Nomination meeting set
Provincial Progressive Conservatives choosing candidate Sept. 14 at the Evinrude Centre
A nomination meeting has been set for next month to pick the Progressive Conservative candidate for the new Peterborough-Kawartha riding for the 2018 provincial election.
The meeting will be held Sept. 14 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Evinrude Centre banquet hall at 911 Monaghan Rd.
The deadline for people to apply to be a candidate is 5 p.m. Aug. 17.
Peterborough Agricultural Society president Ryan Moore, Under the Lock hockey tournament founder David Smith and engineer Derek Andreoli have already indicated they are seeking the nomination.
The deadline to buy a membership to qualify to vote at the nomination meeting is Aug. 24.
New memberships, or renewals of lapsed memberships, must be purchased or renewed by 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 24.
Doors to the meeting will open at 5:30 p.m. Speeches will take place from 6 to 6:30 p.m. followed by registration and voting from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Anyone voting must be in the designated voting area by 8:30 p.m.
Photo identification and proof of address will be requested at registration.
Questions about the voting process can be addressed to the party’s executive director Bob Stanley at bob.stanley@ontariopc.com.
Four-term incumbent Liberal MPP Jeff Leal, the province’s agriculture, food and rural affairs minister and minister responsible for small business, has not indicated if he will seek re-election.
Teenager Zach Hatton is seeking the riding’s NDP nomination.
Leal beat Progressive Conservative candidate Scott Stewart by 24,649 votes (46.2 per cent) to 15,909 (29.9 per cent) in the 2014 provincial election, with New Democrat Sheila Wood finishing third with 9,726 (18.25 per cent).
Stewart does not plan to seek the nomination this time around.
Under riding redistribution to match with the new federal riding boundaries, Trent Lakes and North Kawartha townships will shift to the new Peterborough-Kawartha riding from the Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock riding starting with the 2018 provincial election, while Asphodel-Norwood and Otonabee-South Monaghan townships will move to the new Northumberland-Peterborough South riding (incumbent Liberal MPP Lou Rinaldi was acclaimed as that riding’s candidate last month).