Sam Oosterhoff 1-on-1
NOTE TO READERS: This story is the first of four interviews The Standard is conducting with Niagara’s MPPs. Stories with accompanying podcasts with Welland NDP MPP Cindy Forster, Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates and St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley are coming soon.
As far as launching a political career goes, the job was about as inauspicious as it gets.
In 2015, Sam Oosterhoff was champing at the bit to get political. His family discussed politics and world events around the dinner table every night. He read William Wilberforce, Cicero, Malcolm X and Winston Churchill. The teenager believed politics was the best way to make a difference. Now he was working with a federal election campaign team and anxious for the rough tumble world of electioneering.
And he was relegated to writing sticky notes.
“Two years ago, the first campaign, the 2015 federal election; my first job was writing on sticky notes saying, ‘Sorry I missed you,’ on a sticky note so we could put it on campaign literature,” says Oosterhoff. “Two years later, or a year and a few months, I was sitting in the provincial legislature.”
Oosterhoff got that seat at Queen’s Park last year at the age of 19 by becoming the youngest person in Ontario history to be elected to the provincial house. He represents the riding of Niagara West-Glanbrook for the Progressive Conservative Party.
He defeated established and formidable political players to win the party nomination for the riding, including former St. Catharines Conservative MP and sitting provincial PC Party president Rick Dykstra.
In his first one-on-one interview with The Standard since being elected, Oosterhoff discussed life as a young politician, his religious views and bringing his first private members bill forward.
An openly socially conservative Christian, Oosterhoff has courted attention as much for what he isn’t doing as he is for tabling his first private member’s bill and becoming a voice to raise awareness on the opioid crisis.
As party leader Patrick Brown has moved the PC party to the centre voting with the governing Liberal Party on some social issues, Oosterhoff’s seat in the legislature has been empty during key votes.
The first significant vote that followed his election was Bill 28, the All Families Are Equal Act, that removed barriers for gay and lesbian parents to have legal status in their children’s lives. The Tories voted with the government on the bill, but Oosterhoff was noticeably absent.
And he was missing again during a recent vote on legislation that put limits on how close anti-abortion protesters can get to an abortion clinic.
Again, the party voted with the government and again, Oosterhoff ’s absence ensured he would not cast a vote that would run afoul of his party or socially conservative base in west Niagara.
“I think every party has a broad variety of perspectives on issues of conscience, right?” says Oosterhoff. “I think we need to ensure there’s room for dissent on some issues, because democracy flourishes when people can have discussions around issues of conscience, around issues of deeply-held belief.”
When his term in office began, he was relatively quiet about his views on religion and government. Now he is more open about it. In a Christmas video posted on his Facebook page, Oosterhoff quotes a passage from the Book of Isaiah that says the government will be subservient to God.
“We live in a broken world. And we live in a fallen world. We live in a world where sin has hurt families and relationships and lives across our province, across our country and across our globe,” Oosterhoff says in the video that features him standing before a green-screen image of Queen’s Park. “The birth of Christ changes that. For to us a child was born. To us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders.”
Where Oosterhoff’s religion doesn’t conflict with government bills and party policy, he has been busy in his riding.
He hasn’t stopped the door knocking ground-game that earned him his nomination and election. He is taking French lessons and still attends political science classes once a week at Brock University.
He has hosted a local roundtable on the opioid crisis and has tabled his first private member’s bill, Bill 182, AKA The Compassionate Care Act, on palliative care, drawing attention to an issue that is often relegated to the political back burners.
The bill, if enacted, would start an overhaul of end-of-life care in Ontario.
“It was brought to my attention by visiting a lot hospices around the province, but McNally House especially, here in Grimsby,” said Oosterhoff.
“There are huge gaps in care. Like I said, the biggest reason is because we just don’t have enough beds; 314 hospice beds in the province and we are supposed to have 1,300.”
The bill has passed its second reading and has now moved to a government committee for study.
“It’s a real patchwork of care,” Oosterhoff says. “No one knows where palliative care dollars go. It’s just kind of in a general kitty.”
To listen to the full interview with Oosterhoff, in which he also discusses the upcoming Ontario election, visit the Lake-to-Lake Podcast at https://soundcloud. com/st-catharines-standard/torympp-sam-oosterhoff-1-on-1?in=stcatharines-standard/sets/lake-tolake-specials