KITCHENER-CONTESTOGA

Kitchener-Conestoga, formerly known as Kitchener—Wilmot— Wellesley—Woolwich, is a 949square-kilometre riding that comprises Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich townships, as well as a section of Kitchener, west of Fischer-Hallman Road. The riding has a population of 100,705.

THE RACE New Blue Party

Jim Karahalios is co-founder and the leader of the New Blue Party of Ontario and a corporate lawyer in Cambridge.

Progressive Conservative party

Mike Harris has represented Kitchener-Conestoga since 2018. He’s the parliamentary assistant to the minister of legislative affairs, and a member of the standing committee on the legislative assembly and general government.

New Democratic Party

Karen Meissner is a Waterloo Region District School Board trustee and an advocate for public education. She is a former small-business owner and professional photographer and a student at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Green Party

Nasir Abdulle is a supply chain analyst. It’s his first time running for office and he hopes to inspire young people to get involved in politics

Liberal party

Melanie Van Alphen is a Waterloo Catholic District School Board trustee. She was first elected in 2014. She served as vicechair from December 2018 to 2020 and chair from December 2020 to 2021.

THE ISSUES Housing

The New Democratic Party wants to end exclusionary zoning, bring back rent control, create a portable housing benefit and fix the Landlord and Tenant Board. The Liberals want to unlock home ownership for the middle class and build 1.4 million new homes. The Green Party, if it forms government, plans to build 300,000 units of affordable nonmarket, co-op and non-profit housing in 10 years.

Health care

A New Democrat government would create Mental Health Ontario. They plan to invest $10 million more into mobile crisis services and $7 million more for safe bed programs to support mobile crisis teams. The Green Party wants to provide access to safe abortion services. The Liberals want to hire 7,500 doctors and nurses, provide access to better care in long-term care, work to hire 50,000 personal support workers and increase their wages to $25 an hour. The Progressive Conservatives want to spend $158.8 billion over a decade, with a portion of that on hospitals. The New Blue party plans on expanding early treatment for COVID-19, and clearing the backlog of procedures by rehiring health-care workers and offering choice in services.

Climate Change

The New Democrats want to reduce Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The Green Party wants a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 60 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, with clear enforceable targets and timelines starting in 2023. The Liberals would boost clean and renewable power from coast to coast to coast and end plastic waste by 2030.

Anti-Racism and Inclusion

A New Democrat government would appoint a minister responsible for anti-racism and fully fund the Anti-Racism Directorate into a full secretariat. A Green Party government would implement all of the Calls for Justice from the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The Liberals would confront the legacy of residential schools and continue work to eliminate all clean long-term drinking water advisories.

BACKGROUND

In the 2018 provincial election, Progressive Conservative candidate Mike Harris won the riding of Kitchener-Conestoga with 17,005 votes. He won with 40 per cent of the votes, defeating New Democrat Kelly Dick by 686 votes; Liberal Joe Gowing finished third. KitchenerConestoga has voted Progressive Conservative since 2011.