(PHOTO: Kim Elliott (left) and Theresa Qadri are contestants for the Liberal nomination in the provincial riding of Carleton.)
UPDATE (FEB 19): There’s a nomination meeting scheduled for March 25 at South Carleton High School.
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This week we learned that there are at least two contestants seeking the Liberal party nomination in Carleton, ahead of the provincial election in June: Kim Elliott and Theresa Qadri.
Many Stittsville residents will know Qadri through her community volunteer work (Stittsville Food Bank, Rotary Club, and Stittsville Village Association, etc.), her work as a real estate agent, and co-owner of the old Showbiz Entertainment store on Stittsville Main Street. (And if you don’t know Theresa, you almost certainly have heard of her husband, city councillor Shad Qadri.) The Citizen’s David Reevely profiled Qadri in an article published earlier this week…
Elliott is a long-time resident of Findlay Creek in the southeastern part of the riding. He’s been actively involved as a political volunteer and recently resigned from his position with the Carleton Provincial Liberal Association (CPLA) to pursue the nomination.
He’s a Certified Professional Accountant and spent much of his career in the federal public service, and later as a management consultant. He has a lengthy resume as a volunteer (“youth, sports, cultural, political and professional”, says his bio) and is married with three grown children. (He’s also a budding photographer. You can see some of his pics on Twitter.)
I asked Elliott why he’s put his name forward for the nomination. He said he’s been working “under the radar” for a couple of months on his campaign, after getting frustrated that nobody was coming forward in the riding. Carleton is a new riding, with no incumbent.
“I want to help my community and further the Liberal presence in the riding,” he says. “People don’t like feeling disenfranchised from their government. For the last 14 years we’ve had a Liberal government at Queen’s Park and we’ve had a Conservative MPP. ”
Although the riding is split between suburban and rural areas, Elliott says that people have similar concerns.
“People don’t like escalating costs. They don’t like the fact that it’s harder to get by as a family,” he says.
There’s no date set for the Liberal nomination meeting, but folks who I talked this week expect it will be held sometime in February or early March.
Whether Elliott, Qadri or someone else wins the nomination for the Liberals, they know they’ll be facing off against PC candidate Goldie Ghamari, who was nominated in November 2016. The NDP and Greens have yet to choose a candidate.
Election day in Ontario is June 7, 2018.
There is a liberal commercial saying under the Liberal government seniors prescriptions are covered. This is not true. My husband is 70 years old and one of his is over 200 dollars and is not covered by our private health care which we also pay 310 dollars a month for the 2 of us. He may have to stop this medication which is so expensive and he is also still working as he has no pension. He is diabetic and syringes not covered for insulin which it use to be and this is expensive. He is reusing needles . A certain number of these syringes are covered under our coverage. Please clarify to me what this commercial meant. Sounds very misleading to me. You will cover syringes for illegal drug users , but not our diabetics. Please explain why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you. Looking forward to your reply. By the way, I am a Registered Nurse.