NDP Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath released the following statement to mark International Workers\u2019\u00a0Day\u00a0and First Responders\u00a0Day\u00a0in Ontario:<\/p>\n
Today, as Ontarians join communities across the globe in celebrating International Workers\u2019\u00a0Day, it is more important than ever to show our thanks and solidarity to working folks.<\/em><\/p>\n During these incredibly difficult times, we are all especially thankful for the public health staff, health care workers, grocery store staff, pharmacy workers, transit drivers, truckers, supply chain workers, manufacturing teams, essential construction workers, first responders, and so many more of our everyday\u00a0heroes. That\u2019s why here in Ontario, we are also celebrating First Responders\u00a0Day\u00a0today.\u00a0All Ontarians are so thankful to these\u00a0crucial workers\u00a0for all that they do to keep people safe and healthy, get food and medicine into people\u2019s homes, and keep our province running. In communities across the province and the globe, people have finally come to realize how critical these working folks really are. But, sadly \u2013 and shamefully \u2013 many of these heroes are among the lowest paid workers in our society. Some have to work three jobs to make ends meet. Some haven\u2019t had proper health and safety protections. Many don\u2019t have pensions and health benefits.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n While there is no doubt that the risks have been greater and the pressure more intense these last few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic didn\u2019t make these\u00a0workers more valuable \u2013 it showed the world how incredibly valuable they have always been.<\/em><\/p>\n Let\u2019s make sure they get the wages and working conditions they\u2019ve always deserved. And let\u2019s make sure they\u2019re never taken for granted again.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NDP Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath released the following statement to mark International Workers\u2019\u00a0Day\u00a0and First Responders\u00a0Day\u00a0in Ontario: Today, as Ontarians join communities across the globe in celebrating International Workers\u2019\u00a0Day, it is more important than ever to show our thanks and solidarity to working folks. During these incredibly difficult times, we are all especially thankful for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-provincial"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 08:48:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31194,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31193\/revisions\/31194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}