Kitchener Centre residents head to polls in provincial byelection

Kitchener Centre is set to get a new provincial representative Thursday night.

Residents head to the polls to elect their new member of provincial parliament, after the seat has been vacant since July, when Laura Mae Lindo resigned.

She held the seat for the NDP, and a local political communications expert said this race should come down to the NDP and the Greens.

“[The NDP] want to keep that mantle so they can cobble together voters from other parties in a big coalition to try and unseat the government. If they can’t hold this seat then it’s going to be harder for them to make the case going forward that they are the logical alternative to the Ford government,” said Simon Kiss, Associate Professor in Digital Media and Journalism at Wilfrid Laurier University on the Mike Farwell Show Wednesday.

NDP candidate Debbie Chapman and Green candidate Aislinn Clancy are both Kitchener city councillors and both said affordability has been the top issue they have heard about at the doors.

The Liberals held the riding before 2018, and byelection candidate Kelly Steiss said she thinks Premier Doug Ford called the byelection in the middle of the Liberal leadership race on purpose, their new leader will be named on Saturday.

18 candidates are vying for the open spot but Kiss said it really will come down to the major four parties.

“It’s interesting having independent candidates to step-up and express their views and pose some hard questions but to be honest this is between the Greens, the NDP and to a certain degree between the Liberals and the PC’s,” said Kiss.

Three of the four main party candidates also took part in speaking with the Mike Farwell Show ahead of the byelection.

Progressive Conservative candidate Rob Elliott is a former PC party vice-president and regional organizer who does not live in Kitchener. The PC party has previously confirmed to CityNews Kitchener that he resides in Keswick, Ontario. Elliott did not participate in the candidate profiles.

A spokesperson with Elections Ontario said just over 5,400 voters took part in advanced voting which is about 4.6 per cent of eligible voters. In the 2022 Ontario general election, 39,164 registered voters (or 46.2 per cent) cast a ballot in the Kitchener Centre riding. 10,858 voters (or 12.8 per cent) voted in advanced polls in 2022.

Polling stations will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday. Results will start coming in following the closure of polling stations.

With files from The Canadian Press.