The riding of Chatham-Kent-Leamington has been getting a lot of attention from the Ontario New Democratic Party during the Ontario election campaign.
On Sunday, NDP leader Andrea Horwath made a second stop in the riding this month when met with local supporters at the Chatham campaign office of NDP candidate Brock McGregor. She was also there to support NDP candidate in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, Vanessa Benoit, who attended the event.
The NDP has drawn a lot of attention to the local riding during campaign, beginning with uncovering past anti-gay slurs made in social media posts by former Chatham-Kent-Leamington Liberal candidate Alec Mazurek, which resulted in him being dropped by the Ontario Liberal Party.
The controversy continued with last-minute Liberal candidate Audrey Festeryga when the NDP launched a formal complaint with Elections Ontario, alleging the Liberal’s recycled signatures from Mazurek’s nomination for the new candidate. Festeryga withdrew from the race last Thursday blaming the “relentless attacks” by the NDP.
When asked about the unexpected situation of no Liberal candidate running and three Conservative parties running in the same riding, Horwath said, “It sure does make for an interesting kind of mix of political circumstances.”
Two political scientists recently told The Chatham Daily News they see the contest in Chatham-Kent-Leamington as a two-horse race between Progressive Conservative candidate Trevor Jones and Rick Nicholls, the Ontario Party candidate and former PC MPP who was ousted from that party for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Oh, not at all,” Horwath said, when asked of this assessment.
She is confident in what the results will be local voters go to the polls.
“I think that Chatham-Kent-Leamington is going to have a fantastic new MPP come Thursday and it’s going to be Brock McGregor.”
When asked his opinion of the political scientists’ assessment, McGregor quipped: “I challenge them to find Chatham-Kent-Leamington on a map.”
Horwath said, “I think the people realize this time is a chance to really send somebody to Queen’s Park that’s going to be a voice for the community.”
She added Ontarians have seen life get harder for the last four years.
“Life didn’t get easier with Doug Ford, life got harder and our access to things like health care became more difficult not easier,” Horwath said.
McGregor, who is in his second term as a Chatham-Kent councilor, was asked what inroads he is making in the Leamington part of the riding.
“I think the concerns in Leamington are very similar in our community,” McGregor said. “They talk about health care at the doors, they talk about long-term care at the doors, and they talk about the lack of representation in our community for the past 20 years.
“We’ve been really confident at the turnout in Leamington and we’re hopeful that’s going to be big component of turning this riding orange,” he added.
Horwath said it wasn’t that long ago she and outgoing NDP MPP for Windsor-Tecumseh Percy Hatfield were trying to save the obstetrics ward at the Leamington hospital when the Liberal government, at the time, wanted to shut it down.
“We didn’t even represent that riding, but we fought for the people of Leamington for the women, the moms of Leamington, to have access to birthing services at their hospital,” the NDP leader said. “Those are things we believe in.”