Arnold Heino has officially filed his papers to run as the New Blue Party’s candidate for Sault Ste. Marie in the Feb. 27 provincial election.
In an interview with SooToday, Heino offered his take on U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods.
“My feeling is that we should be working with the States economically so that Canada and the U.S. can together become a greater world economic power,” he said.
However, Heino said he believes in a sovereign Canada.
“We both have great oil and mineral resources. We have natural gas and the greatest wood products in the world. So if we were able to hook up together, but not become the 51st state as Trump says he wants, the two countries could together be self-sufficient and make other countries come to us for our goods.”
Heino said New Blue is in favour of removing inter-provincial trade barriers in a Team Canada approach to Trump’s tariffs.
“That only makes common sense that all provinces should be working together, right from Newfoundland and Labrador to BC. We're one country and Canada has the resources. We could be self-sufficient, on our own, without hooking up with the States.”
Heino has made headlines in the past for co-organizing a number of local protests targeted at Sault Pride, including a rally by a group known as 'Hands Off Our Kids' in front of the Ronald A. Irwin Civic Centre in September 2024.
“To set the record straight, these were not rallies against the Pride community. They were rallies against the municipal, provincial and federal government overreach of putting Pride in schools,” Heino told SooToday after filing his candidacy papers Thursday.
Specifically, Heino and New Blue don't want sexual orientation and gender identity taught in schools.
“What goes on in the bedroom with adults should stay in the bedroom. The kids are in school to learn math, geography, history, English, science. That's all that needs to be taught to kids. They don't need to bring this in and have Pride month in schools. And the only flag that should be flown on any public building, whether it be schools or government buildings, is the Canadian flag. No other flag at all,” Heino said.
The September 2024 rally was part of a larger nationwide 1 Million March 4 Children series of rallies, protesting the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in school curriculums.
Mayor Matthew Shoemaker condemned the local rally in an email as “the actions of a fringe minority."
Heino said he doesn’t think the rallies will affect his campaign.
“I think actually they’ll enhance it because I'm here for the people. I'm standing up for the kids, I'm standing up for the parents, I'm standing up for the community and that includes the Pride community.”
Heino also recently lobbied for December to be proclaimed Christian Heritage Month.
At the federal level, Heino is the People's Party of Canada candidate.
Heino said the federal carbon tax is the primary reason for inflation and needs to be scrapped.
The New Blue Party platform also calls for a reduction in the provincial portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) to put more money in people’s pockets.
Effective July 1, 2010, the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) replaced the 5 per cent federal goods and services tax (GST) and the 8 per cent retail sales tax (RST) on most goods and services in Ontario.
Currently, the Harmonized Sales Tax is 13 per cent in Ontario.
“We want to go from this 13 per cent and put it down to 10 per cent,” Heino said.
As a former health-care industry worker, Heino said there is a way to bring more family doctors and specialists to the Sault.
“First off, we have to get rid of the bureaucratic overload (at health centres). It's too top heavy. It’s just like the federal government and provincial government. You see government jobs just increasing. In health care we have to get rid of the bureaucrats and the top heaviness and put it back into the actual workers and that way we can recruit more specialists and more doctors.”
Born and raised in the Sault, Heino is a semi-retired seasonal employee who works as a boat delivery person for a pontoons and powersports store in Desbarats. He previously worked full-time as a meat cutter for Metro and as a lab technician for LifeLabs.
In the Feb. 27 election, Progressive Conservative candidate Chris Scott is seeking to keep the Sault in PC hands and is being challenged by NDP candidate Lisa Vezeau-Allen and New Blue’s Arnold Heino. The Liberals and Greens have yet to announce their candidates.