Government Relations

Ontario enters by-election mode

Residents of two Ontario ridings – Kitchener-Waterloo and Vaughan – will be heading to the polls September 6 to decide two by-elections and possibly the fate of the current government. See the government press release here.

 

The riding of Kitchener-Waterloo has been vacant since mid-spring after a long-serving Progressive Conservative (PC) MPP Elizabeth Witmer resigned suddenly in order to head the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.

Tracey Weiler, a Wilfrid Laurier University instructor, is running for the PCs in the riding against the NDP’s Catherine Fife, head of the Ontario Public School Boards Association. Ontario Liberals selected a lawyer Eric Davis, who also ran as a Kitchener-Waterloo candidate in the 2011 general election.

Candidates for the by-election in Vaughan are yet to be announced. The seat became vacant just under a week ago when a Liberal Greg Sorbara stepped down.

Currently there are 52 Liberal MPPs in the Ontario Legislature and 53 PCs and NDP combined. The outcome of these by-elections will determine if the province continues to be headed by the minority Liberal government or if the de facto majority is formed. 


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