17 April 2023
Hon (Dr) Carolyn Bennett, MP
Riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s
103 – 40 Holly Street
Toronto, Ontario M4S 3C3
Tel (416) 952 – 3990
Email carolyn.bennett@parl.gc.ca
Dear Hon Bennett
Dr Anthony Akpan Ikpong for Parliament
- I write to introduce myself to you and to ask for your support in my bid to succeed you as the next member of parliament representing the Riding of Toronto–St. Paul’s.
- In 2004, I volunteered to go up to Yukon in the Canadian North to execute fifteen (15) major highway bridge projects in the role of Highway Bridge Program Manager for Yukon Government. This was a very important undertaking on my part given the dire scarcity of technical manpower in the North. Further, in the course of building highway bridges in Yukon, I realized how detrimental the coming climate change impacts would be on highway bridges in a cold climate country such as Canada. As a result, I decided to return to the university for a PhD degree (2011 to 2016) in which I pioneered research work in the field of climate change resilience rating of highway bridges. Finally, when I subsequently worked as a Senior Highway Bridge Engineer for a consulting engineering firm in Thunder Bay-Ontario, I single-handedly took on a gigantic public works and engineering malfeasance and criminal conduct involving the under-design of over twenty (20) highway bridges belonging to the Ministry of Transportation Ontario. This third undertaking, which is the subject of my enclosed memoir, was an epic engineering/academic fight against the Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO), who doctored and falsified bridge load test data to cover up the erroneous engineering of their private sector consultants. It is interesting to note that my other opponent in that big engineering fight was Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), who conspired to cover up MTO’s crime and in so doing defrauded and swindled the Ontario public. All the above amounts to this: Seldom has a candidate for parliament had a better answer to the question of what have you previously done in your life that qualifies you for this office!
- I hereby humbly ask if you would pass on the baton to me so I can go into parliament and make a great contribution to the national affairs of Canada as follows?
- Ensure the climate change resilience rating of Canada’s highway bridges against climate-triggered events such as glacial melting, permafrost melting, sea level rise, flooding at highway bridge sites, abutment washout, deck flooding, foundation instability arising from permafrost melting, etc. In other words, climate change will pose significant additional problems beyond atmospheric pollution and carbon tax.
- Bring judicial accountability to those who deliberately falsified bridge load test data for Ontario highway bridges as well as those who conspired afterwards to cover up the said crime.
- Hold financially accountable for the upgrade of the affected highway bridges the three (3) engineering corporations involved in the design of the over twenty (20) affected highway bridges.
- Bring to the highest level of the federal public service my Canadian experience as a West African immigrant.
- Yes, I will win the general election. Who will the Conservative Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party put up in that election and what problems would those candidates be proposing to solve if they got to parliament? Who do those two parties have that has done what I have done for the public as a private citizen: going up to the manpower-challenged Canadian North for seven (7) years to manage the design and construction of over fifteen (15) major highway bridge projects in Yukon, going back to the university to take a PhD degree in climate change resilience rating of highway bridges decades after I first graduated with an engineering degree, and deploying my rare structural/civil engineering knowledge and brilliance to fight for the safety of Ontario’s highway bridges at the expense of my engineering career and at the expense of my family’s quality of life? Who would they put up against me?
The following will be my Campaign Platform.
- As Minister of Infrastructure, ensure the Climate Change Resilience Rating of all Federal, Provincial, and Municipal Highway Bridges in Canada
- Hold accountable the Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) Engineers involved in the Falsification of Bridge Load Test Results, which is a Crime
- Ensure the Re-design and Reconstruction of over twenty (20) Prestressed/Precast Concrete Box Girder Bridges in Ontario
- Hold Accountable for the cost of the re-construction of the said bridges the 3 Engineering Firms that did the Poor Design Work
- Make Improvements to the Federal Public Service
I would be very grateful for your support, and Canada and Ontario would be the much better for it. Please be a part of history. Thank you very much.
Enclosed
- Four (4) copies of my book, The Big Engineering Fight – The Story of a West African Immigrant who took on a Gigantic Public Works and Engineering Scandal in Canada, and won.
- Four (4) copies of my Campaign Poster.
- Ten (10) copies of my door-to-door Campaign Flyer.
Sincerely,
Dr Anthony Akpan Ikpong, P.Eng.
09 July 2023. Source: Dr Anthony Ikpong’s memoir, The Big Engineering Fight.