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Niagara Falls
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Election ’21: Meet your federal candidates

Five candidates are in the running for Niagara Falls riding, which includes Niagara-on-the-Lake, Fort Erie and the Falls.

With Parliament dissolved and Canada on the path to a federal election on Sept. 20, the Liberals are hoping to turn their minority government into a majority.

It was a close race in the Niagara Falls riding during the 2019 election. Conservative MP Tony Baldinelli won the riding with 24,751 votes, beating Liberal candidate Andrea Kaiser by 2,061 votes or 2.95 per cent. Those two are back for a rematch.

Here, briefly, are the five people running in the riding:

The incumbent MP,  Tony Baldinelli is again running for the Conservative Party of Canada.  He worked from 2001 to 2019 for the Niagara Parks Commission after having served as legislative assistant for several politicians, notably long-standing Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson.

Melanie Holm is the Green Party of Canada’s candidate. A former teacher, she has volunteered for the Niagara Greens since 2018. She grew up in British Columbia and got her bachelor of education from the University of British Columbia before relocating to Niagara Falls with her husband.

Andrea Kaiser is returning as the Liberal candidate. She came closer to unseating the Conservatives in the riding than any other Liberal since Victor Pietrangelo in 2004. The mother of two was a municipal councillor in Niagara-on-the-Lake from 2003 to 2014 and now serves as the chairperson of Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The New Democratic Party has again chosen Brian Barker as its federal candidate. Barker, of Niagara Falls, is a teacher and president of the Niagara-area Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. Barker was the NDP’s candidate for the 2019 election and finished third with 12,566 votes or 18.02 per cent of the vote.

Peter Taras is the candidate for the People's Party of Canada. He graduated with a master's in science from York University and has been an entrepreneur and business owner since 1997. He is married to his high school sweetheart Susanne and has six children.

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