Seven choices in Peterborough-Kawartha

A look at the riding’s candidates in Monday’s federal election

Here’s a look at the seven candidates for the Peterborough-Kawartha riding:

Maryam Monsef, Liberal

Position: Status of Women and Gender Equality Minister and Minister of International Development

Share of 2015 vote: 43.8 per cent Maryam Monsef has many firsts associated with her: The first Afghan-Canadian elected to the House; the first female MP for Peterborough; the first Muslim in a federal cabinet.

Monsef, her mother and two sisters fled Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in 1996. She often talks about the supportive and positive experience she had as a young refugee and the local organizations that helped her family.

She won the 2015 Liberal nomination by just 17 votes over former city councillor Bob Hall while her campaign manager was Andy Mitchell, a former MP and cabinet minister for the area. Another former MP, Peter Adams, also supported her 2015 campaign.

She is the co-founder of the Red Pashmina campaign, which raises money for Afghan women and girls. She has volunteered with more than 30 organizations, including the YMCA and the Ontario Public Interest Group. She is co-recipient of the

YMCA’s Peace Medallion and received the Young Leaders Award from Trent University.

Her interests and causes include arts and culture, children, civil rights and social action. She speaks Farsi and Dari.

ELECTORAL HISTORY:

2014: Runner-up to Daryl Bennett in Peterborough mayoral race

2015: Elected MP and appointed to federal cabinet

Education: Trent University, bachelor of science (psychology)

Mike Skinner, Conservative Share of 2015 vote: 35.1 per cent

Mike Skinner is a business entrepreneur and mentor who has helped many startup companies get off the ground in the entertainment, IT, and financial sectors.

He founded Operitel, a learning software development company that was eventually purchased by OpenText. He has also founded several Peterborough entertainment and food and drink establishments, such as The Rooster, Second Floor Lounge and The Venue.

In 2011, Skinner was given the Business Citizen of the Year by the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce and was one of the 2017 inductees into the Peterborough Business Hall of Fame. He is active in promoting education and financial literacy, coauthoring materials on eLearning.

Skinner has made a number of contributions to local charities through his Location Sponsor incentive program, which subsidizes some charity events held at The Venue — an event location he founded.

Skinner has been involved with the Peterborough Agriculture Society, StartUp Peterborough, the Centre for Advancement of Water and Wastewater Technologies, the Shining Waters Railway Board, the Peterborough Economic Development 2015-20 Strategic Plan Committee, the Trent University Student and Entrepreneurship Centre Working Group, the Trent University Business Council, the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation and the Kawartha Labour

Market Planning Committee.

ELECTORAL HISTORY: 2015, Peterborough-Kawartha, finished second

Education: Fleming College

Candace Shaw, New Democratic Party

Candace Shaw is the former executive director of the Peterborough Folk Festival. When she lived in Toronto from 2013 to the spring of 2019, she worked to plan and manage cultural and music events at the Harbourfront Centre, the Toronto Christmas Market and the Dreams Unlimited travel company.

Shaw founded Secret Frequency, a not-for-profit organization that promotes inclusion, pay equity, and diversity in the music industry. The organization issues a “Canadian festival report card” to encourage gender parity at music festivals. She has also been an appointed member of the live music working group of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, as well as the arts, culture, and heritage advisory committee of the City of Peterborough.

Shaw sits as a member of the board for the Shelter Valley Folk Festival.

Education: Trent University, bachelor of arts (English literature); Humber College, Theatre

Andrew MacGregor, Green party

Andrew MacGregor has a diploma in pastoral theology from Summit Pacific College and currently works as a financial adviser for MacGregor Family Wealth, the company he founded in 2018.

MacGregor’s campaign platform calls for developing green jobs and technology, adopting a universal pharmacare model and working toward solutions for the opioid crisis. He has stated that evidence-based policy is important and that all voices must be included when making change.

Education: Summit Pacific College, Pastoral Theology

Alex Murphy, People’s Party of Canada

Alex Murphy is a student of the construction engineering technician program at Fleming College and is also completing an MBA online through the University of Fredericton, specializing in real estate leadership.

He moved to Peterborough from Toronto in 2010 to attend Trent University, where he was a member of the Trent University Emergency First Response Team. He joined the Canadian army Primary Reserve in 2012, served for eight months in Kuwait with Joint Task Force Iraq, and is currently a captain serving on an armoured reconnaissance unit.

Education: Fleming College, diploma (construction engineering technology, ongoing); University of Fredericton, master of business administration (ongoing); Trent University, bachelor of arts (history)

Ken Ranney, Stop Climate Change party

Ken Ranney, 89, is a retired family doctor, biochemist and pathologist. His career includes working as a physician in Scarborough, director of Clinical Laboratories for P.E.I, and as laboratory director for the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Grande Prairie, Alta. Ranney and his friend Paul Cragg created the Stop Climate Change party for the 2018 provincial election. Ranney ran in Peterborough-Kawartha and Cragg in Northumberland-Peterborough South.

Ranney is married to Jenny Carter, the former NDP MPP for Peterborough from 1990 to 1995, who was also energy minister under then-premier Bob Rae during part of her term.

ELECTORAL HISTORY:

2018: Provincial: Stop Climate Change, Peterborough Kawartha

2011: Provincial: Socialist Party of Ontario, Peterborough 2000: Federal: NDP, Durham 1968: Federal: NDP, Scarborough East

1963: Provincial: NDP, Scarborough Centre

Education: University of Toronto, doctor of medicine and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada in pathology

Robert Bowers, independent

Robert Bowers, 72, is retired and has run as an independent candidate in four previous elections. He has experience working as a tobacco farmer, bartender, mail service work and in construction.

ELECTORAL HISTORY:

2006: Federal: independent, Peterborough

2003: Provincial: independent, Peterborough

2000: Federal: independent, Peterborough

1999: Provincial: independent, Peterborough

Education: University of Western Ontario, bachelor of arts (geography)