Who is PC candidate Rob Elliott?
York Region resident is hoping to win Kitchener Centre seat in Nov. 30 provincial byelection
KITCHENER The decision by the Progressive Conservatives to contest the Kitchener Centre byelection with an out-of-riding resident as their candidate is puzzling to local politicians and political analysts.
Five days before the Kitchener Centre byelection was called, the PC party announced Rob Elliott as its candidate.
The Progressive Conservatives confirmed to The Record in an email that Elliott and his family live in Keswick, a community of about 27,000 people in the northernmost part of York Region, 150 kilometres from Kitchener.
“Although my wife and I are currently raising our young family outside of the city, I am personally connected to Kitchener,” says a statement from Elliott.
“This is where I earned my bachelor’s degree, at Wilfrid Laurier University. This is where I met my wife, and where we got engaged.”
But politicians and political watchers are questioning the decision to choose Elliott, a political unknown in the region, as the party’s candidate in the Nov. 30 byelection.
Elliott graduated from Laurier with a bachelor of arts in political science in 2008, according to his LinkedIn page.
He was the president of the school’s campus Conservatives club for two years.
On Wednesday, Ontario announced the date for the byelection for Kitchener Centre, a riding with no MPP since Laura Mae Lindo of the NDP resigned in July.
The PC party did not respond to several interview requests and questions about Elliott.
In an email statement, Elliott, 37, said as MPP of Kitchener Centre, he would make himself available to local residents.
“This community is personal to me. As MPP, I will be accessible and present at my local office and at community events. I want to make sure that Kitchener Centre has a seat in the government caucus, so we can get big things done,” read the statement.
In its candidate announcement, the party said Elliott supports twoway, all-day GO train service between Kitchener and Toronto, building three new elementary schools and a hospital in Kitchener, cutting costs and creating jobs.
In mid-August 2022, Elliott was named director of applied data services at Brigade IT Services and Consulting, an IT consulting company.
Elliott has more than 20 years of experience in campaigning, communications and policy development, according to the company’s website. He has also advised senior cabinet members, candidates at different levels of government, charities and businesses, including Fortune 500 companies.
Elliott has been a Conservative party member for nine years, according to his LinkedIn page.
In July 2017, he quit as the party’s third vice-president and policy chair over the party’s candidate selection process.
He also briefly worked for former Kitchener South-Hespeler MPP Jess Dixon in 2022.
Having a Conservative candidate who doesn’t live in the riding is “problematic,” said John Milloy, a former Liberal MPP and cabinet minister who represented Kitchener Centre in 2003 to 2014.
“It’s very puzzling that the PCs would do that,” said Milloy.
“Going outside of the community like this is usually done when you can’t find a local person.”
During more than a decade in office, Milloy said he learned most about what locals wanted by living in the area.
A short trip to Zellers on a Saturday would often turn into hourlong conversations with locals, who asked Milloy questions and spoke about their concerns.
“The idea of having someone from outside the region run is really problematic. How do you understand the concerns of the area?” he said.
Peter Woolstencroft, a retired University of Waterloo professor of political science, also questioned the choice of Elliott.
“There’s five Conservative associations. I find it hard to believe that they could not find somebody in Waterloo Region to run in the riding Kitchener Centre,” said Woolstencroft.
He questioned whether locals would trust someone who lived so far from the riding, with an evergrowing number of people moving into the region from other parts of Canada and outside of the country.
While byelections do not often get much engagement from voters, Woolstencroft said this vote will be interesting, with 2,000 votes that went to the New Blue Party in 2022 now open for other parties to pick up, and recent controversies, such as around Hamilton MPP Sarah Jama and the Greenbelt scandal.
“I think this one will get a fair bit of attention,” he said.
Other candidates in the riding are city councillor Debbie Chapman for the NDP, Aislinn Clancy for the Green party and Kelly Steiss for the Liberals.
While none of the other candidates know Elliott personally, they agree that a candidate should live locally.
“For the Conservatives to run someone who lives (100) kilometres away from us shows how much they care about this community and the people who live here,” Clancy said in an email.
“The people of Kitchener Centre deserve representation that not only understands, but also experiences our community’s unique challenges and opportunities firsthand,” said Steiss.