Today, people in Hamilton Centre are voting in a byelection to choose a new member of provincial parliament (MPP).
The byelection was called for a month ago to replace longtime MPP Andrea Horwath, who quit as leader of the Ontario NDP in the summer after her party lost to Doug Ford’s Conservatives in the provincial election. She ran for mayor, and in October, she won.
One of these Hamilton Centre by-election candidates will be the first new provincial representative for the riding in 16 years:
- Electoral Reform Party, Peter House.
- Lucia Iannantuono is a member of the Green Party of Ontario.
- Sarah Jama is from the New Democratic Party in Ontario.
- Matthew Lingard is running as an independent.
- Ontario Liberal Party member Deidre Pike.
- Mark Snow, Libertarian.
- John Turmel, independent candidate.
- New Blue party, Lee Weiss Vassor.
- Pete Wiesner, of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.
- Nathalie Xian Yi Yan, independent candidate.
On Elections Ontario, voters can find out where their polling place is.
The voting began at 9 a.m. ET and will end at 9 p.m. ET.
What the voters are sayin
Catherine Higgins of Strathcona said she went to the polls to choose an MPP who would “push the envelope” when it came to thinking about human rights when making policy.
“I hope they will put pressure on the government to make housing fair and affordable,” she said.
“It seems like a lot of the problems we have in Hamilton, which have made me very unhappy about this city, are because people don’t have enough help.”
Gregory Beris, who also lives in Hamilton Centre, said, “Voting is a protest vote against these institutions I’ve been to.”
He said he has been in both prison and in a psychiatric care facility, and is voting for a candidate who will address the issues with those institutions.
Jennifer Robb said she wasn’t going to vote, but she changed her mind at the last minute.
“It really feels like you’re yelling into the wind and nothing is getting done the way you want it to. But this is the best way for things to go in the direction we want them to, “she said.
She said that she had decided not to vote for any of the candidates based on their campaigns, but instead based on who had the most signs in her neighborhood.
“I asked my neighbors how they feel and who they like,” she said.
Who can vote and what do they need to do s
People who live in Ontario and are at least 18 years old and are Canadian citizens can vote in the byelection.
People who are already on the voter list should bring their voter card and a form of ID to the polling place.
Anyone who isn’t on the list of voters will have to bring a piece of identification that shows their name and address.
There won’t be any room for international IDs or permanent resident cards.Most documentsIssued by the governments of Canada and Ontario, or by a municipality in Ontario, can be used.
Voters who don’t have a permanent home can list as their residence the place where they have eaten or slept the most in the last five weeks.
Experts say that not many people will vote
For this byelection, only 5.2% of people who voted in advance polls did so.
That means that only 4,166 of the 77,599 registered voters in Hamilton Centre went to the polls between March 8 and March 10.
Experts told CBC Hamilton that low turnout is likely to continue on Thursday because most byelections only attract the attention of people who are interested in politics, and many of these people have already made up their minds.
Low voter turnout could also make it hard to say Thursday night who will win.
After the polls close, you can check out the election results at cbc.ca/hamilton.