After weeks of canvassing the North, organizers with the Northern Ontario Heritage Party have obtained the 1,000 signatures necessary to secure official provincial party status.
The completed application and signatures are being filed with the Chief Electoral Officer of Ontario in anticipation of the party being able to run 11 candidates throughout the region in the next provincial election.
This marks the party's second attempt at Ontario politics, having first aimed for the creation of a separate province in the late 1970s under the leadership of North Bay's Edward Deibel.
Deibel, who now acts as the party spokesman, says the goals of the new party are instead to improve how the North's natural resources are managed.
Preliminary policies include mandating that at least 10 per cent of natural resources extracted from the region be subjected to value-added manufacturing and processing in the North. Others include the institution of a 2.5 per cent levy on all natural resources shipped out of the North, with the funds going towards a $100-million research and development fund for the region's post-secondary institutions.
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