuskasing at the age of 28 back in the day in '94. I missed my first meeting for the birth of my son,” he said.
Plourde has considered running provincially for a while.
Housing, transportation and economic sustainability are some of the issues he wants to address.
“Housing is an issue right across the country, so it doesn’t matter where you are, that is something that we can work on. And I think I have some ideas around how we can do a better job at that,” he said.
As a member of the Northern Ontario Transportation Task Force, he knows the problems on the highway.
“It can’t be dealt with in a silo. There’s so many things that have to be done that we have to be able to put it all together on one page. It’s not just training truckers, it’s not just training drivers. It’s, you know, how do we get more vehicles off the highway, not travelling in the dangerous times of the year, like winter?”
Plourde supports expanding rail services, including the return of the Northlander passenger train and extending it to Hearst from Cochrane.
“Rail is what opened up Northern Ontario, and it’s what’s going to continue to serve Northern Ontario. I think there’s a lot more freight that can be put on rail that we’re not taking advantage of. It would take trucks off the road. I think it’s a tool in our toolbox,” he said.
“The province owns the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, and we're not using it to its fullest.”
He also advocates for improved highway infrastructure.
“The Trans-Canada Highway — we should be widening the highways. Anytime we do any construction, paving shoulders, rumble strips … And eventually, I see in the future, maybe not during my lifetime, but it’s four lanes right across the province. It’s called the Trans-Canada. It should be four lanes,” he said.
He's also focused on the forestry industry and pointed out the importance of Kapuskasing's mill.
“We produce newsprint. But what’s really important here is that we consume the chips, the byproduct of sawmills. Whatever part of the log that they don’t use, we take and we make paper with it. Well, we’re the last mill in Northern Ontario left running, and it’s important that that mill continues,” he said.
Plourde supports a proposed bioenergy plant at the mill, which he said would utilize biomass from the forest that would otherwise go to waste.
Plourde and his wife, a retired nurse, raised two children. His daughter died from cancer five years ago, while his son currently works as a Crown Attorney in Kapuskasing.
His father was born in Kapuskasing, giving him deep roots in the community and region, Plourde said.
Beyond politics, Plourde has held leadership roles in various organizations. He is the past president of the Kapuskasing Chamber of Commerce, served eight years as a commissioner for Ontario Northland Railway (ONR), and was president of the Kapuskasing Flyers Hockey Club for a decade.
“When they tried to kick the Kapuskasing Flyers out of the league, I took the bull by the horns and put together a team of volunteers that would bring the Kap Flyers back to what we see today,” he said.
Election day is Feb. 27.
The other Mushkegowuk-James Bay candidate is NDP incumbent Guy Bourgouin.
