The Peterborough-Kawartha NDP provincial nomination meeting held on January 25th was a hopeful one. Alongside Jen Deck, our provincial NDP Candidate nominee, special guests Laura Walton, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour, and Marit Stiles, the Leader of the Ontario NDP spoke to supporters about their vision for Ontario's future.

All 3 preached the same message: It’s time for Ford to go, and it’s time for a government that cares for its citizens.

Jen Deck is a school-teacher who got involved with politics after assuming a leadership role in her union. She first took up the role as Peterborough–Kawartha’s NDP candidate in the 2022 provincial election. 

“If I’m totally honest, politics is not my first choice,” she said. “ I feel like I’ve been drawn into it because of the circumstances we face.” 

If elected, she listed cost of living, housing, and the education system as some of her first priorities. “I think society ought to be judged on how well we take care of our children, and when we look at the absence of quality and affordable healthcare, and the state of our public schools, we come up lacking, and we have some work to do.” 

When asked if she had anything in particular to say to the students of Trent, she said “Get involved. You are the future, you will be inheriting the world,” citing the Peterborough Youth New Democrats and its head Ben Hickey’s, recent “breakfast club” program operating out of Sadleir house, which aims to provide “free breakfast for all students, youth and families” as an example.

With the upcoming provincial snap-election on February 27^th—which Premier Doug Ford intends to announce on Wednesday—NDP staffers and volunteers said it was important for the party to reaffirm its positions, which it did handedly with the power of its speakers. 

After a brief introduction by Morgan Carl, President of the Riding association for the NDP, Laura Walton took to the podium for a passionate speech about the lack of funding to social supports, infrastructure, and healthcare. 

“People can’t afford to live in Ontario… People don’t have family doctors,” she said. Throughout, Walton  offered staunch support for the NDP, and encouraged everyone to vote, and to get others to vote too. 

“We protect Ontario by electing a New Democrat Government. Because if we don’t, we’ll be sitting here four years down the road, going ‘Gee, I wish I did something different.’ We don’t have to do the lather, rinse, repeat any more, friends.” 

“In Peterborough, we can make a difference,” said Walton. “That difference is orange… Let’s make sure Doug Ford knows he has 28 days, and then it’s time to ship out.” 

After the event, Arthur managed to get a few minutes with Walton and asked how she found time, as the President of an organization that represents over 1,000,000 workers, to come out to our small corner for the event. 

“As my grandmother always said, you make time for things that matter, and things like this matter,” Walton confided. “What we have here is a worker, a teacher, a strong labour leader; a strong community leader, who is stepping forward to be the voice of Peterborough in Queen’s Park.” 

“We try to do as many of these nominations,” she said. “We were up in Sudbury [For another candidate]… in this case, Peterborough has a special space for me. My daughter goes to university here, it’s close to my hometown. I also know Jen—I know what she is capable of doing, and I know she’ll be a strong voice for Peterborough, and that’s why I wanted to be here tonight.” 

When asked about the connection between the NDP and the Federation of Labour, Walton told Arthur “The NDP was founded by labour. I think some people forget that… As a matter of fact, the OFL is affiliated with the NDP, many of our affiliates are affiliated with the NDP.” 

Further to that,” she added, “in 2023 the membership—the delegates on the floor—voted for us, to support the NDP to become government in Ontario. We need sound leadership, not soundbites.” 

After Walton’s speech, Stiles took the stage, reaffirming Deck’s points, and continuing to outline Doug Ford’s failures. She also responded to Ford’s recent comment that if Ontario Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie or Stiles were to negotiate a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump, it would be an “absolute disaster.” 

“Doug doesn’t know me very well clearly, because if he did, he would know that in fact, I have negotiated good terms for working people within a union, not only that I have negotiated national collective agreements with better wages and better working conditions for working people in this country with big, US multinational companies,”Stiles said. “Let me at them.”

Decks’s first words as official candidate as she stepped behind the podium were, “I have such a tough act to follow.” 

“[But] I have my water, and I have my menopause fan,” she continued, and after taking time to thank everyone for attending, and having a moment to remember those who had passed recently, she began a speech talking about the value of community, and the value of a decent life. 

“Everyone deserves to have a good job. One good job. A job that comes with a salary, good working conditions, good benefits, and a pension to retire on. We need high quality childcare and public schools to protect and enrich our children while we’re out at work. Should we experience hardship—a lost job, an injury, or the death of a breadwinner, we should not be at risk of losing everything.”

“Creating an environment where everyone succeeds is what government should be all about,” said Deck. 

She railed against Liberals and Conservatives subsidizing corporations, and their complacency in allowing the hardship that Canada is now in. She also gave personal anecdotes from the community, like from one of aresident of the Wolfe St. tiny homes downtown, who after losing a job for 3 months, ended up homeless.

Again and again throughout the night the speakers reaffirmed their working-class values and roots, and the importance of standing up for the working class in a world that continues to ignore them.