Ontario Progressive Conservatives have appointed candidates to 11 provincial ridings that didn't have nomination meetings scheduled before the June 7 election.
"Help is on the way. We are only 47 days away from defeating Kathleen Wynne's government and giving Ontario the change it needs," said PC Leader Doug Ford in a statement issued Saturday afternoon.
This year's provincial election will be the first with Ontario divided into 124 ridings — up from the 107 ridings that made up the former electoral map.
Below are the ridings filled by the PCs on Saturday and the candidates who will represent the party in each:
- Algoma-Manitoulin: Jib Turner.
- Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte: Doug Downey.
- Guelph: Ray Ferraro.
- Kitchener-Conestoga: Mike Harris, Jr.
- London West: Andrew Lawton.
- Ottawa Centre: Colleen McCleery.
- Scarborough Centre: Christina Mitas.
- Scarborough Guildwood: Roshan Nallaratnam.
- Sarborough Southwest: Gary Ellis.
- Toronto Centre: Meredith Cartwright.
- Toronto-St Paul's: Andrew Kirsch.
Ford's announcement nearly concludes a gruelling, and at times, deeply controversial nomination process for the party that began under former leader Patrick Brown. More than a dozen of the 56 nomination battles fought during Brown's leadership tenure ended with party members alleging irregularities.
In March, the PCs
overturned nominations in three ridings and decided to hold an entirely new vote in the riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas following what were deemed credible allegations of ballot-stuffing. At the same time, the PCs revealed that Brown — despite having been cleared to run in a quickly-abandoned leadership bid after his ouster — would be barred from running in the new riding of Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte.
Meanwhile, in February, then-interim leader Vic Fedeli overturned nominations in two other ridings, including Scarborough Centre, which was only filled with Ford's Saturday announcement.