A school chaplain and former therapist has been acclaimed as the provincial New Democratic Party candidate in the Bay of Quinte riding.

Joanne Belanger of Quinte West was acclaimed Sunday during a meeting at Trent Port Marina.

She said Ontarians need not choose between the ruling Liberals and opposition Progressive Conservatives.

“News flash: there’s a third party with some really good policies,” said Belanger, married mother of seven adult children.

“I think people are tired of both those parties. I think people are very dismayed that Doug Ford is the new leader of the PCs and I think people are tired of (Liberal Premier) Kathleen Wynne.”

Belanger earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at McMaster University in Hamilton, then a master’s degree in theological studies at Queen’s University in Kingston. She’s also a certified spiritual director and spent 26 years in private practice as a counsellor for individuals, couples and families.

She’s now chaplain of Nicholson Catholic College in Belleville.

“I’m a cradle Catholic so I do take a pro-life stance,” she said of her opposition to abortion. That conflicts with the party’s view, she said, but she appreciates the NDP’s respect for people having “a conscience.”

Belanger said her work as a secondary-school chaplain includes a focus on social justice. She said she’s worked with the homeless in Toronto, volunteered with local food drives and with the poor in Jamaica.

“I’ve seen that side of life and I think we’ve lost that sense that if everybody contributed fairly, everybody at the bottom would have a better quality of life,” Belanger said. “I see how easily you can go from functioning well, earning a paycheque, to living on the street.”

She said the NDP is pledging better dental and vision care and a universal pharmacare program, though the party’s full platform has yet to be released. Belanger said fairer, more equal taxation is needed in a country in which she said about one percent of the richest people possess more than half of the total wealth.

“Between the Liberals and Conservatives, the quality of life for most people in Ontario, in fact in Canada, has deteriorated.

“More people are struggling.”

She and Belleville’s Merrill Stewart, president of the Bay of Quinte NDP Riding Association, said the party may be able to muster enough votes to form a government.

“There’s a lot of turmoil right now,” said Stewart. “We take a people-centred approach to doing the business of government.”

He said Belanger was one of 12 people, including municipal politicians and people involved in local organizations, to be considered for the candidacy. She was the only one to accept the nomination. Her husband, former Quinte West councillor Terry Cassidy, ran unsuccessfully as the Prince Edward-Hastings NDP candidate in the 2014 federal election.

Stewart said the membership has few “self-financing” people who can manage stepping away from work long enough to campaign.

“They tend to be regular folks with regular demands on their lives,” he said.

The region’s higher-than-average rates of poverty and food insecurity and the loss of major employers means an NDP agenda could help many, he said.

Belanger said misconceptions about the party shouldn’t prevent people from voting for her and leader Andrea Horwath.

She said NDP governments “are fiscally accountable. They aren’t crazy spenders.

“If you want a well-run society then everybody’s got to pay their fair share.”

She said the Ontario NDP government of former premier Bob Rae, elected in 1990, “inherited a big mess” from the Liberals and “the only way they could clean up was to put in some policies that weren’t particularly popular.

“It’s a different day and age,” she said.

“You can go back and harp on what happened in 1990 or you can look at what happened with the Liberals and the Conservatives ever since.”

Belanger will face PC incumbent and former broadcaster Todd Smith and Liberal candidate and current Prince Edward County Mayor Robert Quaiff in the June 7 election.

“I really encourage people to look at the NDP as an option,” she said.

lhendry@postmedia.com