Wayne Gates
Special to Niagara Now/The Lake Report

I want to thank each and every resident that put their faith in my team and I and re-elected me as the member of provincial parliament for Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara Falls and Fort Erie last Thursday evening. 

We won a historic victory last week. We were re-elected with nearly 55 per cent of the vote, with close to an 11,000-vote margin over the closest competitor. 

I couldn’t have achieved this victory without the support of the communities here. Old Town, Glendale, Queenston, Virgil, St. David’s — I was proud to receive historic support across the diverse communities here. To every resident who took a lawn sign, lent their support or talked to a friend or neighbour about our campaign — from the bottom of my heart, thank you. 

I must also thank my amazing team and my family. I can’t do what I do without the love and support of my beautiful wife of 29 years, Rita, my three daughters and my grandchildren.

And I can’t say enough about our volunteers. So many passionate and engaged young people, seniors and residents came out to knock on doors or put in lawn signs, oftentimes in the middle of winter snowstorms.  

I promised when I was first elected, I would be the hardest-working MPP in the province of Ontario and that I would work with anyone and all levels of government to get good things done. And by working together, we have got a lot accomplished. 

When we heard from the community that too many residents were suffering from a lack of primary health care services, we worked with Lord Mayor Zalepa and town council to ensure the Ministry of Health delivered on its promise of a nurse practitioner here in the town. 

When we listened to small and medium-sized wineries concerned about the unfair taxes being levied against Ontario wines, we got to work and introduced legislation to eliminate these taxes and ensure that our local businesses don’t have to compete against an unfair advantage for international competitors. 

When Doug Ford tried to sell off our Greenbelt land in a backroom scheme to make well-connected developers rich, we fought back — and we saved the Greenbelt by forcing Ford to back down. 

Let’s not forget that this was an unnecessary, $200-million election that Ford called for his own political advantage. I’ve always said that instead of an election, we should’ve been at Queen’s Park, working on a real plan to counter Donald Trump’s tariffs threats. And I stand by what I said — we should be back at Queen’s Park right away to deal with the real challenges facing Niagara-on-the-Lake and Ontario. 

When I spoke to residents on the doorstep this campaign, top of mind for people was health care. We must invest more in our public health care system and protect it from the threat of American-style for-profit privatization.

We must get more residents a family doctor. Over 2.5 million Ontarians don’t have a primary care doctor and we are short 106 doctors just here in Niagara. I put forward legislation at Queen’s Park to reduce red tape for doctors and increase primary care funding — and I will continue to work to make sure more seniors and families have a doctor. 

The premier made a lot of promises this campaign — including making needed investments for the Shaw Festival’s Royal George Theatre, something we have been working on together for quite some time. I will be making sure at Queen’s Park that we hold the premier to his promise and get this needed investment for our community. 

And I will ensure that we protect Niagara-on-the-Lake from the threat of amalgamation. Doug Ford has forced amalgamation on municipalities across the province and we know all it leads to is higher taxes, loss of local decision-making and fewer services.

I have been and always will be a champion for Niagara-on-the-Lake’s unique heritage and culture. Let me be clear: I will always fight for Niagara-on-the-Lake to remain its own municipality, with its own local decision-making. 

My pledge to you remains the same: I promise over these next four years to be the hardest-working MPP in Ontario. Niagara-on-the-Lake — thank you, and let’s keep working hard to get good things done.

Wayne Gates is the member of provincial parliament for the Niagara Falls riding, which includes Niagara-on-the-Lake.