Laura Chesnik—Candidate, Windsor-Tecumseh

Laura Chesnik, 39, is responsible for highlighting education and other affairs for the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada in the federal election. She said this election campaign is not her first and she has run a few times before. 

“I ran in the provincial election as an independent candidate and basically the whole platform of speaking for ourselves and empowerment is the same platform as the MLPC party,” said Chesnik. “I guess the most important thing I think is that we as teachers and education workers for example, need to be the ones that have the power to make decisions that affect our lives.” 

In the 2015 federal election, 70 MLPC candidates were nominated representing the party. Although there were no seats that won, more than 9,000 people voted for the party’s candidates. 

In addition to Chesnik’s candidacy, her full-time teaching job and being a mother of three is what keeps her busy. 

“I’ve been teaching for probably about 12 years. I’ve taught primaries through to Grade 8,” said Chesnik. “Right now I’m teaching rotary science and I teach from Grades 3 to 8. Science is a passion of mine. I think being a teacher really allowed me to develop the youth and allow them to be who they want to be.”

Chesnik and other educational workers created their own podcast called Education is a Right. This podcast first aired just a couple months ago on edisaright.ca. She said it is teachers and others who work in education speaking about what is taking place in Ontario. 

Other than science, Chesnik had a variety of interests as a student. In high school, she was on the wrestling team for three years. Chesnik said she also had the opportunity to be a soccer coach and was on the rugby varsity women’s team in university.

“It was actually really kind of fun, because it wasn’t really big for women at the time. I think the team had started a couple years before and then three girls, me being one of them went out and it was really tough,” said Chesnik. “It was kind of a super male dominated thing but everybody was really encouraging and helpful.” 

 Chesnik said she had the chance to travel to the other side of the world and teach the English language for one whole year. “In a relatively small town in China with a population of 3 million people.” She said she learned a lot about Canada by being in another country. 

“It was really nice how welcoming people were, I just have fond memories,” said Chesnik. “People were very friendly and cultured, so I think it really gave me an appreciation for when people immigrate to other countries and they don’t speak the language. Sometimes I know native speakers aren’t necessarily understanding and patient so I’m very thankful they were with me.” 

Chesnik said it is important for people to participate in the election in whatever way they can, but thinks people are not given the opportunity to be informed about the candidates or the parties and what they all stand for. She explained the process itself should be funded, not the political parties under the current situation, or parties getting funded based on previous election results.