Nomination meeting Jan. 22
NDP to pick Peterborough-Kawartha candidate for June election
The New Democratic Party will hold its nomination race later this month for the Peterborough-Kawartha riding.
The NDP’s provincial riding association will have a nomination meeting on Monday, Jan. 22 at the Lions Community Centre on Burnham St. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.
The idea is to select a candidate to run for the NDP in the expected June 7 provincial election.
Bradley Wight, president of the NDP riding association, said there will be two contestants: Sean Conway and Zach Hatton.
Conway, 27, is a musician and the music programmer at The Garnet. He was born in Peterborough, grew up in Curve Lake First Nation and then moved to Peterborough to join the arts scene. Hatton is a Grade 12 student at St. Peter Secondary School and a YourTV community cable channel volunteer.
The Progressive Conservatives have already nominated Dave Smith, founder of the Under the Lock hockey tournament, as their candidate.
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Jeff Leal, who has been the riding’s Liberal MPP since 2003, will seek a fifth term.
Wight said there are about 350 NDP members eligible to vote for a candidate in the riding.
He also said that MPP Jennifer French of Oshawa will be the guest speaker.
To keep things interesting, Wight said he’ll be singing for donations at the meeting.
“I’ll be the singing riding association president,” he said with a smile.
Meanwhile there has been an adjustment to the provincial riding boundaries recently.
Under riding redistribution, the new Peterborough-Kawartha riding will include North Kawartha and Trent Lakes townships (currently in Laurie Scott’s Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock riding) but will lose Asphodel-Norwood and Otonabee-South Monaghan townships to the new Northumberland-Peterborough South riding.