Niagara Falls MPP mulls over run for provincial NDP leadership

Niagara Falls | Niagara | Niagara on the Lake | Politics |

By

Published November 28, 2022 at 10:27 am

Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates has one week left to announce whether or not he'll run for the provincial NDP leadership.

Will he or won’t he?

With just one week to go before the deadline for provincial NDP party members to announce their intention to run for the party leadership, Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates, who has expressed interest in the job, still hasn’t announced his intentions.

As the December 5 deadline looms, Gates, who’s also the party’s Long Term Care Critic, said the new leader will have to be “a strong voice for communities, for families, for workers – union and non-union. I think there’s an opportunity here.”

“People are looking for a leader, and I’m hoping that whoever decides to run for the leadership of the NDP, that’s their main focus, being a strong voice for everybody in the province of Ontario.”

The party has been without a leader since Andrea Horwath stepped down after the June 2 provincial election where the NDP saw little in the way of seat gains at Queen’s Park. She has since been elected as the Mayor of Hamilton.

At the moment, only Davenport MPP Marit Stiles has declared that she’ll be running for the leadership though at least two or three more MPPs are expected to announce their intentions this week.

Gates, in his role as Long Term Care Critic, is busy trying to repeal Bill 7, which could see elderly hospital patients to be forced into long term care homes they didn’t choose and sent as far away as 150 kilometres from their home community.

insauga's Editorial Standards and Policies advertising