Throne speech pledge of faster internet, more remote doctors good for the north, says poli sci prof

The throne speech contained a few items of interest for northern Ontario residents, a North Bay political science professor says, but not everything will be doable in the upcoming term.

Wednesday's speech from the from has been called "aspirational" and "ambitious" by political watchers and marked the return of Parliament for the fall session. 

David Tabachnick, a faculty chair in political science at Nipissing University, said he was intrigued by the mention of the accessibility of family doctors for people in the north.

"That was actually directed toward people in remote communities specifically and Indigenous communities," Tabachnick said. 

"Something else [northerners] would be excited about is a commitment to universal high speed Internet across the country." he said. "I think it's very relevant to our region where some of that service is not available."

Also in Wednesday's speech from the throne was mention of support for regional airline routes, which comes months after Air Canada announced this summer it would be ending service and closing eight stations at regional airports across the country, including North Bay.  

"We've had some difficulty maintaining our routes out of our airport here in North Bay, and I'm sure that's true for other communities as well. So that's very promising," Tabachnick said. "And then defending the rights of Francophones outside of Quebec. Of course, our region has many Francophones and that, I think is very relevant as well."

Promises will take time to fulfill

But Tabachnick said it's unlikely Trudeau's government will be able to get it all done in the near future. 

"They cannot do all that in this mandate," he said. "Some of these things are shorter term. And then some of the other things ... are longer term."

"I think the idea is that this is the plan that is going to bring them into the next election, and that's what they're going to run on." 

Despite the official opposition unequivocally saying they will not support the throne speech, Tabachnick said he doesn't think an election is coming any time soon.

"The Conservatives just elected a new leader and he wants to introduce himself a little bit more to the country before going into an election," he said. "The NDP, I haven't looked recently or read closely, but apparently there's a bit of a shortfall in their ability to actually fund an election campaign. So they may not be that interested in that either."

If an election is called, Tabachnick said he thinks the general public wouldn't be thrilled about how it will work.

"I'd be curious to see if there would be any pushback from Canadians about having to, let's say, line up to vote in a pandemic situation."