A combination of young hopefuls and longtime familiar faces were out to celebrate the nomination of Trevor Stewart. He will represent the Ontario Liberal Party in Glengarry-Prescott-Russell during the next provincial election.
The nomination meeting and reception afterwards were held at the Casselview Golf Club in Casselman on Sunday, September 29.
“I can’t do this alone; we have a long road ahead. Every single moment you have will be useful to defeating Doug Ford and to making sure Glengarry-Prescott-Russell is red in the next provincial election” Stewart explained to the nomination attendees.
Born and raised in Hammond, Stewart has been involved in politics since the age of 16, holding numerous political positions for both local and provincial organizations. Stewart won his Ward 7 seat for Clarence-Rockland’s city council back in October of 2022 and has built a strong relationship with the Francophone community. Additionally, Stewart has been serving as Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Francis Drouin’s Executive Assistant.
Stewart was welcomed and encouraged by veterans of the Glengarry-Prescott-Russell riding, including previous Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Jean-Marc Lalonde and sitting Liberal MP Francis Drouin. The Liberal MPP for Ottawa Vanier, Lucille Collard, was also present to show support for the younger nominee.
The Honourable Don Boudria, who now serves as a consultant with the Privy Council and served as MP for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell for more than two decades, nominated Stewart at the meeting. MP Drouin then seconded the motion.
When asked how the riding would benefit from Liberal representation, Stewart confidently stated, “I think we just need to look around. Folks are waiting years and years and years on waitlists for family doctors; they’re waiting hours in the ER. We have farmers that are losing 320 acres a day of prime farmland… The signs of it are everywhere, especially in our young people who aren’t able to afford a home.”
Stewart will be up against Progressive Conservative (PC) MPP and incumbent Stéphane Sarrazin, who had won the 2022 Ontario election with about 42 per cent of the vote, inching out the seat held previously by PC-then-Liberal MPP Amanda Simard.
“We need to stop accepting the failures of today… Folks don’t need a $55 billion tunnel, they need a family doctor,” Stewart concluded, “We need a generational change.”
Clarifying this, Stewart remarked that what he means by “a generational change” is that people are looking for a newer way of doing things.
“I’ve got a lot at stake in this fight—it’s very personal to me. I have that extra fire in me to keep it going.”
That extra fire is going to be needed as recent polls have been showing the PC government holding onto a majority if an election were to be called soon. Canada 338 has the PCs sitting comfortably ahead with 42 per cent and the Liberals steadily holding at 26 per cent. Another poll conducted by Abacus Data demonstrates a similar story, with the PCs holding 41 per cent and the Liberals at 25 per cent.
Questioned about the potential for an early election in the Spring of 2025, Stewart commented, “We know that Ford is going to try and pull a fast one on us… We want to make sure that that costly election he’s going to call, he won’t get away with it.”
