4 ridings to watch in the Hamilton-Niagara area this Ontario election
Ontario voters will go to the polls Feb. 27
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has officially triggered an early provincial election after meeting with Ontario's lieutenant-governor Tuesday.
With voting day set for Feb. 27, many of the parties are still scrambling to confirm candidates to run in the province's 124 electoral districts.
It's early days yet, but some interesting local storylines are already clear. In Hamilton, Niagara and surrounding areas, here are four local races worth watching over the next four weeks.
Hamilton Centre
Sarah Jama was elected as an Ontario New Democrat MPP in a March 2023 byelection after that party's former leader Andrea Horwath vacated her Hamilton Centre seat to run for mayor of Hamilton.
Jama won with 54 per cent of the vote, more than double the second-place candidate, Liberal Deirdre Pike, and three percentage points less than Horwath had earned in 2022.
But Jama was ousted from the Ontario NDP in October, 2023, and has been an Independent ever since. She confirmed this week she will run as an Independent this election, after the NDP denied her application to run for the party once more.
Before the recent change, the riding was longheld by the NDP — for years it was Horwath's seat.
The Ontario NDP confirmed to CBC Hamilton two people are running for the local nomination, yet to be decided as of Wednesday.
Those two are longtime Guelph resident Aisha Jahangir and Hamilton doctor Robin Lennox.
In a statement to CBC Hamilton, the party said both are "health-care workers with strong roots in the community. Ms. Jahangir serves as a mental health nurse at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre and is a labour advocate. Dr. Lennox practices family medicine in Hamilton and has served on numerous tables and committees on public health issues for the City of Hamilton."
With the Hamilton Centre NDP riding association expressing its discontent with the decision to block Jama, it is unclear how split the NDP supporter base in the riding will be this election.
On Monday, the Ontario Liberal Party confirmed Eileen Walker will be its candidate for Hamilton Centre.
Walker is a retired justice of the peace and has over 20 years' experience as a social worker, the party said in a statement.
The other declared candidate for Hamilton Centre is the Green Party of Ontario's Lucia Iannantuono, an electrical engineer, hardware designer and environmental advocate who also ran in the 2023 byelection, and earned 6.9 per cent of the votes.
Hamilton Mountain
New Democrat Monique Taylor has represented Hamilton Mountain in the Legislature since 2011, but announced last year that she plans to run in the next federal election.
Without the advantages an incumbent candidate often holds, the race may prove more competitive this time around.
In the last election, Taylor earned 45 per cent of the vote, followed by Progressive Conservative Mike Spadafora, who received 29.9 per cent and went on to win the seat for Ward 14 in the last municipal election.
On Tuesday night, the Hamilton Mountain NDP riding association held its nomination meeting, and Kojo Damptey was confirmed as the local candidate, riding secretary Sherry Duvall told CBC Hamilton.
Damptey is the former executive director of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion. He is pursuing a PhD at McMaster University where he is acting manager of the university's Office of Community Engagement. He ran for Ward 14 councillor in 2022, coming in a close second to Spadafora. The race was the closest in the city.
The Liberal Party of Ontario has nominated Dawn Danko, former Hamilton Wentworth District School Board Chair and current Ward 7 trustee, while the Greens have nominated French teacher and 2SLGBTQ+ advocate Joshua Czerniga.
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario hadn't announced a local candidate for this electoral round as of Tuesday evening.
Haldimand-Norfolk
The election of Independent MPP Bobbi Ann Brady in Haldimand-Norflok made history in 2022, as she became the first Ontario woman elected as an Independent without a past win with a political party.
Brady, who worked for former PC MPP Toby Barrett, was also the only Independent candidate who won a seat in that election. She beat then-Haldimand County mayor Ken Hewitt, who the PC party nominated over Brady against Barrett's advice.
This time around, Brady faces Norfolk County Mayor Amy Martin, who's running for the PCs.
As of Wednesday, no other major parties have declared candidates.
Niagara Centre
A current mayor is also running in Niagara Centre. Port Colborne Mayor Bill Steele is challenging incumbent NDP MPP Jeff Burch.
Burch, a former city councillor, steelworker and union activist, took office in 2018.
The Liberals and Greens have yet to declare candidates.
WATCH | Political science professor Peter Graefe on why this early election call may hurt Doug Ford
Ford's decision to call an early election "looks quite self-serving," McMaster University politics professor Peter Graefe told CBC News Network on Friday, noting that the opposition parties look weak relative to the PCs right now.
Ford has said he needs a "strong mandate" to fight back against possible U.S. tariffs, but Graefe said the premier already holds a strong majority and has "very few tools" to combat aggressive American trade policy anyway.
"I'm not sure this idea that he needs a new mandate in order to be able protect Ontarians is going to be that convincing since Ontarians have seen Mr. Ford be quite active on this file for the past couple months and see quite happy with how he's leading it," Graefe said.