Five Bay of Quinte candidates as Ontario election campaign officially begins

Todd Smith, Alison Kelly, Emilie Leneveu, Erica Charlton and Rob Collins

Ontario premier Doug Ford met with Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell Tuesday afternoon to dissolve the 42nd parliament and issue writs to call the June 2 provincial election.

Locally, the most high profile candidates are already well into their campaigns – Todd Smith for the Progressive Conservative Party; Alison Kelly, New Democratic Party, Emilie Leneveu, Liberal Party and Erica Charlton, Green Party. Rob Collins is with the New Blue Party. (UPDATE: Noah Wales  is representing the Ontario Party.)

Smith was first elected to represent Prince Edward – Hastings riding in 2011. The riding boundary changed and he became the first to represent the Bay of Quinte riding which includes Prince Edward County, Quinte West and part of Belleville.

Seven candidates were on the ballot in 2018 with Smith (PC) taking 24,224 votes, or 48.02 per cent. Joanne Belanger (NDP was second with 16,063, or 31.84 per cent of the votes and Robert Quaiff (Lib) in third with 7,511 votes (14.89 per cent). The other candidates were Mark Daye, Green; Cindy Davidson, Libertarian, Paul Bordonaro, Independent and James Engelsman (Trillium).

There were 86,463 eligible voters in the 2018 general election with 50,996 voters turning out (56.46 per cent) and 50,442 valid ballots cast (116 rejected, 151 unmarked and 287 declined).

Provincially, the Progressive Conservatives are being represented by Doug Ford; the NDP by Andrea Horwath, the Liberals by Steven Del Duca and the Green Party by Mike Schreiner.

Elections Ontario is encouraging residents to vote early this year during 10 days of advanced voting – up from five previously. There is also a new online process to apply for a mail-in ballot.

Elections Ontario has also launched a new app that lets voters register, find poll locations, see candidate information and learn about options to vote. It also contains an electronic version of the voter information card.