Another candidate has announced a run at the Nipissing riding's seat in June's provincial election.
Michelle Lashbrook has been chosen to be the Libertarian candidate and will be running "an active campaign."
She becomes the seventh announced candidate.
"I saw there was a lot of government over-reach going on," she told BayToday. "There are issues that our communities are facing that current policies have not addressed. Things need to be done differently to be better for everybody."
Lashbrook, a resident of Callander, has no previous political experience.
"Absolutely not, I'm going into this green. I'm sure it will be a learning curve. I'm looking forward to it, It will be fun," she says.
Lashbrook has spent her whole life living in northern Ontario.
She and her partner Pat have five children and six grandchildren between them and run a small business out of their home.
She served as the North East Lead Business Counsellor and was part of the Indigenous Enterprising Women program with PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise, which helps women start, maintain and grow their own businesses.
Most of her work experience has been in sales and marketing. She currently sits on several boards: She is the Chair of the Northern Freedom Alliance, a group of people promoting medical freedom of choice and community building in northern Ontario. She is a founder and board member of an online social network called “Freedom Community” (free-comm.org). Past involvement in the community includes roles as the event coordinator for the North Bay Women’s Business Network and the Chair of the International Student Exchange with the North Bay Rotary Club.
“I am entering politics because more voices for freedom are desperately needed in society," she says in a news release.
"There are serious violations of our fundamental civil liberties being committed: our property rights are being eroded, our rights as parents are being taken away, and our right to bodily autonomy is being trampled on. I am concerned that the traditional systems of checks and balances on government powers have failed or are failing.”
The party platform named “Freedom of Choice” calls for "those of us who want to take personal responsibility for our own lives with the opportunity to opt-out of government services and choose non-coercive alternatives without taking away government services from those who want them."
