Liberals, NDP have yet to select candidates for Haldimand-Norfolk
First-time candidate Nathan Hawkins, representing the New Blue Party, has joined the race for the Haldimand-Norfolk seat in the June 2 provincial election.
The 32-year-old Fisherville resident, who works as a firefighter in Toronto and volunteers for the Fisherville station, was acclaimed. He said he began looking for options when he realized he “couldn’t vote for the PC party because they no longer represented my values and what I wanted to see happen at Queen’s Park.”
The New Blue Party was started by Jim and Belinda Karahalios in 2020.
Belinda Karahalios previously served Cambridge as a member of the PC party, before she was expelled from the caucus in July of 2020 for voting against Bill 195, The Reopening Ontario Act. She has since sat as the first and only member of the New Blue, with her husband, Jim, serving as leader.
In the party’s The New Blueprint it says it wants to scrap “the $100 million taxpayer subsidy of political parties” and ban lobbyists from party politics. It wants to cut HST from 13 per cent to 10 per cent and “axe the Doug Ford carbon tax.” They are also against “woke activism” and want to remove critical race theory and gender identity theory from schools.
“I looked around online for a different option and found the New Blue Party,” said Hawkins. “They seemed well run, principled, a party with grassroots and ready to make a real impact in the June election.
“What we have seen over the past few years is MPPs being more loyal to their parties than they are to their constituents and that has to change.
“Over the past four years, we have seen the PC party continue to drift further and further to the left, to the point where there is little difference between the PCs and the Liberals. I feel that the regular people, such as myself, need to start stepping up and become more involved in politics to be the change that I believe many people want.”
Hawkins joins Conservative candidate Ken Hewitt and independent Bobbi Ann Brady in the local race.
Chris Kindy, president of the Haldimand-Norfolk Liberal Party (Ontario), said on the weekend they don’t yet have a candidate.
“We have had interest and, sadly, those individuals were not selected by the Ontario Liberal Party,” said Kindy. “My assumption is (the party) could place someone in this area.”
Jordan Louis, president of the Haldimand-Norfolk NDP, said on the weekend they haven’t yet announced a candidate.
In April, Haldimand-Norfolk Progressive Conservative MPP Toby Barrett said he wouldn’t seek re-election. Running in his place, by appointment of Premier Doug Ford, is Haldimand Mayor Ken Hewitt.
Barrett has served as Haldimand-Norfolk MPP for 27 years. He said he alerted the premier’s office four years ago that this would be his final term and that he wouldn’t run in 2022 but he said he kept his intentions quiet because there was important constituency work to do at Queen’s Park and he didn’t want to be perceived there as a “lame duck.”
Brady, Barrett’s longtime executive assistant, announced last week she would be running as an independent. Barrett will be her campaign manager. She said they were “not consulted” and “blindsided by (Hewitt’s) appointment.”
“We’re standing up for Haldimand-Norfolk and we’re sending the premier and the party a message that they can’t just take the people of this riding for granted,” said Brady last week. “People in this riding have spent a lot of time raising money and building the party here and we won’t be disrespected.”