“There is nothing” to help autism families, says Wedge

NDP candidate in Scarborough-Woburn hopes to get things changed

A Liberal friend and I once had nostalgic discussion. It was about by-gone days, when government seemed to get useful things done with a minimum of the drama, acrimony and sheer stupidity we see now.

As the years passed, the differences between us (him being a former Liberal staffer, and me being a former Conservative staffer) seemed to matter much less than the one thing the same: we both understood what it meant to be part of a large, successful, high-functioning government elected to work hard and do the right things for citizens.

Sadly, we were both seeing less and less of this as the years went by.

One day, I offered him a deal: “Let’s get together and form a new political party! We can call it ‘The Competent Party.’ It won’t matter what your personal beliefs are, as long as you are competent enough to see what needs to be done and do it, competently!”

Ironically, the candidate I would most like to recruit into our new Competent Party would be a member of the New Democratic Party, George Wedge. Wedge is running for the NDP in the brand new riding of Scarborough-Woburn and brings to his campaign a depth of understanding and experience seldom seen in the political realm.

Readers may recognize Wedge as the president of the Rideshare Drivers Association of Ontario, which he helped form after he became an Uber driver during COVID.

“I was very concerned that I would be laid off from real job,” Wedge explained to me last year, “so I got organized and got signed up to drive with Uber.”

Wedge’s experiences with rideshare driving as a professional and Uber in particular have left him determined to fight for a better deal for the workers being exploited in the gig economy. He is a sharp observer and an articulate spokesperson, traits that have allowed him to help politicians understand the brutally bad deal drivers are getting from Uber and other rideshare companies.

Wedge’s testimony at Canada’s Federal Ethics committee last fall, for example,  left Parliamentarians aghast (video below).

Fortunately for Wedge and his family, he did not actually lose his job as a Health and Safety supervisor in the aviation industry, where he works today.

Wedge is the father of two sons with autism, and the lack of government support for the massive financial burden borne by families with autistic loved ones is his main motivation for entering politics.

“First and foremost, I have to look at my experience, and that is working class families with disability issues. There are so many things that are wrong in federal government when we talk about the disability tax system, for example.

“The system doesn’t provide families with disabilities the relief that they need to offset the extra expenses they have in their actual life. Families get back less than 15 per cent of their actual expenses. For years, governments have promised to make these expenses part of medicare, but nothing has ever happened.”

Wedge calculates he has spent, out of pocket with no reimbursement, about $1.8 million dollars so far in providing necessary therapies for his sons. Other families are in even more difficult situations, and it impacts everyone.

“There is nothing for these people. Nothing,” Wedge notes in frustration. He estimates that one in five Canadian families have a family member that needs support.

“I have had meeting after meeting, and nothing ever changes. That is why I have decided to run myself, to highlight these issues,” he says.