Wainfleet mayor wants Niagara Centre’s Tory nod
In her second term as Wainfleet’s mayor, April Jeffs says she needs to be at Queen’s Park to tackle some of the most significant issues her community faces.
She announced Wednesday evening that she will be seeking the nomination to run as Niagara Centre’s Progressive Conservative candidate in the next provincial election, set for June 7, 2018.
Jeffs said she started considering running for MPP while dealing with issues that exceeded the jurisdiction of the municipality.
For instance, she teamed up with other south Niagara mayors to meet with the Liberal Minister of Health in the hope of stopping plans to close area hospitals to replace them with a new facility to be built in Niagara Falls.
She said her township’s opposition to wind turbines is another issue that inspired her bid for provincial politics.
“All that stuff over the last couple of years has motivated me to give this a try,” she said.
Niagara Centre’s Progressive Conservative riding association nomination meeting is scheduled for Sunday, April 9, at Central United Church, 12 Young St., Welland, starting at 2:30 p.m. Voting takes place at 3 p.m.
Prospective candidates have until 5 p.m. Sunday to apply.
If selected as the party’s candidate, Jeffs plans to continue as Wainfleet’s parttime mayor as long as possible, continuing to work for constituents and participating in events to assist community organizations.
“I’m going to just keep doing what I’m doing,” she said.
She said the timing of the provincial election — about 4½ months before municipal elections are held — also influenced her decision to seek the nomination. “It lines up well,” she said. Jeffs said she plans to focus on maintaining health care services in the area, keeping taxes low, creating jobs by cutting red tape and regulatory burdens for small- and medium-sized businesses, and “stopping the failed Green Energy Act and the construction of any new wind turbines in Niagara Centre.”
Although Wainfleet is currently part of the Welland riding, Jeffs would be running as a candidate in the new riding of Niagara Centre which will no longer include the township that elected her its mayor.
The new riding will mirror the boundaries of the federal riding implemented during the 2015 election, including most of the communities that were part of its predecessor, including Port Colborne, Thorold, Welland, and south St. Catharines.
Although Wainfleet will become part of the Niagara West riding, Jeffs said she feels “more connected to the Niagara Centre riding and identify well with it.” Niagara West recently put forth sitting MPP Sam Oosterhoff as its Tory candidate for the 2018 election.