The NDP still needs to nominate 35 candidates for the upcoming provincial election and the Liberals need to confirm who’s running in 20 ridings, with less than two weeks to go before the election campaign officially kicks off May 4.
The Ontario PC Party is believed to have just one riding in need of a candidate, out of the total 124 across the province.
The Green Party of Ontario has 78 candidates in place to date, with 46 to go.
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said Friday that he “made a commitment that at least 50 per cent of our candidates would be female and I’m so proud that for the first time ever in our party, we achieved that goal a number of days ago . I look at our team of candidates and I see all of Ontario’s true diversity, exceptional diversity reflected in that team.”
He said the party “will have a full roster in place as the election gets under way, and we are determined to make sure that that happens… we will make sure that we have all of our candidates in place in the next number of days, so stay tuned for more details.”
Robert Drummond, a York University politics professor emeritus, said “it would be concerning for a party if they did not have a full, or nearly full, slate of candidates by May 1 or thereabouts for a June election — but if they move fairly quickly , they can probably manage that.”
He said he’s not sure “if there is greater uncertainty about joining the race because of COVID-19, but the virus seems to have reduced normalcy in all sorts of ways.”
The governing Tories moved fast to replace outgoing MPP Toby Barrett, who late this week announced he wouldn’t seek re-election in Haldimand-Norfolk after representing the riding for 27 years. Ken Hewitt, the mayor of Haldimand County, will run in his place.
“The Ontario PC Party is finalizing its last few candidates and will have a full team secured in the coming days,” said Christina Wramhed, the party’s director of communications. Sources, however, have indicated to the Star there is but one riding left to fill.
The opposition NDP says it is holding two nomination meetings Friday night for a total of 89 candidates finalized, with dozens more coming in the days ahead.
After booting out long-time MPP Paul Miller last month, alleging offensive social media posts, the party is now fielding accountant and community leader Zaigham Butt in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.
It also quickly announced a replacement for Suze Morrison in Toronto Centre, after she announced she was stepping down because of health concerns. Popular city councilor Kristyn Wong-Tam is now running in the downtown riding.
The Liberals, reduced to just seven seats in the 2018 election — after governing for 15 years — have 104 candidates already nominated and four in the works, including in Chatham-Kent-Leamington and Haldimand-Norfolk.
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