{"id":20277,"date":"2018-04-04T20:30:38","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T00:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20277"},"modified":"2018-04-11T23:36:13","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T03:36:13","slug":"christine-elliott-confirms-newmarket-aurora-pc-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/christine-elliott-confirms-newmarket-aurora-pc-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Christine Elliott confirms Newmarket-Aurora PC run"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

After weeks of swirling rumours, Christine Elliott has formally put her name forward for the Newmarket-Aurora PC nomination.
\nIn a statement released Monday night, the former MPP and PC leadership candidate said, \u201cI have never been more convinced of just how much Ontario needs us. I would be privileged to join our slate of candidates.\u201d
\n\u201cTo all residents of Newmarket-Aurora, you can count on me to do everything I can to fight for you at Queen\u2019s Park,\u201d she continued. \u201cI hope I can earn your trust.\u201d
\nShe joins Newmarket resident Joe Wamback in the race.
\nMs. Elliott tells The Auroran her top priority between now and a formal nomination meeting later this month will be to meet the residents of the riding she seeks to represent this June.
\n\u201cI really need to listen to\u2026their concerns and issues and make sure I understand them, so that if I am given the honour to be their representative at Queen\u2019s Park, I will know what their biggest priorities are and be able to start advocating for them right away,\u201d says the former MPP for Whitby-Oshawa.
\nIn explaining her decision to seek the local nomination, Ms. Elliott cites the similarities between the ridings of Newmarket-Aurora and Whitby-Oshawa.
\n\u201cAs I said throughout the leadership campaign, I really wanted to run in a riding where (a) I was hoping people would want me there, and (b) I would be able to be a meaningful representative for the community,\u201d she says. \u201cI think Newmarket-Aurora has many similar qualities to Whitby-Oshawa, the riding I last represented, in the sense it is a fast-growing area, it has a lot of issues relating to growth with a lot of people commuting downtown and needing GO Train and other options for vehicles travelled, but you also want to make sure that things like health care and educational facilities and so on can keep up.
\n\u201cThose are the issues I certainly am familiar with, they seem to be also relevant in Newmarket-Aurora and I look forward to speaking with residents about their concerns and working on them.\u201d
\nMonday\u2019s announcement came with key endorsements, including those from former PC nomination candidate Bill Hogg and former Newmarket-Aurora Member of Parliament \u2013 and 2019 Federal candidate \u2013 Lois Brown.
\n\u201cI have every confidence that Christine Elliott is the right candidate to lead Newmarket-Aurora into the next election,\u201d said Ms. Brown. \u201cShe has a proven track record of fighting for local communities at Queen\u2019s Park, and I look forward to working with her.\u201d
\nShortly after Ms. Elliott\u2019s announcement, a further endorsement came out \u2013 this time from Charity McGrath who was, until March 15, the confirmed PC candidate for the riding
\nControversy dogged Ms. McGrath since securing the nomination last April over Mr. Hogg and Newmarket Councillor Tom Vegh. Citing \u201cirregularities\u201d in the votes, members of the Newmarket-Aurora PC riding association launched a number of appeals against the close results to top party brass, each of which was turned down under the leadership of Patrick Brown.
\nShortly after Mr. Brown was replaced by Doug Ford as the party\u2019s permanent leader, Newmarket-Aurora was one of three ridings which had their nominations overturned and Ms. McGrath was barred from running again. Although she, in turn, appealed this move, her appeal was turned down last Tuesday evening.
\n \u201cAfter working countless hours over the past year as the PC Candidate in Newmarket-Aurora, I have decided to step aside and work with a wonderful person,\u201d said Ms. McGrath in an email. \u201cToday I am proud to stand with an extraordinary Conservative, Christine Elliott. We are excited knowing that she has served this province in an exemplary way and will continue that legacy of work for our riding.
\n\u201cWe will continue to see unity strengthened through the support of Bill Ballantyne, President of the Newmarket-Aurora Riding Association. I personally believe that unity needs to be a top priority. I appreciate Christine\u2019s desire to work closely with myself and honour the time and work I have put in alongside the volunteers who have invested time in the riding. I look forward to us working closely for the betterment of the riding and community.\u201d
\nKeeping these issues in mind, Ms. Elliott says she is committed to welcoming anyone who wants to lend a hand with an aim of securing victory this June.
\n\u201cI think the most important thing for everyone at the end of the day is to win,\u201d says Ms. Elliott. \u201cI think it is fair to say that across the Province people want change. We all know that we need to work together in order to make that happen. What I plan to do is welcome anyone who wants to come and help on the campaign. I see this as the start of a new day and we all have an opportunity to be a part of this going forward, and I am looking forward to working with anyone who wants to come forward to do that.\u201d
\nDerek Murray, who led the Newmarket-Aurora PC riding association during the appeals until he and fellow members resigned, welcomed Ms. Elliott\u2019s decision to throw her hat into the ring.
\nUntil her formal announcement this week \u2013 and amid the rumours \u2013 Mr. Murray said the riding would benefit from a \u201chigh profile\u201d PC candidate in this spring\u2019s election.
\n\u201cAs an MPP for almost a decade, Christine has the experience we need to champion the issues that matter to Newmarket-Aurora residents,\u201d said Mr. Murray in a statement. \u201cI know she will do incredible work in the region as a member of the next PC government.\u201d
\nOnce confirmed, Ms. Elliott will face off against incumbent Liberal MPP Chris Ballard, who currently serves as Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, and NDP and Green candidates yet to be determined.
\nThey will vie for votes in Newmarket-Aurora, which encompasses the Town of Newmarket as well as parts of Aurora on the north side of Wellington Street.
\nVoters on the south side of Wellington will vote in the newly-created Provincial riding of Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill. There, the Ontario Liberal banner will be carried by Naheed Yaqubian while the PCs will be represented by Michael Parsa, who endorsed Ms. Elliott\u2019s leadership bid.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir After weeks of swirling rumours, Christine Elliott has formally put her name forward for the Newmarket-Aurora PC nomination. In a statement released Monday night, the former MPP and PC leadership candidate said, \u201cI have never been more convinced of just how much Ontario needs us. I would be privileged to join our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5h3","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-05 02:54:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-04-05-08.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}