Simcoe-Grey Liberal candidate pushing for aging-at-home system

Profile: Ted Crysler, Ontario Liberal Party candidate for Simcoe-Grey

Ted Crysler, candidate for the Liberal Party of Ontario in Simcoe-Grey.Contributed photo

Simcoe-Grey Liberal candidate Ted Crysler would like to see a fundamental shift in long-term care toward a focus on aging in place.

Born and raised in the Collingwood area, Crysler’s interest in politics began at a young age with a run for student council and participation in the Ottawa page program. He said he was awaiting an opportune moment to make his leap into politics.

With the retirement of Conservative MPP Jim Wilson after 32 years as the Simcoe-Grey representative, and some decisions from the Doug Ford government Crysler disagreed with, he decided the 2022 provincial election was the right time to run for office.

“I’m a positive politics person, I think there are a lot of good ideas everywhere and we need to collaborate across the party line,” he said. “The riding is changing … the pandemic has created a lot of shifting and the people within the riding are taking different approaches and open to new ideas.”

Crysler grew up on his family’s apple orchards in Nottawa and Clarksburg and built his career as a lawyer and entrepreneur focused on technology, with a start-up company centred around aging health technology.

He said one of the biggest issues for him right now is moving Ontario into a long-term care model that prioritizes aging at home.

“Long-term care needs to be fundamentally changed,” he said. “We have done, in the province, very little for aging at home. I think the citizens are ahead of the politicians … 95 to 99 per cent of seniors want to age at home if possible. There’s always going to be a small number that will need a more intensive system of care, but it can be community care, not warehousing.”

He argued aging at home is more humane and affordable than Ontario’s current system.

“The conversation we need to have is ‘we can do this and we can afford it,’” said Crysler. “And seniors need to be part of the conversation.”

Whatever party forms the next government, Crysler vowed to be a thorn in the side of the long-term care minister to advocate for change in the province to support aging at home.

Crysler is one of seven candidates in the Simcoe-Grey riding including: