NDP names byelection candidate
By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express
Niki Lundquist, a lawyer for Unifor, won the race to be the NDP’s nominee in the upcoming provincial byelection for Whitby-Oshawa. Lundquist is joined on the ballot by two Whitby regional councillors: Lorne Coe for the Progressive Conservatives and Elizabeth Roy for the Liberals. A date has not yet been set for the vote. (Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express).
First it was the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives. Now, it’s the NDP’s turn.
The third party in Queen’s Park has chosen Niki Lundquist to represent the orange on the upcoming byelection ballot.
This will mark the first time that Lundquist, who works as a lawyer for Unifor, has run for public office.
“I feel like there’s a real opportunity to give people a progressive voice,” Lunquist told The Oshawa Express after she was named the Whitby-Oshawa candidate at a meeting of the Whitby-Oshawa NDP riding association at the Centennial Building in Whitby. Representing people is not new to me. That’s what I do every day. I advocate for people in court and tribunals. I advocate with government, and I’ve done that locally and provincially and nationally and internationally.”
Lundquist will be running against the Liberal’s Elizabeth Roy and the Progressive Conservative’s Lorne Coe in the yet-to-be announced byelection. Both Roy and Coe are Whitby regional councillors; while Lundquist does not have previous election experience, she said she doesn’t think that makes what she does have to offer any less relevant.
“While they may have had more opportunities to run as candidates, I don’t think that their experience is in any way more relevant than mine,” she said.
On hand for the nomination meeting were provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath, Oshawa MPP Jennifer French, outgoing Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan and former candidates Mary Fowler and Ryan Kelly.
“In this byelection, we will ask the people of this community to join us and send a clear message to Kathleen Wynne,” Horwath told the room of NDP supporters ahead of the candidate vote. “We can say no to the sell-off of Hydro One in this byelection. No to deep Liberal cuts to health and education.”