TIMMINS – After establishing its first riding association in Nipissing this week, the Northern Ontario Party’s next target is Timiskaming-Cochrane.
“It’s already registered with Elections Ontario,” party leader Trevor Holliday said of the riding association for Timiskaming-Cochrane. “The Northern Ontario Heritage Party had somebody run in the 2014 election, and he actually received 2.3% of the vote (625 votes, which was nearly 100 more than the Green Party candidate received).
“The riding association is still there. It never de-registered. However, with nobody in place to keep it going, we have to re-establish the people in positions.” The party has a public meeting planned in Kirkland Lake next week to do just that.
“We have a couple of people who are interested in getting that riding association up and running,” said Holliday, who is from North Bay. “That’s the main thing we’re looking for: People that feel the same passion we do about Northern Ontario and are willing to step forward and help out.”
At that meeting in Kirkland Lake, “We will be voting on the positions for the riding association for Timiskaming-Cochrane, and it will also be kind of an information session for anybody new or people who just want to find out more about the party and ask questions, which is what we’re getting a lot of, with people showing up and poking and prodding us with questions, which is more than welcome because voters have the right to find out about the people they will be supporting.”
From there, Holliday said, they will work on setting up riding associations in Timmins-James Bay, Algoma-Manitoulin, Nickel Belt and Sudbury before shifting their focus on the Northwestern ridings.
Its predecessor, the Northern Ontario Heritage Party, was formed in 1977 by Ed Diebel of North Bay. In its history, the party has never managed to secure a seat in the provincial legislature.
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