Clayton Moore is running as the Ontario Liberal candidate in the Waterloo riding. Moore is a scientist and an innovation advocate who holds a degree in molecular biology and genetics, as well as a master’s in bioinformatics, both from University of Guelph. His career has involved working with researchers to bring innovations to the market so Canadian companies can compete globally. He also believes in evidence-based policymaking solutions pushed by facts and data. 

As your next potential Member of Provincial Parliament, Moore’s priorities include investing $3.1-billion to fix healthcare, building 1.5 million homes to make owning attainable, and more funding for higher education. In an interview with Moore, he was asked about what policies he would put in place that could benefit university students. He expressed how university students need support because of what Doug Ford has been doing to post-secondary education the past seven years. “He’s been demolishing funding by capping tuition rates by just not increasing funding,” Moore said. “So it means that university students end up with fewer programs.” Moore said it’s important to make students’ lives more affordable, especially in terms of tuition.

“We want to make OSAP strong again so that it can be a tool to help make life more affordable for students. So we’d be removing the interest on all of our OSAP loans and so that you don’t need to repay your loan until you’re making over $50,000 a year after you’ve graduated.” 

Moore emphasized the need to focus on youth unemployment. “The Ontario Liberal party is committed to cutting youth unemployment in half by introducing 40,000 new paid co-op positions, apprenticeships, and internship programs that are designed around helping young people get their foot in the door so that [they] can start building on that career ladder,” he said. “Because if we don’t make major interventions, then we could see some major challenges, particularly with the rise of AI in those entry-level positions.” Many university students have identified affordability and mental health as their most important issues when it comes to campus life. When asked about how he would address these specific concerns, Moore explained that he would reintroduce rent control so students have more control over housing. When addressing students’ mental health concerns, Moore expressed that we need to give universities more direct funding so that they can support their mental health services. He said, “We need to make sure that they have got a modern budget to deal with the challenges that they’re facing.” 

When asked if there are any issues he hears frequently when knocking on people’s doors, Moore mentioned that many people confess being scared about our healthcare system. “People are being forced to wait for hours in the emergency rooms just for basic care, and a lot of that comes up because we don’t have nearly enough family doctors. So the Ontario Liberal Party is committed to investing $3.1 billion into making sure that we can partner every Ontarian with a family doctor within the next four years,” Moore said. He continued to express how the Ontario Liberal plan aims to ensure that we’re not just having one signature piece of legislation for affordability but finding many ways to get money into people’s pockets. He said that “this will include a tax cut for most folks in the middle class. It’s also going to include doubling ODSP funding so that people on disability have enough money to live with dignity. And include removing HST on heat and hydro.” 

Moore was asked about how he aims to improve healthcare. He expressed that we need to help the 1,200 internationally trained doctors in Ontario who can’t practice. “They’re not legally entitled to practice in Ontario, so we need to remove some of those barriers to make sure that folks who are internationally trained can start practicing and enter that healthcare system,” Moore said. He also mentioned how the Liberal party is proposing opening two new medical schools in Ontario to make sure we are training additional doctors. Moore said, “it’s so difficult to even get into medical school where people are leaving and they’re not coming back or they can’t practice medicine when they do come back. It’s brutal because we are in such a crisis that we’re not doing everything that we can do to recruit more people.” The Liberal party plans to offer a cash incentive program in Ontario to any nurses and doctors who have left to practice medicine in the U.S.to bring them back. 

Moore was asked to elaborate on how he plans to address the housing crisis in Ontario. He responded by stating that we need to build more homes, so his party aims to build 1.5 million more homes by 2031. “We’re going to fund the municipalities on direct development charges directly from the province so that we can speed up that [process] and decrease the cost to build a house. We are also going to remove the land transfer tax both for first-time home buyers,” Moore said.

UW recently announced that they are currently in a financial crisis that will involve mass layoffs for employees. When asked about how he would aim to address this crisis and support students, Moore mentioned that he would start key performance indicator funding towards universities to make sure that they have stable funding every year. He emphasized that university administrators are currently struggling because they are operating off of a 2015 funding model with 2025 prices. “UW is a world-class institution and we are underfunding them, which means we could lose competitiveness and that can happen quickly because everywhere else in the world is investing in education,” Moore said. 

When asked about his final message for students in Waterloo as to why they should vote for him, Moore expressed that he wants to fight for young people to make sure that they can build a future here in Ontario. “They need the opportunity to get a world-class education and the ability to get a job afterward. It’s absolutely what I will be fighting for with Bonnie Crombie and the Ontario Liberal party. Young people are our future, and if we don’t invest in giving them a future to aspire to, then we have failed. We will fight for young people to stay in Ontario and build a strong, stable future here,” Moore said.