Smith wins nomination
Software manager beats out Moore, Andreoli for Progressive Conservative provincial nomination at packed meeting
Dave Smith has been elected as the Progressive Conservative candidate for the new PeterboroughKawartha riding in next year’s provincial election.
Smith beat out Ryan Moore and Derek Andreoli at a packed nominated meeting held Thursday night at the Evinrude Centre. About 450 people were there.
Party leader Patrick Brown has a veto over who the riding candidate will be.
Smith seemed elated when the results of the vote were announced at the Evinrude Centre at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
“We have seen the last of (Peterborough MPP) Jeff Leal in this riding!” he told the crowd, when he was declared the winner.
He also said he hoped he could count on Moore and Andreoli to help him win the provincial election in October 2018.
“As PCs we are a team – and we will beat the Liberals in the next election,” he said.
Smith, 47, is the founder of the Under the Lift Lock hockey tournament.
He also chaired the recent international hockey tournament for special-needs players in Peterborough when the tourney was in danger of cancellation; he stepped up to help save the tournament at the last minute after the original organizers were charged with fraud.
Smith works as a manager of product development for Cardinal Software on Lansdowne St. He and his wife Lorien have a blended family of three children; all three are in university.
Lorien Smith and many family members were at the Evinrude Centre on Thursday night.
“He’s passionate – he believes in this,” Lorien said of her husband. “He doesn’t do anything halfway.”
When the candidates gave speeches before the vote, Smith came out from behind the podium and spoke without notes.
He told the crowd that health care is being neglected by the Liberals: he said there have been no new doctors or nurses hired in the province, lately.
He also said the Liberals are instead creating more administrative positions – jobs that pay in excess of $100,000.
“Do you know where else your tax money is going? It’s going to subsidize millionaires,” he said, telling the crowd that the Liberals are offering a $7,000 rebate on Teslas – electric sportscars that cost $100,000.
It’s part of the Liberals’ green initiatives, Smith said.
“And how’s that green initiative working for you on your hydro bill?” he asked the crowd. “You can help me draw a line in the sand and say, Kathleen Wynne – no more!”
It’s still unclear who Smith will run against, in the provincial election.
Although Zach Hatton has said he’s interested in the NDP nomination, Leal, the minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, has not yet said whether he will run again for the Liberals.
In an interview on Thursday, Leal said he’s concentrating on his current work and not thinking about the next election. He also said he thinks campaigning should be restricted to the 28 days leading up to an election.
Yet moments after winning the Conservative nomination, Smith said he intends to start campaigning immediately.
“Tomorrow we start on the campaign trail,” he said in an interview. “It’s never too early.”
The Peterborough-Kawartha riding is changing, for the 2018 election: it will include Trent Lakes and North Kawartha townships, which are currently in the HaliburtonKawartha Lakes-Brock riding, but Otonabee-South Monaghan and Asphodel-Norwood townships will shift from the former Peterborough riding to the new NorthumberlandPeterborough South riding.
The provincial election is on June 8, 2018.