The Young Ones: the Battle for Kitchener-Conestoga

The riding of Kitchener-Conestoga is virgin territory for the political parties of the province. It is a new riding and there is no incumbent candidate. Perhaps because of this, the five political parties that have nominated candidates so far have brought forward possibly the youngest slate of candidates in the provincial election. Three of the five candidates are 28 or younger, and four have not run for public office before.

Kitchener-Conestoga was hived off from the bulk of the larger riding of Waterloo-Wellington from the last election. The change gives Waterloo Region four complete ridings within its boundaries. The riding is the smallest in the region, in terms of population (about 96,700, according to the 2001 census), but the largest in terms of area.

Kitchener-Conestoga encompasses the three rural townships along the northwestern edge of the region (Wilmot, Wellesley and Woolwich), along with the rapidly developing suburban area of southwestern Kitchener. Half of the riding’s voters live in Kitchener. Despite the rural nature of the bulk of the riding, manufacturing and the service sectors are two of the major employers of the area.

In alphabetical order, the candidates are:

Mark Cairns (NDP, 20): a graduate of Eastwood Collegiate currently working at a Cambridge call centre.

David Driver (Freedom Party, 28): a bus driver at Grand River Transit and a philosophy student at the University of Waterloo. He ran unsuccessfully for a Conservative Party nomination in the 2004 federal election.

Michael Harris (Conservatives, 28): a business account executive with Johnson Controls, Inc. He has served on Kitchener’s safe and healthy community advisory committee and Compass Kitchener, a city hall committee on engaging the public in critical community issues. He ran unsuccessfully in 2006 for Kitchener City Council .

Leeanna Pendergast (Liberal, 45): a vice-principal at Jacob Hespeler Secondary School in Cambridge. She has served as an education consultant for the Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

Leonard Solomon (Family Coalition, 61): by far the most senior candidate on the ballot. A retired firefighter and fire prevention officer, he is also running in his first political campaign.

The Green Party has yet to announce a candidate for the new riding.

The area covered by the riding has tended to vote Conservative, although federal Liberal MP Lynn Myers was an exception from 1997 to 2006. The area has never elected a New Democrat at either the provincial or federal levels. Provincially, the area was held by Conservative MPP Ted Arnott, who now is running in the riding of Wellington-Halton Hills.

As the Conservative candidate, Harris appears to have the advantage due to the riding’s history, and his own of experience in local business and politics, if you count his committee work. However, as he is opposed by both a social conservative party and a libertarian party (Family Coalition and Freedom, respectively), that might cut into his support. Whether that is enough to give his Liberal opponent Pendergast a boost remains to be seen, but it’s expected to be a closely contested battle.

(Editor’s note: Perhaps it’s idealistic in modern democratic societies to view holding political office as a higher calling. In any event, we each deliberate to some degree on the choices before us at election time. To what extent does age and the quality, quantity or content of the candidates’ experience  matter to us as electors? dh)